A Sri Lankan army contingent is leaving the island for UN peacekeeping duties in Lebanon, according to the army's website.

The 9th Sri Lanka’s Force Protection Unit (9 SLFPU) will join the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), replacing the 8th contingent, currently serving in the Levant.

A passing out parade was inspected by suspected war criminal Major General Jagath Dias at a ceremony in Kurunegala.

The deployment will be made up of 10 officers and 140 other soldiers from various regiments, including those which served in the armed conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The army is accused of committing mass atrocities, including rape, torture and extrajudicial killings during the intense fighting, particularly in the final phase.

Sri Lanka's new government this week extended a controversial detention law which allows police to detain suspects of serious crimes for 48 hours without a warrant, by another two years.

A Gazette notification was issued by the minister of justice, the Sri Lanka's Sunday Times reported.

The United Nations Secretary General on Tuesday reiterated calls for the Sri Lankan government to co-operate with the UN inquiry into mass atrocities against the Tamil people.

When about the UN response to the Sri Lankan government’s considerations of starting a new local inquiry, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s spokesperson, Stehpane Dujarric, at a press briefing said,

Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament, on Friday, that a final decision is yet to be reached on the Chinese funded ‘Port City’ project in Colombo.

Wikcremesinghe said that a committee had been appointed to review the project and that a final decision would be made after the committee produced its report to parliament, reports Colombo Page.

The US security adviser, Susan Rice pledged support to Sri Lanka's new government as a country currently in "in transition", reports Reuters.

A Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) member was appointed as the new chief minister of the Eastern Province this week, despite the Tamil National Alliance's electoral majority.

Ahamed Nazeer Zainulabdeen was sworn in before the governor, Austin Fernando on Friday.

Sri Lanka's new interim budget was approved by the majority in parliament on Saturday, reports Colombo Page.

The Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunayaka, speaking in parliament, said that the interim budget was intended for the whole year, and was not just designed for the 100 days prior to parliamentary elections.

Sri Lanka's new government invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein to visit the island, a day after a senior minister rejected the international probe conducted by the OHCHR.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera extended the invitation during his visit to Geneva, PTI reported.

The OHCHR Investigation in Sri Lanka (OISL) is due to present their findings to the UN Human Rights Council at the body's summit in Geneva next month.

On Friday, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said the international probe was a "violation" of Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

Updated 12:05

Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested two Tamil men at Colombo airport this week, as they returned from the Middle East to visit their families on holiday.

Kandasamy Karunananidhi, a 36 year old man from Kaluthavalai, Batticaloa and Thamodaram Baskaran, a 29 year old from Kokkaddicholai, Batticaloa were both arrested on arrival in Sri Lanka on the 2nd and 3rd of February respectively. They are currently being detained in the notorious fourth floor of the CID headquarters in Colombo.

Both men, who were working in the UAE and Qatar, had returned to the island in order to visit their wives and children. Tamil National Alliance MP P Ariyanenthiran said that both men had returned several times over the past without facing any difficulty.

A former LTTE cadre, who underwent the Sri Lankan government's 'rehabilitation' programme was arrested by the country's Special Task Force officers on Wednesday evening, reports BattiNews.

The detainee, Kulenthiran Kartheepan, was accused of trying to sell a vehicle illegally, changing the vehicle's registration plate and engine.

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) should meet and decide on actions to take against the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R Sampanthan, for violating party position by attending Sri Lanka’s independence day said the ITAK deputy leader, CK Sittambalam on Thursday.

Calling on the ITAK Central Committee to take action, the deputy leader, said,

“The ITAK Central Committee should convene immediately as it has the responsibility and duty to determine the actions that should be taken on Sampanthan, who committed a treason and crime against the Tamil people by attending Sri Lanka’s Independence Day celebrations.”

“We cannot allow a mysterious culture which allows a few people to decide the fate of the Tamil people any more, “ he added.

A senior minister in Sri Lanka’s government dismissed allowing an international investigation into mass atrocities.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said there was no possibility of “an international inquiry”.

“That would amount to an unsolicited intervention and a violation of our sovereignty,” the minister told Anadolu Agency, insisting Sri Lanka was “committed to investigate any rights abuses through a domestic process".

Mr Rajapakshe blamed former president Mahinda Rajapaksa for the current OHCHR Investigaion in Sri Lanka.

“It is a fate of his own seeking. President Rajapaksa has written to the U.N. Secretary-General, just four days after the conclusion of the war. It was only after that a U.N. expert committee was appointed to study whether such rights violations had taken place during the final phase of the war. President Rajapaksa has created this situation, not the U.N. and not anyone else, and now it has become a sticky issue,” he said.