INTERNATIONAL:Crowd of protesters storm into Sri Lankan prime minister's office

 

- Protesters have breached the gates to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office following a standoff with armed police, according to the BBC.

- Wickremesinghe, who was appointed acting President earlier on Wednesday, is not at his office and is not in immediate danger, the BBC reports.

- President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka for the Maldives along with his wife and two bodyguards aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane early Wednesday following widespread protests against the country’s months-long economic crisis, according to Reuters and AP.

- Rajapaksa was expected to step down as president on July 13 after thousands of protesters stormed his and the prime minister’s official residences on Saturday.

- A severe economic crisis has sparked shortages of food and fuel in Sri Lanka, deemed as the worst-ever economic crisis to hit the South Asian island nation.