Latest news with #Karunaratne
The Print
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Print
Top prison official suspended in Sri Lanka for presidential pardons abuse
The Ministry of Justice announced that the Cabinet decided to suspend the services of the two officials and Karunaratne was also arrested and remanded until June 11. Prisons chief Thushara Upuldeniya and Anuradhapura Jail Superintendent Mohan Karunaratne have been accused of wrongdoing in the misuse of presidential pardons. Colombo, Jun 9 (PTI) Two senior officials in Sri Lanka, including the Commissioner General of Prisons, were suspended on Monday for allegedly misusing the presidential pardon process to release convicts, the justice ministry said. The police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) questioned Upuldeniya on Sunday and Monday. The developments came after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake ordered the CID to probe the release of a convicted criminal from prison under a purported pardon from him. Dissanayake said that a list of those to be pardoned did not include a particular convict mentioned by the opposition in Parliament. According to the police, investigations revealed that convicts ineligible for presidential pardon had been illegally released. Under Article 34 (1) of the Sri Lankan Constitution, presidents are empowered to grant amnesties to convicts, subject to a strict judicial procedure. PTI CORR GRS GRS GRS This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Techday NZ
22-05-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Gemini Code Assist launches for all, delivers 2.5x boost
Gemini Code Assist for individuals and for GitHub is now generally available and powered by Gemini 2.5. Gemini Code Assist, which is a free AI-coding assistant, launched public previews for individuals and a code review agent compatible with GitHub a few months ago. According to Group Product Manager for Gemini Code Assist, Damith Karunaratne, since the February preview announcement, the company has been "requesting input, listening to feedback and shipping capabilities developers are asking for." Gemini 2.5 now powers both the free and paid versions of Gemini Code Assist. The tool is designed to enhance coding performance and assist developers with tasks such as creating visually compelling web applications, as well as handling code transformation and editing requirements. Both Gemini Code Assist for individuals and for GitHub are now available, and developers can start using them swiftly. Karunaratne said, "Now we're announcing that Gemini Code Assist for individuals and Gemini Code Assist for GitHub are generally available, and developers can get started in less than a minute. Gemini 2.5 now powers both the free and paid versions of Gemini Code Assist, features advanced coding performance; and helps developers excel at tasks like creating visually compelling web apps, along with code transformation and editing." Recognising that developers often spend significant time personalising their coding environments for efficiency and collaborative purposes, the latest updates to Gemini Code Assist focus on expanded customisation. The company states that all versions now offer more options to accommodate individual and team preferences, including workflow customisation, the option to resume tasks from where they were paused, and new tools to enforce team coding standards, style guides and architectural patterns. "We know developers spend a lot of time personalizing their coding environment so they can be more efficient and work better in team settings. Our latest updates to Gemini Code Assist, across all versions, give more customization options for you and your team's preferences. This includes more ways to customize workflows to fit different project needs, the ability to more easily pick up tasks exactly from where you were left off, and new tooling to enforce a team's coding standards, style guides and architectural patterns," said Karunaratne. Some recent updates to Gemini Code Assist include the ability to resume work and explore new directions using chat history and threads, shaping the AI's responses by specifying persistent rules such as "always add unit tests," and automating repetitive tasks with custom commands like "generate exception handling logic." Other features allow developers to review and accept chat code suggestions in parts, across files, or all at once, with improvements aimed at streamlining the code review and suggestion process. Karunaratne outlined, "Here are some examples of recent updates you can explore in Gemini Code Assist: Quickly resume where you left off and jump into new directions with chat history and threads. Shape Gemini's responses by specifying rules (i.e., 'always add unit tests') that you want applied to every AI generation in the chat. Automate repetitive tasks by creating custom commands (i.e., "generate exception handling logic") Save time by choosing to review and accept chat code suggestions in parts, across files, or accept all together. Reviewing and accepting code suggestions is now significantly improved." The company also confirmed that when a 2 million token context window becomes available on Vertex AI, Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise customers will have access to it as well. This expanded capability is intended to aid those working on complex, large-scale development challenges, such as bug tracing, code transformations, and compiling extensive onboarding materials for new members of sizeable codebases. "And when we make a 2 million token context window available on Vertex AI, Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise developers will get it too. This expanded context window will help developers with complex tasks at large scale, like bug tracing, code transformations, and generating comprehensive onboarding guides for people new to a vast codebase," Karunaratne explained. New data provided by the company shows notable improvements in developer productivity when using Gemini Code Assist. In an internal experiment comparing developers utilising the tool to those without coding assistance software, results showed that Gemini Code Assist increased the likelihood of successfully completing common development tasks by 2.5 times. "New data shows that Gemini Code Assist significantly helps developers get things done. In an experiment comparing developers using Gemini Code Assist to developers without any coding assistance tools, we found that Gemini Code Assist significantly boosts developers' odds of success in completing common development tasks by 2.5 times," Karunaratne noted. The Gemini Code Assist extension is available for download in both Visual Studio Code and JetBrains integrated development environments, and the code review agent is accessible through the GitHub app. The service is now also available in Android Studio, allowing businesses to utilise Gemini at every phase of the Android development lifecycle.
