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/ 23 February 2008
A shaky peace deal in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took another hit on Friday when renegade general Laurent Nkunda said his group would no longer participate in daily ceasefire meetings. He said he had taken the decision after the United Nations accused forces loyal to him of massacring at least 30 villagers.
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/ 23 February 2008
Passengers travelling between European Union countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their cellphone numbers and credit-card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years.
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/ 22 February 2008
Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq in their hunt for Kurdish PKK guerrillas, the military said on Friday, but the United States and the European Union urged Ankara to keep the campaign limited. The White House said the US had been informed in advance of the incursion and urged Turkey to limit the operation to ”precise targeting” of the PKK rebels.
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/ 22 February 2008
Violence in eastern Chad is preventing aid workers from reaching thousands of refugees who fled Sudanese government attacks in Darfur last week. Beatrice Godefroy, head of the Swiss branch of Médecins Sans Frontières in Chad, said that up to 8 000 refugees had poured across the border from Darfur last week.
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/ 20 February 2008
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rejected demands to quit on Wednesday and called for a ”harmonious coalition” as victorious opposition parties mulled a grouping that could force the key United States ally from power. Musharraf was making his first official comments since Monday’s crucial parliamentary vote.
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/ 20 February 2008
Nato peacekeepers closed off roads between Serbia and northern Kosovo and armed United Nations police officers guarded smouldering border checkpoints on Wednesday as thousands of Serbs protested against Kosovo’s independence. For three days, Kosovo’s Serbs have shown their anger over Sunday’s declaration of independence.
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/ 20 February 2008
Tony Blair’s hopes of becoming Europe’s first president are running into mounting opposition across the European Union, with Germany determined to stymie the former prime minister. ”There was surprise in Berlin when Blair’s name came up so soon,” said a European ambassador.
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/ 19 February 2008
United States President George Bush on Tuesday recognised the independence of Kosovo from Serbia and said it would bring peace to the Balkans. Bush said during an African tour in Dar es Salaam that the United States would soon establish full diplomatic relations with the majority Albanian country.
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/ 18 February 2008
Europe’s biggest states recognised the independence of Kosovo on Monday, ending hours of suspense after Prime Minister Hashim Thaci assured his new republic that Western recognition would come ”any minute”. France was first to announce its move after a European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
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/ 18 February 2008
Kosovo looked forward on Monday to recognition by the Western powers who went to war to save its Albanian majority, but Russia served notice the new state will never be forced on its Serb allies in the territory. Fireworks brought to a close a day of celebration in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where Parliament adopted a declaration of independence from Serbia.
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/ 17 February 2008
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. Serbia responded immediately by calling its mainly Albanian breakaway province a false state and condemning the United States for supporting it.
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/ 16 February 2008
Two-thirds of the Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan can be persuaded to abandon violence, according to a British aid worker expelled from the country for opening talks with some of those allied to the militant group. Michael Semple said he was confident that most Taliban-linked insurgents could be absorbed into Afghanistan’s reconciliation process.
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/ 16 February 2008
Just before dawn on one of Kosovo’s last mornings as a Serbian province, young military cadets are being put through their paces on a concrete drill field. The 38 young men and women in matching tracksuits represent Kosovo’s hopes for the future, at least for its Albanian majority. As dense clouds of jackdaws swoop and wheel above them, they run in perfect formation, chanting their determination to defend the new nation.
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/ 13 February 2008
The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a plan to fingerprint all foreigners visiting 24 European countries. The electronic register, similar to a policy adopted by the United States after the September 11 2001 attacks could go into effect by 2015 if governments and European lawmakers agree, the European Union executive said.
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/ 13 February 2008
When the world’s largest merchant ship ferries its monthly cargo of 13Â 000 containers between China and Europe it burns nearly 350 tonnes of fuel a day. The Emma Maersk supplies Britain with everything from toys and food to clothes and televisions, but its giant diesel engine can emit more than 300Â 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
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/ 13 February 2008
Former leader of the Democratic Alliance Tony Leon, who now speaks for the party on foreign affairs, has launched a scathing attack on South Africa’s plan to host a second World Conference against Racism in Durban next year. "Quite what good will come of this exercise remains open to serious question," he said.
