The United Nations Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, undertaking a three-day visit to the island where he will discuss peacebuilding with government officials and members of the Tamil National Alliance.

Rejecting the report by the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, Sri Lanka's cabinet spokesperson said on Wednesday that the foreign ministry would going forward answer to the country's defence ministry and the Prison Commissioner General before  foreign officials undertook any future similar visits. 

The decision came after the members of the government and the president, Maithripala Sirisena questioned why Mr Emmerson was allowed to visit the island and speak to Tamils detainees who the security forces claim are associated with the LTTE. 

Five parliamentarians, led by Wimal Weerawansa, announced this week their decision to leave the constitutional assembly, Adaderana reported. 

From the National Freedom Front, the five parliamentarians - Mr Weerawansa, Jayantha Samaraweera, Weerakumara Dissanayake, Niroshan Premaratne and Padma Udhaya Shantha Gunasekera - gave the speaker a written notice of their decision to leave. 

The TNA leader, R Sampanthan told the visiting foreign minister of Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan that the unity government was essential to ensuring the success of the constitutional change process. 

Urging both the UNP and SLFP to "put their petty political agendas aside", Mr Sampanthan said, "this is an urgent need for the whole country and all its people."

The Sri Lankan navy on Sunday arrested another four Indian fishermen for allegedly crossing into Sri Lankan waters, reported TNN and The Hindu. 

The men and their fishing boats were taken to Sri Lanka's navy station, Elara. 

The arrest is the latest in a series of arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy. 

In total 81 men are currently detained. 

Singapore and Sri Lanka committed to arriving at a free trade agreement by the end of this year, Singapore's foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan said following his meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart in Colombo on Monday. 

Sri Lankan police detained an Indian citizen from Tamil Nadu who was on a family holiday in the island for wearing a dress with the image of Buddha on it, The Hindu reported. 

She was only released after she signed a statement and apologised. 

“Just as we were about to make the payment at the counter, three cops came up to us and said they needed to arrest and take my niece. We were terrified,” aunt of the woman who was detained told the paper. 

Sri Lankan police officers visited the Colombo office of the Tamil diaspora TV station, IBC Tamil two times over a four day period and sought the personal details of staff members. 

"The visit was on the same day a news item published in a Sinhala ultra-nationalist daily carrying accusations against an unnamed "Tamil Tiger diaspora TV" that provides information to London on  "protests against government, security forces activities in the north and allegations against the government by visiting UN officials", JDS reported.  

A US $167.2 million disbursement has been approved by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after completing the second review of Sri Lanka’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The IMF Executive board completed the review on Monday, allowing for the release of US $167.2 million which forms part of a 3 year arrangement to provide up to US $1.45 billion of assistance during Sri Lanka’s monetary reform process.

To date a total of approximately US $501.5 million has been released to Sri Lanka, reports adaderena.lk.

Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena reportedly questioned his cabinet on how the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson was allowed to meet Tamils detained as alleged Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters.

The Daily Mirror reported the meeting request was sanctioned by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.