When the first flight arrived at Kushinagar airport on Wednesday, it was not Gota or Mahinda who stepped out, but another Rajapaksa. Namal Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's minister of sports.
Former Sri Lankan cricketer Ramith Rambukwella arrested in corruption case
The order was also imposed on parliamentarians Johnston Fernando, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Sanjeewa Edirimanne, Kanchana Jayaratne, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, C B Ratnayake, Sampath Athukorala, Renuka Perera, Sanath Nishantha, Senior DIG Deshabandu Thennakoon among others.
Ten days after announcing his retirement from international cricket, batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa made himself available to play for Sri Lanka "for years to come."
Describing Lord Buddha as the inspiration for India's Constitution even today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said Buddha resides in the soul of humanity and connects different cultures and countries.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa became the only member of the family to retain a cabinet position in his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa's new cabinet of 17 ministers appointed on Monday, as the island nation was facing the worst economic crisis.
Rajapaksa was appointed as the premier on October 26 by President Maithripala Sirisena after sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe, plunging the nation into a constitutional crisis.
'Granting the country's highest civilian honour to Prime Minister Modi was surprising as it indicated the government was going out of its way to have India as a close partner.'
President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Rajapaksa will transform Sri Lanka's political landscape after Thursday's electoral triumph, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran Colombo watcher.
Mahinda Rajapaksa completed 50 years of parliamentary politics in July this year. He was elected as a Member of Parliament at the young age of 24 in 1970. He has since been elected president twice and has been appointed prime minister thrice.
Earlier it was claimed that the MP committed suicide by shooting himself after he opened fire at two members of the group which had surrounded his vehicle on Monday.
'The Indian government is better prepared this time and has reached out to all contenders and not putting all eggs in one basket.'
'If there is a push towards a Marxist oriented government it will be dangerous.' 'We have seen this in Nepal and Myanmar and it will be a concern for India if it is surrounded by countries with such political dispensations.'
The 18-member Sri Lanka Test squad, led by star batter Dimuth Karunaratne and featuring veterans such as Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal, checked in Dharamsala on Friday.
On May 9, violence erupted in Sri Lanka after supporters of the 76-year-old former premier attacked peaceful anti-government protesters demanding his ouster over the country's worst economic crisis that led to acute shortages of staple food, fuel and power.
Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medicines and electricity supply.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has launched his son Namal into active politics ahead of the April 8 parliamentary polls in which the 23-year- old would contest from the southeastern Hambantota district.
The dissidents, led by former president Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, would leave the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna coalition with its 14 Members of Parliament, party sources said after their meeting with the President on Monday.
Though dubbed as the "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
Off-spinner Ashian Daniel is the lone new face in the18-member Sri Lanka squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series in India, Cricket Sri Lanka said on Monday.
Sri Lankan police on Saturday fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse anti-government protestors here as the ongoing agitation demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the worst economic crisis intensified as it entered its 50th day.
The Government also defended the President's decision to enforce a state of emergency, that had given him sweeping authority to act in the interests of public security and preserving public order, including suspending any laws, authorising detentions and seizing property, saying it was declared after attempts were made to attack the President's Office and other public property.
The ex-president returned to Sri Lanka on a Singapore Airlines flight.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday met Sri Lanka's top leadership and discussed a host of issues, including the debt crisis faced by the island nation, investments, promoting tourism and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as the two countries marked the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties.
In the endlessly entertaining and absorbing soap opera that is India-Sri Lanka relations, wait for the next episode, Aditi Phadnis reports.
The SJB has begun to collect signatures from MPs for the no-confidence motion, according to media reports.
Ppolitical experts in Colombo said the ministers came under intense pressure from the public over the government's alleged "mishandling" of the economic crisis, triggered by the shortage in the foreign exchange reserve.
The government's poor handling of the economic crisis where people currently endure long hours of power outages and scarcity of essentials has angered the public which planned country-wide protests on Sunday.
Dealing with the Sirisena government in Sri Lanka, says G Ganapathy Subramaniam, is a lot easier for India than engaging with the Rajapaksa regime.
'The path to a resolution of the ethnic conflict is likely to be complicated and controversial with the majority Sinhalese community, and will become less likely if delayed.' 'It will certainly give Rajapaksa fresh political oxygen with which to revive himself and rally the opposition.'
Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Sri Lanka's new Finance Minister Ali Sabry on Tuesday resigned, a day after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed him after sacking his brother Basil Rajapaksa amidst the island nation's worst economic crisis.
Democratic Left Front politician Nanayakkara was among the 42 members who declared independence in Parliament from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) coalition.
'We don't have a plan for the crisis at all. The uncertainty will continue.'
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
The SC ordered a halt to preparations for snap elections on January 5.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya questioned the president's decision to suspend parliament till November 16, saying it will have "serious and undesirable" consequences on the country.
The country has a fiendishly complicated electoral system that is a combination of population-based proportional representation and party-based national lists, says Aditi Phadnis
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