Immediate Action Urged for Combating Global Warming at UN Climate Change Conference

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The atmosphere inside and outside the Bali International Convention Center is different as the ongoing conference is bringing together thousands of representative from over 180 countries, as well as observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, who are intensively discussing and negotiating on ways and measures that should be adopted to combat climate change. Worldwide efforts on tackling the worsening global warming is gaining steam and momentum at the conference, which is tasked withdrawing up a "roadmap" for negotiations on a new deal before the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires by 2012. As numerous discussions, meetings and press conferences were going on inside the closed doors at the center, dozens of side events were being held by nongovernmental organizations, academics, the private sector and others. All were trying to sell their idea on how to save the planet.

Some organizations were sounding alarming bells about the climate change in their press releases and publications, and called for immediate actions in tackling the challenge of climate change. Others were trying to offer solutions to the problem. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yve de Boer said that the climate change being felt around the world has created a public awareness about the issue of global warming. This year's scientific report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made clear beyond doubt that climate change is a reality and can seriously harm the future development of the world's economies, societies and eco-systems. Human activities are blamed for the accelerating global warming.

On the conference's progress so far, Yve de Boer said that the meetings were "going well." He termed the fact that many countries have come prepared with their own proposals on how the process should move forward as "encouraging." The climate change is such a "big and complicated" issue. The problem can only be solved by working together, he said, adding that however, the Bali conference would not finalize a post-2012 climate deal, but could "put in place a two-year process to work towards such a deal." He also said that "I think it's clear to everyone that industrialized countries must continue to take the lead (in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases) and must reduce their emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020." The challenge for most of the developing countries in the world in tackling the climate change is how to achieve a balance in growing economy, while reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, he said. He hoped that modern clean technology can help developing countries grow economy in a clean way so as to reduce air pollution which leads to high public health costs and help them avoid making the same mistakes that were made in the West.

The main goal of the Bali Conference is to launch negotiations on a climate change deal for the post-2012 period, to set the agenda for these negotiations and to reach agreement on when these negotiations will have to be concluded, according to the UNFCCC. The U.N. climate change conference, which kicked off on Dec. 3 and will end on Dec. 14. At the end of the conference, a decision is expected to launch a new process to shape a deal on a post-2012 climate change regime, said the UNFCCC.
By Gao Li, Ren Haijun
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Darfur and Mugabe Threaten to Eclipse Summit

Spiegel On-Line Dec. 7th. - This weekend's EU-Africa summit is supposed to be about tackling issues such as trade, immigration and climate change. But the ongoing conflict in Darfur and the presence of Zimbabwe's President Mugabe have led to calls for human rights to take center stage. European Union and African leaders are gathering in Lisbon Friday for their first summit in seven years to discuss a range of issues, including trade, climate change and immigration. But there has been criticism from a number of quarters that the issues of human rights and the continuing conflict in Darfur are not being given enough prominence at the event. In the run-up to the summit, activists, writers and politicians have slammed the organizers for not placing the Darfur conflict at the top of the agenda. There has also been criticism of the decision to invite Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of corruption, economic mismanagement and human rights abuses.

On Friday, a group of 90 European and African parliamentarians and human rights activists appealed to their leaders to tackle the crisis in Darfur, the region of Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed and millions displaced. The United Nations approved a UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in July but there have been doubts cast about the mission's viability due to restrictions imposed by Sudan. Earlier in the week, leading writers from the two continents, including Vaclav Havel, Günter Grass, Ben Okri and J. M. Coetzee, accused the EU and African leaders of "political cowardice" for failing to put "two of the world's worst humanitarian crises" -- Zimbabwe and Darfur -- at the top of the summit's agenda. "We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage," the 14 authors said in an open letter published on Tuesday. "When they fail to do so, they leave all of us morally impoverished."

