Against the backdrop of increased liabilities of the government, a delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due here by mid this month to carry out a forensic audit on the arrears and other liabilities of the government, it is learnt. According to a Cabinet paper submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the special meeting yesterday, the IMF has agreed to a request by the government to identify ways and means to manage the expenditure arrears. The paper says the outstanding government debt remained at Rs. 8,475 billion by the end of last year.

China has finally dethroned India as Sri Lanka

President Maithripala Sirisena is expected to visit the Abhayaramaya Temple in Narahenpita on Sunday (6 March) despite it having been used for nearly a year by his political rivals to stage anti-Maithripala Sirisena political meetings. Sources said the President's visit to this temple had no political significance. He is expected to hand over prizes to Sunday School students at the temple.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which conducted in depth investigations into the rape and murder of a school girl in Poonkudutheevu, Jaffna informed the courts today that the incident was organized as revenge over a love affair. Submitting the report, Head of the Investigation team I.P. Nishantha told the Delft Magistrate M.M. Riyal that six suspects who are in custody were directly involved in the rape and the rest assisted them in various ways.

President Maithripala Sirisena said that reconciliation must come from the people and not through foreign pressure.Speaking with the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Elhadj As Sy, who paid a courtesy call at the President

The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, Adama Dieng, says Sri Lanka is at an important stage in its post war recovery. He told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, during the ongoing 31st session, that Sri Lanka has a chance to make things right by investing in reconciliation and an impartial accountability process that would restore confidence and reduce the risk of recurrence of the past violence.

The Foreign Affairs Minister in his address at the meeting of the Governing Council of Community of Democracies in Geneva said the government was in the process of repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act and introducing a new counter-terrorism legislation that is in line with contemporary international practices. At the meeting held on March 2, Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the government, under President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe

Bodu Bala Sena Organisation General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera who came to the Colombo National Hospital yesterday morning, tied a pirith noola on the wrist of underworld gangster Dematagoda Chaminda, an accused in the Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra murder. Ven. Gnanasara Thera was among the 11 bhikkhus who visited Dematagoda Chaminda at the Colombo National Hospital. Chaminda sustained injuries when he was shot at while being taken to the Welikada prisons in a prison bus.

An alleged Sri Lankan people smuggler who helped organise the boat on which Australian officials allegedly paid crew more than $US30,000 ($NZ44,576.52) to turn back from New Zealand has been sentenced to five and a half years, the New Zealand wire reported. Kugan, also known as Vishvanathan Thineshkumar, was described by prosecutors as the "mastermind" behind the failed journey on which 65 asylum seekers boarded a boat bound for New Zealand in May last year. During the voyage, the boat's crew claim they were intercepted by the Australian Border force who paid them cash to turn back.

The United States has told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) it sees the hope and promise of nations, like Sri Lanka and Burma, taking stock of the aspirations of their citizens and setting out on a new journey to meet those aspirations. US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, speaking at the UNHRC in Geneva said that it is important for the Council to remain engaged with countries like Sri Lanka, as the Governments confront their legacies of human rights violations and address the challenges that remain.

The Sri Lankan government plans to set up a fully-fledged fishery harbor in Mannar district at a cost of Rs. 1 billion for the benefit of the fishermen in the North, the Fisheries & Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said. Although the end of the war has brought back normalcy to the fisher community in the North and East and to restart their livelihood of fishing, the fishermen dwelling from Chilaw to Jaffna are deprived of basic infrastructure facilities, the Minister said.

A piece of debris found off the southeast African coast that could be from a missing Malaysia Airlines flight is being sent to Australia for testing, officials said on Thursday, two years after the plane carrying 239 people disappeared. A white, meter-long chunk of metal was found off the coast of Mozambique earlier this week by a U.S. adventurer who has been carrying out an independent search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The debris will be tested by officials in Australia, with help from Malaysian authorities and representatives of manufacturer Boeing Co (BA.N).

Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said today the Election Commission would not postpone elections on the need of any interested person and that no one had been vested with the power to declare elections.

