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/ 31 October 2007
Major powers plan to meet in London this week to discuss new sanctions on Iran amid a spat between Washington and the United Nations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, United States officials said on Tuesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Tuesday that Iran would not retreat in the dispute.
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/ 30 October 2007
About 36 000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu after weekend fighting, the worst in months between Ethiopian troops backing the interim government and Islamist-led rebels, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. Most of the displaced headed for the town of Afgooye, 30km to the west, which is already struggling to cope with 100 000 people.
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/ 30 October 2007
Darfur rebels boycotting peace talks in Libya said on Tuesday they would meet envoys from an African Union-United Nations mediation team but specified conditions that gave little hope they would change their positions. Mediators had hoped to unite the rival rebel factions before peace talks opened in Libya on October 27.
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/ 30 October 2007
Tropical Storm Noel — the 14th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season — headed toward the Bahamas on Tuesday after causing flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people in the Dominican Republic and left another 20 missing, officials said.
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/ 30 October 2007
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed called crisis talks on Tuesday to find a new prime minister as the country’s shaky government faced a mounting challenge from Islamist rebels.
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/ 30 October 2007
The United Nations Security Council renewed arms and diamond sanctions against Côte d’Ivoire on Monday in a bid to make the West African country stick to the terms of a peace process. A resolution passed by the council extended the sanctions for a further year but promised to review them during that period.
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/ 30 October 2007
The United Nations on Monday demanded that the Taliban stop killing aid workers and looting aid convoys so that emergency supplies can reach vulnerable Afghans. Tom Koenigs, head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, said 34 aid workers had been killed by the Taliban and criminal gangs and 76 abducted so far this year.
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/ 30 October 2007
African countries working jointly to construct an undersea telecoms cable should harmonise laws governing the sector if they are to land the much-awaited communications link, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. About 23 nations have long harboured a much-delayed plan to build the submarine cable to slash internet and calling costs.
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/ 29 October 2007
United Nations and African Union officials are to travel to Darfur this week to try to convince key rebel leaders to join peace talks aimed at resolving the crisis in the Sudanese region, the AU said on Monday. Noureddine Mezni, spokesperson for the AU, said the officials would travel to Darfur ”in the next few days”.
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/ 29 October 2007
Environment ministers from 38 African countries met in Abuja, Nigeria, on Monday to discuss climate change and prepare for the United Nations global climate conference to be held on the island of Bali, Indonesia, in December. The Bali meeting is expected to produce a new global climate deal to curb carbon emissions.
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/ 29 October 2007
Darfur rebels accused Sudanese government forces of attacking an area along the border with Chad in violation of a unilateral ceasefire the government declared at the opening of peace talks in Libya. Rebels from two factions, which did not attend the talks, said on Monday the government had attacked the Jabel Moun area along the Chad-Sudan border on Saturday.
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/ 29 October 2007
African leaders and technology experts met on Monday in Rwanda to discuss plans to boost the continent’s development by securing universal internet access by 2012. Several heads of state attended the Connect Africa gathering, organised by the International Telecommunication Union and supported by international bodies including the African Union.
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/ 29 October 2007
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has arrived in Baidoa to resign in front of the Parliament later on Monday following a lengthy political feud with President Abdullahi Yusuf, officials and diplomats said. The Gedi-Yusuf split had weakened the government as it faced an Islamist-led insurgency this year.
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/ 28 October 2007
Negotiators working to end four years of violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur ploughed on on Sunday despite predictions of failure by host Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi. Although the Sudanese government declared a unilateral ceasefire at the start of the meeting on Saturday, key rebel groups have boycotted the talks in the city of Sirte
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/ 28 October 2007
Sudan’s government declared an immediate unilateral ceasefire at the opening of Darfur peace talks on Saturday, but the absence of key rebels cast doubt on whether the move could produce meaningful progress. One rebel leader who did attend the gathering in the Libyan town of Sirte voiced reservations about Khartoum’s move.
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/ 27 October 2007
Delegations gathered in Libya on Saturday to launch talks to end four-and-a-half years of conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region but the absence of key rebels cast doubt on whether negotiations could produce any meaningful deal. On the eve of the African Union-United Nations-mediated talks in Sirte, two main rebel groups said they would not attend.
