Backtracking from his stand that the powerful Executive Presidency should be replaced by a parliamentary system headed by an Executive Prime Minister, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Monday that he never sought the abolition of the Exeutive Presidency.

“I never said anywhere that the Executive Presidency should be abolished.But I would like to be in parliament,” Rajapaksa said in Hakmana on Monday.

“I spoke to Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe (the Leader of the Opposition) and explained our programme to him.I [...]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wants the Indian Special Envoy to Sri Lanka to be a neutral political personality, who would be able to give the Indian Prime Minister and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, correct advice on matters relating to refugee rehabilitation and a political settlement of the Tamil question here.

Suresh Premachandran, TNA MP for Jaffna district told Express that both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi would “benefit” by the advice of an envoy of [...]

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said slain LTTE leader V Prabhakaran would have been "Mudisooda Mannan" (uncrowned monarch) of the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka had he accepted the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan agreement as requested by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Addressing a public meeting here last night, Chidambaram said he had met Prabhakaran and talked with him for hours. "He (Prabhakaran) was not our enemy. We were opposed to the path chosen by him."

Virudhunagar is [...]

Film director and Naam Thamizhar president Seeman was arrested on Friday under the National Security Act (NSA) on charges of making inflammatory speeches at a meeting held here recently.

This is the second time that he is being detained under the NSA. On July 10, Seeman made inflammatory speeches at a meeting organised by his outfit to protest the alleged killing of a fisherman by the Lankan navy and held out a threat to Lankan students studying in the State. [...]

Reiterating the UPA government’s commitment towards arriving at a political solution to the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that he was always looking forward to receive Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s views and advice on the process of genuine reconciliation to resolve the issue for once and for all through political agreement.

Replying to the letter written by the Chief Minister on July 3, the Prime Minister, in his letter dated July 9, said apart [...]

Film director S Seeman, who was arrested on July 12 last for agitating against the killing of Indian fisherman Chellappan by the Sri Lankan Navy, was refused bail by the Principal Sessions Judge (PSJ) on Friday.

"Considering all the aspects of the case and the materials produced before me and the stage of the case, I am not inclined to grant bail,” PSJ P Devadoss observed and dismissed Seeman’s bail application.

The speech delivered by Seeman was provocative and inflammatory [...]

Tamil war refugees from Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts complained to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday about the denial of permission to return to their native places, even though a year had passed since the war against the LTTE ended.

BBC’s Tamil service reported that the complaint was made when the President met refugees at Kilinochchi on the sidelines of the special cabinet meeting held in the north Lankan town.

The refugees belonging to Thiru Murigandi, Indupuram and Shanthapuram [...]

Aid agencies, both local and foreign, have been barred from working in waraffected North Sri Lanka pending scrutiny of their work by the Ministry of Defence.

This has caused dismay in NGO circles, generally. But aid workers who desire good governance feel that scrutiny is urgently called for, given the high degree of nonperformance and wastage in the nongovernmental aid sector.

A local aid worker told Express that on June 30, there was an order requiring NGOs working in the [...]

MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, Tamil Nationalist Movement leader P Nedumaran and hundreds of pro-Tamil protesters were arrested here today for trying to enter the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission with an intention to forcibly shut it down, police said.

The protesters, under the umbrella organisation of Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, staged a protest near the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission against the closure of the UN office in Sri Lanka.

When they later tried to proceed towards the Consular [...]

Sri Lanka’s two main political groups, the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) and the opposition United National Party(UNP) have agreed to change the constitution to replace the present executive presidential system by a parliamentary system, wherein, the powers will be vested in an Executive Prime Minister who will be responsible to Parliament.

The decision was taken here at the second meeting on constitutional reform between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Leader of the Opposition, Ranil Wickremesihnghe, on Monday. Both leaders were [...]

Vino Noharaathalingam, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for the north Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking region of Wanni, has expressed opposition to a reported plan to give China fishing rights in the Nanthikadal lagoon in Mullaitivu district, where the Liberation Tamil Tigers Eelam leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed in May 2009.

The MP told parliament on Wednesday that while the fishermen were happy with the resumption of fishing in Mullaitivu, they were dismayed that the Chinese were going to be allowed to [...]

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that India has decided to work with it to find solutions to the short term and long term problems faced by the Tamils of the island nation.

This was revealed by TNA MP, M.A.Sumanthiran, who was a member of the delegation which met the Indian PM in New Delhi on Thursday.

Sumanthiran told the Express that Singh went on to ask the TNA to work with [...]

India is to mull over a variety of factors before it takes a decision on the draft of a letter which Egypt, the current chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), had written to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressing opposition to the expert committee on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka that he had set up recently. About a week ago, the Egyptian Ambassador in the UN had circulated the draft letter among the 118 countries that are members of [...]

The Chinese-financed $360 million Phase I of the mega port in Hambantota in south Sri Lanka is expected to be completed in November, five months ahead of schedule.

Lying on the main sea route and with a draft of 17 m, Hambantota will be the deepest port in the Indian subcontinental region. It is meant to grow to be a "hub port", offering a variety of services to attract 10,000 ships a year.But, experts point out that the depth of [...]

Karunanidhi is a "war criminal" who facilitated attacks against Sri Lankan civilian population not taking direct part in the hostilities, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa said here on Thursday, saying that when the UN delegation visits Sri Lanka, an AIADMK team will present evidence to it that will indict Karunanidhi as a "war criminal".

"This is the least we can do for the souls of thousands of Tamils who died in the war, thanks to the machinations of this selfseeking merchant [...]