United States Africa Command Public Affairs Office 17 April 2012 USAFRICOM - related news stories

Good morning. Please see today's news review for April 17, 2012. This e-mail is best viewed in HTML. Of interest in today's report: -The Hunt For Kony. -U.S. Officials Scrambling to Confirm Reports of American Terror Leader Death in Somalia. -Sudanese Air Force Bomb UN Camp. -MP's in Khartoum Brand South Sudan, "Enemy State." -Libya: Displaced Return to Rebuild Gaddhafi's Hometown.

U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Please send questions or comments to: publicaffairs@usafricom.mil 421-2687 (+49-711-729-2687) Headline The Hunt for Kony Date Outlet

04/17/2012 News Week Magazine

The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army has killed thousands of African citizens in the name of Christianity. Now he's on the run. Maj. Richard Kidega threaded his way through a thicket of sweet black trees and thorny underbrush when suddenly he drew to...

US officials scrambling to confirm reports of American 04/16/2012 FOXNews.com terror leader's death in Somalia
U.S. intelligence officials are scrambling to confirm reports that Omar Hammami, the American-born leader of an Al Qaeda-aligned terror group in Somalia, has been executed. Unconfirmed reports surfaced in Somali media claiming the al-Shabaab jihadist was h...

STATE OF WAR ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER

04/16/2012 (Algeria/French Online)

How does one explain Al-Jazeera's presence at the scene of the abduction of the Algerian Consul to Gao? Mali is plagued by an unprecedented double crisis which occurred in the space of less than 20 days, a first in the annals of its post-independence hist...

Guinea-Bissau opposition angles to cut a deal

04/16/2012 Africa Review

Guinea-Bissau's opposition vowed on Sunday to quickly reach a power-sharing deal with the junta that seized power in the latest coup to shake the notoriously unstable west African country. The two sides held talks for a third

day on Sunday trying to hammer...

Libya: Displaced Return to Rebuild 04/16/2012 AllAfrica.com Gaddafi's Hometown Face Needs
Sirte -- Ali points to a housing block that looks like a slab of Swiss cheese - full of holes from artillery fire - and says he feels lucky that he can at least stay in his own damaged apartment nearby. "The flat above mine was hit by a tank shell," he tol...

Sudanese air force 'bombs UN camp'

04/16/2012 Aljazeera

The United Nations mission in South Sudan has confirmed that a UN peacekeepers' camp was among targets bombed by Sudanese warplanes amid border clashes between the two countries' armed forces. Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for the UN Mission in South Sudan (U...

MPs in Khartoum brand South Sudan 'enemy' state

04/16/2012 BBC

Sudanese MPs have voted unanimously to brand South Sudan "an enemy". "The government of South Sudan is an enemy and all Sudanese state agencies have to treat her accordingly," the resolution said. A Khartoum information ministry official told the BBC the m...

Bissau military creates transition council after coup

04/16/2012

Arab News - Washington DC Bureau - Online

BISSAU: Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau dispersed anti-military demonstrators and closed down private radio stations on Sunday as their commanders put in place a transitional council that effectively consummated their coup. Politicians in the poor West African s...

Congo-Kinshasa: Teenage Mother Rebuilds Life After Ordeal of LRA Captivity

04/16/2012 Africa Leader

Dungu -- It's a scene of quiet and peaceful industry. A young woman pulls golden baguettes out of an oven as her baby son plays on the floor. But it hides the pain and abuse that 17-year-old Rose* suffered as a prisoner for almost two years of the Lord's R...

Egypt steps in to prevent an all-out Sudan war

04/16/2012

Africa Report - Online, The

The Sunday bombings on South Sudan have been described by some analysts as a retaliatory attack by Sudan after its neighbour seized the Heglig oil field on April 10. South Sudan took over the oil field, which accounts for about half of Sudan's 115,000 barr...

Rwanda: No Wrong or Right Model On 04/16/2012 AllAfrica.com Managing Diversity Mushikiwabo

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo, has said there is no wrong or right model on managing diversity for peace and security in Africa. She was speaking at the High Level Forum on Security in Africa which took place in city o...

Military task force exercise begins

04/16/2012 bournelocal.co.uk

Hundreds of soldiers have been taking part in a military exercise as part of training to be ready to deploy anywhere in the world at five days' notice. Exercise Joint Warrior will see more than 1,600 troops training on the west coast of Scotland over the n...

Khartoum bombs UN 04/16/2012 France 24 - Online camp in South Sudan

Militarisation of cyberspace: how the 04/16/2012 Guardian.co.uk global power struggle moved online
Jonathan Millican is a first-year university student from Harrogate in North Yorkshire. He says he doesn't think of himself as a "stereotypical geek", but having been crowned champion in Britain's Cyber Security Challenge, the 19year-old is bound to take ...

Swiss woman taken by gunmen in Mali's Timbuktu

04/16/2012 MSNBC.com

BAMAKO -- A Swiss woman who had stayed in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu after it was captured by Tuareg and Islamist rebels was taken from her house by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, a witness and several sources in the town said. Only on msnbc.com...

Africa's Free Press Problem

04/16/2012 The New York Times

AS Africa's economies grow, an insidious attack on press freedom is under way. Independent African journalists covering the continent's development are now frequently persecuted for critical reporting on the misuse of public finances, corruption and the ac...

Executive Leadership Development Program Gets 'Electrifying' Experience during 04/16/2012 U.S. Africa Command First Ever Participation in African Lion 2012
AGADIR, Morocco, Apr 16, 2012 -- It all begins on the yellow footprints. The moment a young Marine recruit makes the decision to earn the eagle, globe and anchor, he is skillfully and painstakingly groomed for leadership, instilled with the traits and skil...

United Nations News Centre - Africa Briefs

04/16/2012

United Nations News Service

-UN envoy for sexual violence in conflict to step down next month -Advance team of UN observers arrives in Syria to report on cessation of violence -Mali: UNESCO chief appeals for protection of Timbuktu's documentary heritage -UN condemns deadly weekend...

News Headline: The Hunt for Kony | News Date: 04/17/2012 Outlet Full Name: News Week Magazine News Text: By Scott Johnson The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army has killed thousands of African citizens in the name of Christianity. Now he's on the run. Maj. Richard Kidega threaded his way through a thicket of sweet black trees and thorny underbrush when suddenly he drew to a halt. A young Ugandan soldier in front had raised a clenched fist: the sign to stop. With their AK-47s raised, Kidega and his men silently scanned the jungle for any signs of the enemy, such as fresh tracks or trampled brush. Hanging vines clogged the path. Dry leaves masked deep holes. The gully was an attractive place for an ambush. It's places just like this where the LRA likes to hide, Kidega whispered, as the hunt for Joseph Kony, rebel leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, slowly moved ahead. This inhospitable swath of jungle in the Central African Republic is ground zero in the search for Kony's LRA. On any given day, Ugandan soldiers, aided by U.S. special forces, comb through the forests, looking for one of the most elusive war criminals in history, a man who has kidnapped thousands of children, turning boys into hardened killers and girls into sex slaves. It

is estimated that the LRA has killed upwards of 70,000 civilians, kidnapped some 40,000 children, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in four countries. The movement, which has now descended into butchery, rape, and even cannibalism, began in 1986 as a popular insurrection against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Initially many in northern Uganda supported the rebellion against Museveni, whose army ruthlessly persecuted the Acholi people in the north. Eventually, however, the warlord's insurgency lost steam, and Kony turned on his own people, accusing them of sinning against God. As punishment, Kony and his commanders have cut off the lips, noses, and ears of victims; he has forced abducted children to murder their own families to ensure loyalty; and he has killed those who disobeyed orders. The hunt for Kony, known as Operation Lightning Thunder, now takes place across four countries and involves several thousand troops, at least 100 of them American. The warlord got international attention after a 30-minute video on him produced by the American NGO Invisible Children became a viral YouTube phenomenon last month, drawing more than 87.5 million views. It sparked outrageand renewed pledges to bring Kony to justice. Later this month, the African Union will bring another 5,000 troops from the armies of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Congo to help the Ugandans in their hunt, now in its 25th year. Should he be captured alive, he is likely to face charges at the International Criminal Court. In 2005 the ICC indicted him and two senior LRA commanders on charges of crimes against humanity. Three years later, on Christmas Day 2008, Kony led his troops on a vengeful rampage in Congo's Garamba National Park, clubbing and hacking dozens of civilians to death and burning their villages to the ground. He's been virtually invisible ever since. And sometimes the hunt for Kony feels like the hunt for a ghost. Nonetheless, Col. Joseph Balikuddembe, the bright-eyed commander of Operation Lightning Thunder, is determined to catch his prey. He can always hide, but he can't disappear completely. He'll have his turn. His days are numbered, he told me earlier this month when I traveled with his troops for a part of the manhunt. Kony rose to prominence at a time when dozens of Ugandan militia groups were vying for power and influence in the early days of Museveni's regime. One of the most popular rebels was a woman named Alice Lakwena, the leader of the Holy Spirit Movement. Lakwena claimed to channel the spirit world and convinced thousands of followers that they were immune to bullets. Museveni eventually sidelined Lakwena, sending her into exile. But Kony took up her mantle, donning women's robes and leading an army of devoted holy warriors into the bush. Kony was raised as a quiet boy; he didn't like to fight, and his father was a catechist in the church. But by 1987, his army of followers dwarfed the other militias. A quarter of a century later, with all pretense of authenticity destroyed, Kony has made a career of besmirching the Ten Commandments by which he claims to rule. Though he is believed to have only a few hundred soldiers scattered over a wide area, Kony has with scary efficiency brought death and displacement to this largely forgotten corner of Africa. One casualty is 8-year-old Foster Mizeredi, taken with his sister during a raid on his village in Congo last year. After a few weeks, the LRA commanders forced him and other abducted children to beat a man to death with a club. The man was killed for speaking Azande instead of Kony's native Acholi language. All of us participated, said Mizeredi. I also had to beat him. Before escaping earlier this year, the boy witnessed the murder of a man unable to carry his load and the killing of a woman who admitted to being a witch. They tell you to go and kill that person, and if you don't, then you are killed, he said recently, wiping tears from his eyes at a refugee camp near the Congolese border. That's what I remember. The most remote American base is a small cluster of mud huts with thatched roofs in an

