Feizal Samath

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Colombo Bid To Be South Asia Financial Hub

Like many poor residents of the Sri Lankan capital, Sriya Kanthi who lives in a slum near a polluted canal, relishes the thought of moving with her family to more pleasant surroundings with piped water and other benefits.

SRI LANKA: UN Mine Action Chief Due In Colombo To Clear Doubts

By Feizal Samath

The head of the U.N's Landmine Action programme is flying to Sri Lanka next week to satisfy the army about a mine clearing operation in the war-ravaged northern Jaffna peninsula, a U.N spokesman said Tuesday.

ECONOMY-SRI LANKA: Business Leaders Seek People’s View On War

By Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka's top business leaders have decided to ascertain the people's views on issues of national concern, including the long-drawn bloody ethnic conflict and ways to end it, through a survey to be launched next month.

HEALTH-SRI LANKA: Rights Concern Stalls Tobacco, Alcohol Ad Ban

By Feizal Samath

A proposed ban on cigarette and alcohol advertising in the media, strongly opposed by Sri Lankan producers, has been delayed because of concerns about its implications on fundamental rights, a government minister said.

SRI LANKA: Civil Unrest Shatters Independence Dreams

By Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka may have obtained independence from colonial rulers more than 50 years ago, but daunting problems continue to confront the country with freedom still an elusive dream.

SOUTH ASIA: Women’s Groups Slam Proposed Laws on Prostitution

By Feizal Samath

Women activists in South Asia have slammed a draft regional convention against trafficking of women and children, saying it was flawed and did not cover key issues like migrant workers or forced marriages.

ECONOMY-SRI LANKA: Study Adds Up Economic Cost Of Ethnic Conflict

By Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka's protracted ethnic conflict has, so far, cost the equivalent of 18 months of gross domestic product (GDP), according to a new study due to be published by a semi-government think tank here.

ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: People To The Rescue Of Wetlands

By Feizal Samath

Religious groups, children and local people have come to the rescue of Sri Lanka's biggest wetlands under attack from urban developers and destructive fishing.

POLITICS-SRI LANKA: Rural Women To Contest Upcoming Polls

By Feizal Samath

In a country that boasts of the first woman prime minister in the world, it has been a hard struggle for ordinary Sri Lankan women to enter mainstream politics.

Weekly Selection/SRI LANKA: Ruling Party Win Marred by Violence

By Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance has emerged victorious in elections for the northwestern Provincial Council, but the poll has been marred by unprecedented levels of violence.

SRI LANKA: Rolex Enterprise Award Galvanises Safe Lamp Project

By Feizal Samath

Just as high school student Pushpa Kanthi was sitting down to study at night, a kerosene oil lamp on the table accidentally toppled, engulfing her in flames in her home in Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA: Rolex Enterprise Award Galvanises Safe Lamp Project

By Feizal Samath

Just as high school student Pushpa Kanthi was sitting down to study at night, a kerosene oil lamp on the table accidentally toppled, engulfing her in flames in her home in Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA: Rolex Enterprise Award Galvanises Safe Lamp Project

By Feizal Samath

Just as high school student Pushpa Kanthi was sitting down to study at night, a kerosene oil lamp on the table accidentally toppled, engulfing her in flames in her home in Sri Lanka.

SRI LANKA: Ruling Party Win Marred By Unprecedented Poll Violence

By Feizal Samath

Sri Lanka's ruling People's Alliance has emerged victorious in elections for the northwestern Provincial Council, but the poll has been marred by unprecedented levels of violence.

EDUCATION-SRI LANKA: Innovative Schools For New Millennium

By Feizal Samath

For the first time since Sri Lanka's independence, school education is being radically overhauled to produce students equipped with skills to meet the challenges of the new millennium.

RELIGIOUS BULLETIN/SRI LANKA: Voiceless, Ethnic Groups Fade Into Oblivion

By Feizal Samath

Like many of Sri Lanka's small ethnic groups, the Kaffirs, whose forefathers are said to have been brought from Africa as slaves, are struggling to save their identity and culture.

SRI LANKA: Voiceless, Ethnic Groups Fade Into Oblivion

By Feizal Samath

Like many of Sri Lanka's small ethnic groups, the Kaffirs, whose forefathers are said to have been brought from Africa as slaves, are struggling to save their identity and culture.

LABOUR-SRI LANKA: Gulf Dreams Spawn Social Problems

By Feizal Samath

Like thousands of poor Sri Lankans, Herath Bandage Kusumawathie went to the oil- rich Gulf to work as a housemaid, dreaming of making money for a new house and bright futures for her children.

DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Anti-VOA Protesters Turn to Faith

By Feizal Samath

Every morning, before he sets out to sea, Henry Arthur Fernando prays for the removal of the U.S. radio station being set up in this small fishing hamlet on the northwest Sri Lankan coast.