One leader, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, did make a stand on the issue of Zimbabwe, deciding to boycott the weekend meeting because Mugabe was attending. The Zimbabwean president is normally banned from Europe for allegedly rigging his re-election in 2002. While still revered by many Africans as a liberation leader, his regime has become increasingly autocratic and unemployment and inflation are now rampant in the country. On Thursday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that he didn't want the summit to be "taken hostage" by the Mugabe issue. He said he respected Brown's decision, but added: "Life has taught me that if you are in international politics sometimes you have to meet people your mother would not like to see you with." He also pointed out that the summit's first session will be on the issue of human rights. The EU president said the summit should be a "new departure" in relations between the continents, based on equal partnership and "moving away from the mere donor-beneficiary relationship to launch a true partnership between Africa and Europe, based on common interests and tackling other global challenges." The 48 leaders from Africa and 26 from Europe will be addressing the issues of immigration and climate change, as well as energy, trade and development, during the summit on Saturday and Sunday. Immigration is one of the most important issues affecting relations between the two continents. Every year hundreds of thousands of Africans embark on perilous journeys to try to reach the shores of Europe; thousands never make it. The EU has recently touted the idea of a "blue card" scheme to encourage the immigration of skilled migrants, but that may not do much to resolve the problem of the thousands of illegal migrants, many from Africa, living in poverty in Europe.

Trade will also be a key issue at the summit. With Europe dependent on Russia for a quarter of its energy supplies, many countries are looking for other more reliable sources -- and Africa is rich in natural resources. The EU is mindful that it may have missed the boat in availing itself of these resources, given that energy-hungry China has been dramatically increasing its investment in Africa since the 1990s. However, human rights may still end up dominating the conference. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to give a keynote speech in Lisbon and Berlin has made it known that she will address the issue of human rights. Merkel has not shied away from tackling the issue in the past, for example during her visit to China this year. And as G-8 leader at the Heiligendamm summit in June of this year, Merkel chose to make Africa a central issue.
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Darfur Causing Chaos in Central African Republic

Spiegel Online, Dec. 5th. - The war in Sudan's Darfur region has spread to epidemic proportions and is now plunging the neighboring Central African Republic into chaos. This is just adding one more problem to a country that has been torn apart by its own internal divisions for decades.

The captain is in good spirits. "Look how beautiful my pistol is and how nicely it sits in my hand," he says. "I made it myself." Laurent Djim-Woei Bebiti swings his right arm around and aims the weapon -- in reality little more than a sawed-off shotgun -- at his men, then into the humid forest and finally into the air. He stands there, one arm stretched to the sky, the other holding up his trousers, a rebel wearing a dirty, green uniform, a knife and satellite telephone slung from his belt. His boyish face is half-covered by a floppy, oversized hat and thin stubble covers his chin. The captain is 35 years old. Suddenly Bebiti's mood changes without any apparent reason. His eyes flash wildly and his men anxiously huddle up, clutching weapons including rusted shotguns, spears, machetes and knives, Kalashnikovs and rifles. Bebiti's group calls itself the "People's Army for the Reestablishment of the Republic and Democracy," or APRD. Behind that grand title hides a bunch of desperados -- 10-year-old kids wielding World War II-era rifles, medicine men with their amulets and magic powders, and adolescents with pirate bandanas on their heads. The forests are home to this motley-looking militia opposed to the government in the capital Bangui. The inhabitants of the Central African Republic call their country "Bê-Afrîka" -- the heart of Africa -- in Sango, their native language. The country is halfway between the Mediterranean and South Africa, and it would take almost as long to drive to the Atlantic Ocean as it would to the Indian Ocean, if of course the roads were navigable.

The place that ship captain and writer Joseph Conrad wrote about in his famous novel "Heart of Darkness" more than 100 years ago couldn't have been far from the disease-ridden central African swamps and their native pygmy populations. The region also holds the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of the AIDS and Ebola viruses. In addition to being the continent's geographic center, the Central African Republic epitomizes Africa's many ills. The country is plagued by a number of interrelated wars. Across the Ubangi River in neighboring Congo, rebels led by ethnic Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda are embroiled in a bitter struggle with government troops dispatched from the capital Kinshasa. The northeastern part of the Central African Republic, which is about the size of Afghanistan, is home to a guerilla organization that calls itself the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) and is most likely supported by the Sudanese government. Forests in the northwestern part of the country have been the hideout for the APRD's would-be warriors since June 2005. There are also other rebel groups that tend to change sides as frequently as they change names, a number of which receive their weapons from neighboring countries.