outpost called Jemma, a place Kidega describes as the front line against the LRA. Every morning Kidega, who served as my guide while I traveled with the troops, briefs the U.S. soldiers. They ask him how many tracking squads are on the move and what their coordinates are, and they chart them on a map. He knows them by their first names only: Sky, Robert, Tony, and they mostly talk about operations. Many of the Americans spent time in Iraq or Afghanistan, and Kidega once asked them, We have seen what you have done over there. But what will you do in Africa? You will see, the Americans told him. You will see. When Ugandan soldiers recently crossed a river, a massive crocodile attacked one of them, nearly severing his left calf. It was the Americans who helped evacuate the soldier and treated him. He could have died, said Balikuddembe. Similarly, when a Ugandan was wounded by the LRA earlier this year, Americans treated him after Kidega carried him out of the jungle. In the past we didn't have helicopters, says Kidega, but now when something happens, we know there will be a rescue. We know we have friends. The Americans also train the Ugandan soldiers and fly air reconnaissance but haven't so far gone on patrol. Ugandan officials say the logistical and technical support is crucial, especially the service of a U.S. surveillance aircraft that makes regular sorties over the jungle, looking for traces of enemy fires or any human movement in the thick canopy. In the dry season, between November and April, water is scarce and so is food. LRA rebels dig up wild yams or eat the berries found inside the hardened shells of the talakijing tree. If they find water, they pound the bark of the larwece tree into powder, turning it into a poisonous brew, which they dump in the water to kill fish. If somebody is wounded, they use the leaves of the ogali plant as a bandage. They hunt antelope, wild boar, buffalo. And if they have time to settle, they cultivate crops. The Ugandan and American soldiers believe that once Kony and his soldiers use one location for food, water, or shelter, they are likely to return there. But Kidega doesn't want to give them the luxury of settling. So he and his men keep on the prowl. Kidega has studied Kony and his men for a long time. As a boy growing up in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu, Kidega was captured by the LRA four times. They released him three times, and once he escaped on his own. His father and his uncle weren't so lucky. Kony's soldiers killed both men. After all that has happened, I wanted to serve and fight him, Kidega said. I wanted to defend my people. He joined the army in 1989 and has fought Kony ever since. In 2002 on the border of South Sudan, he and his men fought hundreds of LRA troops for two days in one of the bloodiest battles Kidega had seen. Seven Ugandans and countless LRA soldiers died. Last year they battled again, and Kidega's men killed two LRA fighters. And just two months ago, Kidega helped evacuate a comrade wounded in a fight with a small band of roaming rebels. He and the other senior Ugandan commanders believe the LRA has splintered. Kony, he is convinced, is at his weakest. Kony of those days is not like the Kony of these days, he said. His forces are broken. He is on the defensive. Colonel Balikuddembe believes that small, fast-moving tracking teams like Kidega's hold the best chance of finding Kony, and on a recent morning, a dozen soldiers boarded a Ugandan air force Mi-17 from a base they share with the Americans in South Sudan and headed toward the Central African Republic. They flew on to a series of ever-more-remote bases, stopping finally in a makeshift landing zone carved out of the jungle 50 miles from the nearest settlement. From here, Kidega led his men on a two-day trek heading east for eight miles between the banks of the Vovodo and Chinko riverssome of the densest jungle in Africa. Kidega and Balikuddembe picked this area for a reason. Two weeks earlier, another squad operating in the vicinity had killed one LRA soldier and gravely wounded another, a 12-year veteran and high-ranking LRA warrant officer named Patrick Ochan. Over the last two weeks, the Ugandans had been nursing Ochan back to health and then interrogating him for information on LRA movements and, with any luck, Kony's whereabouts. Minor engagements

like these could yield valuable information. Now, armed with that intelligence, the squad returned. For several hours in the midday heat the men moved carefully through forest canopy. Silent for the most part, they communicated with hand gestures and the occasional brief radio command. As evening fell on the first day, Kidega's men approached a dry riverbed. The forest was dense, filled with towering mango trees and swinging vines. Large-beaked tropical birds floated between branches, squalling loud warnings. The soldiers stopped as scouts secured the area. Kidega, sweating profusely in the muggy heat, paused at the bottom of the gorge to inspect a fire pit on the jungle floor. It was about a month old. This is LRA, he said, brushing the charcoal with his boot. They make camp here under the canopy, so the planes can't see them. The squad camped that evening on a small plateau east of the riverbed. The soldiers set up a perimeter, taking turns guarding while the rest pitched small tents on beds of fresh leaves. They boiled water from a muddy pond and prepared rice and meat and tea. As a full moon rose in the sky, the jungle began to hum with the sounds of crickets and the occasional mournful wailing of a bird. A few small fires burned down to embers as the men drifted off to sleep. These soldiers aren't the only ones tracking Kony. In South Sudan, groups of homegrown defenders called arrow boys have begun retaliating against incursions by Kony's men. Last June LRA soldiers laid an ambush in the town of Kidi, abducting a boy and girl. As soon as Alison Tunga Samson, a 30-year-old farmer and father of five, heard about the attack, he mobilized his group of farmer-soldiers. By 9 p.m. that night, they had found tracks, and by 1 a.m., Samson led his men into battle, killing two LRA soldiers, capturing an AK-47, and rescuing the two children. Some, including the father of the abducted children, had carried only a bow and arrow. Four days later, on the 21st, as the arrow boys tracked deeper into the jungle, Samson stumbled across a camp with 35 small huts. Inside they found a computer, a generator, solar panels, batteries, and a Thuraya satellite phone, which they handed over to Ugandan forces. After a peaceful night, Kidega's men woke to a clear morning. The sun had burned off the dew, and by 8 a.m. the men were on the move. Two hours later they came to the Vovodo River, a silvery, slow-moving ribbon. One by one, the soldiers began to cross. With water rising to their chests, they carried their weapons, which included AK-47s, a .50-cal, and a rocket-propelled grenade, above their heads. Earlier this year, on the banks of this river, the Ugandans ambushed a small group of Kony soldiers. Though no one was killed, the soldiers came across an LRA wife who had just given birth and was dying. The soldiers in the field called the Americans, who were waiting in Jemma when the airlift arrived. The American medic asked the woman whom he should treat firsther or her child. She said she needed help first. Her breast was hurting, and a wound was filled with pus. Years in the bush had toughened her, but also weakened her for the birth. Can I carry your child? the medic asked, and she nodded. The medic managed to save the baby, but the mother did not make it. She died later in the hospital. There remain huge challenges in the hunt for Kony. The commander of the African Union forces, Col. Dick Prit Olum, 42, says contributing countries from the African Union have yet to confirm how many troops they will end up sending later this month. And if and when other AU countries do come, he says, they will be heavily reliant on funding, equipment, and logistical support from the U.S. The African Union has to facilitate everything, and it is handicapped, Olum said at a run-down base on the edge of Nzara, in South Sudan, I'm so confident, not particularly with the AU, but with the U.S. On top of the poor logistical setup, some of the armies involved have fought with each other in the past and may not take well to operating under one command. And none has the field experience or jungle savvy that the Ugandans do. If we fail to do this, the people of Uganda will be so hurt, says Olum.

