Sri Lanka’s embattled prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Saturday, only a month and a half after taking office and giving the country’s president political space to prevent an imminent government shutdown. “We will bring the forces opposed to the country down to their knees by organising the people,” Mr Rajapaksa said. Representatives of Mr Sirisena and Mr Wickremesinghe could not immediately be contacted. Mr Wickremesinghe’s office on Friday said that Mr Sirisena had called the former prime minister by telephone to invite him to be sworn back into office on Sunday. Mr Sirisena had previously said he would not appoint Mr Wickremesinghe “even if he has the backing of all 225 lawmakers in parliament”.

Source: The Irish Times December 15, 2018 18:45 UTC