The government in Bangui, for its part, receives support from neighboring Chad, from peacekeeping forces from Gabon and the Republic of Congo and from a few hundred French paratroopers. France, once the dominant colonial power in Central Africa, still feels responsible for maintaining stability in the region, though the "Grande Nation" has not been overly particular in its choice of allies in the region. For instance, Paris supports Chadian President Idriss Déby against Sudan-backed rebels. In the Central African Republic, the French are currently allied with President François Bozizé, a man who rode a military coup to power and is notorious for human rights violations. But Paris isn't overly concerned abut Bozizé's reputation because, without him, the country could easily slip into the same kind of civil war over power and natural resources that has plagued Congo for years. More than 200,000 refugees are wandering about in the Central African Republic. Most of them are internal refugees, but some are from neighboring countries that have been plagued by wars for years -- Chad, Congo and Sudan. About 80,000 Central Africans have fled to countries including neighboring Cameroon. A small contingent of European troops will soon be arriving in the northeastern part of the Central African Republic as part of a European Union mission to establish peace in Chad, where heavy fighting recently re-erupted. Whether the force, which will consist mainly of French soldiers, will succeed in establishing control over the murderous chaos there seems doubtful.

The human rights group Amnesty International calls the country "a hunting ground for armed rebel groups, government soldiers and bandits." On the list of the world's poorest nations, the Central African Republic ranks 172 out of 177. Only 30 percent of children attend school. The average life expectancy has been falling since 1970 and now stands at 39, which is even lower than that of war-torn Afghanistan. More than half of the country's four million inhabitants are illiterate. According to United Nations estimates, one in three Central Africans is in need of humanitarian assistance.
By Thilo Thielke
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UGANDA: Ebola Kills Two Doctors

UGANDA: Ebola kills two doctors as death toll rises to 21 KAMPALA, 5 December 2007 (IRIN) - Two Ugandan doctors who had been helping in the fight against an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus have died, bringing the death toll to 21, officials said on 5 December."The sad news today is that our doctor who was admitted to Mulago Hospital [in the capital, Kampala] died last night and a senior clinical officer who had been in a critical condition also died this morning," said Samuel Kazinga, resident district commissioner for Bundibugyo, the epicentre of the outbreak. The doctor who died at Mulago had come from Bundibugyo to the city to collect one of his children, only to fall sick, and had been put in an isolation ward at the hospital, the largest in the country. Some health officials have said a lack of appropriate equipment in Mulago and other hospitals allowed the virus to spread, but the government announced on 4 December that it had sent 400 packages of protective gear to the affected region to help ensure medical workers were adequately protected.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced its intervention in the outbreak, including offering funds for the medical workers working in isolation centres. Keith McKenzie, the UNICEF representative in Uganda, told reporters on 5 December the priority was "to ensure safety of the community and the health workers supporting them”, before announcing other forms of interventions, including tents, plastic sheeting, drums of chlorine and emergency health kits for 1,000 persons for three months. Eight pathogen specialists from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control arrived in Uganda on 4 December to help battle the disease that has infected at least 64 people. Five of the experts left Kampala for Bundibugyo on 5 December. Efforts to isolate suspected patients in Bundibugyo, a rural district neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have failed as many residents fear hospitals are unsafe, authorities have said.

