Dilshan eyes cricket series win after Lord's victory

By Julian Guyer | AFP – 2 hrs 7 mins ago

Dinesh Chandimal's (pictured, R) unbeaten 105, the 21-year-old's second hundred in …

Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan (pictured) believes a one-day series win against …

Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan believes a one-day series win against England is within his side's grasp after a six-wicket victory at Lord's put the tourists 2-1 up with two to play.

Dinesh Chandimal's unbeaten 105, the 21-year-old's second hundred in just six matches at this level, saw Sri Lanka capitalise on a disciplined bowling display after they held England to a sub-standard 246 for seven.

Chandimal won the match for the World Cup finalists with 10 balls to spare by smashing James Anderson for four.

Sri Lanka might have got there sooner had not Angelo Mathews, whose one not out took 21 balls, been so determined to make sure Chandimal got to a hundred.

Sri Lanka may have lost their rain-affected opener at The Oval by 110 runs but their second victory in three days, following their 69-run success at Headingley, has seen them come from behind to take the lead.

"We are playing good cricket, if we play like this we can win the next two matches," Dilshan told reporters.

So determined was Mathews to make sure Chandimal, who eventually reached three figures with a six off medium-pacer Tim Bresnan, got to a hundred he played out a maiden in the 47th over to the visible despair of his captain.

"That disappointed me a little bit but they are youngsters, they are learning every time in the middle," Dilshan said.

"Getting a hundred at Lord's is really special for him (Chandimal).

"He played like an experienced guy and he finished the game. That's a good sign for Sri Lanka," Dilshan added of the man-of-the-match.

Meanwhile veteran opener Mahela Jayawardene followed up his career-best 144 at Headingley with a superb 79 at Lord's.

"They have a very good bowling attack but Mahela is not giving the bowlers anything, he's hitting every loose ball for runs," said Dilshan.

England captain Alastair Cook, who made a career-best 119 at Lord's, was taken aback by the way Mathews refused easy runs.

"It was different, I've never seen that before," Cook said. "They were perfectly entitled to do it if they want, but it was a bit strange and the cricketing gods may look at that in a bit of disgust."

Cook's second century in 29 ODI matches ultimately could not disguise the fact no other England batsman made more than Kevin Pietersen's 41.

"It's nice for a bit of confidence to score runs, but never nice in a losing cause. You want to score runs when you win, it's far more satisfying.. We were 40 runs short."

England's seam bowlers rarely looked like taking wickets on a good pitch, with off-spinner Graeme Swann's two for 32 too late to affect the result.

However, Cook insisted: "We've played on some pretty flat pitches and what we are thinking is the right way and we just need a little luck to go our way."

Stuart Broad, largely ineffectual during England's 2-1 Test series win against Sri Lanka, went wicketless for the third match in a row, the fast-medium bowler conceding 52 runs in 10 overs at Lord's.

Despite being the son of match referee Chris Broad, the former England opening batsman, he arrived at Lord's on the back of being fined 50 percent of his match fee at Headingley.

Broad was punished for "unacceptable and offensive remarks" to New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden regarding a rejected lbw decision.

However, Cook said it would not surprise him if Broad -- England's Twenty20 captain -- came good at the seamer's Trent Bridge home ground in Nottingham, where the fourth match of this series take place on Wednesday.

"At the moment it's not quite going for Broady, a bit like the Tests, but this is what cricket does," said Cook.

"If he gets a five-for next week at his home ground next week it will be worth it.

"He overstepped the mark (at Headingley), he accepts that."

Gaddafi can stay in Libya if he quits: rebel chief

By Maria Golovnina | Reuters – 3 hrs ago

Head of National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil speaks during an interview …

A rebel prepares his improvised 68mm rocket launcher on the front line, in the village …

6 hrs ago

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi is welcome to live out his retirement inside Libya as long as he gives up all power, Libya's rebel chief said in the clearest concession the rebels have so far offered.

