Colombo - Newly elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday named his brother Mahinda as Prime Minister, cementing the grip on power of a clan credited with brutally crushing the Tamil Tigers a decade ago.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's prime minister will announce his resignation to the nation later Wednesday, bringing his government to an end following his party's presidential election debacle, officials told AFP.

Anuradhapura - Sri Lanka's new president and scourge of the Tamil Tigers Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday urged minorities unnerved by his election victory to work with him, as he was sworn in at a ceremony steeped in symbolism for his core supporters.

Anuradhapura - Sri Lanka's new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in Monday at a Buddhist temple revered by his core Sinhalese nationalist supporters, following an election victory that triggered fear and concern among the island's Tamil and Muslim minority commu...

Colombo - Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 70, set to be Sri Lanka's new president, was the de facto military chief who crushed Tamil guerrillas a decade ago, making him a revered figure among the Sinhalese majority and the powerful Buddhist clergy.

Colombo - Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who spearheaded the brutal crushing of Tamil Tigers a decade ago, stormed to power Sunday but promised to be a president for all Sri Lanka's races and religions after a divisive election.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's former wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa took an early lead Sunday in a fiercely fought presidential election conducted under high security seven months after deadly Islamist attacks.

Colombo - Gunmen fired at buses carrying minority Muslim voters on Saturday as Sri Lankans elected a new president, with the powerful Rajapaksa clan eyeing a comeback seven months after Islamist extremists staged deadly bombings.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's presidential election is a showdown between a man offering free sanitary pads and a former soldier dubbed the "Terminator" by his own family.

Colombo - Sri Lankans choose a new president on Saturday in what could mark a comeback for the Rajapaksa clan, lauded by supporters for crushing the Tamil Tigers but condemned by critics for war crimes, corruption and cosying up to China.

Colombo - No memorial marks where Sri Lankan newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered in 2009, one of dozens of victims of "death squads" allegedly linked to a frontrunner in Saturday's presidential election.

Colombo - More than 250 Sri Lankan convicts aged over 65 have been given amnesty just days after the president sparked outrage by pardoning the well-connected killer of a Swedish teen, officials said Thursday.

Colombo - Armed men stabbed and injured a writer in Sri Lanka on Thursday, a week after he published a book criticising the main opposition candidate at Saturday's presidential polls, police said.

Colombo - Sri Lanka holds presidential elections on Saturday with a possible comeback by the powerful Rajapaksa clan sparking fears of a return to murky disappearances, murders and Chinese submarines docking in Colombo.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's presidential election on Saturday is turning out to be a showdown between a man offering free sanitary pads and a former soldier dubbed the "Terminator" by his own family.

Colombo - Police stepped up security across Sri Lanka on Wednesday over fears of violence on the final day of campaigning for the fiercely contested presidential election, officials said.

Colombo - Hundreds of inmates at Sri Lanka's biggest high-security prison staged a second day of protests Tuesday, demanding their freedom after the president pardoned a well-connected man convicted of brutally murdering a Swedish teenager.

Colombo - A senior Sri Lankan minister accused social media giant Facebook on Monday of censoring comments he made questioning the citizenship of presidential election frontrunner Gotabhaya Rajapakse.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's president has pardoned a death-row prisoner who murdered a Swedish teenager just a week before he leaves office, officials said Sunday, in a move that sparked national outrage.

Colombo - A Sri Lankan parliamentary report accused President Maithripala Sirisena Wednesday of "actively undermining" national security and of failing to prevent the Easter Sunday bombings earlier this year that killed 269 people.