Sri Lanka makes crucial changes to the cabinet

Colombo, May 22: On Monday Sri Lanka announced key changes to the new cabinet, including the appointment of new foreign and finance minister. Nine Cabinet ministers and state ministers were sworn in before the country's President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Xinhua news agency reported.

Former Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was appointed as the new Finance and Media minister while former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was sworn-in as the new Foreign Minister. Mahinda Samarasinghe was appointed as Ports and Shipping Minister while former cricketer turned politician Arjuna Ranatunga as the Petroleum Resources minister. Former Media Minister Gayantha Karunatillake took oath as the new Lands Minister. This is the first displacement of the government that took office in 2015.