Bloody clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Upper Nile state has renewed fears that the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement is breaking down.
The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the arrest of Sri Lanka newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vidyatharan on charges of collaboration with the Tamil Tigers, calling it part of a pattern of repression.
India’s Border Security Force remains on high alert after a two-day mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles left scores dead. Unconfirmed reports in the Indian press link the mutiny to Pakistani intelligence.
A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police after he set himself on fire on the third day of the Tibetan New Year, at a market in Sichuan province’s Ngaba prefecture. It is not known if he is alive or dead.
Suspected al-Qaeda operative Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is to be tried in US federal court, following the unsealing of an indictment. Al-Marri’s habeas corpus petition is pending before the Supreme Court.
Venezuela and Bolivia condemned US State Department reports on human rights and narcotics that single out the two South American countries, saying Washington has no right to pass judgment.
Unidentified assailants threw an improvised explosive at a community center in La Florida district of Caracas in a pre-dawn attack. The attack comes on the heels of the ransacking of a Venezuelan synagogue.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe restricted the power of the DAS secret police agency to carry out wiretaps in the wake of the surveillance scandal, as his government petitions Washington for more military aid.
Iraqi-born Dutch citizen Wesam al-Delaema pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States.
Lawyers for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr were blocked from attending a meeting with Khadr at Guantánamo Bay, as officials have launched an investigation into the ethics of the defense team.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that bars former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from holding office based on his conviction for “hijacking”—that is, attempting to thwart the 1999 military coup.
Some 50,000 US troops likely to remain in Iraq after President Obama fulfills his pledge to “withdraw combat troops” would still have a combat role, unnamed Pentagon officials told the New York Times.