The rare disease, named after a small DRC river, killed at least 170 people in northern Uganda in 2000, with specialists blaming poor sanitation and hygiene. It was first discovered in the DRC in 1976, but other outbreaks have been recorded in Ivory Coast and Gabon.
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150 Million to Face Flood Risk by 2070

LONDON (Reuters) Dec. 5th. - As many as 150 million people in the world's big coastal cities are likely to be at risk from flooding by the 2070s, more than three times as many as now, according to a report released on Tuesday. Climate change, population growth and urban development will mean the number at risk will rise from the current 40 million while total property and infrastructure exposure is forecast to rise to $35 trillion -- 9 percent of projected global GDP. The report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, put together by disaster modeling firm Risk Management Solutions and leading scientists, is the first part of the largest ever study on urban coastal flood exposure.

The report analyzed the vulnerability now and in the future of 130 port cities to a major flood, on a scale likely to occur once in 100 years. Miami in Florida will remain the city with the highest value of property and infrastructure assets exposed to coastal flooding caused by storm surge and damage from high winds, the report said. The city has exposed assets of $400 billion today. Those are projected to rise in value to over $3.5 trillion by 2070. But with rapid economic development in Asia, Guangzhou in China will be the second most exposed city in terms of assets in 2070, followed by New York, Kolkata, Shanghai, Mumbai, Tianjin, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok, the report said.

Population growth and urban development in coastal cities will increase the exposure, exacerbated by the effects of climate change and subsidence, the report said. Scientists believe global warming will cause sea levels to rise and bring more frequent and severe storms and other natural disasters. "This report raises crucial policy considerations, and highlights the urgency for climate change mitigation and risk-informed adaptation strategies at a city level," said Jan Corfee-Morlot, the OECD's senior policy advisor on climate change. Policies to mitigate climate change will bring "precious time" for exposed cities to implement strategies to adapt to and protect themselves from the higher risk of flooding, said Corfee-Morlot. Projects to protect cities from flooding, such as the Thames Barrier built to protect central London from a major flood, typically take up to 30 years, said the report.

Policymakers from around the world are meeting this week in Bali to try to hammer out a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol to cut man-made emissions of carbon dioxide that are believed to lead to global warming. Insurers, who end up paying a large part of the bill from any damage caused by climate change, should encourage policyholders to adopt methods to adapt to effects of global warming, the report said.
By Simon Challis
(Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
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Rice at Talks on Africa Conflicts

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, is in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, for a series of meetings on some of Africa's worst conflicts.

BBC News Dec. 5th. - Ms Rice is to discuss the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan with regional presidents and ministers. However, none of the three countries' leaders are going to Ethiopia. She said she was "increasingly concerned about several crisis spots in Africa" before starting the talks. She will also hold bilateral talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. They are expected to discuss renewed tensions with neighbouring Eritrea. A deadline set by an international border commission for the countries to demarcate their shared border expired on Friday without agreement.

Her first talks were on the latest fighting in DR Congo, with the presidents of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, as well as Congolese ministers. They agreed to strengthen the Congolese security institutions, Ms Rice said after the talks. All countries agreed not to "harbour negative forces" - a reference to Rwandan Hutu rebels, which are at the heart of fighting across the region. The Congolese army, backed up by UN peacekeepers, is also trying to disarm a dissident Tutsi general. Laurent Nkunda refuses to join the army, saying his men must keep their arms to defend themselves against the Hutus. Rwanda denies claims it is backing Gen Nkunda.

As President Abdullahi Yusuf is in hospital in Kenya, Ms Rice is due to discuss the Somali crisis with his newly appointed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, as well as Mr Meles. The US supported Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia last year, to help the government oust Islamists from Mogadishu. However, Ethiopia's intervention is unpopular in Somalia and insurgents continue to stage attacks. The UN says that one million Somalis have been displaced by the fighting, including 60% of the capital's residents. Mr Meles says he wants to withdraw his forces but cannot until they are replaced by a promised African Union peacekeeping force.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says the US is offering to help African countries who are willing to send troops to Somalia as part of a peacekeeping force. "We do believe that peacekeeping efforts need to take place in Somalia," she said. "We appreciate very much the [Ugandan] grounding forces that are there. They frankly need to be joined soon by other forces."

