Mahinda Rajapaksa was today appointed as Sri Lanka's opposition leader following his resignation as prime minister this weekend. 

Rajapaksa replaces the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, R Sampanthan, who held the position since 2015. The TNA has questioned Rajapaksa's eligibility to continue in politics. 

Rajapaksa, who was nominated to the post by the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), had called for the appointment, arguing he led the largest number of opposition MPs. 

In a statement released in Sinhalese following his resignation, Rajapaksa said the United National Party (UNP) had been held hostage by the TNA.

<p>China welcomed Sri Lanka's "peaceful and proper resolution" of the crisis in a statement this week, following the reappointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe.&nbsp;</p> <p>"China, as a traditional close neighbor and a most important development partner, welcomed the peaceful and proper resolution of recent political situation in Sri Lanka by all related parties," the Chinese Embassy said in a statement.</p> <p>China said it believed the Sri Lankan government, political parties and the people have the ability and wisdom to manage well its domestic affairs, and maintain the country's stability and development.</p>

Tamil families of the disappeared filed a Right to Information (RTI) request with the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRCSL), inquiring about the status of complaints they had registered with the commission in 2012.

A number of families had registered complaints six years ago about their forcibly disappeared relatives and had received no response since.

The families registered an RTI request at the Vavuniya HRCSL regional headquarters on Friday, demanding a response to their original complaints.

Tamil and Muslim landowners from a Trincomalee village have been threatened with the seizure of their lands after rejecting requests to offer their land to Sinhalese settlers, according to local media reports.

At the instruction of the Eastern Province’s assistant land commissioner, 17 Tamil and Muslim landowners had received requests in writing from the Kuchchaveli divisional secretary to offer sections of their land in Valaiyootru to Sinhalese settlers who had requested to be granted land. However the landowners had refused.

<p>The United States' ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz today said the US "welcomes this weekend's political developments, which upheld Sri Lanka's democratic and constitutional norms," following Rajapaksa's resignation as Sri Lanka's prime minister and Ranil Wickremesinghe's re-appointment to the post.&nbsp;</p> <blockquote><p> "Sri Lanka is a valued partner in the Indo Pacific and we look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with the government and people of this country," Teplitz tweeted.&nbsp; </p></blockquote> <p>Her words were echoed by Canada's ambassador, Chrystia Freeland, who tweeted:</p>

A Buddha statue has been built on the premises of a Hindu temple in a Mullaitivu village, despite years of fierce opposition by locals.

Residents of Neeraviyadi in the Semmalai area of Mullaitivu said a Sinhala Buddhist monk had used the opportunity of Sri Lanka’s political crisis, while local authorities were distracted, to push through the construction of a large Buddha statue directly encroaching the village’s Pillaiyaar Kovil.

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, and the current secretary of the extremist JHU party, has reiterated his opposition to federalism this week, stating that it will “never” lead to peace or prosperity.

“Federalism, or divisions along ethnic faultlines, will never bring to us the Prosperous, Peaceful Sri Lanka that we all Sri Lankans dream of,” tweeted Champika Ranawaka earlier this week.

“It is high time that Leaders from North shared responsibilities of governance at the Centre and strove together towards Our Common Future!,” he added.

Sri Lanka’s president met with the family member of the Sinhala police officer who was shot in Batticaloa last month, but has not yet met with the family of the Tamil officer who was killed in the same incident.

According to a report appearing on Maithripala Sirisena’s official website, he met with the family of 35-year-old Niroshan Indika Prasanna from Galle, where he pledged to “continue to look after the welfare of his four and half year old son and the welfare of his family”.

Sri Lanka’s president claimed that non-governmental organisations and opposing parliamentarians want to see him “dragged and be murdered like Gaddafi,” Libya’s ousted ruler, in an address on Sunday where he vowed not to imprison soldiers accused of war crimes.

Maithripala Sirisena lashed out against efforts to hold Sri Lankan soldiers to account for war crimes, stating that he was firmly against international efforts for justice.

“I asked not to imprison our soldiers who have fought in battles and defeated terrorism; but nobody listened to me,” claimed Sirisena.

The wife of a former LTTE cadre who was arrested by Sri Lankan police earlier this month and began a hunger strike in Batticaloa calling for the release of her husband, ended her hunger strike today, after police officers visited her saying he would be released on bail.