Sri Lanka

By Steve Chao in Asia on August 14th, 2011

It's a long and bumpy ride along the winding dirt roads of Minneriya National Park in central Sri Lanka. We're travelling in open top jeeps, just skimming under the canopy of foliage in this dense jungle.

It's late afternoon and we're headed for one of the last watering holes left in the hot dry season.

By Kristen Saloomey in Americas on April 11th, 2011
Gerard Longuet, left, France's defence minister, briefs media in Paris on the Cote d'Ivoire crisis after Gbagbo's arrest [AFP]

Being sceptical is part of being a journalist.

Especially at the United Nations, where every action - and every failure to act - is influenced by the political interests of countries who sit on the Security Council.

By Rahul Pathak in Asia on March 29th, 2011
Picture by GALLO/GETTY

A no-fly zone, a city in lockdown and worst of all, V.I.P.s and V.V.I.P.s - and probably the odd V.V.V.I.P. - can't park their private jets at the local airport.

All this for a cricket match.

Fortunately for me, this isn't the cricket match I'm covering.

While India and Pakistan lose their collective heads over the mela in Mohali, I'm in the rather more relaxed surroundings of Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.

Don't get me wrong, this is a country hugely excited about the World Cup, but it's an excitement tempered with a more chilled-out attitude, more akin to people from the Caribbean than the sub-continent.

As Colombo says goodbye to the World Cup, they do so in the knowledge that this has been a much happier experience than the last time they co-hosted this event in 1996.

Tags: Sri Lanka
By Azad Essa in Asia on February 25th, 2011
Sri Lankan cricketer Chamara Silva stretches during training [AFP]

Rewind some 10 months to June 2010 and Mexico is about to take on hosts South Africa, in the opening match of the Football World Cup in Johannesburg.

Despite being rated poorly, the South African football team turned on the style, courageously holding their own against a highly rated Mexican side. In what has since become one of the defining moments of the 2010 World Cup, Siphiwe Tshabalala in the 55th minute, pulled the trigger and sent the ball careening into the Mexican net.

All of South Africa erupted with an infectious ecstasy.

By Azad Essa in Asia on February 19th, 2011
Photo by AFP

It is being described as the most open World Cup in the competition’s short history. While the last four tournaments always began with the fair speculation on who would face Australia in the final, this year’s tournament has no clear favourite.

The current edition of the tournament is really a three-way throng of a race between South Africa, India and Australia.

Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka are the dark horses of the tournament.

Of course, if you had to put money on one team – as in – if you were hung upside down, a gun placed to your head and forced to make a bet – Team India would probably be your best option.  

By Steve Chao in Asia on November 19th, 2010
Rajapaksa knows one of his main challenges is to forge reconciliation between Tamils and the majority Sinhalese population

The first time Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed the seat of president in Sri Lanka, it was to limited fanfare. The year was 2005. He had just survived a fierce battle with his party for leadership, and the civil war with the rebel Tamil Tigers was still simmering. There wasn't much to celebrate.

This time around, the pomp and circumstance surrounding his second inauguration is staggering.

By Matthew Allard in Asia on January 30th, 2010

Sri Lankan Tamils pray at a Hindu temple in Colombo on the morning of the country's presidential elections.

They endured more than 30 years of civil war and are now hoping for a brighter future. Many feel neglected by a government that they say discriminates against them.

Tags: Sri Lanka
By Mike Hanna in Asia on January 24th, 2010
Photo by AFP

The campaigning is now officially over in Sri Lanka. Election regulations stipulate a so-called quiet time before Tuesday's election in which voters can ponder their choice free of political distraction.

But in this supposed period of silence, the debate continues to be intense. The election has caught the imagination of the country’s people like few have before.

There is a discernible excitement; and an apparent national awareness that the race is too close to call.

It wouldn’t have appeared to be that way when the election was called on the 23rd November last year. At the time, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was effectively running in a one-horse race. The war that had lasted nearly three decades was over and he was riding a surge of popular support as a result.

By Wayne Hay in Asia on January 23rd, 2010
Photo from EPA

Sri Lanka is in the unusual position of preparing for a presidential election while just under 100,000 of its citizens are being held in refugee camps. Yes, they can leave temporarily, but they can't go home.

We were granted the chance, by the Sri Lankan Army, to visit one of the camps, which were set up to house those displaced during the final stages of the civil war against the rebel Tamil Tigers. At its peak, the population was more than 245,000.

The Sri Lankan government was condemned in some quarters for forcing the Tamils into the camps, where according to some, the living conditions were less than satisfactory.

There's no doubt we were taken to the best one, and were closely watched by the officials.

By Wayne Hay in Asia on January 21st, 2010
Photo by AFP

This would have to be one of the more intriguing presidential elections the world has ever witnessed. The two leading candidates for the top office in Sri Lanka are the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa and the retired army General, Sarath Fonseka.

The election on January 26 will be the first since the end of the civil war in May 2009, when the Rajapaksa government overcame the rebel Tamil Tigers who'd been fighting for an independent state for 26 years.

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