UN tribunal names Hariri suspects

29 July 2011 Last updated at 15:36 GMT Wanted: Four men accused of murdering Rafik Hariri A UN-backed tribunal has released the names of the four indicted suspects in the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

They are all connected with the Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah.

The wanted men are Mustafa Amine Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah figure, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra.

Hezbollah is a key part of the Lebanese government and has said it will not allow the men to be arrested.

Their identities had already been leaked, as had their association with Hezbollah.

The tribunal said it was releasing the information in order to facilitate the arrest of the men.

Pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen ordered the lifting of confidentiality on the names, aliases, biographical information, photographs and charges against the individuals named in the indictment, the tribunal said in a statement.

Following the issue of the arrest warrants, the Lebanese authorities have until 11 August to inform the tribunal of the action they will take in response.

Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed in February 2005 in central Beirut when a huge bomb went off near his motorcade.

The assassination plunged Lebanon into a series of political crises, killings and bombings that led to sectarian clashes in 2008, dragging the country to the brink of civil war.

Hariri's son, Saad, has welcomed the indictments and described them as a "historic moment" for Lebanon.

However, there are widespread doubts about whether the authorities will act on the indictments and arrest the wanted men, says the BBC's correspondent in Beirut, in view of the influence wielded by Hezbollah in government.

Earlier this month, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the authorities would never arrest his members.

He dismissed the accusations as unfounded and a failed attempt to bring down Lebanon's new, Hezbollah-backed government.

"They cannot find them or arrest them in 30 days or 60 days, or in a year, two years, 30 years or 300 years," Nasrallah said at the time.

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Sri Lanka names new cricket board

1 July 2011 Last updated at 15:56 GMT Sri Lankan cricket is heavily in debt after co-hosting the 2011 World Cup The Sri Lankan government has dissolved the country's cricket board and appointed a new one amid claims of corruption and mismanagement.

The government says a new board will be elected in January.

Under new rules set by world cricket's governing body, national cricket boards must be elected and free of political interference within two years.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been run by political appointees on a temporary basis for years and is heavily in debt.

The cricket board owes more than $15m after co-hosting this year's World Cup with India and Bangladesh. Last month it sought financial help from the government and state bank.

'Wrong media reports'

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage told BBC Sinhala that the interim committee announced on Friday would serve until January when elections would be held.

"As per ICC recommendation we could have run an interim committee until 2013, but we will hold elections in January 2012," he said.

The new committee contains one former national player, Sidath Wettimuny, and three businessmen, headed by Upali Dharmadasa who was also part of the sport's governing body in the 1990s.

The changes come as cricket in Sri Lanka is going through rough times.

In April former national captain Hashan Tillekaratne claimed that match fixing had been a widespread practice in Sri Lankan cricket since 1992.

Shortly after the country co-hosted the World Cup this year, the captain, vice-captain and panel of selectors all resigned.

Although they did not say so, there has been much speculation that they had had enough of political interference in the game, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says.

Many fans were unhappy when veteran player Sanath Jayasuriya was recently recalled to the squad, apparently by virtue of being a government MP.

There is a widespread feeling that cricket is corruptly and badly run in Sri Lanka, our correspondent says.

But the sports minister denied this. He said accounts of mismanagement in cricket were exaggerated, adding: "There is no financial crisis in the SLC."

Members of both committees would face a parliamentary committee on 6 July to "clear their name from certain wrong media reports", he added.

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