’600 killed in South Sudan’

The violence erupted Thursday in Jonglei state and the UN mission to South Sudan reported the death toll, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

South Sudan became independent from Sudan on July 5 to much international fanfare, but diplomats have expressed mounting concerns about stability in the country and tensions with the Khartoum government.

A UN team has been sent to Jonglei state and the head of the UN mission to South Sudan, Hilde Johnson, has appealed for restraint.

Thousands protest in Yemen against Saleh’s rule

Thousands of opposition supporters took to streets in the Yemeni capital on Thursday against Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.

The protest, the biggest staged against Saleh in past weeks, came despite the president announcing yesterday that he would not seek another term and that he had postponed controversial April elections – two key opposition demands.

The Tunisian and Egyptian upheavals have fueled people’s demands for political change across the Arab world. There have been calls for anti-government protests Thursday in Sudan, Friday in Jordan and Saturday in Syria.

Egypt chaos: Mubarak refuses to step down

Breaking News Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to bow to demands that he resign after ordering troops and tanks into cities in an attempt to quell protests against his 30-year rule. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to appoint a new government after firing his previous administration amid a wave of protests against his rule. Demonstrators were still out in the streets in the early hours of the morning, as were looters.

Parts of Cairo resembled a war zone, filled with smoke, rubble and the smell of tear gas. Mubarak dismissed his government and called for national dialogue to avert chaos after a day of battles between police and protestors. Medical sources said at least 24 people had been killed and over a thousand injured in clashes in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. ‘It is not by setting fire and by attacking private and public property that we achieve the aspirations of Egypt and its sons, but they will be achieved through dialogue, awareness and effort,’ he said in a televised address, his first public appearance since the protests began four days ago.US President Barack Obama said he had spoken with Mubarak and urged ‘concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people’.The army, deployed for the first time in the crisis, cleared Cairo’s Tahrir square towards midnight. Shortly after Mubarak’s speech, protestors returned in their hundreds, defying a curfew. They said sacking the cabinet was far from enough.’It was never about the government, by God. It is you (Mubarak) who has to go What you have done to the people is enough’ said one protestor.

Shots were heard in the evening near parliament and the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was in flames, the blaze lighting up the night sky. Cars were set alight and police posts torched. More than half of the dead in yesterday’s clashes were reported in Suez, the eastern city which has been ground zero for the most violent protests over the past four days.Mubarak, 82, has been a close ally of Washington and beneficiary of US aid for decades.The protests were triggered by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali. Street protests in Tunis focused on similar issues of poverty and political repression. Demonstrations have also flared in Yemen, Algeria, Sudan and Jordan in recent weeks.

Sudan Leader ‘diverted Funds’ to Britain: WikiLeaks

LONDON: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir siphoned off nearly six billion pounds of oil money into British bank accounts, according to US diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks Saturday.

The document quotes the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as saying that US officials should go public with the allegations about Bashir in order to turn Sudanese public opinion against him.

It said the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, told US officials that the figure allegedly put away by Bashir was possibly nine billion and “would change Sudanese public opinion from him being a ‘crusader’ to that of a thief.”

The document, released by the whistleblowing website a day after its founder Julian Assange was released on bail in Britain over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden, said that Lloyds Banking Group “may be holding or knowledgeable of the whereabouts of his money”.

Lloyds insisted it was not aware of any link with Bashir.

“We have absolutely no evidence to suggest there is any connection between Lloyds Banking Group and Mr Bashir,” a spokeswoman said.

“The group’s policy is to abide by the legal and regulatory obligations in all jurisdictions in which we operate.”

Bashir is wanted by The Hague-based court to face charges of genocide and war crimes in Sudan’s western province of Darfur. He is subject to two arrest warrants issued by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur.

Sudan: Authorities investigate whipping of woman on YouTube video

A YouTube video showing a Sudanese woman pleading and crying as she was flogged in public by police officers has prompted an inquiry by the country’s judicial authorities.

An investigation was started immediately into the lashing of a woman as seen on a website, and the implementation of sanctions that go against what is outlined in the criminal code, the judiciary said in a statement published in a number of Sudanese state-run newspapers.

The video, which has been circulated around the Internet over the last two days, shows a woman in a long black dress and a headscarf being whipped by two blue-uniformed police officers in what appears to be a government yard; a Sudanese flag stands nearby.

One of the officers is heard saying that the unidentified woman’s sentence is 50 … lashes, while others laugh in front of the camera when they realize that the incident is being filmed. Sudanese authorities initially downplayed the event. The timing of the video was intended to coincide with the Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 in order to defame the country. However, the governor of Khartoum, Abdul Rahman Al Khedr, said that the woman was rightfully punished according to the sharia law, but the violation was in the manner her punishment was carried out.

Khedr said his country won’t allow the incident to be politicized. In northern Sudan, where the law is based on Islamic sharia, the punishment for crimes such as adultery, prostitution or running a brothel can include up to 100 lashes. It is unknown what the woman’s crime was, but in the beginning of the video she is asked to either bend down or face two years in jail. The whipping was criticized by the anti-government Sudanese Women’s Union, which issued a statement calling the incident a shame, disgrace and humiliation to all Sudanese women.In 2009, Sudanese reporter and U.N employee Lubna Hussein was arrested and sentenced to 40 lashes for indecent clothing after she wore loose jeans in public. The sentence was ondemned by local and international human rights organizations, leading to the commutation of the sentence to a fine of $200.

U.S., Britain concerned about Darfur

EL FASHER: U.S. and British envoys voiced concern about the situation in Darfur on Friday, where refugees who fled violence in the remote region complained to them of hunger and deteriorating security.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said one of the complaints was that the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was not doing enough to protect them.

Some of this, she told reporters accompanying the U.N. Security Council on a trip to Uganda and Sudan, was due to unrealistic expectations of what blue helmet troops could do in a region of western Sudan as big as France.

“When you separate what is practical and reasonable to expect on the one hand, there’s still a pervasive feeling that we heard that it wasn’t enough,” she said, referring to the work of the roughly 22,000 UNAMID troops and police.

Rice said it was

OIC calls emergency meeting on Pak floods today

Staff Report

JEDDAH: The Secretary General of the Organization of The Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Akmal-ud-Din Ahsan Oglo has called an emergency meeting of the OIC to review the flood caused situation in Pakistan.

Pakistani Consul General in Jeddah, Abdul Saalik, said that the proposed emergency meeting of the OIC would be held at its headquarters.

The representatives of many Islamic countries including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Senegal, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and many others will attend this meeting.

During the meeting, all member countries will be urged to play their due role for the rehabilitation and relief work of Pakistan’s flood victims. SAMAA

Inception set to fend off three box office rookies

LOS ANGELES: Leonardo DiCaprio is set to remain king of the North American box office for a third weekend, despite the arrival of three new films led by the 3D sequel Cats Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.

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Inception set to fend off three box office rookies

3 more US troops die in Afghanistan

KABUL: Three more U.

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3 more US troops die in Afghanistan

Four bags of body parts handed over to CAA

ISLAMABAD: The search and rescue teams of Disaster Management Cell of Capital Development Authority on Friday handed over four more bags containing body parts of the passengers onboard the plane crashed on Margalla Hills.

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Four bags of body parts handed over to CAA

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