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Economic Times | 03 Sep, 2022 | 08:04AM IST
Sri Lanka News LIVE Updates: Former Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa returns to island nation from Thailand
Sri Lanka News LIVE Updates: Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday returned to the country from Thailand, nearly two months after he fled the country following a massive uprising against his government over the island nation's worst-ever economic crisis.
Rajapaksa, 73, fled the country on July 13 after months-long mass public demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation on July 9 gained momentum after protesters stormed the President's House in Colombo and several other state buildings in the capital.
The ex-president returned to Sri Lanka on a Singapore Airlines flight. He travelled from Thailand to Singapore to take the flight as there are no direct flights between Bangkok and Colombo, sources said.
Rajapaksa, 73, fled the country on July 13 after months-long mass public demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation on July 9 gained momentum after protesters stormed the President's House in Colombo and several other state buildings in the capital.
The ex-president returned to Sri Lanka on a Singapore Airlines flight. He travelled from Thailand to Singapore to take the flight as there are no direct flights between Bangkok and Colombo, sources said.
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In a series of tweets, Sainath made his decision public after the chief pontiff of the Murugha Math, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, was arrested for the alleged sexual abuse of school girls.
"In solidarity with the? survivors and with the cause of justice in this case, I hereby return the Basavashree award (and the Rs 5 lakh prize money that came with it by cheque) conferred on me by the Math in 2017," Sainath said in one of the tweets.
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The Excise department had issued licenses to a private bidder for six premium liquor stores that were shut as the new excise policy wound up on August 31.
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It said in a social media post Friday evening that it had identified “malfunctions” of a turbine and added that the pipeline would not work unless those were eliminated.
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