Gaddafi has resisted all international calls for him to go and said he will fight to the end, but members of his inner circle have given indications they are ready to negotiate with the rebels, including on the Libyan leader's future.

Gaddafi is still holding on to power, five months into a rebellion against his 41-year rule and despite a NATO bombing campaign and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.

"As a peaceful solution, we offered that he can resign and order his soldiers to withdraw from their barracks and positions, and then he can decide either to stay in Libya or abroad," rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told Reuters in an interview.

"If he desires to stay in Libya, we will determine the place and it will be under international supervision. And there will be international supervision of all his movements," said Jalil, who heads the rebels' National Transitional Council.

Speaking in his eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi, Abdel Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, said he made the proposal about a month ago through the United Nations but had yet to receive any response from Tripoli.

He said one suggestion was that Gaddafi could spend his retirement under guard in a military barracks.

Abdel Jalil's remarks stirred an emotional reaction in Benghazi, with a small protest against any talks with Gaddafi breaking out outside a hotel, and the rebel council playing down any speculation about a widening rift among its leaders.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a council vice chairman, told reporters an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Gaddafi had now made any such proposal null and

Meanwhile Turkey, which had close economic ties to Gaddafi before the uprising, pledged $200 million in aid for the rebels Sunday, in addition to a $100 million fund announced in June.

The rebels say they need more than $3 billion to cover salaries and other needs over the next six months.

"Public demand for reforms should be answered, Gaddafi should go and Libya shouldn't be divided," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Benghazi.

He added that Turkey saw the rebel council as the people's legitimate representative.

DEADLOCK

The conflict in Libya is close to deadlock, with rebels on three fronts unable to make a decisive advance toward the Libyan capital and growing strains inside NATO about the cost of the operation and the lack of a military breakthrough.

Previous attempts to negotiate a peace deal have foundered, but some analysts say Gaddafi's entourage -- if perhaps not the Libyan leader himself -- may look for a way out as air strikes and sanctions narrow their options.

Gaddafi's daughter Aisha said last week her father would be prepared to cut a deal with the rebels though he would not leave the country.

But his son, Saif al-Islam, rejected calls for his father to quit Libya as the price of peace.

"To tell my father to leave the country, it's a joke. We will never surrender . We will fight. It's our country," he told French TV channel TF1.

"We have to fight for our country and you are going to be legitimate targets for us," he said of Western powers that have led air strikes against Libyan government forces.

In an address to supporters Friday, Gaddafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees."

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi -- part of a hardline camp which has clashed with Saif al-Islam on policy in the past -- said the Libyan people did not want Gaddafi to go.

"You see everyone, from small children to old men, all of them love Muammar Gaddafi, they all love him," he told Al-Arabiya television channel when asked if the Libyan leader would step down.

Libya's Jana news agency said Sunday Gaddafi had sent a message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mark Germany taking over the leadership of the U.N. Security Council, without giving further details. Germany said it had no knowledge of any such a letter.

On the battlefield, both sides continued to slug it out in a fight which has seen many casualties but, for the past few weeks, only small parcels of land changing hands.

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, said two rebel fighters had been killed on the outskirts of the city, where they are struggling to push back government forces and advance on the capital.

"The (pro-Gaddafi) brigades heavily bombarded Dafniyah and Bourouia last night. Two revolutionaries were martyred and 12 others wounded," the spokesman, who identified himself as Oussama, said from Misrata.

On the front closest to Tripoli, in the Western Mountains region, NATO aircraft dropped leaflets on the government-controlled town of Garyan, warning residents to stay in their homes, said a rebel spokesman called Mohammed.

The alliance last week launched air strikes on the town, which lies on the edge of rebel-held territory.

The rebel spokesman also said there was fighting with heavy weapons Saturday between rebels and government forces around the village of Ghezaya, in the mountains near the border with Tunisia.

AFRICAN PEACE PLAN

Western governments and the rebels had hoped that African Union leaders would use a summit this weekend to join international calls for Gaddafi to quit.

