Sri Lanka, Sept. 14 -- Irangani Manel Abeysekera, Sri Lanka's first woman career diplomat, died at the age of 93 on September 10. She had served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Germany and Thailand.Sri Lanka Business

Her funeral took place on Saturday (12) at the Christian section of the Borella Cemetery.

Educated at Methodist College, Colombo, Abeysekera read history at Somerville College, Oxford, graduating in 1957. She joined the Ceylon Overseas Service, the only woman among eight selected candidates, before training in modern languages at Cambridge and serving as Third Secretary at Ceylon's High Commission in London.

In 1974 she returned to Sri Lanka as Chief of Protocol at the External Affairs and Defence Ministry, helping organise th...