Sri Lanka

Colombo, Jul 12 (PTI) Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's former finance minister and younger brother of embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was turned back at Colombo airport on Tuesday as he attempted to leave the country through the VIP terminal, an immigration officer said, amid mounting anger against the powerful family for mishandling the worst economic crisis.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka was in a political vacuum for a second day Monday with opposition leaders yet to agree on who should replace its roundly rejected leaders, whose residences are occupied by protesters angry over the country’s deep economic woes.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s opposition political parties will meet Sunday to agree on a new government a day after the country’s president and prime minister offered to resign in the most dramatic day of monthslong political turmoil, with protesters storming both leaders’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the economic crisis.

It was not clear if President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was at his residence at the time, and government spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about his movements.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s prime minister agreed to resign on Saturday after party leaders in Parliament demanded both he and the embattled president step down on the day protesters stormed the president’s residence and office in a fury over a worsening economic crisis.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a voice statement that he will resign when all parties have agreed on a new government.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Police imposed a curfew in Sri Lanka’s capital and surrounding areas on Friday, a day before a planned protest demanding the resignations of the country’s president and prime minister because of the economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential goods and disrupted people’s livelihoods.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Central Bank has raised its key interest rates to their highest levels in more than 20 years to try to contain inflation that has added to the country’s economic woes.

Recent price hikes have been a severe blow, especially for the South Asian country’s poor and vulnerable groups as they endure their country’s worst economic crisis in memory, struggling with acute shortages of essentials such as food, fuel, cooking gas and medicines.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout are more complex and difficult than before because it is a bankrupt nation, the country’s prime minister said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told lawmakers that recent discussions with a visiting IMF mission were fruitful but not as straightforward as in the past.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Chamila Nilanthi is tired of all the waiting. The 47-year-old mother of two spent three days lining up to get kerosene in the Sri Lankan town of Gampaha, northeast of the capital Colombo. Two weeks earlier, she spent three days in a queue for cooking gas -- but came home with none.

“I am totally fed up, exhausted,” she said. “I don’t know how long we have to do this.’’

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka is sending two government ministers to Russia to negotiate for fuel — one of the necessities nearly exhausted amid the Indian Ocean island nation’s economic collapse.

The development comes as Washington and its allies aim to cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over its war on Ukraine. Since the invasion in late February, global oil prices have skyrocketed, sparking a number of countries to seek out Russian crude, which is being offered at a steep discount.

COLOMBO, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with support from the Chinese government, donated essential medical equipment and supplies worth 800,000 U.S. dollars to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health on Wednesday.

A total of 328,660 packs of supplies were handed over to the Family Health Bureau through the Ministry of Health, which will be used to equip public health staff actively working at the grassroot level.