Posts Tagged ‘Colombo’
Tourists shun war-hit Sri Lanka
[Telegraph] Unfortunately, the violence has intensified over the last few months as the government has squeezed the LTTE forces back into the northern tip of the country. And this escalation has started to negatively impact the economy, with tourism , one of Sri Lanka’s key industries, severely affected. Although the reporting restrictions put in place…
Read MoreMoney, not war will hurt Sri Lanka tourism in ‘09
[Reuters] The world financial crisis will cut 2009 tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka to their lowest level in seven years, potentially stripping gains expected as a 25-year war nears an end, tourism officials said on Friday. Tourism is the Indian Ocean island nation’s fourth-biggest source of foreign exchange after garments, remittances, and tea, and is…
Read MoreChronicle of a death foretold
[Economist] THE good that men do is not always interred with their bones. This week saw the publication of a remarkable posthumous column by Lasantha Wickrematunge, a Sri Lankan newspaper editor. He had written it in anticipation of his own murder. That duly came on January 8th, when gunmen on motorcycles shot him on his…
Read MoreRow over Sri Lanka editor’s murder grows as diplomat censured
[AFP] Sri Lanka’s government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island’s rulers, officials said Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka’s anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga,…
Read MoreDying for free speech in Sri Lanka
[Guardian] While driving to work on 8 January Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor in chief of the Sunday Leader, was assassinated by four gunmen on motorcycles. He was shot at point-blank range after being forced to stop at a traffic light. He was rushed to the Kalubowila hospital where he later died. His death came just two…
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