Kumar Sangakkara remained unbeaten on 61 in his 100th Test to launch a strong Sri Lankan reply to Australia's first innings total of 316 on the second day of the third and final Test on Saturday.
China remains the elephant in the room and has to be tamed, which the United States alone is unable to do and therefore calls allies to come on board.
Pujara established himself as the difference between the sides in the ongoing series against Australia on Friday.
Sri Lankan authorities are questioning 37 persons, including a brigadier, a colonel and some army deserters, detained for their alleged role in a plot to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
'We believe that one of the suicide bombers studied in the UK and maybe later on did his post-graduate in Australia, before coming back to settle in Sri Lanka'
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Sunday squarely blamed the Centre and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam for the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka and also the fishermen from the state.
The Sri Lankan government hit back at defeated opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka on Thursday alleging that he had attempted to "assassinate" President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family.
Nitin Gokhale, Defence Editor, NDTV, recalls his encounter with then Sri Lankan army chief General Sarath Fonseka soon after the LTTE's defeat last year. A fascinating column on how Velupillai Prabhakaran finally met his nemesis.
Defeated joint opposition candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka rejected the Sri Lankan government's allegations on Thursday that he had attempted to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapakasa, terming it as "trumped up charges" to arrest him.
Tim Southee rescued New Zealand with the bat then dragged his side back into the match
The Sri Lankan government on Sunday formally accepted the resignation of General Sarath Fonseka as the chief of defence staff and asked him to retire with immediate effect, rejecting his plea to serve till December 1.
'Like General Patton, possibly the greatest exponent of the art of war, Vajpayee had the ability to be always on the offensive,' assesses Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Publicly, India maintained it would not give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons. The Congress party obviously did not want the shadow of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict to fall on the politics of Tamil Nadu and needlessly complicate matters during the election campaign. A fascinating exclusive excerpt from Nitin Gokhale's new book, Sri Lanka: From War to Peace.
On the brink of capturing the entire rebel-held territory, Sri Lankan troops killed at least 150 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres in the island's embattled north, where a ship carrying biggest-ever food supplies for displaced civilians was ambushed by suspected guerrillas, officials said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka on Friday rejected Britain's 'unilateral appointment' of a special envoy to focus on the humanitarian situation in the embattled north and help find a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict, terming it an intrusion in the island's internal affairs. Former British Defence Secretary Des Browne was appointed by British Premier Gordon Brown as his special envoy to Sri Lanka on Thursday. The Sri Lankan government, however, rejected his appointment.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam maintains a hostile approach towards the exodus of civilians from the Wanni region, and the casualties caused by it is under-reported, Sri Lankan government told a high-level United Nations delegation on Monday.
Dubbing ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka as a 'fool', Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ruled out an early pardon for the General, who is being court-martialed on charges of engaging in politics while in uniform and defence procurement irregularities."He is a fool. On November 16 (2009) he was sitting right here (the President's office in Colombo) and I asked him if he was interested in contesting (the presidential election) and he said, No, sir."
The two countries also signed memoranda of understanding in education and health sectors after visiting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera co-chaired the 9th Indo-Lanka Joint Commission meeting in Colombo.
Advancing Sri Lankan troops have intensified the battle near the LTTE-controlled headquarters of Kilinochchi amidst fierce resistance by the Tamil Tigers and are now consolidating their position near Mannar, officials said today.
India on Friday urged the Sri Lankan government to cease its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and declare a truce in the conflict zone. The Centre also rushed National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to Colombo to step up its diplomatic pressure.The decision was taken at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.
Twenty four-year-old Charles, the eldest of the two sons and a daughter of the elusive LTTE chief, was injured in the fighting in the Tiger bastion of Pudhukkudiyiruppu, Defence Ministry officials said.
Fierce clashes between Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE militants in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi has left many Tamil tiger rebels dead as the army made further inroads into the island nation's embattled north, officials said on Saturday.
Pujara and Vijay added 209 runs for the second wicket to set a platform from where India would look to bat the Islanders out of the contest.
Fresh from their success in capturing the last urban stronghold of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Mullaittivu, the Sri Lankan troops are training their guns on elusive Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran who, defence officials feel, is very much in the northern Wanni region, which comprises of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu.
The newspaper said the defence cooperation between Sri Lanka and Pakistan had grown significantly in recent years as Islamabad, unlike New Delhi, had no problems supplying the state-of-the-art weaponry to Lankan army to accelerate its counter-insurgency operations against the LTTE which finally ended with the killing of Tamil chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
Rajapaksa is the first president to be sworn in outside Colombo.
Making a final push to overrun the last patch of territory held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lankan forces on Wednesday pushed deeper, capturing six kilometres of the 18 km 'No Fire Zone' as thousands of trapped Tamils civilians continued to flee the northern war zone.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres, who escaped the final assault by the Lankan army in May, could give a new lease of life to the now vanquished outfit and are even trying to launch fresh attacks in Sri Lanka, according to a report.
A heavy gunbattle between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels left 28 militants and two security personnel dead in the island nation's embattled north, the defence ministry said on Monday.
Three Sri Lankan sailors and four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres were killed in a pre-dawn attack by Tamil rebels on a navy outpost in Mannar on Wednesday.The Tigers claimed that the area was brought under their control for a few hours after they captured arms and military gadgets, including a radar equipment."According to the available information, four sea tigers, including their leader Sirimaran, have died in the battle," the Defence Ministry said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacked army defence lines between Mannar and Vavuniya districts since Saturday night inflicting heavy losses.
An LTTE aircraft on Tuesday night carried out an air strike in Colombo, though no major damages were reported, the defence sources said. "The LTTE aircraft dropped two bombs at around 23:15 in Colombo," sources said.
The results of the recent presidential elections in Sri Lanka are likely to have stunned groups in Tamil Nadu that have been giving moral and material support to Tamils in the north and east of the island for decades. Tamil Nadu-based groups had asked Sri Lanka Tamils to protest against the election and boycott voting.
In its bid to rein in the dreaded suicide squads of LTTE, the Sri Lanka government is offering $93,000 and an overseas job to the rebel suicide bombers who surrender before the authorities.Posters showing the offer were already pasted on walls around Colombo two weeks back, but confusion over it ended on Monday with the government admitting to making the offer of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees for suicide bombers giving themselves up.
Sri Lankan fighter jets pounded a 'field headquarters' of the LTTE and destroyed at least 35 rebel bunkers as security forces gunned down 64 rebels and lost three of their soldiers.
At least 63 LTTE militants and three security forces personnel were killed in raging ground battles since weekend while Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday shelled a main Sri Lankan military air base linking the country to the embattled north.
In stepped-up fighting, Sri Lankan security forces gunned down at least 43 Tamil Tigers and lost seven soldiers in the island's restive north, where the Air Force jets today raided an LTTE transport base in the rebel-dominated Kilinochchi area.
Sri Lankan Air Force jets on Thursday bombed and destroyed a key LTTE facility occupied by senior rebel leaders as a series of clashes in the island's embattled north left at least 40 Tamil Tigers dead.
A high-level Indian delegation led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan arrived in Colombo on Friday for talks with Sri Lankan leaders amidst intense speculation on the nature of the visit, kept under wraps. The presence of Defence Secretary Vijay Singh in the delegation set tongues in political circles wagging in the backdrop of reports that with no let up in LTTE attacks Sri Lanka would like military assistance from India.
