Deputy Chief of the Chinese Embassy, Hu Wei visited the Eastern province between 8-10 December and noted that China is ready to 'assist all communities' across the island.

Hu Wei was following up on recent donations made by the Beijing government which included  10.6 million litres of diesel to farmers and fishermen, 9,000 metric tonnes of rice to students from underprivileged families and 100 sets of solar streetlights donated by China’s Yunnan Province to 38 schools across the Eastern Province.

After the Office of Missing Persons, 244 family members of the disappeared to appear for investigation in the Mullaitivu district, members of these families staged a protest demanding that they end their sham investigations.

Cyclone Mandous situated in the Bay of Bengal brought high levels of pollution from India to Sri Lanka forcing schools to be closed last Friday.

The cyclone was situated in the Bay of Bengal, with winds blowing anti-clockwise around the central low pressure, sweeping the polluted air from India across the Palk strait into Sri Lanka. Subsequently, this merged with Sri Lanka’s local air pollution, leading to unhealthy pollutant concentrations that created a haze across parts of the country, including the capital, Colombo.

The Sri Lankan Navy has detained 5 Tamils who were attempting to flee to the island.

The Sri Lankan Navy detained 5 Tamils before handing them over to the Mannar Police. The group which consisted of 3 Men and two women were from the areas of Trincomalee,Vavuniya and Pesalai. 

There were arrested for attempting to flee the island to India. Talaimannar police produced the detained before Mannar's magistrate's court on the 18th.

Tamils in Denmark marked 16 years since the death of Anton Balasingham, the chief political strategist of the LTTE.

Balasingham, aged 68 years, passed away at his home in South London on December 14, 2006. His death sparked grief across the Tamil nation, with three days of mourning declared.

The body of a Tamil refugee who took his own life in Vietnam in protest of the country’s deportation attempts, has been repatriated to the island.

Sundaralingam Kiritharan, who was aged 37 at the time of his death, was one of 303 Tamil refugees rescued by the Singapore Navy last month when their boat was in danger of sinking in waters near Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. After being rescued, the refugees, who had attempted to go to Canada by boat from Myanmar, were placed in a refugee camp in Vietnam.

Another longstanding and active member of the Tamil families of disappeared struggle died on Thursday.

E. Valliamma, aged 78, of Kalmadu Poompuhar had been searching for her son Ramachandran Senthuran for over 15 years.

He was abducted aged just 16 on May 17, 2007, while on his way to work as a daily wage labourer in Vavuniya.

Vavuniya High Court has ordered the Sri Lankan army to produce the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres who surrendered to the state's forces at the end of the armed conflict in May 2009 in court by next year. 

Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has called 244 families to appear at investigations in the Mullaitivu district on December 19 and 20.

Since its founding in 2017, the OMP has been largely inactive. Its failure to solve a single case in five years has reaffirmed the criticism of Tamil families of the disappeared that the office would not be an effective answer to their demands for truth and justice.

World Bank Vice President for South Asia, Martin Raiser concluded a three-day visit to Sri Lanka last week, noting that the "deep crisis is an opportunity for fundamental reforms" within the country. 

During the visit Raiser met with current President and Minister of Finance Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and other senior government officials. Discussions revolved around government priorities for Sri Lanka's recovery and key areas for World Bank support.