The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe this week stressed that monitoring of social media was a necessity in order to tackle hate speech. 

The government was criticised earlier this month after it prohibited access to social media sites in the aftermath of anti-Muslim attacks by Sinhala mobs in Kandy. 

"Some form of patrolling of social media is necessary to prevent the spread of hate speech in the country," Mr Wickremesinghe said at a ceremonry inaugurating the 24th president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), the Sunday Times reported. 

Batticaloa Domestic Aiport is to commence service this week, after running only military flights for nearly thirty years. 

The beginning of service comes almost two years after the airport was opened to the public by the president in July 2016 following renovation. 

Service was delayed as the airport did not meet international civil aviation requirements. 

The airport has since had a new passenger terminal built and runway lighting system installed. 

Declaring the airport open for service the transport minister, Nimal Siripala de Silva said it was to expand tourism to the Eastern province. 

CCTV of anti-Muslim violence in Kandy this month reveal Sri Lankan politicians and police officers joined mobs launching the attacks, Reuters reported after reviewing the images and speaking to witnesses. 

"Victims and witnesses, whose accounts were partly backed by CCTV footage seen by Reuters, described members of an elite paramilitary police unit, the Special Task Force (STF), assaulting Muslim cleric and leaders," the news wire said. 

One Muslim cleric who witnessed the attack told Reuters that the police "came to attack", beating the people it was supposed to be protecting. 

Tamils across the North-East have been campaigning for the pardon of a Tamil political prisoner, after his wife’s death left their two young children without support.

A Tamil motorist was killed on the spot when a military vehicle crashed into him on the main road in Chavakachcheri on Saturday.

The crash occurred when the victim attempted to pass a car that had been stopped by traffic police.

There were tensions in the area as angry locals and witnesses blamed traffic police for unnecessarily stopping the car and causing the crash.

The Sri Lankan Army continues its involvement in Tamil schools as children from a Koppay preschool were taken on a tour of the Palali air base.

The air base falls within occupied land which the Sri Lankan Army maintains as a “high security zone”, nine years after the end of the war.

Teachers reported that Sri Lankan Army officials actively go to Tamil preschools to arrange such visits and activities and that teachers feel powerless to raise objections.

The No-Confidence motion against the Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe is to be debated in parliament on April 4. 

The motion, reportedly signed by 55 MPs, was handed over to the Speaker of the House, Karu Jayasuriya on Wednesday. 

A state minister and two deputy ministers have signed the motion, the Sunday Times reported. 

Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Friday signed three Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) on Friday, as the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena visited Islamabad. 

The countries also pledged to enhance trade and economic relations. 

President Sirisena was reported by the Colombo Page as praising "the continuous assistance provided by Pakistan to Sri Lanka when the country face disastrous situations and also expressed his appreciation over the assistance provided by the Pakistan government to the security forces by training them, during the war period." 

India has delivered, what will be the Sri Lankan Navy’s most advanced ship, 25 days ahead of schedule reports, Colombo Gazette.

The purchase of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) from India formed one of the largest and most significant form of defence ties between Sri Lanka and India, with the purchase being considered one of India’s largest export contracts to a neighbouring nation.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the vessel, India’s Rear Admiral Shekhar Mital said,

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramun (SLPP) has elected a new Mayor in the United National Party (UNP) controlled region of Negombo.

After joining forces with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) the SLPP local government members elected Dayan Lansa of the SLPP as the new mayor.

The Negombo Municipal Council was won by the United National Party at recent Local Government elections.

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