Sri Lanka Crisis: Opposition parties have rebuffed President's call to join a unity administration.
Sri Lanka Crisis: Sri Lanka's Army and the police publicly clashed on Tuesday night after soldiers armed with assault rifles drove through a crowd of protesters in capital Colombo, amid intensifying anti-government demonstrations in the country.
Here are the top 10 updates on this big story
- A group of masked soldiers holding assault rifles drove through the crowd on unmarked bikes at a protest near Parliament, in which children, women and the elderly were also participating. This led to a verbal confrontation between the armed soldiers and the police when the officials tried to stop them, prompting Army Chief Shavendra Silva to call for an inquiry.
- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will not resign despite widespread protests against his handling of the country's economic crisis, Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said in response to Opposition criticism.
- The crippling economic crisis risks starvation across the island nation, while acute shortages and blackouts will get worse, the speaker of Parliament warned today.
- President Rajapaksa late Tuesday night cancelled the state of emergency he had declared on April 1, even as the government struggled to control protests amid the nation's worst economic crisis in decades.
- The ruling coalition lost its majority in Parliament after at least 41 lawmakers walked out of the alliance, with former allies urging President Rajapaksa's resignation.
- Finance Minister Ali Sabry resigned a day after his appointment and ahead of crucial talks scheduled with the International Monetary Fund for a loan programme.
- The cash-strapped country has decided to temporarily shut its embassies in Norway and Iraq, as well as the country's Consulate General in Sydney.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it is monitoring political and economic developments in Sri Lanka "very closely" as public unrest in the island nation grows amid its worst economic crisis in decades.
- There have been mass agitations against the ruling Rajapaksa family for its mishandling of the economic situation triggered by the foreign exchange crisis and the balance of payment issues. Public anger is at a fever pitch in Sri Lanka, where since the weekend crowds have attempted to storm the homes of several government figures.
- The South Asian nation is facing severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials -- along with record inflation and crippling power cuts -- in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.
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