On Sudan, Ms Rice is due to discuss the tensions in the US-brokered 2005 peace deal between north and south. "That is really an agreement that we cannot afford to let unravel," she said. She is also expected to discuss the conflict in Darfur with African officials. However, Sudan's government has signalled that it will not meet Ms Rice, reports the AP news agency.
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America's Militarized Foreign Policy is a Failure

Daily Star, Tues. Dec. 4th. - Many of today's war zones - including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan - share basic problems that lie at the root of their conflicts. They are all poor, buffeted by natural disasters - especially floods, droughts, and earthquakes - and have rapidly growing populations that are pressing on the capacity of the land to feed them. And the proportion of youth is very high, with a bulging population of young men of military age (15-24 years). All of these problems can be solved only through long-term sustainable economic development. Yet the United States persists in responding to symptoms rather than to underlying conditions by trying to address every conflict by military means. It backs the Ethiopian Army in Somalia. It occupies Iraq and Afghanistan. It threatens to bomb Iran. It supports the military dictatorship in Pakistan.

None of these military actions addresses the problems that led to conflict in the first place. On the contrary, American policies typically inflame the situation rather than solve it. Time and again, this military approach comes back to haunt the United States. The US embraced the shah of Iran by sending massive armaments, which fell into the hands of Iran's revolutionary government after 1979. The US then backed Saddam Hussein in his attack on Iran, until the US ended up attacking Saddam himself. The United States backed Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, until the US ended up fighting bin Laden. Since 2001 the US has supported Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan with more than $10 billion in aid, and now faces an unstable regime that barely survives.

US foreign policy is so ineffective because it has been taken over by the military. Even postwar reconstruction in Iraq under the US-led occupation was run by the Pentagon rather than by civilian agencies. The US military budget dominates everything about foreign policy. Adding up the budgets of the Pentagon, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Department of Homeland Security, nuclear-weapons programs, and the State Department's military assistance operations, the US will spend around $800 billion this year on security, compared with less than $20 billion for economic development. In a stunning article on aid to Pakistan during the Bush administration, Craig Cohen and Derek Chollet demonstrated the disastrous nature of this militarized approach - even before the tottering Musharraf regime's latest crackdown. They show that even though Pakistan faces huge problems of poverty, population and environment, 75% of the $10 billion in US aid has gone to the Pakistani military, ostensibly to reimburse Pakistan for its contribution to the "war on terror," and to help it buy F-16s and other weapons systems. Another 16 percent went straight to the Pakistani budget, no questions asked. That left less than 10 percent for development and humanitarian assistance. Annual US aid for education in Pakistan has amounted to just $64 million, or $1.16 per school-aged child. The authors note that "the strategic direction for Pakistan was set early by a narrow circle at the top of the Bush administration and has been largely focused on the war effort rather than on Pakistan's internal situation." They also emphasize that "US engagement with Pakistan is highly militarized and centralized, with very little reaching the vast majority of Pakistanis." They quote President George W. Bush as saying, "When [Musharraf] looks me in the eye and says ... there won't be a Taliban and won't be Al-Qaeda, I believe him, you know?"

This militarized approach is leading the world into a downward spiral of violence and conflict. Each new US weapons system "sold" or given to the region increases the chances of expanded war and further military coups, and to the chance that the arms will be turned on the US itself. None of it helps to address the underlying problems of poverty, child mortality, water scarcity, and lack of livelihoods in places like Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, Sudan's Darfur region, or Somalia. These places are bulging with people facing a tightening squeeze of insufficient rainfall and degraded pasturelands. Naturally, many join radical causes. The Bush administration fails to recognize these fundamental demographic and environmental challenges, that $800 billion of security spending won't bring irrigation to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and Somalia, and therefore won't bring peace. Instead of seeing real people in crisis, they see caricatures, a terrorist around every corner. A more peaceful world will be possible only when Americans and others begin to see things through the eyes of their supposed enemies, and realize that today's conflicts, having resulted from desperation and despair, can be solved through economic development rather than war. We will have peace when we heed the words of President John F. Kennedy, who said, a few months before his death, "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

