Hague court to rule on Sudan president genocide charge

Hague court to rule on Sudan president genocide charge

By Geraldine Coughlan BBC News, The Hague

Appeal judges at the International Criminal Court are to decide whether Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir should be charged with genocide.

In issuing its first arrest warrant against a sitting head of state, the ICC said Mr Bashir could be held responsible for war crimes in Darfur.
Bu the Hague court earlier rejected the prosecution's request to include charges of genocide.
The prosecution appealed and judges will rule on this on Wednesday.
The International Criminal Court found there was enough evidence to believe that the Sudanese president was responsible for murder, extermination, torture, rape and attacks against civilians in Darfur.
The warrant did not include the most serious war crime of genocide as the judges found there was not enough evidence to believe the government of Sudan intended to destroy the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
Whether or not the court decides to include genocide in the warrant, the Sudanese president could continue to evade arrest.
The ICC has no police force, and relies on the obligation of states themselves to ensure suspects are sent to The Hague to face international justice.

South Sudan hungry 'quadrupled in a year'

Page last updated at 19:25 GMT, Tuesday, 2 February 2010

The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN's World Food Programme says.

The WFP wants to ensure the people have enough food to last until their next harvest in October.
Southern Sudan's agriculture minister Samson Kwaje blamed the surge on internal conflict and drought.
The region is recovering from a two-decade civil war and remains one of the least developed parts of the world.
Although the civil war with the north ended in 2005, some 2,500 people died in conflicts between rival communities in Southern Sudan last year - far more than in Darfur, the UN says.

Cash shortfall

Since the end of the war, millions of former refugees have returned home to start their lives again from scratch.
The BBC's Peter Martell, in the southern capital, Juba, says the situation in the region is grim.
And many in the south fear that tensions will rise further in the run-up to elections in April, our correspondent says, potentially putting even more people at risk.
The WFP is preparing thousands of tonnes of food to feed some of the millions it fears will be cut off when the rains start.
But the organisation also says it remains more than $480m (£300m) short of the food aid needed for Sudan.
Mr Kwaje - who said the WFP's figures represented half of the region's population - blamed the rising hunger on conflicts between rival ethnic groups.
But he also blamed incursions by the Lord's Resistance Army - a feared guerrilla army originally based in Uganda but now marauding across several countries.
The new WFP figures come from an annual assessment in which some 2,000 people across Southern Sudan were asked about what food they ate and where it came from.

The WFP's Leo van der Velden said: "This spike in the number of hungry people in Southern Sudan comes just ahead of the rainy season when roads become blocked and communities are cut off from food assistance."
As well as preparing for the first national multi-party elections in 24 years, Southern Sudan is also due to vote in an independence referendum next year.

Foreigners killed in north west Pakistan explosion

Page last updated at 07:38 GMT, Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Police say three Westerners are among six people killed in an explosion near a girls' school in north west Pakistan.

A group of journalists and aid workers was travelling in an army convoy when it was hit by a roadside bomb in the Lower Dir area, officials said.
At least 19 people, including school girls, were injured in the blast.
Pakistani troops carried out a major offensive in the area last year to crush Taliban militants who have often attacked girls' schools.
The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says a bomb was detonated when a military convoy was passing a road beside the school in Koto, a heavily populated village in the Lower Dir district in North West Frontier Province.
The convoy was on the way to Maidan, an area of Lower Dir district which is the base of a pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad, and a stronghold of Taliban militants, our correspondent says.

Oil dips in Asian trade

Updated at: 0721 PST, Wednesday, February 03, 2010

SINGAPORE: Oil prices dipped in Asian trade on Wednesday bucking a recent trend as the market braced for a larger-than-expected rise in crude inventories, analysts said.New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell 42 cents to 76.81 dollars a barrel. London's Brent North Sea crude for March delivery was down 31 cents to 75.75 dollars. Analysts said rallies on the oil market experienced over the past few days had been stemmed by numbers released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday indicating a build-up in US crude stockpiles. "I think it's because of the API (American Petroleum Institute) numbers.... They showed a build-up of 4.7 million barrels of crude which was unexpected," said Clarence Chu, an oil trader with Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. Analysts had expected US inventories to rise by a median of only 400,000 to 500,000 barrels, Chu added. Market sentiment had been buoyant as equities markets put in strong performances and manufacturing data from the United States hinted at a global economic recovery.But the market was spooked when the API report was released late Tuesday. "The minute the API number was released, the market dropped by around 30 cents," Chu said.The API report serves as the precursor to the US Department of Energy's weekly inventories report out every Wednesday, which provides a snapshot of global energy demand by showing the size of crude stockpiles in the world's largest energy consumer.

