TOKYO (AP) — Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked for urgent international help on Thursday as his country suffers from a financial crisis.
“We are presently undergoing a severe economic crisis that has profoundly impacted the lives of all Sri Lankans, resulting in social unrest,” Rajapaksa said in a video message to an international conference in Tokyo.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as finance minister as this Indian Ocean island nation confronts its worst economic crisis in memory.
Coordinated bombings turned Easter Sunday festivities into a national tragedy in Sri Lanka, killing at least 290 people and wounding more than 500 others...
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s navy said Tuesday that it has arrested 67 people who it believes were trying to travel by sea to Australia illegally.
The navy said in a statement that 12 men were arrested first near the port town of Trincomalee, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo on Monday and, upon questioning them, intercepted 55 more people traveling in a fishing vessel.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka received a first consignment of a $16 million humanitarian aid package from neighboring India to help mitigate severe shortages caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan authorities closed schools and asked public officials not to come to work in a desperate move to prepare for an acute fuel shortage that is expected to last days amid the nation's worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — China says its initiative to build ports and other infrastructure across Asia and Africa, paid for with Chinese loans, will boost trade. But in a cautionary tale for borrowers, Sri Lanka's multibillion-dollar debt to Beijing threatens to hinder efforts to resolve a financial crisis so severe that the Indian Ocean nation cannot import food or gasoline.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will lower the maximum amount of foreign currency that individuals can possess to $10,000 from $15,000 and penalize anyone who holds it for more than three months, the central bank announced Thursday, as police fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands of students demanding the government step down for failing to solve the country's economic crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan protesters lit flames and offered prayers Wednesday remembering thousands — including ethnic Tamil civilians — killed in the final stages of the country’s decadeslong civil war, in the first-ever event where mostly majority ethnic Sinhalese openly memorialized the minority group.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's governing party on Tuesday defeated a move in Parliament to urgently debate a motion that would censure President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the nation's worst economic crisis, which the prime minister said has left only enough gasoline for one day.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s new prime minister on Monday proposed privatizing the country’s loss-making national airline as part of reforms aimed at solving the country worst economic crisis in decades.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India on Sunday said it would keep a window open to export wheat to food-deficit countries at the government level despite restrictions announced two days earlier.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president swore in four new Cabinet ministers Saturday in an effort to ensure stability until a full Cabinet is formed in the island nation engulfed in a political and economic crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Protesters attacked earlier this week by supporters of Sri Lanka's government demanded Friday that the newly appointed prime minister arrest his predecessor for allegedly instigating the attack against them as they were calling for his resignation.
NEW DELHI (AP) — With one brother president, another prime minister and three more family members cabinet ministers, it appeared that the Rajapaksa clan had consolidated its grip on power in Sri Lanka after decades in and out of government.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Five-time former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was reappointed on Thursday in an effort to bring stability to the island nation, which is engulfed in a political and economic crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — 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.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Cricket Australia on Thursday said its all-formats tour of Sri Lanka is still going ahead despite a heightening of tension due to civil unrest in the south Asian island nation.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The South Asian nation of Sri Lanka is experiencing an unprecedented economic collapse that has pushed the government into a deep crisis. The island is struggling to import basic necessities for its 22 million people because of diminishing foreign reserves and crippling debt, spurring weeks of anti-government protests that recently turned violent and led to the prime minister's resignation.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's defense ministry ordered security forces on Tuesday to shoot anyone causing injury to people or property to contain widespread arson and mob violence targeting government supporters.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister resigned following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the country's president, step down for dragging the nation into its worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Diplomats and rights groups expressed concern Saturday after Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency and police used force against peaceful protests demanding his ouster over the nation’s worst economic crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president declared a state of emergency Friday giving him broad authority amid widespread public protests demanding his resignation over the country's worst economic crisis in recent memory.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan police used tear gas and a water cannon on Friday to disperse student protesters who were camped outside Parliament criticizing lawmakers for not ousting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s beleaguered government won a key vote in Parliament on Thursday as a ruling coalition-backed candidate was elected deputy speaker, despite growing public pressure on the government amid the worst economic crisis in decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Federal Reserve raises interest rates — as it did Wednesday — the impact doesn’t stop with U.S.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s economy is in dire straits with its usable foreign reserves down to less than $50 million, the country’s finance minister said Wednesday.
