Beijing—China urged the international
community to do more to end violence in war-torn
Darfur, saying Thursday it had done all it could
to end a worsening humanitarian situation there.
Beijing has come under intense criticism for
allegedly turning a blind eye to Sudan’s
repression of an insurgency in the Darfur region
and contributing to the estimated 300,000 deaths
there.
History, language and culture might separate
Iran from the rest of the Middle East. But
physically and geographically, the Arab world
and Iran are very close closer than they might
like to think. When the last big temblor hit the
Islamic republic, flattening the ancient city of
Bam and killing 26,000 people in December 2003,
we in the UAE and Gulf felt the tremors.
Harare—Nelson Mandela and US President George
W. Bush led mounting world outrage over
Zimbabwe, where veteran leader Robert Mugabe is
pressing on with what is seen as a “sham”
presidential run-off vote. As pressure on the
octogenarian Mugabe ratcheted, Zimbabwean
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for
armed peacekeepers to be sent to the country to
stop terror attacks on his supporters.
Phnom Penh—Cambodian political parties
Thursday kicked off month-long campaigning for a
general election that the ruling Cambodian
People’s Party (CPP) is expected to dominate.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, wearing a garland
of flowers, appealed to populist sentiments,
vowing to fight inflation and other economic
woes as he addressed 1,000 supporters in a Phnom
Penh park.
Winfield—Severe thunderstorms rattled
northern Missouri early Thursday, threatening to
add even more rain to the swollen Mississippi
River and complicate efforts to keep the river
from engulfing this community. Even before the
latest storms, crews had long labored to
strengthen the earthen levee at Winfield from
dirt slides and spots where water soaks up
through the sandy soil.