There are signs that Kony may be expanding his range. In January an escapee appeared in, of all places, South Darfur, far to the north of Kony's usual stomping grounds. The abductee told of being led there by Dominique Ongwani, one of Kony's senior commanders. Other intelligence reports filtering in to Colonel Balikuddembe indicate that some Kony units may be heading as far west as Chad and Cameroon, drawing more countries into the fight and putting more children at risk. None of that fazes the soldiers under Kidega's command. They are used to marching miles in the hot sun. They have learned how to find water. And thanks to the Americans and their GPS technology, they are more easily directed toward rivers and water sources. Personally I have lost relatives. I lost my dad, my uncle. They're just killing their own people, said Kidega. If we leave him here, he'll get more support and come back. This isn't just a problem for us, it's a problem for the whole world now. Around midafternoon on the second day of the trek, the Mi-17 touched down in a whorl of dust and flying debris. The soldiers had spent several hours clearing another landing zone in the endless sea of trees where they can land in the future. Several soldiers clambered on board; the rest remained behind to continue the hunt. Another squad had started out from a different location and was set to join this one. As the helicopter took off, the horizon expanded, jungle for as far as the eye could see in every direction. Kidega sat facing backward, staring at the canopy from the top now. Out there, somewhere, Kidega believes, his prey is hiding, looking for a way out.
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News Headline: US officials scrambling to confirm reports of American terror leader's death in Somalia | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: FOXNews.com News Text: By Catherine Herridge U.S. intelligence officials are scrambling to confirm reports that Omar Hammami, the Americanborn leader of an Al Qaeda-aligned terror group in Somalia, has been executed. Unconfirmed reports surfaced in Somali media claiming the al-Shabaab jihadist was hunted down and beheaded on orders from a rival leader in the network. A U.S. intelligence official told Fox News that, if true, Hammami's death could be a turning point in the recruitment of Americans and western Europeans by al-Shabaab -- as Hammami was thought to play a prominent role in that western outreach. "Our folks have been looking for anything on this," the intelligence official told Fox News, adding: "We have not been able to confirm this report." Significantly, web postings on jihadist forums have surfaced that speak of the American's death. Somali media reports claim Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane is accused of ordering the execution. Hammami reportedly said last month in a statement that other Shabaab leaders had him fearing for his life. Hammami, born in 1984, grew up outside Mobile, Ala., in the city of Daphne. But the American has been in war-torn Somalia for several years. In that time, he has emerged as one of the most recognizable and outspoken voices of terrorist propaganda. He was going by the name of Abu Mansour al-Amriki, or "The American."

Al-Amriki first surfaced in the terror group in October 2007, when Al-Jazeera TV aired a report about the "common goal" of Al Qaeda and hard-line militants in Somalia. The report described al-Amriki as "a fighter" and "military instructor," but he concealed his face with a cloth wrap throughout the report. In April, he showed his face for the first time, during a highly-polished, 30-minute recruitment video posted online. It featured anti-American hip-hop music and sporadic images of Usama bin Laden. Hammani's death could be a blow to the Al Qaeda affiliate, at least for its western recruiting efforts. Al-Shabaab was responsible for the recruitment of some two dozen young men of Somali descent from the Minneapolis area.
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News Headline: STATE OF WAR ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: (Algeria/French Online) News Text: By Karim Aimeur How does one explain Al-Jazeera's presence at the scene of the abduction of the Algerian Consul to Gao? Mali is plagued by an unprecedented double crisis which occurred in the space of less than 20 days, a first in the annals of its post-independence history. On March 22nd, 2012, this country witnessed the overthrow of its president, Amadou Toumani Toure, by a military junta. Taking advantage of the institutional disorder and the resulting absence of legitimate governance, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declared yesterday April 6th, 2012, the independence of Mali's northern region. The astonishing pace of the events which put the history of the region on "fast track" worries the international community. Algeria, which shares its southern borders with the Azawad Region, is very concerned about the war situation prevailing there. The declaration of independence in the Azawad region, in the current context, raises at least seven main questions and many more on the reactivation of the Malian volcano. The first question is about the declaration itself of the independence of Azawad, a nonviable region with no resources. Who is behind this proclamation? Has The Azawad Movement received assurances? From whom? Why? Although it may still be too early to volunteer answers to these questions, particularly since the international community has expressed its opposition to the division of Mali, the Azawad Movement attempted to provide an explanation. In its declaration of independence, this Movement justified its move by all the evil to which the Malian government has subjected the region, and the accumulation of more than 50 years of bad governance, corruption and military, political and financial collusion, which has endangered the lives of the Azawad people and undermined regional stability and international peace." However, Azawad issues have been a problem for over 25 years without the mention of separation under the present terms. Which brings up the next question: Why now, and can the Azawad proclamation of independence be disassociated from the partitions witnessed by the countries in the regional? On the 6th of last month, Libyan tribal and militia leaders in Benghazi proclaimed the autonomy of Cyrenaica. The head of Libya's Toubous still brandishes the separatist threat, denouncing a plan of "ethnic cleansing". A year earlier, Sudan had been divided into two [countries]. The unexpected presence of General Carter F. Ham, top commander of U.S. forces for Africa (Africom), in Algiers on Wednesday, April 4th, raises another question, knowing, especially, that the commander addressed the situation in Mali with

his Algerian counterparts. Add to that a surprise visit, on the same day to Algiers, by the Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces, Major General Hamad bin Ali Attiya. The two military leaders were received by the most senior Algerian officials including the president and General Salah Ahmed Gaid, Chief of Staff of the ANP (Arme nationale populaire). The visit yesterday, by Ahmed Ouyahia, Secretary General of RND, to the wilaya of Tamanrasset which borders with the Azawad region and shares the same Tuareg identity, adds to the pieces of the Sahelian puzzle. The choice of the wilaya of Tamanrasset in this explosive context is certainly not fortuitous. A controversy over the position of the Amenokal (Tuareg Chief) of the area during the parliamentary elections of 10 May has resurfaced recently. But the most intriguing element remains the enigmatic presence of the Qatari television channel, Al-Jazeera, on the scene of the abduction, by an armed group, of the Algerian consul to Gao and six members of the diplomatic corps in northeastern Mali. This channel, which is suspected of collusion with the Al-Qaeda's terrorists, actually filmed the scene of the abduction. The video shows Algeria Consul, Boualem Sias, inside a pickup truck, surrounded by armed men, and a convoy of two vehicles which began moving toward an unknown destination. Justifiably, one wonders by which miracle was the channel's reporter in Mali present on the scene at the time of the abduction, and why was he allowed to film the scene? A single clue may seem plausible at this time: Was Al-Jazeera invited by the terrorists to "cover" the kidnapping? If that's case, the position of this television channel would be serious. It would be considered no less than an accomplice in the operation.
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News Headline: Guinea-Bissau opposition angles to cut a deal | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Africa Review News Text: By Allen YERO Embalo and Malick Rockhy Ba Guinea-Bissau's opposition vowed on Sunday to quickly reach a power-sharing deal with the junta that seized power in the latest coup to shake the notoriously unstable west African country. The two sides held talks for a third day on Sunday trying to hammer out a deal following Thursday's putsch that came in the middle of a presidential campaign, derailing the second round. "In any case there will be a solution before the arrival Monday of the Ecowas delegation" that is due to mediate the conflict, said Fernando Vaz, a spokesman for around a dozen opposition parties who have held talks with the junta that overthrew the government last week. "We have two proposals to present to the military. One is constitutional, and the other is for a radical change," Vaz said ahead of the talks, without elaborating. Soldiers violently dispersed some 30 people who tried to hold a peaceful demonstration in front of the national assembly, where the negotiations were taking place. On Friday the new self-styled military command under the army vice chief of staff, Mamadu Ture Kuruma, offered parties a role in a "unity government" in which the junta would keep the defence and interior portfolios. Coup condemned The new regime would exclude the toppled African Party for the Independence of Guinea-

Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which has led the country for almost 10 years. The coup, in which troops detained Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, the election frontrunner, has been condemned by the United Nations, the African Union as well as the United States, the European Union and former colonial ruler Portugal.
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News Headline: Libya: Displaced Return to Rebuild Gaddafi's Hometown - Face Needs |

