| Liver Cancer takes Ex-Sri Lankan parliament speaker Bandaranaike’s life |
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Sri Lanka's former parliament speaker and son of two prime ministers, Anura Bandaranaike, died in colombo Sunday after a brief battle with liver cancer, a family friend said.Bandaranaike, 59, was hospitalized after he defected from the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse in December over political differences. He was the national heritage minister at the time.
"Anura passed away today," a close family friend said. "Funeral arrangements are being worked out. He was battling serious liver problems and was being treated for cancer." He was speaker of the Sri Lankan national parliament from 2000 to 2001. Bandaranaike is the younger brother of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga and the son of two late prime ministers -- Sirima Bandaranaike, the world's first elected woman premier, and Solomon Bandaranaike, who was assassinated in 1959. In February 2007, he was sacked together with late Sripathi Sooriyaarachi and Mangala Samaraweera. But, later he reconciled with Mahinda Rajapaksa and was reappointed Minister for National Heritage, a portfolio he held until he sat with the opposition and walked away from the house during the final 2008 Budget voting. Anura Bandaranaike, a former Speaker of the SL parliment, has mostly been associated with the opposition throughout his political carrier. |
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