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Standard and Poor's announced a downgrade to Sri Lanka’s credit score this week, in another blow to the economy that sees the country on par with Argentina, Mozambique and Belize.

The decision of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to abstain on the passing of Sri Lanka’s budget last week “was already taken in New Delhi and communicated to the TNA leadership”, according to a report in the Sunday Times this morning.

TNA parliamentarians, and the TMTK’s C V Wigneswaran, all abstained on a vote on the final reading of the 2021 Budget which was passed on Thursday. The budget brings a host of nationalist policies, including a digital protectionist tax.

The murder case of the late senior journalist, Lasantha Wickrematunge was postponed yet again to June 4^th 2021.

The former editor of Sunday Leader, was critical of the Rajapaksa regime that was in power at the time, and spoke up against the government’s war efforts against the Tamils in the North-East. Wickrematunge was vocal against the abundant occurrence of human rights abuses by the reigning government and was assassinated on January 8^th, 2009.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Nigel Adams, UK Minister for Asia at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development, expressed concerns over Sri Lanka’s policy of mandatory cremation.

Sri Lankan army officials have seized ancient religious statues worth 1.5 million Sri Lankan rupees, in Jaffna.

A 68-year-old Lord Murugan statue and three peacock statues were among the religious statues found hidden in a pond near the Vaddukoddai Sanganai Odakarai Nagathambiran temple, last month

Sri Lankan police officers threatened to quarantine Tamil families of the disappeared as they made their way to a protest in Batticaloa earlier today, in an attempt to stop the demonstration from happening on International Human Rights Day.

Sri Lankan police officers attempted to disrupt a protest being held by Tamils in Mullaitivu this week, as villagers took the streets to step up their protest for the release of land in the district.

Sri Lanka’s Northern Province chief secretary, A.Pathinathan, sent a letter demanding civil servants working in the media sector across the Northern Province, to disclose ‘relevant information’ to the government.

The letter was sent earlier this week to the departments of the Northern Provincial Council and Vavuniya district by Pathinathan, ordering the release of the information. Those who refuse to do so were threatened with prosecution under Sri Lanka’s ‘Establishments Code’.

Tamil families of the disappeared held protests and rallies today across the North-East today, marking International Human Rights Day with calls for justice for their forcibly disappeared loved ones.

Sri Lankan security forces carried out search raids in homes in Mullaitivu last week, after they reported an explosion had occurred in Mankulam on November 26, the day before Maaveerar Naal was commemorated by Tamils across the North-East.