Sigiriya is one of Sri Lanka’s eight UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites and is for me a most spectacular monument, an absolutely vital part of any visit to this country, says the New Zealand Herald writer Jill Worrall in a report published today (9 Feb). In total there are about 1200 steps from the king’s beautiful [...]

The National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) in conjunction with the Goethe Institut has launched the 2nd Annual NAFTI Film Lectures on Ghanaian Motion Picture Industry in Accra. The lectures were instituted last year in reaction to public criticism to the poor state of affairs concerning the quality of films produced in Ghana. The NAFTI [...]

The Deyata Kirula 2012 development exhibition held in Oyamaduwa in Anuradhapura has been extended till February 12. The sixth Deyata Kirula national exhibition, which was declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa on February 4, was initially slated to be open to the public only till February 10. The exhibition consists of over 1,000 stalls run [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday opened the sixth Deyata Kirula national exhibition at Oyamaduwa in Anuradhapura. It will be open to the public till February 10. The exhibition consists of over 1,000 stalls run by government ministries, private sector agencies and the Security Forces. Admission to the Deyata Kirula is free for schoolchildren in uniform and [...]

Sri Lanka will build a memorial chamber for Chinese traveler Zheng He inside the Maritime Museum in Galle. In a statement, Nalaka Godahewa, chairman of Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Authority, said the chamber is to be made in tribute to the 14th century Chinese explorer who is considered as the greatest navigator to visit Sri [...]

WASHINGTON — NASA has launched its first multi-player online game to test players’ knowledge of the space program. Who was the first American to walk in space? Who launched the first liquid-fueled rocket? These are only a few of the questions players can answer in Space Race Blastoff. Available on Facebook, Space Race Blastoff tests [...]

A road side full of works of art is an unusual sight in Colombo. Hundreds of young painters and sculptors artists from across the country get a chance to exhibit their works in the city, and, possibly get propelled into the higher orbits. The annual event, called ‘Kala Pola’ (Open Air Art Festival), is organised [...]

Curtains came down on the five-day long Galle Literary Festival on Sunday with discussions on obsessive love, war and Indira Gandhi taking centre stage. Biographers Nayantara Sahgal and Katherine Frank shed light on the iron lady of South Asia, the iconic Indira Gandhi’s political career and how she exercised power during her rule as India’s [...]

First Minister Alex Salmond has sent his greetings to Scotland’s Chinese community on the eve of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. He said: “As we enter the Year of the Dragon – not a symbol to be feared but instead one of good luck– it was my own great fortune to meet Premier [...]

Sri Lanka has been ranked 97th among the 184 countries as the freest to carry out business in. According to the rating done by Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, Sri Lanka’s economic freedom score is 58.3, which is 1.2 points higher than last year, reflecting solid gains in trade freedom, [...]