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/ 27 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said he is determined to attend a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon next month despite pressure from Britain that he be kept off the invitation list. ”Portugal said they would invite me,” Mugabe said in an interview published by state media in Angola on Friday.
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/ 27 October 2007
Darfur peace mediators said they will press on with negotiations due to start Saturday in Libya despite the decision by two main rebel groups to boycott the talks, saying time was running out for the war-torn Sudanese region. Officials from the United Nations and the African Union plan to open the negotiations with a call for an immediate ceasefire.
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/ 26 October 2007
Darfur’s two main rebel groups will not attend United Nations-African Union mediated peace talks in Libya, their leaders said on Friday, dashing any chance of a peace deal to end four-and-a-half years of conflict. ”We decided not to go,” said Justice and Equality Movement chief negotiator Ahmed Tugod Lissan.
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/ 26 October 2007
The Central African Republic’s President defended his country’s efforts to improve human rights at international donor talks on Friday meant to bolster much-needed economic and political reforms in his impoverished nation. Francois Bozize presented a new development strategy to European Union and United Nations officials.
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/ 26 October 2007
Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday as diplomatic efforts got under way in Ankara to avert a major offensive against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq. Turkey has massed up to 100 000 troops along the mountainous border before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3 000 guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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/ 26 October 2007
Nine French citizens have been arrested in Chad after being accused of attempting to take 103 orphaned children from Darfur out of the country to be adopted by French families, French media reported on Friday. The nine suspects were taken into custody at the airport of Abeche, in eastern Chad, as they were preparing to leave the country with the children.
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/ 25 October 2007
Humanity is changing Earth’s climate so fast and devouring resources so voraciously that it is poised to bequeath a ravaged planet to future generations, the United Nations warned on Thursday in its most comprehensive survey of the environment. The fourth <i>Global Environment Outlook</i> is compiled by 390 experts from observations, studies and data garnered over two decades.
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/ 25 October 2007
Disarray in both government and rebel ranks makes quick progress unlikely in Darfur peace talks billed by the United Nations as a ”moment of truth” to stop four-and-a-half years of violence in western Sudan. The best that can be hoped at the gathering in Libya, which begins on Saturday, is agreement to meet again.
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/ 25 October 2007
Burma’s detained democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is to hold surprise talks with a minister from the ruling junta today, according to sources in Burma. Residents in Rangoon, where Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under house arrest, told the Associated Press that she had left her home to meet officials.
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/ 25 October 2007
France is trying to shed its reputation as ”Africa’s policeman” but, despite efforts to involve European partners in peacekeeping missions, there are no signs it will hang up its baton just yet. France won backing last month for an European Union force to be deployed soon in east Chad and Central African Republic, where it already has troops stationed.
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/ 25 October 2007
Israeli officials prepared a plan on Wednesday to cut power supplies to the Gaza Strip amid violence that killed two Palestinian boys after a rocket salvo damaged an apartment building in the Jewish state. The United Nations has told Israel it must not inflict collective punishment by cutting vital supplies and services.
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/ 24 October 2007
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out Iran on Wednesday as ”perhaps the single greatest challenge” to US security, but stressed that diplomacy was the preferred way to end its nuclear drive. President George Bush last week warned that a nuclear-armed Iran evoked the threat of ”World War III”.
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/ 24 October 2007
Ethiopia has started re-erecting its famed Axum obelisk 30 months after it returned to the country from Italy where it stayed for 70 years, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is overseeing the operation.
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/ 24 October 2007
The latest clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have driven 33 000 more people from villages in Nord-Kivu province and a cholera outbreak is suspected, United Nations agencies reported on Wednesday. About 25 000 people have been uprooted in the rugged Rutshuru highlands about 50km north of the provincial capital, Goma.
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/ 24 October 2007
Africa’s cellphone connections rose by 15-million subscribers or 6,6% in the third quarter of 2007, according to figures from an industry trade body seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The GSM Association said subscribers to GSM and CDMA technologies totalled 241,2-million in the third quarter.
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/ 24 October 2007
The Islamist Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) announced on Wednesday that it would boycott Darfur peace talks due to open in Libya on the weekend, bringing to seven the number of rebel groups intending to stay away. The JEM said it had taken its decision in the light of consultations with six other rebel groups.