COLOMBO -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives early on Wednesday, hours before he was due to submit his resignation and while many of the protesters who had pressured him for months were asleep.
As the country awoke to the news with a mixture of disbelief, joy and anger, attention turned to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He too has promised to quit, but was named acting president on Rajapaksa's way out, according to the parliament speaker.