News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: AllAfrica.com News Text: By Leo Dobbs Sirte Ali points to a housing block that looks like a slab of Swiss cheese - full of holes from artillery fire - and says he feels lucky that he can at least stay in his own damaged apartment nearby. "The flat above mine was hit by a tank shell," he told UNHCR, adding that two of his rooms had been affected and he'd need to spend 5,000 to 6,000 Libyan dinars (US$4,000 to US$4,800) to repair the damage. Ali, 33, an administrator at Sirte University, is also happy to simply be alive. "A friend just died in front of me on that corner. A bomb exploded next to him," he said, recalling the assault on Sirte last September and October that forced tens of thousands of people to flee the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi. Almost 60,000, or more than 70 per cent have returned since the Libyan leader's killing here on October 20. "It began as a fairly gradual return and it speeded up," said aid worker Wouter Takkenberg. "In many ways, Sirte has returned to almost normal." Amid battle-scarred buildings, the streets are full of cars and people, shops and restaurants do a brisk trade, and rebuilding has begun. Electricity and water supplies are working again in most areas. But the needs of returnees and those displaced within the coastal city are still great and this is keeping organizations like UNHCR and its partners busy. Many of the returnees found their homes destroyed or, like Ali, damaged and in need of repair. Some 20,000 residents remain displaced, unable to return to their homes in a city that probably suffered more material damage than any other in Libya last year. Almost 75,000 people remain internally displaced within Libya, mostly from Misrata and Sirte as well as the town of Tawergha and the Nafousa Mountains. Takkenberg, who spent several months in Sirte for UNHCR implementing partner, ACTED, said that in Sirte, "You have a large number of people staying with host families." He said they needed food and non-food items, "especially as the prices in Sirte have risen." And there are also dangers, including unexploded ordnance and lingering insecurity. Aside from distributing food and aid to tens of thousands, ACTED has helped assess the condition of hundreds of buildings, while the Mines Advisory Group gives risk education to students in newly reopened schools. "There is a huge amount of unexploded ordnance throughout the city. It's a major problem," said Takkenberg, adding that this was affecting livelihood programmes and schools. UNHCR, meanwhile, regularly monitors protection needs and has provided assistance to IDPs in Sirte and elsewhere in Libya.

Ali, who spent three weeks sheltering in a basement before fleeing to the town of Zlitan in October to escape the shelling, said his main concerns were about security and money. He continues working, but receives irregular payments. "It's only the salaries issue, otherwise I could survive," he explained. Many others cited finances as a major concern, especially when they first got back to Sirte and found the banking system in tatters. "There was no liquidity in the city . . . at that point there was major need among the entire population," said Takkenberg, adding that the situation was improving and "the economy is coming alive again." Thirty-five-year-old Mohamed, a state employee like so many Libyans, was also worried about security and money. He said he had received some back pay from the interim authorities, but was unable to work as normal. "Only teachers and doctors are working full time," he said. Mohamed had hurried his wife and two children into their car during a NATO air strike in September and drove away from their apartment block in Sirte's heavily damaged Zone Two. They found shelter with relatives in a village to the east of the city. When they returned in November, Mohamed found "there were a lot of my belongings missing," including a computer and the television. But there was a bonus. "I was really worried because I was thinking all of Sirte had been destroyed. But, thank god, I found my flat in a good condition." Al-Sharef, 55, a member of the extended Gaddafi clan, was not so lucky. His rented home on the edge of Zone 2 was badly damaged, so he is now living with his family in a suburb of Sirte. He, his wife and children live in one of a cluster of several wooden bungalows rented by displaced families. Despite the tribal connection, they are clearly a poor, though hospitable family. Al-Sharef earns 250 dinars a month as a watchman on an adjacent construction site, but payment is patchy and the rent is 170 dinars. He also has to pay for water that is trucked in, but he connected a line to the electricity mains. Then there is the cost of transport for his five children who are at school - 100 dinars a month in all. "We need help for everything, starting with money and housing and accommodation," AlSharef told UNHCR. From time to time, NGOs bring food, he said, adding that the family received free medical care. ACTED, working with the World Food Programme, the Libyan Red Crescent and local relief committees, has been distributing food to 10,800 families. UNHCR has provided relief items to IDPs throughout the country. In 2011 alone, the agency distributed non-food items to more than 140,000 people and assessed shelter damage in 9,941 homes. In collaboration with its partners, UNHCR coordinated assistance to IDP sites throughout the country and helps identify protection gaps. In consultation with UNICEF and LibAid, UNHCR is working on a survey on IDP access to education. Meanwhile, none of the people questioned by UNHCR complained about retribution. "From my side, it's the same as before," Al-Sharef said, adding: "Most of my relatives came back without any problems." The whole populations of other pro-Gaddafi towns to the north have been displaced. "I believe in the future, that it's going to be better - and I'm patient," Al-Sharef stressed. Across town, Ali said his goodbyes and headed down towards the beach. "I'm going off to fish - to make money and to eat. I do it two or three times a week, depending on my university duties," he revealed.

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News Headline: Sudanese air force 'bombs UN camp' | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Aljazeera News Text: The United Nations mission in South Sudan has confirmed that a UN peacekeepers' camp was among targets bombed by Sudanese warplanes amid border clashes between the two countries' armed forces. Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said on Monday that there had been no casualties in Sunday's attack. But a South Sudanese information minister said that seven civilians had been killed and 14 others wounded in an attack on Mayom, while the region of Bentiu was also bombed. In-depth coverage of North-South strife over border Gideon, the minister, Gatpan said that two bombs had fallen in the UN camp, destroying a generator and a radio. Bombing raids on Sunday also killed nine civilians in South Sudan's Unity border state, Gatpan said. Al Jazeera's Harriet Martin, reporting from Khartoum, said that "bombings have targeted sites like bridges by which people cross into Sudan from the South". "There has been consistent bombing by Sudan, but a military spokesman has denied that any bombing is taking place," she said. Martin said "it was impossible to know the exact situation in the conflict areas as both sides provide contradictory reports". Sudanese soldiers captured Colonel Philip Aguer, South Sudan's military spokesman, said on Monday that Sudanese attacks had also hit oil wells in the Sudanese border town of Heglig, which has been occupied by South Sudanese forces. A spokesman for Sudan's military denied that its forces were conducting bombing raids anywhere inside South Sudan. He also confirmed to Al Jazeera the capture of a number of Sudanese soldiers who had been wounded in Heglig. South Sudan said on Sunday that it had also captured at least 14 Sudanese soldiers. Fighting has been raging for almost a week since South Sudan captured Heglig, which provided half of Sudan oil needs. The African Union as well as the UN have condemned the South and asked it to withdraw its troops from Heglig. Since then production has stopped at the oil fields putting a severe strain on the Sudanese economy already reeling from the loss of oil revenues following South Sudan's secession in

July last year.

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News Headline: MPs in Khartoum brand South Sudan 'enemy' state | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: BBC News Text: Sudanese MPs have voted unanimously to brand South Sudan "an enemy". "The government of South Sudan is an enemy and all Sudanese state agencies have to treat her accordingly," the resolution said. A Khartoum information ministry official told the BBC the move was linked to South Sudan's seizure last week of the Heglig oil field. South Sudan had accused Sudan of launching attacks on its territory from the frontier oil field. The country seceded from Sudan in July last year following a civil war which ended in 2005. But a number of major disputes remain, including over oil and the official demarcation of the international border, and there have been a number of clashes since. UN camp bombed The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says the full ramifications of the parliamentary vote are not clear, but it is evident that both countries are close to a full war. The speaker of parliament, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, called for Sudan to overthrow the South Sudanese government, the AFP news agency reports. Dr Khalid Al Mubarak, London's Sudan embassy spokesperson, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that South Sudan has made itself an enemy by crossing the border and occupying Sudan's land. "It is not the people of the south but the government that is the real enemy and we know how to confront them," Rabbie Abd al-Attie, a senior adviser to Sudan's information minister, told the BBC. Khartoum has vowed to use "all means" to recapture Heglig - but Sudanese officials deny Monday's vote amounts to a declaration of war, adding that Sudan does not want an all-out war but simply needs to regain its territories. Heglig, which used to provide more than half of Sudan's oil, is internationally accepted to be part of Sudanese territory - although the border area is yet to be demarcated. The parliamentary vote in Khartoum came as a UN spokesman confirmed that Sudanese planes had bombed a UN peacekeepers' camp in South Sudan's border area on Sunday. No-one was hurt during the attack on the small UN base in Mayom village in Unity state, Kouider Zerrouk said. But at least 15 people have been killed in other bombing raids in South Sudan over the weekend, eyewitnesses told the BBC. The African Union has demanded South Sudan's unconditional withdrawal from Heglig, calling

