Word: colombo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...head of the most powerful of New York's five infamous crime families (followed by the Genovese, Colombo, Lucchese and Bonanno clans), Castellano had some 400 "soldiers" under his command, as well as interests in the construction trades and the garment, meat and poultry industries. His bloody retirement may have been deemed necessary because of a series of indictments brought against him by U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani. At the time of his death, the soft-spoken don was on trial in Manhattan federal court for masterminding an international car-theft ring. The day after his murder, Castellano's co-defendants...
...also prosecuting Paul Castellano, 70, reputed boss of the Gambino family. He is accused with nine other men of running a racket that stole autos and shipped them off for resale with forged registrations. His case will be followed next week by the racketeering trial of New York's Colombo family and its reputed boss, Carmine ("the Snake") Persico. Next month comes the first of two trials for "Matty the Horse" Ianniello and other purported members of the Genovese crime family on charges that include racketeering and extortion...
...million Tamil minority in Sri Lanka (pop. 16 million) have been fighting an increasingly bloody civil war against President Junius Jayawardene's government. Last week there were signs that both sides were willing to scale down the conflict, which has claimed several hundred lives so far this year. In Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali announced that the five largest Tamil guerrilla groups, known as the Tamil Tigers, had agreed to a "cessation of all hostile acts...
...First the rebels, who represent the island's 2.6 million mostly Hindu Tamils in a separatist struggle against 11 million mainly Buddhist Sinhalese, killed three civilians whom they suspected of being government informers. Then they planted a bomb that ripped apart sections of a train in the capital, Colombo. Finally, hundreds of the so- called Tamil Tigers cut off electricity in the northern city of Jaffna, blasted the town hall and municipal offices with explosives and attacked the heavily fortified police station. After the biggest battle of the year, said a government spokesman, 21 Tamils and five policemen were dead...
...Tamils," says a U.S. official, "have been on the losing end of Sri Lankan democracy for decades." Simmering unrest finally came to a boil in July 1983. After the Tigers killed 13 soldiers in an ambush, Sinhalese mobs ran wild through Colombo, killing at least 412 Tamils and leaving 100,000 others homeless...