Sri Lanka crisis: President rejects Rajapaksa no-confidence vote

Sri Lanka's president has rejected a second no-confidence motion passed on Friday against Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, appointed late last month in place of Ranil Wickremesinghe, a loyalist lawmaker said.

Maithripala Sirisena will also not reappoint Wickremesinghe to the post, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, from Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party, said.

"The president rejected today's no confidence (vote)... He also told us to show our majority in (parliament) in the next few days," Abeywardene told reporters after meeting Sirisena.

(With inputs from agencies.)