But they did not do that, and also agreed that the African Union's 53 member states would not execute the international arrest warrant for Gaddafi, according to a document seen by Reuters.

While that may irk the West, it does leave open the possibility that Gaddafi could end the conflict by opting for exile somewhere in Africa.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Erika Solomon and Isabel Coles in Dubai, Lamine Chikhi in Tripoli, Tarek Amara in Tunis and David Lewis in Malabo; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

"The Hobbit" like a family reunion for Elijah Wood

By Lesley Goldberg | Reuters – 14 hrs ago

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Elijah Wood's return to New Zealand to shoot his part in "The Hobbit" falls on the 10th anniversary of "The Lord of the Rings," a fact not unnoticed to the actor, who likens it to a family reunion.

"It's a rare opportunity to revisit a specific time in my life," Wood told The Hollywood Reporter. "It feels like I'm going back to a giant family reunion in a way; a lot of the same creative team are involved and a number of the cast are coming back."

Wood is reprising his role as Frodo and will be joined by returning "Rings" cast members Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis and Cate Blanchett, among several members of the crew.

While filming on the first feature, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," has begun, Wood said he won't be heading to New Zealand to film his scenes until the fall.

"I read the first script and it's incredible," Wood noted. "It definitely expounds upon the book; there are already characters that are cast that are not in the book, so that indicates that it goes slightly outside the boundaries in the structure of the original novel."

Despite his long-standing relationship with writer-director Jackson, Wood said he hasn't read the second script and has no idea how the big-screen adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels ends.

"For a while I was excited just at the notion of going back and seeing everybody and playing the character again," Wood said. "Then sitting down and reading it I became really genuinely excited about the films they were making. I think they're going to be amazing."

Wood will return to San Diego Comic-Con next month to promote his FX comedy "Wilfred," and said he's looking forward to the inevitable barrage of "Rings" and "Hobbit" questions.

"It's exciting to be able to talk about two projects at the same time that are at opposite ends of the spectrum," he said.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" opens December 14, 2012.

Water in India's famed Goa 'unfit for bathing

By Lita Barretto | AFP – 40 mins ago

Scientists warned on Friday that water off the famed beaches of the Indian holiday state of Goa was unfit for bathing and fishing due to high levels of bacteria from untreated sewage.

The National Institute of Oceanography, which is based in the former Portuguese colony, said the level of faecal coliform bacteria off the coast of Goa and in its rivers was higher than the international benchmark.

"For safe bathing and international standards it should be 100 CFU (colony forming units) per 100 millilitres but now it has touched 190" in some areas, said NIO scientist Dr N. Ramaiah.

Ramaiah said coastal waters tested by the scientists were generally above the limit, but the problem was most acute in the basins of Goa's two main rivers, the Mandovi and Zuari.

A colony forming unit is used in microbiology to measure the number of viable bacteria. Faecal coliform bacteria can be a product of human or animal waste but also storm water run-off or plant material.

Tourism officials expressed alarm at the findings, given the state's dependence on foreign visitors. Around 400,000 overseas tourists flock to Goa each year, with its long, sandy beaches a major draw.

"If there is such a phenomenon then it is a matter of concern," said state tourism director Swapnil Naik, who had yet to see the NIO report.

The findings come after a six-year assessment of water quality off the Konkan coast in western India, where the tiny state of Goa is found.

Scientists compared levels of faecal coliform bacteria in Goa's water with overall Indian levels and those from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

"Almost all the sewage released in the rivers is untreated. Even one gram of stools contains millions and millions of coliform bacteria. So when it is present in water naturally the count goes up," said Ramaiah.

The chairman of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, Simon de Souza, said the direct discharge of untreated sewage into the state's rivers or ocean was rare.

"But there are so many residential areas along the water bodies whose sewage might have been flowing into them," he said.

Sewage is collected in septic tanks in Goa but de Souza said that most were not big enough.

