Word: colombos
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Exiting the international airport in Colombo can be alarming: uniformed men tote guns, and there are acres of razor wire. Colombo's quaint commercial center is clogged with police checkpoints. President Chandrika Kumaratunga lives there; having survived an attempted assassination bombing three years ago, she's not taking any chances. In fact, there's little to fear. Nobody worries about bombs going off in Sri Lanka these days. You can travel just about anywhere on the island: to the northern peninsula of Jaffna or to the eastern beaches near Trincomalee, areas that were off limits for most of the past...
...most Sri Lankans, life is already returning to normal. Colombo's clubs are hopping and its hotels are 90% full. Tourists from mainland China sniff suspiciously at local specialties served on banana leaves and gamble the night away in casinos. Local Romeos on the southern coast prowl for free-spending lady tourists?gentlemen, too?who may be looking for a fling. The country hopes to get 500,000 tourists this year, more than in any year since the war began...
...seems to be wondering how deep is the Tigers' desire for peace. Sept. 11 was a turning point: the U.S. had already declared the LTTE a terrorist organization, and the group has clearly decided that pursuing a deal is better than becoming a target like al-Qaeda. Some in Colombo speculate that Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran may be losing the fighting spirit, or that he's worried about the future of his teenage son. In the past, the LTTE has used truces to rearm and train, which is disturbing. And yet none of the previous cease-fires has lasted more...
Rowley quickly made a mark. In 1984 she escorted Colombo crime-family boss Gennaro Langella on his "perp walk" in front of the news cameras, and she helped keep tabs on other big-time mafiosi in New York City. In the '90s she won an FBI award for her work on the Andrew Cunanan case, a shooting rampage that started with two deaths in Minnesota and ended with the death of Gianni Versace in Miami. When Minneapolis agents nabbed longtime Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Kathleen Soliah, Rowley handled questions from the press...
...Until last year it was only possible to dive the east coast if you were accompanied by the Sri Lankan navy. "You had to bring your own equipment and be a pretty confident diver," says Mick Smith, an Australian-born Colombo resident. "But the wrecks are something special." Today, dive operations are springing up along the coast, and divers in the deep harbor are rewarded with a glimpse of infrequently visited iron skeletons. Always go with a registered guide or dive master familiar with the area, however, as in many places live ammunition still lies scattered on the seabed...