Sri Lanka's parliament began debating the no-confidence motion against the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe today, after it is presented to parliament by MP Dinesh Gunawardane. 

The SLFP has decided to abstain from voting on the motion, whilst the JVP has opted to vote in favour of it. 

The TNA, SLMC and ACMC said they would be voting against it. 

The Tamil National Alliance should capitalise on the leverage they hold in potentially defeating a no-confidence motion being brought against Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, and set Tamil political demands as condition for their support, Tamil civil society members have said.

The Sri Lankan Army is attempting to seize around 25 acres of land belonging to Muslims in Eravur, Batticaloa.

The army is planning to use the land in Punnaikuda to establish an artillery division.

The TNA has won control of the Karaveddy divisional council (prathesa sabai) with the support of the UNP, keeping out an SLFP-EPDP alliance.

The United National Party’s two members supported the Tamil National Alliance’s candidate for council chair, adding to the nine votes held by the TNA.

A Buddhist ceremony was held at the Sri Lankan army’s headquarters in Batticaloa earlier this year, to “invoke blessings” on Sri Lankan soldiers.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) informed a court in Colombo that it was seeking the advice of the Attorney General in proceedings against an astrologer who predicted that Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirsena would die.

A former Sri Lankan soldier was among four suspects arrested last week in relation to anti-Muslim attacks in Kandy. 

The suspects were arrested by Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) officers, Adaderana reports. 

The two sides of Sri Lanka's coalition government, the SLFP and UNP continued talks today over the looming parliamentary debate on a no-confidence motion against the prime minister and UNP leader, Ranil Wickremetunge. 

According to Sri Lankan press reports, the president urged Mr Wickremetunge not to take the motion lightly, stating that his chance of surviving it was only 50 percent. 

The Asian Development Bank has approved a further $100 million loan towards develop skills on workers to meet labour market demand. 

The results based loan is aimed at developing the Skills Sector Development Program which received $100 million ADB loan in 2014. 

A former LTTE cadre who was subjected to Sri Lanka's 'rehabilitation programme' was interrogated by Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) officers over an election speech he made ahead of the recent local elections. 

Kandasamy Imbarajah, 43, launched and heads the 'Rehabilitated Liberation Tigers Party', which contested elections in the Eastern Province. 

Class mates of the children of the political prisoner, Satchithanantham Anandasuthakaran joined calls for his release, launching a signature campaign at their school, Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam. 

A signature campaign calling for the pardon of Mr Anandasuthakaran has been underway across the North-East, after emotional photos of his wife's funeral, where their young son performed the last rites and their young daughter attempted to board a prison bus with her father who was given three hours to attend the funeral, went viral on social media.

Jaffna Magistrates Court last week ordered the telecommunication company, Dialog to hand over the call records of two men who were abducted in 2011 after organising a protest in Jaffna against disappearances.

Relatives of the two disappeared men, Lalithkumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan, filed a Habeus Corpus petition in 2012 at Colombo's Court of Appeal. 

A team from the European parliament is to visit Sri Lanka this week evaluate progress on made on GSP+ accession. 

The delegation, which includes members of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, is expected to visit April 4 to 6. 

Sri Lanka’s former president and current head of the ‘Office for National Unity and Reconciliation’ (ONUR) remained silent and offered no response as mental health professionals and civil society representatives detailed the ongoing sexual exploitation perpetrated by the armed forces, police and government officials against Tamil women in the North.