Jeffrey Sachs is a professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with Project Syndicate (c) (www.project-syndicate.org).
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Teddy Row Teacher Freed from Jail

BBC Dec. 3rd. - A UK teacher has been released and handed over to British officials in Sudan after being jailed for letting her class name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was freed after eight days in custody. She had been given a 15-day jail term. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her after talks with two British Muslim peers. In a statement, Mrs Gibbons apologised for "any distress". Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "delighted". Mother-of-two Mrs Gibbons has been released into the care of the British embassy in Khartoum, but her exact location has not been disclosed. She was released four days after receiving a 15-day sentence for insulting religion.

Following her release, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the teacher was "a little overwhelmed" at the attention her case had attracted, but was in "remarkably good spirits" and "elated to be back on her way home". Mr Miliband also hailed the "team effort" which led to Mrs Gibbons's release, praising diplomatic staff and saying that the intervention of Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed had been "an important contribution". Earlier, a demonstration of about 30 or 40 people was held outside the embassy in Khartoum, with banners protesting about the decision to release her.

Mrs Gibbons was arrested on 25 November and jailed on 29 November after allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. She was arrested after another member of staff at Unity High School complained to the Ministry of Education about the incident in September. The press office of President al-Bashir announced that he had pardoned Mrs Gibbons following his meeting with Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed, and that she had been "released after their mediation".

In a statement read out by Baroness Warsi, Mrs Gibbons said: "I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone and I am sorry if I caused any distress. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan and work in Unity High School as the teacher of 2X." Lord Ahmed thanked the president for granting the pardon and said both he and Baroness Warsi were proud to have been able to help Mrs Gibbons. "This is a case which is unfortunate, unintentional, innocent misunderstanding, and as British Muslim parliamentarians we, Baroness Warsi and myself, we feel proud that we've been able to secure Gillian Gibbons's release." Speaking later, Baroness Warsi said that when she and Lord Ahmed had visited Mrs Gibbons in custody, all three had made "lots of Yorkshire jokes". All three were brought up in the county. Asked how she and Lord Ahmed had helped to win freedom for Mrs Gibbons, Baroness Warsi said: "We played very different roles but complementary roles with different negotiation skills which had to be used."

Mr Brown said it was "completely wrong" that Mrs Gibbons had been detained, and described her imprisonment as "completely unacceptable". Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (right) with Lord Ahmed (second left) and Baroness Warsi (left)
The peers met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. He said: "Through the course of Mrs Gibbons's detention I was glad to see Muslim groups across the UK express strong support for her case. "I applaud the particular efforts of Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi in securing her freedom. I am also grateful to our officials for all their work behind the scenes." Speaking to reporters outside his home in Liverpool, Mrs Gibbons's son John said he was "very pleased". He said: "I'd like to thank the government for all they have done, the hard work behind the scenes, especially the two peers who went out there. "Everyone's been really great. Obviously it's a great feeling today, we're very pleased, we have been under a lot of pressure."

Dr Khalid al-Mubarak, of the Sudanese embassy in London, said he hoped the affair would not damage relations between Sudan and the UK. "I think this is the correct resolution - pardoned and released early," he told BBC News. "The word pardoned also means that the original mistake has been - not forgotten - but behind us now." Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain told BBC News 24 that the whole saga had been very damaging for the image of the Muslim faith. "Each time we have stories like these, that distort what Islam stands for or misrepresents what the compassion of Muslim law stands for, then we have repercussions and people begin to feel that Islam has no place in modern society... "I have not come across one single Muslim in our country who has supported what has happened." President Omar al-Bashir had been under pressure from Sudanese hardliners to ensure Mrs Gibbons served her full sentence. There had been a protest and calls for a retrial and for the sentence to be increased. BBC Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy said the row over Mrs Gibbons had strained relations between Britain and Sudan - and, beyond that, between the West and Islam. And even if intervention by two prominent British Muslims had succeeded in limiting the damage, the fact remained that damage had been done, he added.
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U.N. Official Criticizes Sudan for Resisting Peace Force in Darfur

