Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa inherits more than US$34.4bn worth of debt, a quarter of which are owed to China alone, reports Al Jazeera.

Colombo remains heavily burdened with foreign debt, with the Chinese, in particular, having invested billions in major infrastructure projects ranging from power stations to ports. And as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis worsened, the island was forced to hand over control of Hambantota Port in a debt-for-equity swap with Beijing in 2017.

Newly-elected Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that he will seek a snap parliamentary election “at the earliest opportunity”, in the wake of his resounding victory at Sri Lanka’s presidential polls last week. 

Though Sri Lanka's existing parliamentary term ends next August, the constitution allows the president to dissolve the legislature and push for an election as early as March 2020.

Currently, Rajapaksa and his allies have just 96 legislators out of a 225-member Parliament, reports Al Jazeera. 

Following Sri Lanka’s presidential elections, former cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan is said to be spoken for as the Sri Lankan governor for the Northern Province, according to reports in the Indian press.

<p>A top investigator in Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) credited with making breakthroughs in high profile cases involving military and state personnel, has fled Sri Lanka with his family.</p> <p>Nishantha de Silva, head of the organised crimes investigation unit at the CID has reportedly traveled to Switzerland with his family, without the approval of the Sri Lankan police department.&nbsp;</p>

Britain’s former prime minister David Cameron described how he refused to shake Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s hand when he met the Rajapaksa brothers in a “showdown” in Colombo in 2013, that was described as one of “the worst tempered foreign meeting(s)” during his tenure.

Cameron, who was in Colombo for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), justified his attendance at the meeting, stating,

Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, General Kamal Gunaratna, issued instructions to Sri Lanka’s police to take tougher measure to 'curb the drug menace'. 

This state came yesterday during a special meeting with senior officers of the Police Narcotic Bureau at the Defence Ministry and increasing securitisation by the Sri Lankan state.

In the wake of the United National Party’s loss at last week’s Sri Lankan presidential elections, Ranil Wickremesinghe called on the party to examine on how it lost its Sinhala Buddhist voter base and forge ahead with Buddhist principles.

"Our attention should be focused on the loss of Sinhala Buddhist voter base for the party,” said Wickremesinghe, who resigned from the post of prime minister this week. “We need to especially look into why we lost the Sinhala Buddhist votes."

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka called on the new president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week, where they discussed  “a US partnership [with] a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Sri Lanka”.

In their first official meeting, US Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz tweeted that they were charting a partnership based on “good governance that spurs economic growth and protects the rights of all”.

<p>Newly elected President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has begun concentrating power in his own family by appointing his brothers Mahinda and Chamal as ministers,&nbsp;writes Hannah Ellis-Peterson, in an article&nbsp;for The Guardian.&nbsp;</p> <p>Gotabaya's "win marked a return to power for the Rajapaksa family, which has been one of the most dominant political dynasties in Sri Lanka&nbsp;for over a decade. Their previous time in power was marked by human rights abuses, disappearances and a stranglehold over the judiciary and police."</p>

<p>President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, appointed his brothers, Mahinda and Chamal in his new&nbsp;interim cabinet, to&nbsp;serve as ministers until the next parliamentary election.</p> <p>Mahinda is the&nbsp;Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, Policy Development, Buddha Sasana, Cultural, Water Supply &amp; Urban Development, Housing Facilities&nbsp;and Chamal is the&nbsp;Minister of Mahaweli Development, Agriculture &amp;Trade.</p> <p>The interim cabinet also includes:</p> <p>Nimal Siripala de Silva – Minister of Justice, Human Rights &amp; Legal Reforms</p>