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WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2009
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NEWS IN
Sudan agrees deal with rebels as Hollywood stars highlight crisis
INDIA
BRIEF
Snake
Rania plea Darfur progress
charmers
fight ban
for more aid Sudan and Darfur’s most said at the media conference: Indian snake charmers,
active rebel group signed an “We will reach a final and just whose baskets and flutes have
JORDAN: Jordan’s Queen accord yesterday paving the solution with God’s will, to launched a thousand picture
Rania has appealed for way for broader peace talks end this war, which with postcards, rallied in Kolkata
urgent aid for the UN to end a conflict that has God’s will will be the last war yesterday to protest a ban
agency for Palestinian claimed the lives of several in Sudan.” they say is killing their genera-
refugees (UNRWA), hundred thousand people in Meanwhile, Hollywood star tions-old profession.
warning that lack of funds six years. George Clooney and Mia An estimated 5,000 charm-
might stop its operations. “This is an important turn- Farrow yesterday stepped up ers from all over West Bengal
“We are in very dire need of ing point in the Darfur con- their campaigns to highlight took to the streets of the state
much more assistance and flict,” said Qatari Prime the Darfur conflict with visits capital, denouncing wildlife
without which I think Minister Sheikh Hamad bin to eastern Chad where hun- protection laws that proscribe
UNRWA won’t be able to Jassem al-Thani, whose coun- dreds of refugees have fled. the commercial use of wild
operate,” the wife of King try hosted a week of talks Clooney was set to go to animals, including perform-
Abdullah II, told a meeting between the Khartoum gov- eastern Chad, while Farrow ances with live snakes.
of UNRWA in Amman. ernment and the Justice and has just returned from the Since the laws were fully
“The international Equality Movement. area where she met refugees. implemented in the late
community owes greats “I am very optimistic, as Clooney, on his fifth visit to 1990s, the estimated 800,000
debts to UNRWA. It was both sides are determined to Darfur and Chad, said it was snake charmers in India -
quite alarming to know that end this conflict,” he said at a the “right time to be here to 100,000 in West Bengal alone -
the financial situation was media conference following support the people. say they have effectively been
in jeopardy.” the signing. “We are waiting for the deprived of their livelihood.
The Doha talks were the first indictment of (Sudan “It’s our birth right to charm
contacts since 2007 between President) Omar al-Beshir,” by snakes. No can deprive us of
the government and represen- the International Criminal that,” said Langra Bede, 35,
Deadly year
tatives of the JEM, which boy- Court (ICC), he added. who has suffered two cobra
cotted another largely abortive Since ethnic minority rebels bites in his charming career.
Darfur peace deal in 2006. took up arms against the
for civilians
“The accord stipulates that Arab-dominated Khartoum
negotiations continue toward government in 2003, com-
a final peace agreement, in a plaining of discrimination,
AFGHANISTAN: The United period no longer than three hundreds of thousands of
Nations yesterday said months,” Sudan’s ambassa- desperate refugees have
2,118 civilians were killed dor to Qatar, Abdullah al- poured across the Chad bor-
during the escalating Faqiri said. der raising tensions between
conflict in 2008, the JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim the two countries. CAMPAIGN: Clooney continues his support for Darfur refugees
deadliest year since the
2001 US-led invasion
ousted the Taliban regime.
Fifty-five per cent of the Suspects accused of transatlantic terror plot
deaths were attributed to
anti-government forces and Eight suspected terrorists prosecutor Peter Wright successful.” from London Heathrow
39 per cent to pro- planned to kill on an told a London court. “To them the identities of Airport at around the same
government forces, which “unprecedented scale” by Wright told the top-security their victims was an time, were one-way services,
include US-led and NATO exploding bombs on Woolwich Crown Court that irrelevance by race, colour, and would be in mid-flight
troops, said the world body transatlantic flights, a British Abdulla Ahmed Ali and religion or creed,” he said. over the Atlantic at around
SRI LANKA
in a report. The remaining court heard yesterday as Assad Sarwar, both 28, led Wright asserted that the the same time. The flights
six per cent could not be their trial got underway. the group and took plot “was being directed the group selected were
attributed to any of the The men, who were instructions from from Pakistan” and was bound for Montreal and Tigers call
parties and included arrested in August 2006 masterminds in Pakistan and “part of a much wider Toronto in Canada, and San
incidents such as dying before they could carry out were “indifferent to the scheme of things.” Francisco, Washington, New
in crossfire. the alleged plot, had hoped carnage that was likely to Seven flights were selected, York and two flights to on child
for a “truly global impact”, ensue if their plans were all of which were to depart Chicago in the United States.
soldiers
Iran seeking
Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have
minor change
stepped up conscription of
child soldiers, the United
Nations agency for children
Iran’s judiciary said said yesterday, as the rebels
yesterday it has drawn up a prepared for a final onslaught
bill which aims to ease by the military.
punishments for minor Government troops are on
offenders and make it the verge of crushing the
harder for the courts to Liberation Tigers of Tamil
sentence children to death Eelam (LTTE) and ending
for murder. their 37-year campaign for an
Minors who have independent Tamil homeland
committed murder will not after a series of victories
be hanged “if they do not across the northeast of
understand the nature of the island.
the crime they have “We have clear indications
committed or there is a that the LTTE has intensified
doubt about their maturity forcible recruitment of civil-
and insight,” judiciary ians and that children as
spokesman Ali Reza young as 14 years old are now
Jamshidi told reporters. being targeted,” Philippe
The new bill, whose outlines Duamelle, UNICEF’s chief in
have been approved by Sri Lanka, said.
parliament’s judicial The Tigers, who are encir-
commission, appears to be cled in a small patch of jungle,
an improvement on Iran’s have a long record of using
existing penal code, where child soldiers, and have
the age of legal recruited more than 6,000
responsibility is nine for a since 2002 according
girl and 15 for a boy. to UNICEF.
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