its occupation "illegal and unacceptable", but also condemned Sudan for carrying out aerial bombardments of South Sudan. Sudan has denied being behind the air raids. On Thursday, the UN Security Council called for an "immediate" ceasefire and expressed "deep and growing alarm at the escalating conflict".
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News Headline: Bissau military creates transition council after coup | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Arab News - Washington DC Bureau - Online News Text: BISSAU: Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau dispersed anti-military demonstrators and closed down private radio stations on Sunday as their commanders put in place a transitional council that effectively consummated their coup. Politicians in the poor West African state were summoned by armed forces chiefs at the weekend to discuss the formation of a temporary administration to organize elections after the army toppled the country's leaders and government on Thursday. The coup cut short a presidential election process already underway. But the prospects of forming a representative government appeared impossible after GuineaBissau's main party, the PAIGC, which holds two-thirds of seats in parliament, rejected what it called the army's anti-constitutional actions. After two days of talks, the around 20 political parties who met with the military - without the PAIGC - agreed to create a national transition council whose composition and tenure still had to be decided, a spokesman for the parties, Fernando Vaz, said. All existing constitutional bodies were dissolved. An interim president and prime minister for the transition to new elections would be named after further meetings. The military, which has a history of coups, revolts and political meddling in the former Portuguese colony, has interim President Raimundo Pereira and former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior in custody. They were hauled from their homes amid machine gun and heavy weapons fire on Thursday. As the international community heaped condemnation on the army for carrying out the latest coup in West Africa, there were signs that ordinary citizens in one of the world's poorest and most fragile states were also unhappy. About 300 young protesters, carrying a banner that read Enough violence, marched to the National Assembly on Sunday only to be dispersed by soldiers who threatened them with their guns, witnesses said. At least one demonstrator was injured. The protesters shouted slogans calling for the restoration of constitutional rule and for the release of Gomes Junior, a PAIGC leader who had looked set to win a presidential election run-off scheduled for April 29, now halted by the coup. Soldiers also occupied the facilities of at least three private radio stations in Bissau - Radio Bombolom, Radio Pidjiguiti and Radio Nossa - apparently to stop them broadcasting criticism of the military.

In an apparent attempt to ward off international and domestic condemnation, the military command had earlier issued a communique saying it would work to create the necessary conditions for the rapid re-establishment of constitutional order and above all a climate of peace and security. But international and regional bodies were unimpressed, keeping up a drumbeat of criticism. ECOWAS, the West African grouping of regional states, was sending a high-level delegation which was expected to tell the military on Monday that Thursday's coup was unacceptable, an ECOWAS spokesman said. The Guinea-Bissau putsch was the second such military power grab in West Africa in a month, after a coup in Mali in March that has raised fears of worsening instability in the region. Meeting in Lisbon at the weekend, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), which counts Guinea-Bissau among its members, backed the idea of a UN-mandated intervention force for Guinea-Bissau to be formed with the cooperation of the African Union and the European Union. The expected presidential election winner, Gomes Junior, was unpopular with military chiefs because he backed an initiative to reform and downsize the bloated army, which is accused of involvement in drug-trafficking by western security agencies. These events all highlight the terrible need for security sector reform, a Bissau-based diplomat told Reuters. In Guinea-Bissau, the military don't really want power, they are not interested in running the state ... they just want to be able to go on with their businesses, their drugs business, their fishing business, the diplomat added, referring to the army summons to the political parties to form an administration. Guinea-Bissau, whose weak governance has made it a hub for Latin American drug cartels shipping cocaine to Europe, was in the middle of electing a president to replace Malam Bacai Sanha, who died in a Paris hospital in January after an illness.
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News Headline: Congo-Kinshasa: Teenage Mother Rebuilds Life After Ordeal of LRA Captivity | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Africa Leader News Text: By Celine Schmitt Dungu It's a scene of quiet and peaceful industry. A young woman pulls golden baguettes out of an oven as her baby son plays on the floor. But it hides the pain and abuse that 17-year-old Rose* suffered as a prisoner for almost two years of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal Ugandan rebel group. And the father of her 15-month-old boy is an LRA fighter whose commander gave Rose to him as a gift soon after she was abducted from her home three years ago in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aged 14 at the time, Rose and another girl of the same age were working in the fields near the small town of Bangadi when they were taken away by LRA fighters operating in the area. She

spent one year and eight months with the rebels before being rescued by the Ugandan armed forces in late 2010. Today, Rose is trying to rebuild her life in the town of Dungu, where she works in a bakery run by a church-affiliated group, Dynamic Women for Peace, which receives support from a UNHCR partner organization. But LRA activities continue to displace people in the region more than 4,000 people have fled their homes to escape attacks since the end of last year and more than 300,000 have been uprooted since 2008 in north-west DRC's Orientale province. Rose spoke to UNHCR. Rose's Story: "When we arrived at the LRA camp [35 kilometres from Bangadi], the commander forced us to take husbands and to have sex with them that and every other night. Unfortunately, my husband had a sexually transmitted infection and he passed it on to me. Two weeks later, I had a terrible pain in my lower abdomen. The commander gave me medicine to ease the pain, but it did not cure the disease. I was told that I should not have sexual relations for two months, but after one month my husband forced me to sleep with him. He said that he would kill me if I refused. [Rose still takes medicine for the disease]. "There were many other girls with us in the bush. We were the wives of the rebels, but we were also forced to work as porters. The rebels were on the move every day and we had to carry their goods. We were given protection for our shins because of the tall grass, but it still hurt. Every night we were forced to have sex with our husbands. If we refused to work or tried to protest, they would beat us. They killed one person who tried to escape. "One day, in 2010, the fighters left to attack the village of Tapili and capture people there. It was at this moment that the Ugandan military came and rescued me and other children. I did not know at the time that I was pregnant. They brought me back to Bangadi, where I lived with my uncle because my father had died when I was a child and my mother had left for Dungu. The girl who was abducted with me never came back. I heard that the LRA took her to Uganda. "After I was freed, I thought about going back to live in the bush with the LRA because I was so traumatized. I was scared of everyone. Sometimes, I went back for a few hours or a day and people went looking for me. I started to get help to recover from the trauma and to forget my ordeal. COOPI [Italian aid agency Cooperazione Internationale] regularly visited me and gave me clothes. "When I discovered that I was pregnant, I wanted to abort because I thought that I would be giving birth to a bandit. But I listened to advice [from the church and those around her] and decided against an abortion. And one day the Red Cross came and took me to Dungu to be reunited with my mother. But she rejected me; she could not accept what had happened to me during my captivity. I stayed first with a foster family and now I live with an uncle, but he does not take care of me. Sometimes I go for two days without eating "The pregnancy was very complicated and I had neither the strength nor the milk to breastfeed. I did not like the child at first, but I realized that he was a good child and I have come to love him . . . My child became very sick after he was born and I could not do anything to make him better. I depended on the generosity of the nurses at the hospital to take care of him. "One day, I was selling charcoal in Dungu when a nun came up and started talking to me. Her name was Sister Angelique and she took me under her protection and introduced me to the centre for reintegration and development support [run by Dynamic Women for Peace]. "I learned to bake bread there and I now bake three or four times a week and sell the bread on the streets of Dungu. I can earn 8,000 to 9,000 Congolese francs a week [US$8 to US$9], but

it is a difficult job. I have to walk quite a long way around town. When I have problems, I go to see the nun, and she helps me. If I don't have flour, she helps me to get some. "My dream is to earn enough money to buy a sewing machine. I would like a more stable job and a better future. I learned how to sew at the centre and I would like to use this skill to become independent."
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News Headline: Egypt steps in to prevent an all-out Sudan war | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Africa Report - Online, The News Text: By Konye Obaji Ori he Sunday bombings on South Sudan have been described by some analysts as a retaliatory attack by Sudan after its neighbour seized the Heglig oil field on April 10. South Sudan took over the oil field, which accounts for about half of Sudan's 115,000 barrel-aday oil output. The African Union's Peace and Security Council described South Sudan's occupation of Heglig as "illegal and unacceptable." Reports say it was likely there will be further clashes as the tensions draw dangerously close to an all-out war. illegal and unacceptable On April 12, the UN Security Council called for an "immediate" ceasefire and expressed "deep and growing alarm at the escalating conflict". The following day ground fighting 30 kilomters north of Heglig erupted between troops from the two neighbours. The fighting has stopped oil production in Heglig. On April 14, Sudanese soldiers were reported to be about a few kilometers from the Heglig oilfield. But South Sudanese soldiers claimed to have pushed Sudanese troops back to Karasana, north of Heglig. After Sunday's aerial bombardment of South Sudan by its northern neighbour, the international community remains wary of a wider war between the Sudans, and Egypt has stepped in to play mediator in the crisis. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr met Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday and delivered a message from Egypt's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. "I came here to listen to the Sudanese vision about the crisis and tomorrow I'm going to Juba to listen to South Sudan," Kamel Amr told journalists. "Then we can create a proposal for mediation to solve the crisis if the two parties agree to that." The South seceded nine months ago in a deal that ended decades of civil war, but oil seem to be top of the list of disputes rocking both countries. The latest hostilities are the worst since South Sudan's independence from Sudan last July under a 2005 peace accord, and have raised fears of a return to outright war.
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News Headline: Rwanda: No Wrong or Right Model On Managing Diversity - Mushikiwabo |

