Sri Lanka’s president has rejected a United Nations plan to appoint a panel of experts to look into allegations of human rights abuses in the nation’s civil war, a statement from the president’s office said Saturday. [...]

In New York, Mr. Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, confirmed that the secretary general had told Mr. Rajapaksa he intended to form a panel to “advise him on the way forward on accountability issues related to Sri Lanka.” [...]