Ali Sabry was speaking to Parliament after returning to Sri Lanka from talks with the International Monetary Fund.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s main opposition party on Tuesday issued a no-confidence declaration aiming at ousting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Cabinet and blaming them of failing in their constitutional duty to provide a decent living standards amid the island nation's worst economic crisis in memory.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a proposed interim government to solve a political impasse caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a prominent lawmaker said Friday.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia will be at close to full strength for all three legs of its Sri Lankan tour as 34 players were named Friday for the all-format matches in June and July.
Marcus Harris was the biggest surprise after not being named in the 16-man test squad which will play two matches in Galle to end the seven-week tour.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Businesses were closed, teachers absent and public transportation interrupted as Sri Lankans heeded a call for a general strike Thursday to pressure the president to step down over a growing economic and political crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sherry Fonseka joined millions in 2019 in electing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end Sri Lanka’s 30-year civil war 10 years earlier.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s government said Tuesday it is discussing obtaining another loan from Beijing to repay some of its debt to Chinese banks after China told the nearly bankrupt island nation it was not in favor of restructuring existing loans.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will receive $300 million to $600 million from the World Bank over the next four months to buy medicine and other essential items, the country’s finance minister said Friday, as the Indian ocean island suffers its worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — An international human rights group urged Sri Lankan authorities to conduct a prompt and impartial probe into a police shooting that left one person dead and 13 others injured during protests over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday pledged an impartial and transparent inquiry into a police shooting that left one person dead and 13 others injured during protests over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan police opened fire Tuesday at people protesting new fuel price increases, killing one and injuring 13 others, in the first shooting by security forces during weeks of demonstrations over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's president acknowledged Monday that he made mistakes that led to the country's worst economic crisis in decades and pledged to correct them.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the admission while speaking to 17 new Cabinet ministers he appointed Monday as he and his powerful family seek to resolve a political crisis resulting from the country’s dire economic state.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankans protesting for days near the president’s office criticized a lack of progress in finding those responsible for the deaths of more than 260 people in Islamic State-inspired bombings on Easter Sunday three years ago, piling pressure on the government already embroiled in a deep economic crisis.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankans shared milk rice and oil cakes to celebrate their traditional new year on Thursday opposite President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office, where they camped out for a sixth day demanding his resignation over the worst economic crisis in memory.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa offered Wednesday to meet with protesters occupying the entrance to the president's office, saying he would listen to their ideas for resolving the economic, social and political crisis facing the country.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka is suspending its repayment of foreign debt, including bonds and government-to-government borrowing, pending the completion of a loan restructuring program with the International Monetary Fund to deal with the island nation’s worst economic crisis in decades, the government announced Tuesday.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa appealed for protesters to end the weeks of mass demonstrations that have called for the government to resign over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan protesters occupied the entrance to the president’s office for a second day on Sunday, demanding Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign over the debt-ridden country’s worst economic crisis in memory.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of Sri Lankans rallied in the country’s main business district and Christian clergy marched in the capital to observe a day of protest on Saturday calling on the debt-ridden nation’s president to resign, as anxiety and anger over shortages simmered.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan business leaders on Friday called for an end to political instability amid public demands for the president to resign over alleged economic mismanagement, warning that failure to do so would lead to economic catastrophe.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's national medical association warned Thursday that hospitals will be unable to provide even emergency services in coming weeks because of critical shortages of drugs and medical equipment caused by the country's economic crisis, leading to a catastrophic number of deaths if supplies aren't replenished.