News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: AllAfrica.com News Text: The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo, has said there is no wrong or right model on managing diversity for peace and security in Africa. She was speaking at the High Level Forum on Security in Africa which took place in city of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, from April 14-15. She was representing President Kagame at the Forum, and was accompanied by Maj. Patrick Karuretwa, the Defence and Security Advisor, Office of the President. "There is no wrong or right model about managing diversity, every model that a country chooses to manage diversity has its merits as long as it is determined and owned by the people of that nation" she told delegates. Mushikiwabo further added that in the Rwandan 'model' every citizen is allowed to celebrate their identity but there are clear limits that forbid one to use their identity to harm others. The High Level Forum on Security in Africa attracted more than 100 participants who included seating Heads of State - Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Sharif Sheikh of Somalia, Ismal Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, as well as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi. Former Heads of State present included Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), and Luisa Diogo former Prime Minister of Mozambique. Also present were senior representatives of non-governmental organisations, regional and international organisations, private sector, civil society as well as global security actors. The Forum will be an annual event focusing on prevailing peace and security issues on the continent. It brings together a select group of leaders, including Heads of State and Government, African and Global eminent personalities, Chief Executive Officers of private sector companies, civil society and think tanks to discuss topical peace and security challenges on the continent. This year's inaugural forum, which was chaired by Obasanjo, focused on two sub-themes: "State Fragility and the Prospects of Peace in Africa", and "Managing Diversity to Promote Peace and Stability"
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News Headline: Military task force exercise begins | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: bournelocal.co.uk News Text: Hundreds of soldiers have been taking part in a military exercise as part of training to be ready to deploy anywhere in the world at five days' notice. Exercise Joint Warrior will see more than 1,600 troops training on the west coast of Scotland over the next two weeks.

The exercise is held twice a year to prepare forces from the UK, US, Denmark, Norway, France, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands for events and active service. It is aimed at creating a task group capable of being deployed to worldwide incidents such as last year's war in Libya, as well as testing the ability of the armed forces to cope with events such as a terrorist attack on the Olympics. Soldiers from 16 Air Assault Brigade took part in an exercise to practise their airborne skills. They secured an airfield at West Freugh, near Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, through a combination of parachute, air assault and tactical air landings. The exercise scenario saw the airfield become part of an area disputed by two fictional nations called Pastonia and Dragonia. Under the scenario, troops landed in the conflict zone after Nato sent a rapid intervention force to create the conditions for a UN peacekeeping force to take control. The task force, based around the battle group of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 SCOTS), then defended the airfield after landing. Brigadier Giles Hill, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said: "This is currently the largest annual exercise the MoD (Ministry of Defence) holds and it incorporates all of our services as well as our close allies. It presents us with a great opportunity to do the training this demanding role requires alongside those we may well operate with on real operations - importantly the RAF's Tactical Air Transport Fleet and the wider aviation community. "I am also very encouraged by how we are training with our French colleagues in 11th French Parachute Brigade and I welcome them to the exercise." The training is part of maintaining the skills of the Airborne Task Force (ABTF) role. The ABTF is a 1,600-strong infantry battle group that can be called on at five days' notice to deploy on operations for up to 135 days.
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News Headline: Khartoum bombs UN camp in South Sudan | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: France 24 - Online News Text: AFP - Sudanese warplanes bombed a UN peacekeepers' base, damaging it but causing no casualties in the first such attack since a recent escalation of fighting with South Sudan, officials said Monday. Bombing raids on Sunday also killed nine civilians elsewhere in South Sudan's Unity border state, said the area's information minister, Gideon Gatpan. "They launched another bombardment here yesterday," Gatpan said, adding that bombs were dropped near the oil-producing state's capital Bentiu, as well as in the village of Mayom, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the west. "In Mayom... it killed seven civilians and wounded 14, two bombs fell inside the UN camp in Mayom and destroyed a generator and a radio," Gatpan said. "Two fighter jets released eight bombs east of Bentiu," he added. "Others fell in villages around Bentiu, where two people were killed, including a pregnant woman, and eight people were wounded."

UN peacekeeping mission spokesman Kouider Zerrouk confirmed the attack on the small base, but said "there were no casualties, no one was wounded". Fighting broke out between the rival armies of Khartoum and Juba last month, but escalated last week as Southern troops seized the contested Heglig oil field and Sudan launched counter-attacks and waves of air strikes across the border. The hostilities are the worst since South Sudan's independence from Sudan in July, and world powers have condemned the fighting, as fears grow of a wider escalation of the conflict. The most intense fighting has been centred on Heglig, which contributed about half of Sudan's total oil production. But South Sudan's army accused Khartoum on Sunday of trying to open a second front in the northeast of its territory, an area so far spared the fierce border clashes of recent days. The South said its forces had repulsed fresh attacks launched by Khartoum's army early Sunday near the border village of Kuek in Upper Nile state, a widening of the fighting outside Heglig. Talks are stalled between the foes, but Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr arrived in Juba after talks Sunday in Khartoum, where he met Sudan's President Omar alBashir. "We have come to explore ideas and ways to try to reach a peaceful resolution between the two nations," Amr told reporters. "We don't have a specific proposal yet. Khartoum's official SUNA news agency said Sunday that Bashir welcomed Egypt's role, but he told Amr that Sudan refuses to negotiate with the South unless it withdraws from Heglig. South Sudan has said it will not withdraw unless Khartoum pulls out of the neighbouring contested Abyei region, which Sudanese troops seized last May, forcing some 110,00 people to flee southward. Southern Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin welcomed Amr to Juba, saying the role of Sudan's former colonial ruler was "crucial". Last July, South Sudan separated after an overwhelming "yes" vote under a peace deal that ended Sudan's 1983-2005 civil war. The African Union has for months been mediating unresolved issues over oil, border demarcation and citizenship between the two states. The latest fighting prompted Khartoum to pull out of those talks, and analysts said any type of negotiations in the current climate were unlikely. Some two million people died in Sudan's civil war, one of Africa's longest, before the peace deal that opened the way to South Sudan's independence. When the South separated, Khartoum lost about 75 percent of its oil production and billions of dollars in revenue, leaving the Heglig area as its main oil centre.
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News Headline: Militarisation of cyberspace: how the global power struggle moved online |

News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: Guardian.co.uk News Text: Nick Hopkins Jonathan Millican is a first-year university student from Harrogate in North Yorkshire. He says he doesn't think of himself as a "stereotypical geek", but having been crowned champion in Britain's Cyber Security Challenge, the 19-year-old is bound to take some stick from his undergraduate friends at Cambridge. The competition is not well known, but it is well contested. About 4,000 people applied to take part this year, hundreds were seen by judges, and 30 were selected for the final in Bristol on 10 March. After a day of fighting off hackers and identifying viruses in a series of simulations, Millican triumphed, giving him legitimate claim to be the brightest young computer whiz in the UK. And though he may not recognise it yet, Millican has become a small player in a global game. There is a dotted line that links him to an ideological battle over the future of the internet, and the ways states will use it to prosecute conflicts in the 21st century. The remaining cold war superpower, the United States, is slowly squaring up to the emerging behemoth, China, in a sphere in which Beijing has a distinct advantage: cyberspace. Experts estimate China has as many "cyber jedis" as the US has engineers, and some of them, with backing from the state, have been systematically hacking into and stealing from governments and companies in the west, taking defence secrets, compromising computer systems, and scanning energy and water plants for potential vulnerabilities. The scale of what has been going on is only now being recognised, and with a discernible sense of panic, the US and the UK are trying to make up lost ground. One important way of shoring up the west's defences involves recruiting a rival army of computer specialists to defend the systems being attacked. This is why the UK began the Cyber Security Challenge in 2011, and why Millican and otherparticipants have been discreetly courted by GCHQ, the government's electronic eavesdropping centre, which is on the frontline of this new power struggle. The explosion in internet use, and the almost complete reliance on computer systems to run and record our daily lives, has opened up endless opportunities for thieves, spies and vandals to exploit the platform. Though it is still evolving, the push-back has started. The Guardian has spoken to senior officials in the US and UK government, as well as specialists and independent thinktanks in London, Washington and San Francisco, who agree that the west is galvanising itself to adopt a far more aggressive approach to a problem for which there is no precedent. The stakes have suddenly become very high. Over the past 18 months, there has been a concerted effort to highlight the relentless nature of day-to-day attacks on businesses and government departments. The Obama administration estimates that 60% of small firms that are hacked go broke, and billions of dollars worth of intellectual property have been stolen from industry, including military blueprints from leading defence contractors.

