"Firecrackers exploded around Colombo on Monday as Sri Lankans celebrated what they hoped would be the end to a civil war that has plagued the nation since 1983." 05-09
"Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency Saturday, just hours after her foreign minister, an ethnic Tamil who led efforts to ban the Tamil Tiger rebels as a terrorist organization, was assassinated at his home." 8-05