Thousands of people across Italy marked Maaveerar Naal last month, in a series of events held across the country.

Seven Tamil journalists were honoured by the International Association of Tamil Journalists at an event held in memory of Eelam Tamil journalists that were assassinated or killed by Sri Lankan state forces.

Sri Lanka has been granted $1.34 billion in loans from the World Bank announced the government’s finance ministry, as it looks to stabilise the island’s struggling economy.

"This is a great victory for us and it will help us in the fiscal consolidation programme that the new government has started," said Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake.

The move will see loans spread out over 15 years, reports AFP. The loans will add to the government’s debt situation, which has reportedly seen over 95% of all government revenue is spent on repaying loans,

The commander of the Sri Lankan security forces in Jaffna met with senior Sinhala Buddhists monks from the South in Jaffna this month,  to discuss “reconciliation”.

A group of Sri Lankan police officers have been held on remand over the murder of two Tamil students earlier this year.

The five policemen have been remanded until the 30th of December following a court order by the Jaffna additional magistrate.

The two students, 23 year old Nadarasa Kajan and 24 year old Pavunraj Sulaxan, were shot dead on the 20th of October.

Batticaloa Chief Buddhist Monk, Ampitiye Sumanarathana, was released on bail after being charged for gathering people in a manner that disrupted law and order.

On December 3rd he led a group that insisted on letting a bus full of Bodhu Sala Sena (BBS) monks from the south into Batticaloa. Sumanarathana climbed on top of police barriers and recited hate speech against Tamils and Muslims. 

The leader of the TMVP, Sivanesadurai Chandrakanthan (commonly known as Pillaiyan) along with three party members, have been re-remanded over the murder of Joseph Pararajasingam in 2005.

Pararajasingam was the Batticaloa district parliamentarian and member of the current opposition, the Tamil National Alliance. He was shot dead on Christmas Day at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Batticaloa. 

See more from Ceylon News here.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe thanked navy commander Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne for breaking up a protest in the weekend and 'rescuing' two ships that were boarded by demonstrators.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) stated that it was keen to engage in talks with the international community, and India in particular, over Sri Lanka's proposed new constitution, reports the Daily Mirror.

TNA deputy leader and head of the Ilankai Tamil Arachi Katchchi (ITAK) Mavai Senathirajah said that though talks had not yet been scheduled, his party was keen on a federal solution to the island's long running ethnic conflict.

“Even in my latest speech in parliament I stressed the need to devolve even financial matters to the North,” he said.

Sri Lanka, along with Malaysia and Mongolia, is most vulnerable to direct and indirect effects of sustained capital outflows, Moody's Investors Service said in its report published this week on sovereign risk. 

Pointing to high debt levels in a number of Asian countries, the credit ratings agency said, "if they last more than a few weeks, capital outflows or lower inflows will correspond to a tightening in domestic financing conditions for many Asian countries."