US plans increase in drone operations

Updated at: 1118 PST, Wednesday, February 03, 2010

WASHINGTON: The US defence budget for 2011 seeks more funds to enhance drone operations by 65 per cent, citing its success in targeting militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal belt.“With this funding, we will increase the unmanned Predator and Reaper orbits from 37 to 65, while enhancing our ability to process, exploit and disseminate information gathered by this game-changing technology,” said Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.“As we’ve seen firsthand through eight years of war, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets are absolutely critical enablers for the war-fighter,” he said.US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, while briefing journalists on the 2011 budget, said the new drones would be added to the American military’s arsenal “in a couple of years” and these would be “the most advanced UAVs”.

Death toll in US drone strikes rises to 31

Updated at: 1040 PST, Wednesday, February 03, 2010

MIRAMSHAH/PESHAWAR: In the biggest attack so far by the American spy planes in the Pakistani tribal areas, the US drones on Tuesday rained a barrage of missiles on different locations of Dattakhel Tehsil of North Waziristan Agency (NWA), initially killing 17 people, including militants, and injuring several others.Now, the death toll has risen to 31 while some injured persons are still fighting for their lives, Geo news quoted sources as saying.Government officials in Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said nine spy planes took part in the brazen attack, firing 18 missiles and causing heavy human loss.They had rightly feared the death toll could rise as rescue work could not be started for late in some of the places due to fear of more missile strikes by the unmanned spy aircraft. Besides the militants, several villagers and some foreign nationals were said to be among the victims. The villagers came under attack from the drones while approaching the spot to help retrieve the bodies and the injured from the rubble of the collapsed houses.Tribesmen in Miramshah said the town echoed with heavy explosions when the missiles were fired. They said a series of explosions were heard in distant villages of the restive North Waziristan tribal region.Officials said the Deegan village in Dattakhel Tehsil, where the Taliban last week claimed to have shot down a US drone, suffered the most. The drones fired eight missiles, hitting several houses and vehicles parked inside the mud-walled buildings.Deegan, which is located about 30 kilometres west of Miramshah, has always been the prime target of US drones. “Deegan is considered to be a stronghold of the Taliban but we don’t know whether those killed were militants or villagers,” said a government official, who declined to be named. He said most of the targeted places were located in the mountains.After Deegan, Thooth Narray village in the same vicinity, also suffered when drones fired four missiles at targets there. Officials said four houses were attacked in the village, leaving seven people dead and six injured.Similarly, the US spy planes struck suspected hideouts of militants in Mohammad Khel and Khar Kamar villages. In Mohammad Khel village, a drone reportedly fired two missiles on villagers, who had come out of their houses after the first drone attack and were on their way to help retrieve the bodies and injured from the collapsed houses.Tribal sources said the drones had been flying over the area since early morning and the militants were seen firing at the planes from their anti-aircraft guns, which they had installed on double-cabin trucks.Officials said they could not gather exact details about human and material losses in Tuesday’s attacks due to lack of physical presence of the government in the area. “We don’t have any physical presence in the area and then there is no telephone facility. We do have our security personnel deployed on their checkpoints on hilltops but they are away from the area where drones played havoc,” a government official explained.An intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the drones mostly targeted small posts set up by the militants. He said it appeared the US forces in Afghanistan wanted to avenge the loss of their drone, which the militants had allegedly shot down in the same area a few days ago.He said initial reports indicated that most of the people killed in Tuesday’s missile strikes were either low-level militants or poor villagers. “I did not hear that any big name had died,” he claimed. It was the biggest missile attack by the CIA-operated spy planes in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

Four foreign journalists killed in Dir blast

Updated at: 1131 PST, Wednesday, February 03, 2010

LOWER DIR: A massive explosion has been reported near girls school in tehsil Blambutt located in Lower Dir, reportedly killing four foreign journalists and injuring scores others on Wednesday morning, Geo news reported.According to preliminary details, some security forces also came under attack as the bomb was planted on a roadside, which targeted the convoy of foreign journalists.The rescue efforts are underway as the security forces have cordoned off the entire blast site. Also, few local journalists have sustained injuries amid explosion, sources saidSome girls have been reportedly caught under the debris of school building, sources said further.