COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's parliament on Wednesday chose six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the troubled country's new president, risking further unrest as he remains deeply unpopular with the masses.
Lawmakers elected Wickremesinghe, who was already acting president and is perceived as close to the long-dominant Rajapaksa family, over Dullas Alahapperuma, a journalist-turned-politician who became a dissident within the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP).