Alaa Shahine
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/ 30 April 2007

Sudan rebels: Govt raid targets unity talks

Sudanese government aircraft on Sunday attacked the site where rebel leaders in the Darfur region were planning to hold unity talks, wounding several people, one of the faction leaders said. Ahmed Abdel Shafi, head of one of the Sudan Liberation Movement factions, told the media that rebels had brought down one of two helicopter gunships that took part in the attack.

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/ 25 April 2007

AU: Darfur militias acting with impunity

The African Union peacekeeping force in West Darfur told the United Nations on Wednesday that Arab militias were killing and pillaging in the region without arrests by the Sudanese authorities. Major Harry Soko, a Rwandan officer who briefed the head of the UN refugee agency, said that the presence of Sudanese rebel groups in his area had also led to conflict.

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/ 5 March 2007

Egypt’s bloggers test state media control

Egyptian bloggers have come into the spotlight, on the one hand as a forum for political debate, on the other as the target of government attempts to limit their freedom of expression. Earlier this month, Abdel-Karim Suleiman (22), became the first Egyptian jailed for his blogging when he was handed a four-year prison sentence.

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/ 4 December 2006

Egyptian children trade childhood for money

Mohamed Gad walks barefoot through the muddy tannery, seemingly not bothered by the acrid odours of chemicals and the stink of unprocessed skins. He places piles of shaved leather on a cart, pulls it across the workshop and unloads the lot next to the colouring drums where the leather is cleaned and tanned using chrome.

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/ 3 December 2006

Corpses contaminate Nile after Sudan clashes

Corpses of people killed during heavy clashes between the Sudanese army and former southern rebels have contaminated part of the Nile river, which civilians were depending on for drinking water. The fighting in the southern town of Malakal this week was the heaviest between government forces and their former southern rebel foes since they signed a peace deal last year.

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/ 7 September 2006

Israel begins lifting blockade of Lebanon

Israel began on Thursday to lift a blockade of Lebanon imposed when it went to war with Hezbollah guerrillas eight weeks ago, and a Lebanese airliner landed at Beirut’s patched-up airport to mark the moment. The Middle East Airlines flight from Paris circled over Beirut to celebrate the demise of the air embargo after intense diplomacy led by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.