Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse left for Colombo from the Nedumbassery International Airport in Kochi Friday evening at the end of a four-day visit to India.
He praised former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for giving more powers to the local self government.
The proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to Sanchi next week -- to lay the foundation of a Buddhist University -- is mired in controversy with the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam strongly opposing the visit.
A 26-year old CITU activist on Monday attempted self-immolation here protesting the proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to India, police said.
Taking on senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj and the Madhya Pradesh government over a proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse there later in September, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founder Vaiko on Monday urged Bharatiya Janata Party's top brass against entertaining him and threatened a black flag demo if his demand was not heeded to.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has said he does not want joint patrolling with India to check smuggling of arms to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
During Rajapakse's nationally televised address on the country's 61st independence day, he broke into Tamil, assuring the people of the community in the embattled north and other parts of the country of their well-being and equality in status.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday denied allegations of some pro-Tamil leaders, including Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko that party leader Sushma Swaraj had invited Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for an official event in Madhya Pradesh on September 21.
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse made a surprise visit to the tamil dominated town of Jaffna, a week before elections are scheduled to be held in the country.
Rajapakse says he is ready to talk to Tigers
Over 1,500 workers of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are participating in a dharna at Chindwara, Madhya Pradesh. MDMK party workers have travelled all the way from Tamil Nadu to protest Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit to Sanchi.
Meanwhile, the state protocol officer said there was no room for a controversy over the issue as it had been ascertained from Colombo that Rajapakse's wife is a Buddhist.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who perhaps became the first Head of State to speak in Tamil at the UN General Assembly, has conveyed that the government puts the language on equal status with that of Sinhala, a top minister said.
Sri Lanka's Minister for Economic Development, Basil Rajapakse's visit to New Delhi on Thursday for what is described as "regular high level consultations" comes shortly before a scheduled meeting of a Parliamentary Select Committee for Constitutional Amendments on July 9.
Turning down a request made by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko -- to call off his party's protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse -- party workers on Monday left for Sanchi to demonstrate against the violation of rights of Tamils in the island nation.
India should encourage the second coming of SAARC with climate change as an urgent agenda and keeping Indian security concerns in mind as the subtext, suggest Lieutenant General Ashok Joshi (retd) and Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
'The Tamils in military occupied areas are being denied the Right to Livelihood and Right to Life. How can India allow the Sri Lankan government to forget that there are over 80,000 war widows? Many of them are maimed, living in inhuman conditions and unable to earn a living. What concerns Tamils in Sri Lanka concerns the Tamils in India,' says Dr Gabriele Dietrich, a grassroot activist and a naturalised Indian citizen.
Developmental works being undertaken by India in war-torn northern Sri Lanka and the current political situation came up for discussion when Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Friday. Kumar is in Colombo to attend the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. She met Rajapaksa at his official residence and discussed a host of issues that concern the relationship between the two countries.
Video footage from inside the building showed hundreds of protesters packing into rooms and corridors, while hundreds also milled around the grounds outside.
The team heard a loud crackle. Then the scream came from Dilshan at the front of the bus. 'Get down.' Jayawardene was hit first; his sock filled with blood. Outside, twelve gunmen blocked the exit. A revealing excerpt from Nicholas Brookes's An Island's Eleven: A History of Cricket in Sri Lanka.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's key ally in Tamil Nadu, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday slammed the saffron party alleging that it is anti-Tamil and claimed that the party could never grow in the state.
The war against the LTTE, waged by the Mahinda Rajapakse government, may have restored peace in Sri Lanka. But thousands of Tamils paid the price for the so-called victory with their lives, journalist Frances Harrison says in her new book Still Counting the Dead.
A man who tried to attempt self-immolation here protesting the proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to India died on Tuesday, the police said.
The 2009 Lahore terror attack is yet to become even a distant memory but Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has reportedly given his consent to the country's cricket team touring Pakistan again.
SunRisers Hyderabad has the biggest purse while Kolkata Knight Riders has the slimmest purse.
Sri Lanka's new president seeks stronger ties with India
Sri Lankan president to arrive in Delhi Tuesday
Plagued by financial constraints post the World Cup, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has sought help from the government and country's state banks to meet the huge expenses incurred during the quadrennial extravaganza.
Former champions Sri Lanka overcame initial hiccups to subdue an inexperienced yet spirited Namibia by seven wickets, beginning their quest to make the Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup in right earnest, here on Monday.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan on Monday said he hasn't confirmed his availability in any franchise-based T20 league at this stage, refuting reports that he could participate in the inaugural Lanka Premier League, starting on August 28.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan could be one of the biggest attractions in the inaugural Lanka Premier League (LPL) as he is among the 70 foreign players who have expressed interest in competing in the event starting August 28.
The Obama administration has expressed its deep disappointment with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for relegating the devolution of power in the Tamil majority areas, in the country's northern province, to the back-burner. The international community had urged the Lankan government to put the motion in process after crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Sri Lanka's presidential polls on January 26, between incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse and the combined opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, may be surprisingly too close to call, even as it has emerged that Rajapakse did the Congress party a favour during the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu last year by withdrawing the use of heavy weaponry against pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in the last days of the war.
"India would have loved to get more involved in Sri Lanka positively -- helping us to fight terrorism. Now, remember, India suffered a lot in the sense, it lost its leader -- Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. That is something, which India can never forgive nor forget," says Razik Zarook, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's Counsel.
In other big movements, Punjab Kings have released their last edition's captain Mayank Agarwal, while West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Muralitharan is among the three new governors tipped to be appointed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa
The Pak defence delegation's visit comes at a crucial time when the Lankan military, emboldened by Colombo's withdrawal from the six-year old ceasefire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has stepped up its offensive against the rebels.
Bolstered by American and Pakistani support, Colombo is increasingly insensitive to Indian concerns over the plight of the Tamils.
Sri Lanka has offered to hold talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after a two-year gap, saying the outfit does represent a fair amount of Tamils but ruled out the immediate revival of the ceasefire scrapped in January.
