Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

A performance called Bodies in Urban Spaces has taken over the streets of Europe.

Choreographed by Austrian artist Willi Dorner, it is an outdoor moving event featuring a group of 24 performers.

* Sri Lanka`s score of 760 for 7 is the highest by any team in India, overtaking India`s 676 for 7 in Kanpur in 1986. It`s also Sri Lanka`s second-highest in Tests.

* The 351-run stand between Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene is the highest for the sixth wicket in Tests. They overtook Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton, who added 346 against England in Melbourne in 1937. The Jayawardenes` stand is also the third-highest overall against India.

Former champions France secured their World Cup spot in controversial fashion here Wednesday after a dramatic 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France.

French forward Thierry Henry (L) controls the ball in front of Irish defender John O`Shea during the World Cup 2010 qualifying football match France vs. Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, northern Paris. Former champions France secured their World Cup spot in controversial fashion here Wednesday after a dramatic 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France.

A WOMAN with a medical condition that gives her 300 orgasms a day has found a man of her dreams after she wore out a string of boyfriends.

Michelle Thompson, who suffers from Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome, thought she was just too demanding for men and would never find the man of her dreams.

But she has been with her neighbour Andrew Carr, 32, for the past six months and he`s as keen for sexual intercourse as she is and they make love 10 times a day.

`Andrew has changed my life. I`m no longer looking for a cure for my orgasms - I`ve found it,` Michelle told The News of the World newspaper in the UK.

AN amateur rugby player has won 250,000 ($420,000) in a half-time competition to kick a ball from 30m out and hit the crossbar of the goalposts at London`s Wembley Stadium.

Employment center worker Stuart Tinner, who lives at home with his parents, hit the bar with an amazing shot - and all he wore on his feet were socks.

The competition was held at half-time during English rugby club Saracens` 24-23 victory over South Africa yesterday.

The 24-year-old, who plays hooker for Welwyn RFC fifth team in Hertfordshire, was the first of three supporters picked at random from the 46,000 crowd after applying to take part in the competition by text message.

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* Indonesian officials board ship
* Transfer of refugees expected today
* Customs ship will be free to return home

INDONESIAN officials have boarded Australia`s Oceanic Viking ahead of the expected transfer of the remaining Sri Lankan asylum-seekers.

Australian officials believe all 56 Tamils still on the Australian customs vessel will voluntarily leave the ship and enter a nearby Indonesian detention centre later today, bringing to an end a month-long impasse.

A COFFEE shop with topless waitresses in the US is officially reopening after being burnt to the ground by an arsonist. Donald Crabtree, the owner of the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop at Vassalboro, Maine, has been granted a permit to reopen in a business trailer on the site.

The shop has been operating in a tent since the arson attack in June, which is still being investigated.

The coffee shop`s opening in February angered many residents in the small town and the fire occurred hours after Mr Crabtree discussed with local officials the idea of making the business more like a strip club.

Off-spinning wizard Muttiah Muralitharan said pitches were increasingly made to favour batsmen these days because the sponsors and the television channels desired so.

`They do not want a Test match to end in three or four days. The sponsors and the broadcasters want the Test to continue till the final session of the fifth day. The pitches are prepared keeping this in mind. The bowlers are suffering,` he said here ahead of the first Test.

UK man `strangled wife while dreaming`

A British man has claimed he strangled his wife of 40 years while dreaming that he was attacking a burglar.

The Daily Mail reports Brian Thomas, 59, is accused of murdering his wife Christine, 57, while she slept in their camper van in the middle of the night.

Swansea Crown Court heard Thomas `dreamed that a man had broken into their motor home`, which was parked in a pub car park while the couple were on holiday.

He claimed that he strangled Christine while imagining that he was reaching out and tackling the phantom intruder.

A Texas woman lied about having breast cancer and spent $10,800 raised at a benefit to have her breasts enlarged, US authorities say.

McLennan County sheriff`s investigator James Pack said in court records that 24-year-old Trista Joy Lathern shaved her head to look like a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy.

Pack says Lathern wanted breast implants to try to save her seven-month marriage.

Form guide (last 5 Tests, most recent last)
India DDWDW
Sri Lanka WWDWW

Watch out for
Kumar Sangakarra: The Sri Lankan captain has said his team is `under no pressure` to scratch India off the list of countries (South Africa and Australia are the others) where they have never won a Test. To help ensure that, he`s going to have to lead extremely well and score heavily. Captaining a superb fielding unit and a bunch of bowlers skilled in home conditions is one thing, but doing so in a country that has daunted Sri Lanka since their Test initiation is something else. His own batting average of 24.80 from three Tests played in India will also desperately need some correcting.

* New generation will be called Alpha
* Will be most formally educated ever
* Will begin school earlier and study longer

WE`VE all heard of Gen X, Gen Y, even Gen Z - but in January we go to a whole new alphabet and welcome to the world the next instalment: Generation Alpha.

Social researchers and sociologists claim the babies born into new Generation Alpha - dubbed Gen A - will be the most formally educated generation in history.

Researcher Mark McCrindle said sociologists came up with the name because scientists moved on to the Greek alphabet when they had exhausted the Latin, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

* Richie Benaud signs new deal with Nine
* This cricket season was to be his last

The 79-year-old`s marvellous cricketing voice will be heard for at least another four summers on Channel Nine`s cricket coverage after he agreed to a new three-year deal with network chief David Gyngell.

He was already contracted for the coming summer, which was to be his last, and his new contract will take him through to April 1, 2013, and into his 83rd year, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

The cricket and commentating great signed on again because he simply didn`t want to give up working on the game he loves.

SRI Lanka`s ambassador to the United Nations has condemned 78 asylum seekers aboard an Australian Customs ship as emotional blackmailers.

The ethnic Tamils are still refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking, which has been anchored off the Indonesian island of Bintan for two-and-a-half weeks.

They were rescued in international waters inside Indonesia`s search and rescue zone en route to the Australian outpost Christmas Island last month.