And in the political shadows in Westminster and Washington, they have moved to put cyberspace more formally into the military sphere, so that those responsible for the attacks understand that retaliation is now part of the game. New military battleground Though much maligned, Britain's 2010 strategic defence and security review may prove to have been a historic punctuation mark in this process. The review made the threats from cyberspace a "tier one" priority, because Downing Street considered them a genuine threat to national security. The US is moving in this direction, too. On 17 January, the head of the US military, General Martin Dempsey, set out a significant change in position. In a 70-page document that was largely ignored and almost completely impenetrable, he said the US intended to treat cyberspace as a military battleground. "Disrupting the enemy will require the full inclusion of space and cyberspace operations into the traditional air-land-sea battle space [They have] critical importance for the projection of military force. Arguably, this emergence is the most important and fundamental change over the past several decades." The military has long had basic cyber capabilities, such as equipment for jamming signals, but the more sophisticated weapons are seldom spoken of, and rarely used, in part because there has been no formal code of conduct. This has prevented the US from routinely deploying its most destructive cyberweapons, including during the Libya campaign last year, when the Pentagon gave President Obama the option of disabling Muammar Gaddafi's military computer network with a targeted cyber-attack. The White House decided against it, but the Dempsey doctrine will give the president, and General Keith Alexander, the head of US Cyber Command, more confidence next time. Officials in the US and the UK privately concede they have been developing a range of new "offensive" cyberweapons and a rulebook for their use. "If we know that someone is about to launch a cyber-attack on us, then we will pre-empt it," said one Whitehall official. "We have that capability and we will use it, even if the bad actors are based abroad." The state department now regards cybersecurity "as a foreign policy priority", and Obama administration officials insist "the laws of conflict apply to cyberspace". "If there is significant information of a cyber-event, we reserve the right to use tools in our toolbox," said one. "When does a cyber-attack achieve critical level? When one can attribute an attack that deliberately causes loss of life." Paul Rosenzweig, who spent four years as deputy assistant secretary in the department of homeland security until 2010, is sceptical that a cyber-only war will happen soon. But he added: "We may have cyberwar as part of another war. I would hope and pray and assume that they [China] are as worried about that as we are." Frank Cilluffo, President George Bush's special assistant for homeland security at the time of the 9/11 attacks, said: "In cyber, we are where the counter-terrorist community was on September 12, 2001.

"I have come to the conclusion that we can no longer firewall our way out of the problem. We need to talk about offensive capabilities to deter bad actors. I don't think that you are going to see warfare without a cyber dimension in the future that is a given. I think warfare as we think of it today will take on these dimensions." With a buildup of cyberweaponry on both sides, Russia and China have called for negotiations to start on new treaties to govern what is permissible in the domain. The Russians, in particular, have favoured arms control-style agreements, and last September Moscow and Beijing formally proposed to the UN a new international code that would standardise behaviour on the internet. That has been flatly rejected by the UK and the US. They argue arms control treaties won't work because it will be almost impossible to verify the weapons each state has computer viruses are more easily hidden than nuclear missiles. And the new international code, the Foreign Office argues, is simply an attempt by Russia and China to stifle free speech on the internet in their own countries. "It is too late for new formal treaties," said one senior source in the Ministry of Defence. "If we go down that road it will be years before anything emerges. This is China and Russia trying to kick the issue into the long grass." But the alternative is almost as far-fetched, and perhaps more nebulous. The foreign secretary, William Hague, has been calling for countries to agree a "rules of the road" in cyberspace, with respect for international law, rights to privacy, and protection of intellectual property at their core. This puts huge emphasis on goodwill between countries and the harmonisation of existing laws to make it easier for investigators to cross international boundaries. It is as unpalatable to China and Russia as their ideas are to the west. "It's not at a point where I would call it cyberwar yet, but it's close," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which represents a group of multinational companies, including many in the defence and aviation sectors. "I think we are certainly seeing an arms race with respect to cyber. We did well to get through the nuclear age. We did well with chemical weapons. If we can do as well with cyber, that would be great, but we don't really have a theory; I am not sure what the theory is. We don't have a model set up for how we are going to deal with this." Private fears Developing cyberweapons, and a methodology for using them, is only one part of this complex new puzzle. Though government departments are continually under attack, it is private industry that suffers most from hackers. The frightening scale of the theft of intellectual property, and the potential knock-on effect for fragile economies, underpinned the UK's decision to say it must now be regarded as a genuine threat to national security. This, in turn, is forcing governments to expand the boundaries of what might trigger a military response to include theft, albeit on a massive scale. Rosenzweig estimates that 85-90% of the US's digital infrastructure is in private hands. "I am pretty sure it's the same in Europe."

Though it is hard to make calculations, one survey last year commissioned by the Cabinet Office estimated the UK economy lost 27bn to cybertheft in 2010. In America, they gave up trying to calculate precise values nine years ago, when the number of known "cyber-intrusions" reached 100,000 in a year; one respected Washington thinktank put the cost of cybertheft in the US last year at roughly $100bn (63bn). America's biggest companies have spent a similar amount beefing up their cybersecurity in the past five years, but analysts say this hasn't been enough to prevent "significant military losses" involving stealth, nuclear weapon and submarine technology, though none of the companies involved will admit it. Without giving away details, Shawn Henry, executive assistant director at the FBI, confirmed that military networks and defence contractors had been hit hard by hackers. "A tremendous amount of information has been stolen from those networks by a variety of state actors." But there is another dimension of cyber-espionage which is, in some ways, more disturbing. "We know that Russia and China have done the reconnaissance necessary to plan to attack US critical infrastructure," said Jim Lewis, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington thinktank. Lewis was commissioned by Bush in 2008 to write a cyber strategy for the government, which is still regarded as a benchmark. "You might think we should put protection of critical infrastructure at a slightly higher level. It is completely vulnerable. It is totally unprotected. "This isn't made up. I have been doing this for a long time. We know that people have done the reconnaissance, we know that control systems can issue commands to destroy critical infrastructure. We know all this and we have done nothing to defend ourselves We have been trying for about seven years to deter people and it doesn't work." Henry admitted his agency was now dealing with thousands of attacks every month. The agency has people in 63 countries specifically to deal with online threats. "We recognise that there are vulnerabilities in infrastructure," he said. "There are thousands of breaches every month across industry and retail infrastructure. We know that the capabilities of foreign states are substantial and we know the type of information that they are targeting." He added: "We have seen adversaries that have been in networks for many months, or even years in some cases, undetected. They have essentially had free rein over those networks looking at information that is transiting that network, with the ability not only to review that data, but potentially to change that data. They have complete ability to disrupt that network entirely." Henry said attacks were becoming much more sophisticated. "Every step that the defence makes, the offence changes its tactics." Rosenzweig believes this mapping of critical infrastructure such as energy or water plants is seen within government as "preparation of the battlefield". It is, he says, China's way of saying: "Don't send the 7th fleet to save Taiwan, or we will take out the electricity supply in Los Angeles". The US is using the Idaho National Laboratory to run simulations testing the robustness of America's most important computer networks, but these take time.

With so much at stake, the Obama administration is pushing for proper domestic regulation and standards in cybersecurity, but that is being resisted by private companies, even though it may force them to close the gaps that are being exploited. Three competing bills are currently vying for votes in Congress, including one from the former presidential candidate John McCain, who wants to fend off government oversight, and the prospect of companies being fined or sued if their cyber defences don't come up to scratch. The role of China Though the arguments are running along party lines, there is no argument about the fundamental problem, and where it is sourced from. "Anyone who is significant on either side of the aisle is running around with their hair on fire," said Rosenzweig. "The influential voices on both sides are saying it's a problem. It's a real problem and it's a real problem right now. General Keith Alexander [head of US Cyber Command] says he is seeing it, and he's not the sort of guy to make things up." There is no doubt about the main culprit, says Rosenzweig. "China denies it but this is one of the bald-faced lies that people get away with because we don't want to face the consequences. China has more computer programmers than the west has engineers. "Not everyone is a cyber jedi. But if you have 1 million computer programmers, you will find 1,000 jedis. We have a lot of IT professionals but they aren't the same thing; we don't understand the culture." Dmitri Alperovitch, one of the world's foremost independent cybersecurity analysts, said: "The Chinese clearly have no restraints when it comes to espionage. "In the US, economic espionage by either private sector or government is prohibited by policy and the Chinese are certainly not constrained by such measures. When it comes to volumes and sheer scale, no one even comes close to them." The audaciousness of some of the attacks has been astounding. Earlier this month, Nasa's inspector general, Paul Martin, revealed the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory headquarters in Pasadena, California, had been compromised by an attack that appeared to come from China. The JPL manages 23 spacecraft, including missions to Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, and controls the International Space Station. In remarkable testimony to Congress, Martin said hackers had "gained full system access" to JPL, allowing them to modify, copy, or delete sensitive files, create new ones, and upload hacking tools to compromise other Nasa systems. In short, they were running the network. This was only one of 47 cyber-attacks on Nasa last year, 13 of which successfully compromised the agency's firewalls. Martin said some of the intrusions "may have been sponsored by foreign intelligence services seeking to further their countries' objectives". There is debate on how effective, and for how long, a cyber-attack from China could knock out an energy supply or communications hub. Larry Clinton said it would not be easy, but it would be foolish to think it was not possible. "Older technologies tend to be safer than newer technologies. Copper wire is more secure than

