Prime Minister Ranil WIckremesinghe at a ceremony in March 2017 where his credentials are presented to a newly appointed chief Buddhist prelate. Photograph:dailymirror.lk

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe marked 40 years as a Member of Parliament last week.

Today we mark thirty-four years from the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces.

Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and businesses looting and ransacking property. Driven from their homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred, whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East.

Eye witness reports described mobs chasing Tamils down the street with knives and setting them alight alive. Many hundreds of women were raped. Tamil political prisoners locked up in Welikada jail, deep within the island's south, were also targeted as prison guards allowed Sinhala inmates to slaughter them.

Sri Lanka’s police has been given its final warning to speed up investigations into high profile murder and corruption charges levelled against the former regime, reports island.lk.

Sri Lanka’s Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka has outlined his intention to apply pressure to see at least 10 high profile cases, including the Lasantha Wickremeatunga assassination.

Reports also suggested that the large scale corruption cases against senior officials in the previous Rajapaksa government will also be brought to a close.

Canada’s Prime Minister reiterated the need to establish a process of accountability in Sri Lanka, in a message released to mark the Black July pogrom of 1983, in which thousnads of Tamils were killed.

““Between July 24 and 29, 1983, anti-Tamil pogroms were carried out in Colombo and other parts of Sri Lanka resulting in thousands of deaths and the displacement of countless victims,” said Justin Trudeau.

“As we pause to reflect on the dark days of the Sri Lankan Civil War, we must continue to work to heal the wounds of all those who suffered,” the statement added.

The Tamil people are “not satisfied” with progress made by the Sri Lankan government Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan told the United Nations Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, as they met in Colombo earlier this week.

Nominations for the Eastern Provincial Council will be called on 2 October 2017, the National Elections Commission announced on Saturday. 

The Council's term will end 26 September 2017. Thirty-seven councillors will be elected for the Eastern Provincial Council. 

The last election for the EPC was held on 8 September 2012. 

Nominations for the North-Central and Sabragamuwa Provincial Councils will also take place in October. 

Condemning the suspected assassination attempt of a Jaffna High Court judge, Ilancheliyan, the United States embassy in Sri Lanka called for the perpetrators to face "swift justice". 

"Deeply concerned by shooting involving #Jaffna High Court Judge Illancheliyan. We call on govt to ensure perpetrators face due,swift justice," the US embassy tweeted on Sunday. 

Two men were arrested on Sunday over their suspected involvement in the shooting of a Jaffna High Court judge on Saturday. 

Judge Ilancheliyan managed to escape unharmed but one police officer was killed in the incident. 

The identities of the suspects remains unknown. 

“This is a threat to the judiciary,” Judge Ilancheliyan told journalists, adding that he believed the attack to be related to any number of dangerous cases that he has been overseeing for the past eight months.

One of two of Jaffna High Court judge Ilancheliyan’s police bodyguards has died in hospital, succumbing to bullet injuries sustained while protecting the judge from an attempt on his life in Nallur yesterday.

51-year-old Sgt. Hemaratne died shortly after midnight, despite the efforts of the Intensive Care Unit at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Exports of travel goods from Sri Lanka will be duty free entry to the United States following a decision by the US to approve the inclusion of travel goods from all General System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries, reports Xinhua News.

Sri Lanka was included in the expanded US General System of Preferences scheme on July 1 according to a statement released by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry on Friday.