BBC News with Nick Kelly.
An Internal United Nations report seen by the BBC says the UN was responsible for a grave failure to protect civilians in the final stage of Sri Lanka's civil war three and a half years ago. The draft report says senior UN staff in Colombo did not see it as their responsibility to prevent the killing of civilians. But John Holmes who was the UN and secretary general for humanitarian affairs at the time, says the accusation is untrue.
'I think everybody was doing their very best to protect the civilians and particular the Tamils who were trapped with the LTTE. The reality obviously is that the government were absolutely determined to finish that war, at any cost including to civilians they made that very clear at the time. I'm not prepared to listen either to answer the United Nations or to any of the world powers and the truth is also the rapid report doesn't make this point. None of the world powers is really prepared to do anything to stop them.'
France has become the first western power to formally recognise the new Syrian Opposition bloc that was formed on Sunday. The Franch President Francois Hollande said his country considered the coalition to be the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. Sebastian Usher reports.
Mr Hollande's announcement is a clear sign that West is now pinning its hopes on the Syrian opposition finally being able to offer a united and effective alternative to President Assad. Most significantly, Mr Hollande said the question of arming the rebels would be reviewed once the opposition established itself as a proper government in exile. The new opposition leaders say this is an urgent priority. The US and Britain have also talked up the legitimacy of the coalition, but stopped short of full recognition, both want to see it prove itself first.