Newsline 2 February 2010: Amnesty International warns of a post-election crackdown in Sri Lanka. The UN expresses concern about child trafficking in Haiti. The German government may pay millions for a stolen list of tax evaders.

Post-election crackdown
Amnesty International has accused the new Sri Lankan government of clamping down on the media, opposition politicians and activists. The human rights group says there have been many arrests since last week's elections, in which President Rajapakse beat his rival General Fonseka. Listen to an interview with Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi.

Child trafficking fears
Haitian officials are considering a trial in the United States for the group of Americans arrested while trying to take 33 children out of the country. The ten members of a US Christian organisation could face charges of kidnapping and child trafficking. The group claimed the children were orphans but it appears that many of them still have parents living. Listen to an interview with UNICEF spokesperson Chris de Bono.

It takes a thief to catch a thief
History is repeating itself in Germany, where the government's been offered a CD-rom that exposes thousands of tax dodgers. They're German citizens who take advantage of Switzerland's bank secrecy laws. Their details are being offered by an anonymous whistleblower for the tidy sum of 2.5 million euros. A similar CD-rom, spilling the beans on Germans with an account in Liechtenstein, let Chancellor Angela Merkel claw back more than 100 million euros two years ago.