Sources: BBC
Rajapaksa subsequently flees the country on a military aircraft to the Maldives, formally ending his rule of Sri Lanka. His brother, former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, also flees the country. 2022-07-12
Four civilians and three soldiers were wounded in protest over gasoline shortage when the army opened fire for the first time to quell unrest, as Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence. 2022-06-19
Sri Lanka reopens its primary schools after a closure of nearly five months due to the third wave of the pandemic. 2021-10-25
The Singaporean government bans all long-term pass holders and short-term visitors who have been in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in the last two weeks from entering or transiting through the country. It also tightens its social distancing rules in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. 2021-05-1
Sri Lanka receives its first shipment of 264,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine supplied through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative. 2021-03-7
The Vatican is replacing Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., with French-born Archbishop Christophe Pierre, currently the Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico. Viganò, who is 75, the statutory retirement age, in 2015 arranged the unexpected meeting between Pope Francis and controversial Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who refused to follow her state's law on same-sex marriage. 2016-03-17
Pope Francis releases a letter granting priests the ability to grant absolution to women who have received an abortion. 2015-09-1
Pope Francis gives his first "Urbi et Orbi" speech calling for peace amidst the Syrian civil war and the 2013 South Sudan political crisis. 2013-12-25
2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash: A hot air balloon crashes near the Egyptian town of Luxor killing 19 Asian and European tourists. 2013-02-26
Protesters try to enter the United Nations compound in Colombo, Sri Lanka, calling for the United Nations to abandon an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses in the final stages of the civil war between the government and Tamil rebels that ended last year. Staff are unable to leave until being assisted by Sri Lankan police. 2010-07-6