- Six dead after floods in central Japan: media
- Australian golf prodigy suffers career-threatening eye injury
- Gaza hospital a symbol of the ruin of war
- October 7: how Israel's deadliest day unfolded
- Bibles, sneakers, silver coins: Trump's merch for sale
- Met Opera opens season with tech-heavy 'Grounded'
- Colombia's Inirida flower: from 'weed' to emblem for UN meeting
- Colombia rebel group imposes control in restive coca zone
- Rams fight back to upset 49ers, Cowboys lose again
- Sri Lankan leftist leader to take office after landslide election win
- 300-kilo WWI bomb removed in Belgrade
- Zelensky in US to explain war plan to Biden, Harris, Trump
- 'Atrocious' Sudan war pushing refugees further afield: UNHCR chief
- 'Convergence' growing on global plastics treaty: UN environment chief
- MLB White Sox fall to Padres to match one-season loss mark
- All-Australian Ripper squad captures LIV Golf team crown
- Barnier promises compromise from France's embattled new govt
- Zelensky arrives in US to explain war plan to Biden
- Barca rout Villarreal but Ter Stegen hurt, Atletico draw at Rayo
- Darnold shines for Vikings, Steelers and Eagles win
- Atletico held to draw at Rayo Vallecano
- Marseille stun Lyon with 95th-minute winner after early red card
- Gabbia ends AC Milan's derby pain with late winner against Inter
- Surging Ko claims LPGA Queen City crown in spectacular style
- 'Impossible': Alcaraz shoots down Federer comparisons after Laver Cup win
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote
- Verstappen says 'silly' swearing row could hasten F1 exit
- Calls for Israel and Hezbollah to step back from the abyss
- Israel and Hezbollah urged to avoid 'catastrophe'
- Colombia battles fires as drought fuels Latin American flames
- Pressure piles on new French government from day one
- Arteta proud as Arsenal salvage point from 'impossible' task
- Barca rout Villarreal in thriller but Ter Stegen hurt
- Roma stroll past Udinese as fans protest De Rossi sacking
- Horschel outduels McIlroy to win PGA Championship play-off
- Audiences summon 'Beetlejuice' to top of N. America box office for third week
- Stones salvages point for Man City against 10-man Arsenal
- Egypt fears 'all out' regional war: foreign minister to AFP
- Last-gasp Boniface gives Leverkusen victory, Stuttgart outclass Dortmund
- Scholz's party beats far-right AfD in east German state vote: projections
- Olympic champion Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
- Horschel's eagle beats McIlroy in PGA Championship play-off
- Mourners at commander's funeral express loyalty to Hezbollah
- Norris hails his 'mega' McLaren after dominant win at Singapore
- Monaco beat Le Havre to join PSG at the top of Ligue 1
- Scholz's party narrowly leads far-right AfD in east German state vote: exit polls
- New leftist president vows to 'rewrite Sri Lankan history'
- UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind
- Leclerc hails Ferrari fightback from torrid Singapore GP qualifying
- Belgian Evenepoel retains world title in 'toughest time trial'
Sri Lankan leftist leader to take office after landslide election win
Sri Lanka's leftist president-elect will be sworn into office Monday after simmering public anger over the island nation's unprecedented economic crisis propelled him to a landslide poll win.
Self-avowed Marxist Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, of the People's Liberation Front (JVP), won nearly 1.3 million more votes than his nearest rival.
The previously fringe politician, whose party led two failed uprisings that left tens of thousands dead, saw a surge of support after the country's 2022 economic meltdown forced painful hardships upon ordinary Sri Lankans.
Dissanayaka, 55, said on Sunday that his victory had been "paved by the sacrifices of so many who gave their sweat, tears and even their lives for this cause".
"Together, we stand ready to rewrite Sri Lankan history," he added.
Dissanayaka was due to be sworn in at 9:00 am (0330 GMT) at the colonial-era President Secretariat in Colombo, election commission officials said.
He will succeed outgoing president Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office at the peak of the financial crisis following the government's first-ever foreign debt default and months of punishing food, fuel and medicine shortages.
Wickremesinghe, 75, imposed steep tax hikes and other austerity measures per the terms of an International Monetary Fund bailout.
His policies ended the shortages and returned the economy to growth but left millions struggling to make ends meet.
"I can confidently say that I did my best to stabilise the country during one of its darkest periods," he said in a statement after placing a distant third in Saturday's poll.
Dissanayaka has vowed to press ahead with the IMF rescue package negotiated by his predecessor last year but modify its terms in order to deliver tax cuts.
"It is a binding document, but there is a provision to renegotiate," Bimal Ratnayake, a senior member of Dissanayaka's party, told AFP.
- Legacy of violence -
Dissanayaka's party led two rebellions in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead before renouncing violence.
It had been a peripheral player in Sri Lankan politics in the decades since, winning less than four percent of the vote during the most recent parliamentary elections in 2020.
But Sri Lanka's crisis proved an opportunity for Dissanayaka, who saw his popularity rise after pledging to change the island's "corrupt" political culture.
The 55-year-old labourer's son was a JVP student leader during the second insurrection and has described how one of his teachers sheltered him to save him from government-backed death squads that killed party activists.
He counts famous Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara among his heroes.
Since his rise to popularity, he has softened some policies, saying he believes in an open economy and is not totally opposed to privatisation.
M.Odermatt--BTB