The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said it would call for international investments and assistance to develop the formerly war-torn areas in the country.Niroshan Perera, state minister of national policy, said the government would convene a donor conference in 2016 to seek technical and financial assistance for the war-torn regions and has requested Japan to take the lead, Xinhua reported. "When the prime minister visited Japan, he requested the government to take the lead. They have been organising that. Hopefully, we will have it in the middle of the year," Perera said.

"It will be to call for technical assistance plus financial assistance for the north and east (worst-affected regions)," he added. Perera said the north was one of the key areas that needed to be developed and the government had already discussed with many countries for investments in the area. China is one of the countries that have been invited to invest in the north and the east, Perera added. Sri Lanka`s north and east were the worst-affected in the 30-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels with the north remaining as the stronghold of the rebels till they were militarily defeated by government troops in May 2009.

The Cabinet of Ministers approved drafting a new bill to combat illegal and unregulated poaching in Sri Lankan waters, replacing the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act No. 2 of 1996.

Sri Lanka Police has suspended its annual transfer orders for 2025 for six months. The suspension was based on a directive from Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Priyantha Weerasooriya on 24 December.

The National People's Power (NPP) is to contest the upcoming Local Government (LG) and Provincial Council (PC) Elections under its current structure, with the groups currently aligned with them.

The government is yet to assign vehicles to the MPs of the new Parliament though it has taken a policy decision to do so. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Daily Mirror yesterday that the government is currently in the process of auctioning luxury vehicles. He said most of the MPs were using their own vehicles at the moment.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna had decided to go to court over reducing the strength of security provided to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that it would disclose details about Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s planned official visit to China in mid-January “in a timely manner.”

The government will conduct fresh probes into the scams involved in the import of a stock of biofertilizer from China and in the introduction of organic farming during the time of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a minister said yesterday.

Cabinet spokesman Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said today that the people will know whether the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MPs had sought assistance from the President’s Fund as claimed by SJB MP Dayasiri Jayasekara when the rest of the list is released soon.

The circular issued by the Western Province Education Zonal Ministry prohibiting private tutoring classes for students by school teachers, along with the letter issued by the Education Ministry regarding modulators, has been withdrawn, Parliamentarian Mahinda Jayasinghe said.

Adding further controversy to the misuse of the President’s Fund, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Dayasiri Jayasekera yesterday said some of JVP members also sought assistance from the President’s funds prior to 2010.