Sri Lankan official ends hunger strike

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, July 10 (UPI) -- Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa convinced a member of his Cabinet Saturday to end a hunger strike over U.N. allegations of human rights violations.

The president visited Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa, who had been fasting outside the U.N. headquarters in Colombo, the Indian newspaper The Hindu reported. Weerawansa began his hunger strike Thursday, threatening to keep it up until death unless U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dissolved a three-member expert committee named to advise him on human rights violations during the struggle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam or Tamil Tigers.

Rajapaksa gave Weerawansa a glass of water and said he had not accepted his resignation from the Cabinet.

The United Nations announced Thursday it is shutting down the regional office in Colombo. But officials said in a clarifying statement that all programs specifically for Sri Lanka are continuing and all its offices for those programs remain open.

U.N. officials said Sri Lanka has not been able to guarantee that the office in Colombo could run smoothly and without interference.