News in Short

• The U.N. human rights chief has called for an International Criminal Court investigation into Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist conflict and sanctions on military officials accused of war crimes.
• Michelle Bachelet accused Sri Lanka of reneging on promises to ensure justice for thousands of civilians killed in the final stages of the 37-year separatist war that ended a decade ago.
• The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reversed some advances made under previous administrations in protecting human rights.
• Mr. Rajapaksa won a 2019 presidential election on a nationalist agenda which included a promise that troops who crushed Tamil rebels would not be prosecuted.
• Mr. Rajapaksa was the top defence official when government forces crushed the guerrillas in a military campaign that ended in May 2009. His brother Mr. Mahinda was President then and is currently Prime Minister.

• A research has designed and standardised a DNA amplification technique that will allow researchers to identify the species and sex of tigers and leopards from scat and tissue samples.
• The authors of the paper note that species authentication from scat and tissue samples is essential for detecting illegal wildlife trade and for formulating conservation strategies.
• As DNA in old scat from tigers has a high chance of degradation, very short, specific, DNA sequences can be targeted to identify the species and sex of tigers and leopards.
• Previous allele-specific (gene variant) methods at species identification targeted a specific nucleotide for amplification, but researchers at the GAC also altered a nucleotide, resulting in precise species and sex-specific amplification, making identification quick, and extremely efficient.

• Anthony Blinken was confirmed as the US secretary of State after his nomination was accepted by the US senate.
• Blinken, a long-time Biden associate, was approved by the Senate with a vote of 78-22 earlier in the day.
• With Blinken's confirmation, President Joe Biden now has a number of key members of his national security team in place.
• In addition to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was confirmed on Inauguration Day and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed later on.

• Oscar winning actress Cloris Leachman passed away in California in her sleep. She was 94.
• In her early television career, she appeared as Timmy's mother on the “Lassie” series. She played a frontier prostitute in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.
• She also had an occasional role as Ida on “Malcolm in the Middle,” winning Emmys in 2002 and 2006 for that show.
• In 2008, Leachman joined the ranks of contestants in “Dancing With the Stars”. She started out as Miss Chicago in the Miss America Pageant and willingly accepted unglamorous screen roles.
• During the 1950s, Leachman became busy in live TV drama, demonstrating her versatility, including in roles that represented casting standards of that era.

• Russian lawmakers have quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear Russia-U.S. arms control treaty, just days before it’s due to expire.
• Both houses of Parliament voted unanimously to extend the New START treaty for five years, a day after a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• The pact’s extension doesn’t require congressional approval in the U.S., but Russian lawmakers must ratify the move and Mr. Putin has to sign the relevant Bill into law.