Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

The Victory Day parade organised for the third consecutive year will be held tomorrow at the Galle Face Green to commemorate the nation’s military victory over the world‘s most ruthless terrorist outfit and the dawn of peace in Sri Lanka after 30 years of bloodshed.

The Triforces, Police, Special Task Force and Civil Defence Force will join in the parade. Disabled soldiers of the war will also take part in the parade. The parade would be colourful with various cultural items. It would also exhibit the military ware and vehicles used in the humanitarian operation.

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Shivnarine Chanderpaul rode his luck but the West Indies still found life difficult as they struggled to 146 for four at tea on the first day of the first Test against England at Lord’s here on Thursday.

Chanderpaul, officially rated the world‘s best Test batsman, was 42 not out having seen an lbw appeal reversed in his favour when on 15.

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Former world heavyweight champion David Haye vowed to knock out Dereck Chisora on Tuesday as a controversial July grudge match between the British fighters was confirmed.

Chisora was stripped of his licence in March after an ugly press conference brawl with Haye following his unsuccessful heavyweight title challenge against reigning world champion Vitali Klitschko the previous month.

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Serene Pavilion has won an international award and placed among the best 25 hotels in Relaxation and Spa category in Asia. This was awarded by ‘Travelers’ Choice, which is the highest honour a hotel can receive from the TripAdvisor community. It’s based on reviews and opinions of millions of travelers, and is awarded only to selected and distinguished group of hotels.

"I am so happy that we have been able to get all these during a period Sri Lanka is being categorized as one of the Best Destinations of the World," said Chairman Serene Pavilion Anura Lokuhetty.

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Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw is to lead England in their opening two Six Nations matches, it was announced Monday. The 25-year-old flanker, capped just once against Argentina in 2009 replaces Lewis Moody after the former skipper announced his retirement from international rugby following England’s World Cup flop in New Zealand.

England interim coach Stuart Lancaster said Robshaw would lead England in the defending champions’ Six Nations opener against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday and in their match against Italy in Rome the following weekend.

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St. Joseph’s College Colombo and S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia will meet in their traditional first XI cricket encounter on January 27 and 28 at Mt. Lavinia. This is the 108th edition of this encounter and the inaugural match was played 1905.

This match too, like the Royal-Thomian, Royal-St Joseph’s has not been interrupted during the world war I and II.

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Roger Federer handed out a masterclass to Australian teen Bernard Tomic as he reached the quarter-finals on a day of tears and drama at the Australian Open Sunday. While Federer was at his mesmerising best and Rafael Nadal also went through, China’s Li Na left in floods of tears after she fell victim to an astonishing comeback by hobbling women’s champion Kim Clijsters. And ear-splitting boos greeted Tomas Berdych’s win over Nicolas Almagro as the Czech player refused to shake hands at the end of their stormy match.

Nineteen-year-old Tomic, the great hope of Australian tennis, could only shake his head in disbelief as Federer dug into his bag of tricks and unleashed his full repertoire of unreachable drops and a balletic backhand smash. “I thought I played a really good match. I knew I had to, anything else and I wouldn’t have got the job done,” said the Swiss world number three, who stays on course for a grandstand semi-final with Nadal.

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There were only three education ministers who had a spine to take pragmatic decisions and a vision for national education in Sri Lanka who were C.W.W. Kannangara, I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla and Richard Pathirana, Small Crops Exports Minister Reginald Cooray said.

Addressing a ceremony held at the Matugama C.W.W. Kannangara Maha Vidyalaya to mark the admission of Grade 1 students to schools this year in the Matugama educational zone, Minister Cooray who is also a former education minister said the education system in the country during colonial era had been centred in favour of elite classes until Mr. Kannangara introduced free education.

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Datawind, the maker of the world's cheapest tablet has put up for sale about 30,000 tablets online at a price of Rs 2500 each, with a delivery period of seven days.

 The seven inch tablet with Android 2.2 is now available through its portal aakashtablet.com. "We have put up on sale about 30,000 tablets online, which will have a cash on delivery of 7 days. We have achieved pre-sale orders of about 400,000 tablets from individuals and corporates. But current supplies will only be limited for individual buyers," Datawind CEO and founder Suneet Singh Tuli told ET.  Aakash's next commercial version called the Ubislate 7, which has a faster processor, is slated to be launched late January. Ubislate 7 is set to have a 700 Mhz processor compared to the 366 MHz processor in Aakash. Ubislate 7 will be priced at Rs 3000 for sale online.  Datawind though seems to be struggling with customer service issues for online retail, even though the sale is only for a limited number of tablets.  According to sources, the Indian government is also planning to provide a new specification for Aakash, which may come with a faster processor and better battery life. The current version of Aakash has a battery life of about 1.5 hours. An email to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, which is supplying the tablets to schools and colleges remained unanswered.  The government till now procured only 10,000 tablets. It has still not procured the remaining 90,000 tablets for distribution in schools and colleges, even as other nations have expressed interest to the government for similar low cost computing initiatives.  (Economic Times)Tweet

*Lanka ahead of Britain, Australia, Abu Dhabi

*SL among world‘s top five destinations

Sri Lanka is one of the top five destinations to watch this year, according to the world‘s leading and most discerning and trusted monthly travel magazine in Britain, Conde Nast Traveller. The magazine’s travel experts have predicted that Sri Lanka will be among the hottest new holiday destinations for travellers this year.

Unveiling the list of destinations, the magazine reveals that: “One of the great joys of travel is the feeling you’ve discovered somewhere special, somewhere that’s all yours, for the first time – before the developers move in and the crowds descend.

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