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 27 (NY Times) — The United Nations’ top peacekeeping official said Tuesday that obstacles created by the Sudanese government were jeopardizing the deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations force in Darfur. The force, which will ultimately number 26,000 members, is to replace a 7,000-member African Union force that has been overwhelmed by the scope of the crisis in Darfur, which has driven 2.5 million people from their land and cost the lives of at least 200,000. The new force is scheduled to start operating Jan. 1. The official, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, told the Security Council that Sudan was resisting accepting specialized troops from non-African militaries that were critical to the mission, blocking support staff and materials from the area through bureaucratic maneuvers, and withholding needed land and permissions for the assignment of helicopters.

In addition, he said, the government in Khartoum was asserting the right to close down the force’s communications when its own army was operating in the area and was refusing to give United Nations planes clearance to fly at night. “The mission has the mandate to protect civilians,” Mr. Guéhenno said, “and that responsibility does not end at sunset.” He said the actions left the United Nations with “hard choices. Do we move ahead with the deployment of a force that will not make a difference, that will not have the capability to defend itself, and that carries the risk of humiliation of the Security Council and the United Nations, and tragic failure for the people of Darfur?” he asked.

Sudan’s ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, rejected the charges, saying that his country “has carried out an intense effort to fulfill its obligations.” Outside the Council chamber, he rebuked Mr. Guéhenno for “taking technical issues and blowing them out of proportion” and continuing the peacekeeping department’s “habit of accusing Sudan for their mistakes and failures.” The non-African forces that Khartoum has refused to approve are an infantry battalion from Thailand, special forces from Nepal, and an engineering company from Norway and Sweden. They were first proposed in a letter from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Sudanese on Oct. 2 that has gotten no response. The United Nations has no alternatives to the use of those units, Mr. Guéhenno said. He added that he was disturbed by reports out of Khartoum that officials were also going back on their agreement to let the force wear the blue berets that carry United Nations insignia, an essential condition, he said, for those countries that have agreed to contribute troops.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador, said Sudan “absolutely must demonstrate through its statements and actions its intent to accept and facilitate an effective peacekeeping force in Darfur. Based on what we have heard today from Mr. Guéhenno,” he said, “it appears the government of Sudan has thus far failed to do so.” John Sawers, Britain’s ambassador, said he was convinced that a timely fielding of the force was being made “impossible” by Sudan’s “foot-dragging and obstruction.”
By WARREN HOGE
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Outbreak of Rare Ebola Virus in Uganda Worsens

KAMPALA, Uganda, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of Ugandans infected by a new strain of the deadly Ebola virus has risen to 58, raising fears the death toll of 18 will also increase from the outbreak in a remote area near Democratic Republic of Congo. The half dozen extra infections in recent days include some medical staff who were treating victims of the haemorrhagic fever which has swept the western Bundibugyo region since August. "Four of our medical personnel, including a doctor and three nurses, have been isolated in Bundibugyo Hospital after catching the virus," said Dr. Sam Okware, head of Uganda's national hemorrhagic fever task force. "We now have a team of experts on the ground to try and contain further spreading of the virus." Genetic analysis of samples taken from some of the victims shows it is a previously unknown type of Ebola, making it the fifth strain, U.S. and Ugandan health officials say.

Ebola can cause internal and external bleeding. Victims often die of shock, but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain and nausea. It is known to infect humans, chimpanzees and gorillas. Uganda was last hit by an epidemic of Ebola in 2000, when 425 people caught it and just over half of them died, including a doctor treating victims. An outbreak in neighbouring Congo this year infected up to 264 people, killing 187.
(Reporting by Francis Kwera, writing by Andrew Cawthorne; editing by Myra MacDonald)
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