Sri Lanka will accede to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention, and hopefully the international community will support its ongoing landmine clearance program, a high-ranking diplomat said here on Wednesday. Ravinatha Aryasinha, the ambassador of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, announced the news during a conference pledging landmine action conducted here on Wednesday. "I am pleased to inform, that at a meeting of cabinet ministers held early this morning, it was approved that Sri Lanka accedes to the convention on the prohibition of the use, stockpile, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and on their destruction," the diplomat said.

China is a big economic power in the region and countries should look at China as an opportunity rather than a threat, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who is in India to take part in the Raisina Dialogue, said on Tuesday.

A demonstration was staged in Jaffna today seeking the release of all political prisoners arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The demonstration took place as some 14 Tamil prisoners at the Welikada Magazine prison staged a hunger strike for the ninth day today. Civil society members, politicians and relatives of the political prisoners participated in the demonstration. A Tamil detainee who was freed from prison this week also joined the demonstration.

The Government which came to power promising media freedom, has revived a move to censor news web sites, a popular form of dissent that significantly contributed to the downfall of Mahinda Rajapaksa, economynext.com reported. The Ministry of Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media took out an advertisement in the state-run Daily News today warning websites that they must register before the end of this month or will be considered

India

The CID yesterday informed the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court that CCTV camera footage of the assailants of Sri Lanka rugby star Wasim Thajudeen will be sent to Canada shortly.Court had on 7 January ordered the CID to send five video copies of the CCTV camera footage supposedly showing the killers of the rugby star to a state-of-the-art foreign laboratory for detailed study and report.

A suspect in custody over the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was shot at in Dematagoda today while he was being transported to the Welikada prison.The police said that the prison bus

Minister John Amarathunga was sworn in as the Minister of Lands a short while ago before President Maithripala Sirisena. The position fell vacant with the demise of former Minister of Land M. K. A. D. S Gunawardene. Amaratunga also holds the posts of Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs.

The United States has noted the role it played at the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka

A Fundamental Rights petition has been filed at the Supreme Court today on behalf of Yoshitha Rajapaksa and three others against their arrest and being kept in remand custody. The petition cites the IGP, FCID officers including twelve others as respondents.

The Indian aided ambulance service would be commenced from mid this year, Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Harsha de Silva today said. Addressing a news conference, he said only four Indians would be given visas to come to Sri Lanka to operate the service and that selected 600 Sri Lankans would be trained in India to handle the paramedic service.Dr. De Silva said the service would be entirely a Government venture and it would be monitored by a committee headed by the Director General of Health, representatives of the Treasury and other officials of the Health Ministry.

Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne is recovering after the bypass surgery. He will return to Sri Lanka shortly, Health Ministry sources said. The sources said Dr. Senaratne will return to the country by this weekend. He was scheduled to be transferred to a normal ward yesterday after being warded at the ICU after surgery, the sources said. Dr. Senaratne underwent a three hour surgery at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore on February 19 to clear two blocked valves in his heart. The blockages were discovered during the annual checkup at a local hospital, the sources said.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has prepared a list of 16 suspects allegedly responsible for the killing of rugby player Wasim Thajudeen. They are to be arrested upon the establishment of the circumstantial evidence. According to CID sources, they will arrest several high ranking police officers who were on duty during that period and who have worked towards misleading the investigations while hiding the evidence.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today UNP was attempting to destroy the SLFP completely and that President Maithripala Sirisena as the SLFP chairman had not acted to look after the party rank and file, uphold party policies and protect the identity of the SLFP as expected.

The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka

Lieutenant Yoshitha Rajapaksa who was remanded on charges of money laundering, has been suspended from Naval service with effect from February 28 as directed by the Defence Ministry, the Navy said today. The Ministry made the order following a request by the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) in order to conduct an independent investigation. Navy Spokesman Akram Alavi said Yoshitha

Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers found parts of two defenders used in the abduction and the killing of 11 youths in Trincomalee in 2009. The CID found the parts during a search operation in the Welisara Navy Camp.They also found several parts of a motorcycle said to have belonged to one of the youth who was abducted and killed.The CID revealed that all vehicles used in the abduction have been disassembled and documents displaced. All these parts have been sent to the government analyst for further investigations with court permission. CID officers searched the Welisara Camp last week with court permission.