Sri Lanka crisis Highlights | Deeply concerned about current situation in country: IMF

China said on Friday that “positive progress” has been made in facilitating hundreds of Indian students stranded back home due to the COVID-19 visa restrictions to re-join their colleges in this country.

Acting Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday visited two injured soldiers being treated at the Army Hospital, Prime Minister's media division said. The soldiers got injured in clashes amid protestors' uprising in the island nation.

Sri Lanka's top court on Friday barred former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without permission until July 28, anti-corruption group Transparency International Sri Lanka said.

Three other former officials, including two former central bank governors, also cannot travel outside the country without the court's permission till July 28, the group said in a tweet.

Sri Lanka's ruling party will nominate acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe for president when the crisis-hit country's parliament elects a new leader next week, a party official said on Friday.

"We are so happy today that he resigned and we feel that when we, the people, come together, we can do everything," said Arunanandan, 34, a school teacher who had been camping at the main protest site opposite the presidential secretariat for the past three months. "We are the real power in this country."

Sri Lanka is continuing to negotiate with China for $4 billion as aid, and is confident that the Chinese government will agree to provide the aid at some point, news agency Bloomberg reported on Friday. 

After being sworn in as the interim President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday that he will work to strengthen Parliament powers via constitutional adjustments.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that it was deeply concerned about the current economic crisis  in Sri Lanka and hoped for a resolution of the current situation to resume talks as soon as possible on a bailout package for the country. 

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka's interim President on Friday until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was acting President since Rajapaksa fled the country.

Sri Lanka's new president will be elected through Parliament on July 20, a report by NewsWire said on Friday. 

One of the protesters in Sri Lanka, school teacher Arunanandan, said that the protesters were the real power in Sri Lanka. "We are so happy today that he resigned and we feel that when we, the people, come together, we can do everything," Arunanandan told Reuters.

The new President of crisis-hit Sri Lanka will now be elected within a week, a report by news agency Bloomberg said on Friday. 

Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywarden said on Friday that a new President of the crisis-hit Sri Lanka will be elected on Saturday. 

Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywarden on Friday confirmed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation. “Yes resignation has been accepted, legal process will follow...Members will be invited tomorrow (to elect a President),” Abeywarden told reporters, news agency ANI reported. 

The fuel shortage in Sri Lanka, which has been going on for months, has intensified with citizens queuing up at petrol pumps for days without any guarantee of a refill.

Protesters in Sri Lanka took to the streets in the early hours of Friday to celebrate the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who sent his resignation to the parliament speaker moments after arriving in Singapore. 

Sri Lanka's parliamentary speaker will make an announcement on Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation from the President's post on Friday, a day after he received the resignation letter