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/ 12 February 2008
The odds are against Zimbabwe’s elections next month being free or fair despite South African efforts to mediate between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition, Britain’s Africa minister said. ”We want to keep an open mind on this … but the omens and early signs are not good,” said Mark Malloch-Brown.
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/ 11 February 2008
The United States administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines. The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration.
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/ 10 February 2008
Chad’s rebels said on Saturday they controlled the centre of the landlocked country and would hold their position in an effort to lure government troops from the capital into an open battle in the desert. A spokesperson for the rebels said they occupied the towns of Mongo and Bitkine in rugged central Chad, about 500km from the capital.
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/ 8 February 2008
A declaration of Kosovo’s independence by the end of next week looked increasingly likely on Friday after Serbia said it had information the ”illegal” move would happen on February 17. Belgrade and most Serbs oppose independence for Kosovo, which they consider the cradle of their history, culture and Orthodox Christianity.
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/ 8 February 2008
Residents of Chad’s curfew-bound capital, Ndjamena, did their best on Friday to resume normal life amid the ruins of a rebel attack and mounting protests over arbitrary arrests and alleged summary executions. The Chadian army said the rebels who were driven back from Ndjamena had withdrawn to Mongo, 400km east of the city.
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/ 8 February 2008
Kenya’s political rivals tried to inject some momentum on Friday into slow-moving peace talks brokered by former United Nations head Kofi Annan, aimed at ending weeks of bloodshed. Four people were killed overnight in tribal violence in the Kisii region of Nyanza province in western Kenya, two of whom were ”hacked to death”, police said.
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/ 8 February 2008
De Beers, the world’s top diamond producer, posted a dip in 2007 diamond sales on Friday, but forecast a rebound this year amid a tight market that was expected to keep prices buoyant. ”We are in an environment where the rough diamond market is strong,” managing director Gareth Penny told a conference call.
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/ 7 February 2008
Chad President Idriss Déby Itno called on the European Union on Thursday to deploy a peacekeeping force urgently to the east, as his government sought to tighten security after a weekend rebel assault. Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew across the capital, Ndjamena.
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/ 7 February 2008
Egypt’s Foreign Minister said that no further violations of its borders would be tolerated in the wake of a 12-day breach on its frontier with Gaza and said anyone daring to cross would have their legs broken. The assertive remarks by Ahmed Aboul Gheit came during a late night interview on state television.
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/ 7 February 2008
While it was designed to cut costs and reduce bureaucracy, a new video-conference facility launched in Parliament on Thursday gave MPs the chance to see what their colleagues in the provinces look like. National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete hoped the project would one day link the government to rural areas.
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/ 5 February 2008
It is hoped that four more South Africans will be airlifted from Chad to Gabon on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The four South Africans were already at the French military base in Chad’s capital Ndjamena. Three other South Africans remained stranded and were still hoping to fly out of the country.
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/ 5 February 2008
Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region said on Tuesday that their fighters were engaged in Chad, but they were fighting Sudanese army forces that were backing rebels trying to oust Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno. The Chad army earlier said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces and rebels on a frontier town on the Chad-Sudan border on Sunday.
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/ 5 February 2008
The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned the rebel attacks in Chad and urged world support for the embattled government as the insurgents threatened a new assault on the capital. A statement drafted by France, Chad’s former colonial ruler, "strongly condemns these attacks and all attempts at destabilisation by force".
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/ 4 February 2008
Thousands of civilians fled Chad’s capital Ndjamena on Monday after rebel forces pulled back from a two-day assault, but the rebels said they would attack again to try to topple President Idriss Déby Itno, whose government said it had beaten off more than 2Â 000 insurgents.
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/ 4 February 2008
From Monday morning Serbia faces up to a bruising battle over how to react to the looming secession of its southern province of Kosovo, after President Boris Tadic, a pro-Western liberal, won a renewed five-year term in a close election on Sunday night.
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/ 3 February 2008
About 125 000 flag-waving Turks, mostly women, denounced the Islamic-rooted government on Saturday over its plans to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves in universities — a move the foreign minister said would expand Turkish freedoms.