Latest News | Breaking News | Hot Current news /Hot waves

source-www.hindu.com

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Friday rejected the findings of a trio of United Nations-appointed investigators who said they doubted a video showing apparent executions by Sri Lankan soldiers was fake.
The reaction came after Philip Alston, U.N. special reporter on extrajudicial executions, on Thursday urged an independent inquiry after a forensic pathologist, a forensic video analyst and a firearms expert concluded the video was likely real.
Britain's Channel 4 television aired a video last year that it said shows government troops killing unarmed, naked, bound and blindfolded men during the army's final assault to smash the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The government immediately rejected it as a fraud perpetrated by Tamil Tiger supporters angry the separatist group had been defeated, and said its own investigation, using Sri Lankan civilian and military experts, had found it was doctored.
"We reject these allegations," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said. "In light of those continued contradictory findings, we can't accept it."
He was referring to some details Alston said the experts were unable to explain, like the movement of certain victims, 17 frames at the end of the video and the fact that the date encoded in the video -- July 17, 2009 -- is a month after war ended.
Nonetheless, all three concluded the footage was probably genuine, Alston said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Sri Lanka on Friday to allow an independent investigation into the allegations that executions had taken place.
"Obviously if the Sri Lankan armed forces and Sri Lankan government have done nothing wrong, it will have nothing to fear from an international investigation," her spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
"We believe a full and impartial investigation is critical if we're going to confront all the very big question marks that hang over this war," he said.
IN COUNTRY'S "BEST INTERESTS"
A credible independent inquiry would be in the "best interests" of Sri Lanka, Colville said.
Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge, called last May for an international investigation to assess whether Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels committed war crimes in the last burst of their conflict.
Bogollagama said that the government was still probing the video and other allegations of war crimes through a presidential panel of Sri Lankan experts. Alston has voiced doubts that a Sri Lankan probe will be impartial.
"We are not instantly dismissing anything. That cannot be done by a government," Bogollagama said. "The government is examining their allegations."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Thursday that an investigation should be done but would best be handled by Pillay's office. However, he added that Ban was considering appointing his own expert panel to advise him and assist the Sri Lankan government in following up on any war crimes that may have been committed.
Colville told Reuters: "We would help in any way we could or were asked to do."
In the past year, Pillay's office has played a role in major investigations into alleged war crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza and into a massacre in the West African nation Guinea.
Sri Lanka's government has repeatedly denied that its forces were guilty of war crimes or human rights breaches in the last months of its 25-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The government declared total victory in May.
source-http://www.nytimes.com

MIRPUR (Bangladesh): Following are the statistical highlights of the India-Sri Lanka tri-series match played on Tuesday.



# Sri Lanka's match-winning 283 for five is their highest total against India in Bangladesh.

# India's total of 279 for nine is also their highest total against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh.

# Chanaka Welegedara (5/66) has produced his career-best bowling performance in ODIs.

# Welegedara is the third Sri Lankan left-arm fast bowler, after Chaminda Vaas and Thilan Thushara, to take five wickets in an innings against India in ODIs.

# Thissara Perera (2/27) has produced his best bowling performance. Perera's unbeaten 36 is his highest innings in ODIs.

# Harbhajan Singh has claimed Upul Tharanga's wicket as 'caught and bowled' - his 17th in this way.

# Thilan Samaraweera's outstanding knock of 105 not out is his best ever innings -- his second hundred in ODIs.

# Samaraweera has become the second Sri Lankan batsman to make a hundred against India in Bangladesh. Sanath Jayasuriya was the first to achieve the distinction - 105 at Dhaka on June 1, 2000.

# Kumar Sangakkara has completed his 8,000 runs in ODIs. # Sangakkara is the fifth Sri Lankan to achieve the aforesaid feat, joining Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene.

# Sangakkara's 10th fifty against India is his 53rd in ODIs.

# Yuvraj Singh's 74 off 84 balls is his 43rd fifty in ODIs - his ninth against Sri Lanka.

# Dhoni and Yuvraj have added a 99-run partnership - India's highest for the fourth wicket against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh.
source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has received lots of compliments for his performance in Paa and the latest to join the bandwagon is Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.

"Sachin Tendulkar called to personally compliment me on Paa," the 68-year-old posted on his blog.

"I was waiting for him to finish his cricket matches with Sri Lanka and then invite him over to see the film at a private screening. But he beat me to it and went to a theatre and saw the film," Amitabh added.

Paa that released Dec 4 saw Amitabh playing Auro, a 12-year-old child suffering from progeria, a disease that accelerates ageing. The film was directed by R. Balakrishnan and also starred Vidya Balan and Abhishek Bachchan.

 source-http://www.ndtvmovies.com

CHENNAI: The Indian capital is in danger of losing its hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup following a scathing report on the Feroz Shah Kotla

   
   
   
       
itch after a One-ADay International was abandoned, Indian media reported on Tuesday.

The fifth and final One-Day International between Sri Lanka and India in New Delhi was called off after 23.3 overs on Sunday due to a dangerous pitch upon which the tourists had toiled to reach 83 for five before play was halted.

Match referee Alan Hurst had classified the pitch "unfit", a newspaper reported, quoting from the official's report to the International Cricket Council.

The classification was the worst of six possible categories, the newspaper said, and attracts a suspension of the status to host international matches for a period between 12-24 months.

The International Cricket Council's stringent new rules governing venues came into effect in October this year.

The stadium is due to stage four matches of the World Cup to be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from Feb 19 to April 2, 2011.

"The pitch did not meet the requirements for an ODI match," the paper quoted Hurst's report as saying.

"This meant the players were unsure of what the ball would do. However, of more concern was the dangerous bounce that occurred randomly and accounted for batsmen being struck on a number of occasions.

"The pitch did not allow players to play with any confidence and was totally unsuitable for international cricket."

The Board of Control for Cricket in India had received a notice classifying the pitch as "unfit" and has been given 14 days to respond, the paper said.

The BCCI's response along with the match footage will be reviewed by the ICC's chief referee Ranjan Madugalle and the governing body's cricket operations manager Dave Richardson before a decision is pronounced.

Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill said the fiasco was shameful for the country.

"It is very unfortunate and a great embarrassment for the country. It should not have happened," he told domestic media.



 SOURCE-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com