He suggested that high levels of bacteria may have been caused by ground water run-off during heavy monsoon rains.

Concerns over water quality are not the only environmental problem to hit Goa, which has also been battling an image problem after revelations of rising crime and drug abuse.

Coastal erosion is threatening to wash a number of beaches into the sea while illegal sand-mining has been blamed for silting watercourses and salinating freshwater basins, affecting fish stocks and other aquatic life.

India as a whole suffers from poor water management, with the country's most famous river, the holy Ganges, found to have 16 times the acceptable amount of coliform organisms for swimming at one point.

Thousands of litres of mainly untreated sewage also pours daily into the Yamuna, which runs through the capital, New Delhi, and is another sacred river to Hindus.

Weak or non-existent enforcement of environmental laws, rapid urban development and lack of awareness have all been blamed for water pollution.

Turnout key as Moroccans vote on king's reforms

By Souhail Karam | Reuters – 3 hrs ago

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  Thousands of people gather as they take part in a rally to support the government's …

RABAT (Reuters) - Moroccans voted on Friday in a referendum on a revised constitution offered by King Mohammed to placate "Arab Spring" street protesters and the "yes" camp was tipped to win despite boycott calls by opponents.

The new charter explicitly grants the government executive powers, but retains the king at the helm of the army, religious authorities and the judiciary and still allows him to dissolve parliament, though not unilaterally as is the case now.

That falls far short of the demands of the "February 20" protest movement, which wants a parliamentary monarchy where the king's powers would be kept in check by elected lawmakers.

However the movement so far has not attracted the mass support of popular uprisings that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. It urged Moroccans to boycott the vote and said a low turnout would back their calls for more radical reforms.

Turnout stood at 26 percent by midday local time (1100 GMT), according to the interior ministry. Preliminary results were due to be announced late on Friday, a ministry spokesman said.

"I voted 'yes' because we have to obey the Commander of the Faithful," retired agriculture ministry engineer Samira Denguir said in the middle-class Hassan suburb of the capital Rabat, referring to the king's religious role.

"A large 'yes' vote with a high abstention rate or spoiled ballots is not a great result, and the monarchy, Makhzen and (political) parties know it," said Lise Storm, senior lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Exeter in England.

The Makhzen is the royal court seen by many Moroccans as a largely unaccountable and shadowy political and business elite.

The 47-year-old ruler has had some success in repairing the legacy of human right abuses, high illiteracy and poverty he inherited after his late father's 38-year rule ended in 1999.

WESTERN ALLY

A staunch Western ally, Morocco under King Mohammed has stepped up cooperation against terrorism and illegal migration, notably with the European Union which is keen to avoid the spread of Islamic militancy along its southern shores.

But while his personal popularity is expected to swing many voters in favor of the reforms, the margin of victory could be eroded by resentment at wide disparities between rich and poor, and a sense of alienation from the political elite.

"I'm not voting because I couldn't get my voter card and to be totally honest I couldn't care less. If they really mean good they would have done it years ago," said market trader Younes Driouki, 29, heading to the beach with his surfboard.

Results of an online poll conducted by independent portal Lakome.com showed 52 percent of 51,200 participants saying they would boycott the referendum. The vast bulk of the rest said they would vote in favor, but such a low turnout would raise questions about the credibility of the exercise.

Some 13 million people registered to vote -- more than 6 million fewer than the 19.4 million Moroccans over 19 years old in a 2009 census. Moroccans above 18 are eligible to vote.

Hamid Benchrifa, an analyst from the Social Development Agency, said the disparity may be due either to voters not updating their identity cards after changing address, or a simple lack of interest in politics.

The February 20 movement has brought together Islamists bent on setting up an Islamic caliphate and secular left-wingers focusing on what they see as rising levels of corruption.

They say they will continue their common fight for a system of parliamentary monarchy and more curbs on the king's powers.

(Editing by Mark John and Mark Heinrich)