Int'l Cricket Council
09-02-2025
- Sport
- Int'l Cricket Council
ICC congratulates Karunaratne for a superb career
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has congratulated Dimuth Karunaratne for a wonderful international career during which the Sri Lankan played 100 Test matches. The 36-year-old, who came to be known as a Test specialist in an era of proliferating limited overs games, retired from international cricket after the second match of their ICC World Test Championship series against Australia in Galle, the same ground on which he made his Test debut in 2012. ICC Chair Jay Shah congratulated Karunaratne for an outstanding career and wished him all success in the years to come. ICC Chair Jay Shah: 'Dimuth has had a very fine career during which he excelled as a batter in the most traditional format of the game, becoming only the seventh from his country to feature in 100 Tests. 'His commitment has been second to none and he has been a great ambassador of the game. I am sure fans of Test cricket the world over will miss him. 'On behalf of the ICC, I would like to congratulate him for an outstanding career and wish him all the best for the future. 'I hope he continues to contribute to the game in the years to come, using his experience of playing in different countries.' Karunaratne, a solid left-hander, made his international debut against England in an ODI at Manchester in 2011. He aggregated 7,222 runs with 16 centuries in Test cricket and 1,316 runs in 50 ODIs with one century. All his 16 centuries came as opener, a record for most centuries by a Sri Lankan opener that he holds jointly with former captain Marvan Atapattu.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Emotional' Karunaratne eyes coaching career after Test farewell
Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne said Sunday it had been "a very emotional day" after his 100th and final Test ended with a defeat to Australia. The veteran opening batsman Karunaratne was given the honour of bowling the final few balls as Australia wrapped up a nine-wicket win and series sweep before lunch on the fourth day in Galle. "It has been a long career -- after my family and friends, I was spending most time with my teammates," he said. "I am leaving them, but this team will be always in my heart." The 36-year-old former skipper was a rock at the top of the Sri Lankan order for more than a decade, but had gone 25 innings without a century. He had announced before the second Test in Galle that it would be his farewell to the five-day game. "When I started my cricket, I just wanted to play one Test match," he said. "To go on to play 100 Tests was amazing. Playing cricket for so long has been a privilege". Renowned for his cool head and affable nature, Karunaratne also proved a shrewd leader. Taking over the captaincy at a turbulent time in 2019, he led Sri Lanka to a historic series win in South Africa. To this day, Sri Lanka remain the only Asian team to conquer the Proteas in their own backyard. Karunaratne relinquished the captaincy in 2023, saying it was time for younger cricketers to lead. He said that after a playing career with "lots of happy memories" he now wanted to spend time with his family, and move into coaching. "I intend to take up coaching," he said Sunday. "I want to get qualified ... I will start coaching either here or overseas. str-pjm/dh
Khaleej Times
09-02-2025
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
'Emotional' Karunaratne eyes coaching career after Test farewell
Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne said on Sunday it had been "a very emotional day" after his 100th and final Test ended with a defeat to Australia. The veteran opening batsman Karunaratne was given the honour of bowling the final few balls as Australia wrapped up a nine-wicket win and series sweep before lunch on the fourth day in Galle. "It has been a long career -- after my family and friends, I was spending most time with my teammates," he said. "I am leaving them, but this team will be always in my heart." The 36-year-old former skipper was a rock at the top of the Sri Lankan order for more than a decade, but had gone 25 innings without a century. He said that after a playing career with "lots of happy memories" he now wanted to spend time with his family, and move into coaching. "I intend to take up coaching," he said on Sunday. "I want to get qualified ... I will start coaching either here or overseas. Meanwhile, a clinical Australia took a little over three days to pound Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the second Test and complete a 2-0 series sweep. Australia's first series victory in Sri Lanka since 2011 is a timely boost for a team that will be defending their World Test Championship (WTC) title in the final against South Africa in June. Australia were in the box seat having taken a decisive lead of 157 in the spin-dominated contest at the Galle International Stadium. When the fourth day's play started, the touring side needed 25 minutes to claim the last two Sri Lankan wickets and bowl out the hosts for 231 in their second innings. Steve Smith's men returned to chase down the 75-run target, losing the lone wicket of opener Travis Head. Usman Khawaja (27) and Marnus Labuschagne (26) guided Australia to victory with Karunaratne bowling the last over.
