Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Since the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, there has been much speculation, still unsubstantiated, that the motive for his killing was to prevent him disclosing match-fixing in cricket.

So how does match-fixing work? And is illegal betting usually on the actual outcome of matches?


Cricket is a difficult game to fix

If you think match-fixing in cricket is about winning and losing matches and about how illegal bookmakers` syndicates bribe players or teams to throw away games, think again.

The remains of one of the earliest modern humans to inhabit eastern Asia have been unearthed in a cave in China.
The find could shed light on how our ancestors colonised the East, a movement that is only poorly understood by anthropologists.

Researchers found 34 bone fragments belonging to a single individual at the Tianyuan Cave, near Beijing.

Details of the discovery appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Radiocarbon dates, obtained directly from the bones, show the person lived between 42,000 and 39,000 years ago.

The parents and relatives of five soldiers of Sri Lanka armed forces currently in custody of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) visited the soldiers in Kilinochchi Wednesday, LTTE sources in Kilinochchi said. The Red Cross facilitated the visit. The group arrived in Kilinochchi from Vavuniya and met the soldiers at a remand prison of the Thamileelam Police around 11:00 a.m. in the presence of V. Aravindan, Probation Officer of Thamileelam Police , Kumarasamy Kanagalingam, the Chief Inspector of Thamileelam Police and Selvaretnam Jeyapalan, the Chief Prison Guard.

In Rio de Janeiro, a statue, christ the redeemer, or in portugese, Christ o Redentor. Towering above the marvelous city with open arms for, giving it forever a permanent hug. From one hand to the other, measuring almost 30 meters.

ince it was placed on top the 2,300-ft peak of Corcovado mountain in 1931, this figure has been one of the most famous symbols of Rio. It stands 100 ft tall on a 20-ft pedestal, weighs 700 tons, and is visible night and day from most of the city`s neighborhoods.

On top of Corcovado Mountain, immortalized in corcovado song by João Gilberto, a penitent Christ the Redeemer opens his arms to all of Rio de Janeiro. The left arm points to the Rio de Janeiro`s north zone (zona norte), the right to the south zone (zona sul), while the saintly perch offers spectacular views of Ipanema, the Maracana soccer stadium and the Serra do Órgãos mountain range.

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one`s nation. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor. Oran`s Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: `...[a]...citizen`s actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation].` In many nations, it is also often considered treason to attempt or conspire to overthrow the government, even if no foreign country is aided or involved by such an endeavour.

Petra (from πέτρα `petra`, rock in Greek; Arabic: البتراء, al-Bitrā) is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Wadi Araba, the great valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. Its famous description `a rose-red city half as old as time` is the final line of a sonnet by the minor Victorian poet John William Burgon, which won the Newdigate Prize for poetry, given at Oxford, 1845. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which remained inaccessible to all but the most intrepid Europeans, guided by local guides with armed escorts, until after World War I.

Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Piqchu Old Peak; sometimes called the `Lost City of the Incas`) is a well-preserved pre-Columbian Inca ruin located at 2,430 m (7,970 ft)[1] on a mountain ridge. Machu Picchu is located above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, about 70 km (44 mi) northwest of Cusco. Forgotten for centuries by the outside world, although not by locals, it was brought back to international attention by archaeologist Hiram Bingham who rediscovered it in 1911, and wrote a best-selling work about it. Peru is pursuing legal efforts to retrieve thousands of artifacts that Bingham removed from the site.

Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar (April 12, 1932 ? August 12, 2005) was a Sri Lankan politician. After a distinguished career as a lawyer and international humanitarian, he was appointed as foreign minister of Sri Lanka in 1994 by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. He achieved international prominence in this position due his wide ranging condemnation of the LTTE and his efforts to have then banned internationally. He served as Foreign Minister until 2001, and then again from April 2004 until his assassination in August 2005, which is suspected to have been carried out by an LTTE sniper team [1] when he was 68.[2]

The leg spinner`s prize weapon - bowled properly, a googly is almost undetectable.

A googly, or a `wrong`un`, is a delivery which looks like a normal leg spinner but actually turns towards the batsmen, like an off break, rather than away from the bat.

Unlike a normal leg break, a googly is delivered out of the back of the hand, with your wrist 180 degrees to the ground.

It`s a very difficult skill to learn, so you`ll need plenty of practice in your back garden or in the nets.

Step one

Jaipur pronunciation (help·info) (Hindi: जयपुर, Urdu: جے پور), also popularly known as the Pink City, historically sometimes rendered as Jeypore, is the capital of Rajasthan state, India. Jaipur is also the capital of Jaipur District. Jaipur is the former capital of the princely state of Jaipur. Founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, Jaipur was the first planned city in India and in 2003, after only 276 years, the population reached approximately 2.7 million.

Carnival is Rio`s main event. It happens at the peak of summer, when Cariocas are at their best. Festivities attract thousands of people from all corners of the world. Carnaval, as spelled in Portuguese, is a 4-day celebration. It starts on Saturday, and ends on Fat Tuesday, or Mardi-Gras.Carnival Sunday is seven weeks before Easter Sunday. Dates change every year, in 2006 it happens from February 25 through 28.

The origins of Carnival are unclear, but most agree that it started as a pagan celebration in ancient Rome or Greece. Carnival balls were imported to Rio from Italy in the late nineteenth century, and had their golden era in the 1930 through 50`s, with legendary balls at the Copacabana Palace and the Municipal Theater.

Selected Writings - Dr. Adrian Wijemanne

24 May 2002

1. Thirty seven rose to thirty eight without the slightest perceptible tremor of apprehension in the hearts and minds of members of the Sinhala nation, myself included. So cryptic a statement needs instant elucidation, especially as I venture to speak for so many. What I have to offer in explanation is a lesson in geography but one which has an enormous relevance to the question of war or peace in Sri Lanka.

The Petronas Twin Towers (also known as the Petronas Towers), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were once the world`s tallest buildings when measured from the level of the main entrance to the structural or architectural top.

The Petronas Twin Towers are the tallest twin towers in the world, and they lay claim to being the world`s tallest high rise of the 20th century. Critics point out that this applies to only one of four height categories defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat - although the three additional height categories were only introduced as the tower neared completion in 1996, as opposed to the original category which had been in use since 1969.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LoQe7JDKdY

why is this guy running?

`I see girls,
here there and everywhere
short skirts long hair
love it when they walk yeah
I`m on cloud 9
you look so fine
can`t wait to make you mine
I kinda like the way you walk past
gotta take a glance
body shaped like an hour glass
pulling up to my bumper so hot
you work so hard like the way you work it
I look first, you look back,
attracted to the way you shake that,

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years.

US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients.

The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye.

Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement.

`What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind eye and allow patients to see,` said Professor Mark Humayun, from the University of Southern California.