Sri Lanka names new PM in bid to address growing crisis

FILE PHOTO: An army member stops vehicles at a check point on a the main road after the curfew was extended for another extra day following a clash between Anti-government demonstrators and Sri Lanka's ruling party supporters, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

COLOMBO (Reuters) -Sri Lanka appointed a new prime minister on Thursday, a move President Gotabaya Rajapaksa hopes will quell weeks of worsening civil unrest in which at least nine people died this week and more than 300 were injured.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, a political veteran who has been prime minister of the island nation five times before, faces the daunting task of leading his country through its worst economic crisis since independence.