In his election platform, Sajith Premadasa identified religious extremism, illegal drugs and corruption as three issues that require urgent attention.

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is hopeful that schools will reopen soon for the first time since the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels.

Sri Lankan Catholic officials said Thursday that church-run schools that have been closed since Easter Sunday bombings are expected to reopen next week, and Sunday Masses will resume this weekend if security conditions are appropriate.

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka urged the government on Monday to crack down on Islamic extremists with more vigor "as if on war footing" in the aftermath of the Easter bombings.

Sri Lanka's president has asked for the resignations of the defense secretary and national police chief, a dramatic internal shake-up after security forces shrugged off intelligence reports warning of possible attacks before Easter bombings that killed over 350 people, the president's office said Wednesday.

Since the end of the nation's 26-year civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group from the ethnic Tamil minority, sought independence from ethnic Sinhala Buddhist majority Sri Lanka, the country has seen sporadic ethnic and religious violence, but the scale of Sunday's bloodshed recalled the worst days of the war,