3 ministers sworn into Sri Lanka's new cabinet

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday swore in three ministers for his new cabinet after the ruling United National Party (UNP) won a parliamentary election last week.

The three ministers who took oaths at a simple ceremony in capital Colombo, were Mangala Samaraweera as the foreign minister, Wijeydasa Rajapaksha as the justice minister and D.M. Swaminathan as the minister of rehabilitation.

The remaining ministers of the new cabinet are expected to take oaths on Tuesday.

The new cabinet will be headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe who was sworn in as the prime minister on Friday after his UNP won 106 seats in a 225 member parliament at the parliamentary election last week.

The UNP defeated the opposition United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) who obtained 95 seats and whose prime ministerial candidate was former president Mahinda Rajapakse.

Sri Lanka's new parliament is expected to convene on September 1.