A peace deal signed three months ago between Sudan’s government and the main rebel group in Darfur has failed to halt violence in the region, the United Nations said on Wednesday, citing an increase in rape and continued attacks by militias and rebel factions.
Israel decided on Wednesday to expand its ground offensive in Lebanon despite United Nations diplomacy to end the four-week-old war. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet ordered the move to send troops further into Lebanon, possibly as far as the Litani River, up to 20km from the border, to strike at Hezbollah.
Over 100 fires were burning on Wednesday in Galicia, northern Spain, an official said, as police investigated claims, including from the minister of environment, that arsonists had been at work. Sixty-seven of the 110 fires were out of control, according to a local government spokesperson, who said firefighters had spent the night trying to prevent the flames from spreading.
Almost 2Â 000 bodies were taken to Baghdad’s morgue in July, the highest tally in five months of rising sectarian bloodshed that has forced the United States to boost troop levels in the capital to head off a civil war. Morgue assistant manager Dr Abdul Razzaq al-Obaidi said on Wednesday that about 90% had died violently.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday he was in good health, and denied suggestions in web-based media that he had left the country at the weekend to seek medical treatment. State television said Mugabe returned home after a three-day private visit to Malaysia to join his wife who had accompanied a group of local students to a university there.
Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels on Wednesday stormed out of peace talks with the government demanding that the latter declare a ceasefire to help efforts to end their two-decade civil war, officials said. "We stormed out of the talks after we informed the mediator that we are not ready to proceed with the negotiations," Obonyo Olweny said.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged half a billion dollars to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, the fund announced on Wednesday. The promise came in the run-up to the 16th International Aids Conference, opening in the Canadian city of Toronto on Sunday.
Islamic militia on Wednesday seized control of a strategic township near the Ethiopian border from Somalia’s transitional government, further expanding their territory, officials and residents said. There were no reported casualties in the clash, which saw only a brief exchange of fire at about 7am local time.
”We are ready for war,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said, his hair cropped in a buzz cut, but still voicing the arrogance that has won many games — and few friends. ”I don’t care too much about image,” he said. ”I don’t think it’s possible to be loved by everyone. Not in a lifetime and especially not in football.”
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday that Women’s Day amounts to nothing if the celebrations take place against a backdrop of lack of delivery. "Women’s Day celebrations should be accompanied by the delivery of services … ," Rasool told thousands of women who had gathered at the Gugulethu sports complex to celebrate Women’s Day.