Sri Lanka

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Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa attends a conference aimed at reconciliation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. Sri Lanka's former President Rajapaksa was accused in a report released Thursday, June 22, 2023, of tampering with police records in order to hamper investigations into mass graves discovered in an area where he was a military officer at the height of a bloody Marxist insurrection in 1989. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

Ex-Sri Lanka president ordered police records destroyed to stall mass grave probes, report alleges

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks wait for the arrival of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Air Port in Mattala, Sri Lanka, Monday, March 18, 2013. The Chinese-funded airport built in the president’s hometown away from most of the country’s population is so barely used that elephants have been spotted wandering on its tarmac. (AP Photo/Sanka Gayashan, File)

China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse

By Bernard Condon - Associated Press

USAID administrator Samantha Power, left, speaks with agriculture specialists of UN's FAO and rice farmers during a visit to a paddy field in Ja-Ela on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

U.S. announces $40 million agricultural aid to Sri Lanka

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

FILE - Sri Lanka's new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 11, 2022. On Friday, July 22, now Sri Lanka's new president, Wickremesinghe, appointed a classmate and ally of ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to be his prime minister and partner in rescuing the country from its predicament. The question is whether they can muster the political heft and enough support from a public fed up with shortages of food, fuel and medicine to get the job done. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

Sri Lanka president gets long-sought win, steep challenges

By Krishan Francis and Elaine Kurtenbach - Associated Press

Army soldiers stand guard near a barricade following an eviction of protesters from the presidential secretariat premise in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, July 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lankan troops forcefully clear protesters; new PM named

By Krishan Francis and Rafiq Maqbool and Rishi Lekhi - Associated Press

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrives for an interview with The Associated Press in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 11, 2022. Sri Lankan lawmakers chose Wickremesinghe as president Wednesday, defying the risk the vote would reignite turmoil among a public outraged by the South Asian country's dire economic, humanitarian and political crisis. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

Ranil Wickremesinghe elected new president in crisis-hit Sri Lanka

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

Sri Lankans wait in queue to buy petrol at a fuel station, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Sri Lanka acting president declares emergency amid protests

By Bharatha Mallawarachi - Associated Press

In this photograph provided by the Sri Lankan President's Office, interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe, right, greets Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya during the oath-taking ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, July 15, 2022. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's interim president Friday until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests over the country's economic collapse forced him from office. (Sri Lankan President's Office via AP)

Ranil Wickremesinghe becomes interim Sri Lankan president

By Krutika Pathi, Krishan Francis and Bharatha Mallawarachi - Associated Press

A protester, carrying national flag, stands with others on top of the building of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. Rajapaksa fled on a military jet on Wednesday after angry protesters seized his home and office, and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as acting president while he is overseas. Wickremesinghe quickly declared a nationwide state of emergency to counter swelling protests over the country's economic and political collapse. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Protesters abandon seized palace with Sri Lanka in limbo

By Krutika Pathi and Krishan Francis - Associated Press

People take selfie at the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fourth days after it was stormed by anti government protesters in Colombo in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. The president of Sri Lanka fled the country early Wednesday, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister amid a monthslong economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

President flees Sri Lanka amid crisis as ire turns toward PM

By Krishan Francis and Krutika Pathi - Associated Press

Protesters dance shouting slogans against president Gotabaya Rajapaksa outside his office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, July 13, 2022. The president of Sri Lanka fled the country early Wednesday, slipping away in the middle of the night only hours before he was to step down amid a devastating economic crisis that has triggered severe shortages of food and fuel. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

What’s happened and what’s next in Sri Lanka

Associated Press

People queue up to enter the official residence of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa three days after it was stormed by anti government protesters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Rajapaksa had vacated the building before the protesters came in. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka lawmakers to pick new president but no deal on prime minister

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

Protesters look around and pose for photographs at the president's official residence a day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, July 10, 2022. Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation's severe economic crisis. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka in political vacuum as talks go on amid crisis

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

Protesters, many carrying Sri Lankan flags, gather outside the presidents office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022. Sri Lankan protesters stormed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence and nearby office on Saturday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Colombo in the biggest demonstration yet to vent their fury against a leader they hold responsible for the island nation's worst economic crisis. (AP Photo/Thilina Kaluthotage)

Sri Lanka opposition meets to name new gov’t amid turmoil

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

Protesters react as a tear gas shell fired by police lands next to them in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022. Sri Lankan protesters demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign forced their way into his official residence on Saturday, a local television report said, as thousands of people took to the streets in the capital decrying the island nation's worst economic crisis in recent memory. (AP Photo/Amitha Thennakoon)

Sri Lanka Parliament speaker: President to resign Wednesday

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

A daily wage laborer waits for work at a wholesale market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, June 26, 2022. Sri Lankans have endured months of shortages of food, fuel and other necessities due to the country's dwindling foreign exchange reserves and mounting debt, worsened by the pandemic and other longer term troubles. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Gas lines and scuffles: Sri Lanka faces humanitarian crisis

By Bharatha Mallawarachi and Paul Wiseman - Associated Press

Protesters stand on a vandalised police water canon truck and shout slogans at the entrance to president's official residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Why Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed and what’s next

By Krishan Francis and Elaine Kurtenbach - Associated Press

Women wait in a queue to buy kerosene in in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, June 11, 2022. Sri Lanka's economic crisis, the worst in its history, has completely recast the lives of the country's once galloping middle class. For many families that never had to think twice about fuel or food, the effects have been instant and painful, derailing years of progress toward lifestyles aspired to across South Asia. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka PM says economy ‘has collapsed,’ unable to buy oil

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press

FILE- Sri Lankan lawmaker Basil Rajapaksa speaks to his officials after he was appointed as country's finance minister in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 8, 2021. Rajapaksa, the younger brother of Sri Lanka's president and the country's former finance minister, quit Parliament on Thursday amid mounting criticism of his alleged role in dragging the island nation into its worst economic crisis in memory. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, File)

Sri Lankan president’s brother quits; UN launches aid appeal

By Bharatha Mallawarachi - Associated Press

A Sri Lankan navy soldier patrols in a street during a relaxation in a nationwide curfew that began Monday evening in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, May 12, 2022. Sri Lanka's president on Wednesday promised to appoint a new prime minister, empower the Parliament and abolish the all-powerful executive presidential system as reforms to stabilize the country engulfed in a political crisis and violence triggered by the worst economic crises in memory.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Wickremesinghe chosen Sri Lanka PM in effort to quell crisis

By Krishan Francis - Associated Press