Tillakaratne Dilshan cracked a solid 54 as Sri Lanka reached 132-1 at lunch on the opening day of the first Test against Bangladesh in Galle today.

An Italian court on Thursday sentenced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to a year in prison over the publication of leaked transcripts from a police wiretap in a newspaper that he owns. Mr Berlusconi, who faces two more verdicts this month for tax fraud and having sex with an underage prostitute, can appeal the conviction which would suspend the sentence under Italian law.

The remote northeast is home to an ancient tribe whose high regard for women makes it a striking anomaly in a male-dominated country.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated today that Moscow will not push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit, saying it would be against Russian policy and in any case would be futile.

Clashes between Filipino militants and security forces in Borneo have left 60 people dead up to Thursday evening, including 52 of the armed intruders, according to Malaysian police.

President Barack Obama met a dozen Republican senators for dinner Wednesday, in a rare break from the rancor that has driven two years of paralyzing Washington rows over taxes and spending.

Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty on Wednesday after the death of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left.

Avignon, France: A French woman’s loyal German Shepherd dog saved her from committing suicide by knocking aside a rifle she tried to fire into her heart, local police said.

Paris: An oblong crystal found in the wreck of a 16th-century English warship is a sunstone, a near-mythical navigational aid said to have been used by Viking mariners, researchers said on Wednesday.

London: Prince William’s wife Catherine is normally careful to protect her privacy, so Britain’s newspapers seized Wednesday on what appeared to be a rare slip of the tongue suggesting that her unborn baby is a girl.
The Duchess of Cambridge, 31, was overheard telling a well-wisher offering a gift for the new royal heir that she would take it “for my d...”, before stopping herself, according to media reports.