Tourism will be one of the major pillars in the mega development projects to be launched this year and the’Visit Sri Lanka 2011’ drive began on New Year’s day yesterday. This year, Sri Lanka hopes that a record number of more than 700,000 tourists will visit the country and the first of them were given a grand welcome at the Bandaranaike International Airport with traditional dances and a kiribath breakfast. A young tourist is seen here feeding kevum to a girl. Pic by N.T.S.P. Kumarasinghe
Sri Lanka hoteliers yesterday expressed serious concern over government moves to charge for visas from foreigners visiting the country, except those from Singapore and the Maldives.
An MP who recently sold his duty-free vehicle permit to a person unknown to him through a broker has now been called upon to pay a luxury tax as the new owner has imported a vehicle over the engine power permitted.
The English Literary and Drama Society of St Peter’s College presented ‘A Christmas Carol’ (December 17 to 19) with a cast of over 50, in all shapes, sizes and ages, who brought to life this charming holiday tale that ushered in the spirit of the season.
Work at the 161-acre dedicated Chinese Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Mirigama has come to a grinding halt due to some disagreements between the Chinese investor entrusted with the task of setting up and managing the zone and the Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI), informed sources said.
If 1999 was the Year of Napster in the history of the Internet then 2010 will go down as the Year of WikiLeaks. Napster, the file-sharing renegade, upended the music industry and copyright in ways still being felt a decade later while WikiLeaks, for better or worse, is likely to have a similar impact on government secrecy and transparency.
Miyuru Arangala, Scholarships for USA's (www.scholarshipsforusa.com) latest student to University of North Dakota (UND) was recently introduced to Prasath Nanayakkara (Royal College group of '86 & Massachusetts Institute of .....
He has proudly stated that 2010, the first full year without the menace of terrorism in more than quarter of a century saw the country posting an impressive 8 percent growth rate; that tourist arrivals hit a record high and development work is happening around Hambantota.
It was felt most in the country's main opposition United National Party (UNP), which is torn by internal feuding and power struggles. On Wednesday night, the UNP's besieged leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had just returned to Colombo after another visit to India. Whilst moves were afoot in Colombo to oust him from leadership, he was in New Delhi.
My response was that once the Pandora’s Box is proverbially opened and politicians are given virtual blanket power to bypass the law, to subvert the courts, to manipulate the media and public opinion to frightening levels, it is myopic to assume that such intoxicating power would be voluntarily abandoned once a war is won. These responses were of little avail however.
Historical accounts suggest that more than 75% of Sri Lanka was once covered by forest. But since the British colonial era, there has been mass scale clearing of forests largely for agricultural expansion.
A baby male orangutan was born on November 3, 2010 at the Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka.
The general public was asked to suggest names, and the name suggested by six year old Dimuth Tharinda was chosen. He named the baby Sakifo.
