Sri Lanka's new government pledged Thursday to trace billions of dollars in stolen wealth stashed abroad by members of the previous regime and said experts from the IMF and World Bank had agreed to help.

Former president Mahinda Rajapakse and his powerful family are accused of siphoning large sums of money from the public coffers during his decade in power, which ended when he was voted out this month.

Sri Lanka's new government is to reopen investigations into the murders of a high-profile newspaper editor and two lawmakers after evidence linking the former regime to the killings came to light, a minister said Wednesday.

The move comes after a former cabinet minister on Sunday publicly accused the deposed president's brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse of ordering the assassination of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009.

Sri Lanka's new government is to reopen investigations into the murders of a high-profile newspaper editor and two lawmakers after evidence linking the former regime to the killings came to light, a minister said Wednesday.

The move comes after a former cabinet minister on Sunday publicly accused the deposed president's brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse of ordering the assassination of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009.

Sri Lanka's new government pledged Tuesday to devolve power to the country's Tamil minority, in a step towards national reconciliation six years after a controversial military offensive crushed a separatist rebellion.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his first address to parliament since taking office, said lawmakers needed to bring a political conclusion to the conflict between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels that ended in 2009.

Sri Lankan police on Tuesday seized weapons from a conference center visited by the pope during his visit to the island after receiving a tip-off that the former president's family allowed arms to be stored there.

Police said the family of Mahinda Rajapakse had allowed a private security firm to keep the weapons at the high-security complex in central Colombo where the pope met leaders of other faiths last week.

Karunawathie isn't hungry for breakfast. She rarely is these days, but she forces herself to choke down a few bites of rice, dried fish and a simple coconut mix. The doctors say it's better to have something in her stomach before the four-hour dialysis treatments.

She's going for her second session of the week, dressed all in pink, right down to her flip-flops. Her fingers and toes are fat with fluid, and her spongy arms feel like soft water balloons. Since she can no longer pass liquids on her own, doctors have told her to drink only 500 milliliters a day — equal to less than a can and a half of soda.

Sri Lanka's new foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera met his Indian counterpart in New Delhi Sunday during a visit to improve strained ties after elections in the island toppled longtime strongman Mahinda Rajapakse.

Relations suffered under Rajapakse, who cultivated close links with China which has invested heavily in Sri Lanka to try to counter regional rival India.

Sri Lanka's new government Friday announced lifting a ban on foreign nationals visiting to the island's former war zones and scrapped an economic embargo on minority Tamil regions. 

President Maithripala Sirisena, just a week after taking office, removed the travel ban introduced by his predecessor three months ago, the defense ministry said.

Sri Lanka's former leader Mahinda Rajapakse has agreed to step down as head of his party, clearing the way for the country's new president to take full control, an aide said Thursday.

President Maithripala Sirisena had been the general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), but was kicked out of the party ahead of elections after he broke from Rajapakse in November to become the common opposition candidate.

As Pope Francis exhorted Sri Lankans to unify and confront the "evils" of their sectarian conflict, a Hindu from the teardrop-shaped island's Tamil minority was hanging onto his every word.

M.K. Rajini, a bank worker from the war-ravaged Jaffna peninsula, traveled hundreds of miles Wednesday to receive a blessing from the pope at a church which was on the front line of Sri Lanka's 37-year ethnic war.