fibre. And the problem is the interconnections. We don't have nearly the degree of air-gapping that we once did. "You can get into a weapons system and you won't even know that system is compromised until you set it off and then it comes back and hits you in the face the sort of attacks that were considered sophisticated six years ago are considered elementary now." If the threat is that great, and the belief that China is behind it so widely held, why hasn't the US been more robust in condemning Beijing? It's a question the state department refuses to answer. It will not even say if it has used normal diplomatic means summoning an ambassador or expelling someone from the embassy. Melissa Hathaway, who was director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force under Bush and was on the National Security Council in the first year of the Obama administration, thinks the reticence is understandable. "We need to think about our roles and the economic future of the world. What would you like the future of the economy to look like? Quite honestly, right now we are all dependent on China. All of us. "They have bought a lot of European debt, they have bought a lot of US debt. They are helping to promote world stability right now." The US has been pursuing another route to the Chinese, reaching out to Beijing using thinktanks as proxies, and engaging them in "cyberwar" games. It is the only chance the Pentagon and the state department get to sit across the table from their Chinese counterparts, to express their own fears, and to hear those of China. One hope is that the talks will lead to an equivalent of a "nuclear hotline" from Washington to Beijing, so leaders can talk before a situation gets out of control. While the US may be pleased it is finally getting its message across, Lewis isn't convinced the Chinese are listening. And he doesn't think they will stop their activity in cyberspace either. He has been dealing with the Chinese military for years, and says the People's Liberation Army is hostile. "They see the US as a target. They feel they have justification for their actions. There is a sense that China has been treated unfairly, and so they have a right to catch up. Britain and France may have burned the summer palace, but the US has become the symbol of imperialism. And they think the US is in decline."
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News Headline: Swiss woman taken by gunmen in Mali's Timbuktu | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: MSNBC.com News Text: BAMAKO A Swiss woman who had stayed in the northern Malian town of Timbuktu after it was captured by Tuareg and Islamist rebels was taken from her house by unidentified gunmen on Sunday, a witness and several sources in the town said. Only on msnbc.com Yehia Tandina, one of the town's residents, said the woman, whom she identified only as

Beatrice, was seized by armed men in turbans on Sunday afternoon. A neighbor of the Swiss woman who asked not to be named confirmed the incident. A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry in the Swiss capital Berne said the ministry was looking into the report. A mix of Tuareg separatist and Islamist rebels captured Timbuktu on April 1 in the final leg of their lightning advance southwards through Mali's desert north as government forces retreated in the chaotic aftermath of a coup in the capital. The woman taken was described by several sources as a missionary who had lived in the town for a number of years and spoke several local languages. "She is very well known in the town. She would walk around the town trying to convert people (to Christianity)," a resident of the town told Reuters, asking not to be named. The sources said she was seized in the Abaradjou neighborhood. Advertise | AdChoices Timbuktu, known for centuries as a key trading town in the Sahara and a seat of Islamic learning, had become a top tourist destination in Mali. But insecurity in recent years - including the abduction of several foreigners there by al Qaeda last year - had reduced visitors to a trickle. In the days leading to the capture, most resident Westerners had left the town due to fears of being kidnapped and passed on to al Qaeda cells. Tuareg MNLA rebels smuggled two British citizens and a Frenchman out of the town following the rebel assault. AQIM, al Qaeda's North African wing, which operates in the zone and has links to the Islamist rebels, is already holding 13 Westerners and has earned millions of dollars from ransom payments from previous kidnappings in recent years. The declaration of a Tuareg rebel homeland in northern Mali has raised fears among Western security experts that the remote, inhospitable zone could become a secure haven for al Qaeda and a "rogue state" in West Africa. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday it was essential to prevent a "terrorist or Islamic state" emerging in northern Mali.
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News Headline: Africa's Free Press Problem | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: The New York Times News Text: By Mohamed Keita AS Africa's economies grow, an insidious attack on press freedom is under way. Independent African journalists covering the continent's development are now frequently persecuted for critical reporting on the misuse of public finances, corruption and the activities of foreign Why this disturbing trend? In the West, cynicism about African democracy has led governments to narrow their development priorities to poverty reduction and stability; individual liberties like press freedom have dropped off the agenda, making it easier for authoritarian rulers to go after journalists more aggressively. In the 1990s, leaders like Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia were praised by the West as political and social reformers. Today, the West extols these men for achieving growth and maintaining stability, which they do largely with a nearly absolute grip over all national institutions and the press. Then there's the influence of China, which surpassed the West as Africa's largest trading

partner in 2009. Ever since, China has been deepening technical and media ties with African governments to counter the kind of critical press coverage that both parties demonize as neocolonialist. In January, Beijing issued a white paper calling for accelerated expansion of China's news media abroad and the deployment of a press corps of 100,000 around the world, particularly in priority regions like Africa. In the last few months alone, China established its first TV news hub in Kenya and a print publication in South Africa. The state-run Xinhua news agency already operates more than 20 bureaus in Africa. More than 200 African government press officers received Chinese training between 2004 and 2011 in order to produce what the Communist Party propaganda chief, Li Changchun, called truthful coverage of development fueled by China's activities. China and African governments tend to agree that the press should focus on collective achievements and mobilize public support for the state, rather than report on divisive issues or so-called negative news. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ethiopia, which remains one of the West's foremost recipients of development assistance and whose largest trading partner and main source of foreign investment is China. The prisons in Ethiopia, like those in China, are now filled with journalists and dissidents, and critical Web sites are blocked. This is particularly troubling in Ethiopia, a country where investigative journalism once saved countless lives. In the 1980s, the tyrannical president Mengistu Haile Mariam denied that a famine was happening in Ethiopia, even as it deepened. The world did not move to assist millions of starving Ethiopians until international journalists broke the dictator's stranglehold on information. Nearly three decades later, Ethiopia is still mired in a cycle of humanitarian crises and conflicts. But today, journalists are denied independent access to sensitive areas and risk up to 20 years in prison if they report about opposition groups designated by the government as terrorists. We are not supposed to take pictures of obviously malnourished kids, an Ethiopia-based reporter recently told me. We are effectively prevented from going to areas and health facilities where severely malnourished kids are, or are being treated. This silencing in turn frustrates the ability of aid groups to quickly mobilize funds when help is needed. And with civil society, the political opposition and the press severely restricted, there is hardly any domestic scrutiny over how the government uses billions of dollars of international assistance from Western governments. Rwanda is another worrisome case. The volume of trade between Rwanda and China increased fivefold between 2005 and 2009. During the same period, the government has eviscerated virtually all critical press and opposition and has begun filtering Rwandan dissident news Web sites based abroad. As powerful political and economic interests tied to China's investments seek to stamp out independent reporting, a free African press is needed more than ever, as a key institution of development, a consumer watchdog and a way for the public to contextualize official statistics about joblessness, inflation and other social and economic concerns. But support for the press, in order to be effective, will have to mean more than just supporting journalism training and publishing capacity; if such efforts are to succeed, they must be integrated into a wider strategy of political and media reforms.
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News Headline: Executive Leadership Development Program Gets 'Electrifying' Experience during First Ever Participation in African Lion 2012 | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: U.S. Africa Command News Text: By 1st Lieutenant Nicole Fiedler AGADIR, Morocco, Apr 16, 2012 It all begins on the yellow footprints. The moment a young Marine recruit makes the decision to earn the eagle, globe and anchor, he is skillfully and painstakingly groomed for leadership, instilled with the traits and skills he will continue to develop over the years. He is a warfighter, a leader of Marines -- and his support networks want to know more about him. In fact, one such support network -- made up of Department of Defense and interagency leaders -- wants to know more about all five of the military branches they serve, and they are willing to get down in the dirt to accomplish this. The Executive Leadership Development Program, founded in 1985 with the approval of the secretary of defense, provides this immersion training through a 10-month experience, one that brought them to Agadir, Morocco to participate in exercise African Lion 2012, April 13-15, 2012. This year's ELDP participants include 48 DOD civilians, eight active-duty service members, two Department of Homeland Security civilians and one Department of Justice civilian. All had one thing in common -- a desire to train with warfighters in a joint, interagency and multinational environment and to see how their policies and decisions affect those on the ground. "The ELDP program is designed to provide a mechanism by which to develop us as leaders like our military develops its own leaders," said Kimberly Kessler, director of the ELDP. "Whether you work for the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force or as DOD civilian, at the end of the day, we all have to work together." Kessler said this was the first time the ELDP was participating in AL-12 and they were very excited for the experience. AL-12 is a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored, Marine Forces Africaled exercise that involves various types of training including command post, live-fire and maneuvering, peace support operations, an intelligence capacity building workshop, aerial refueling/low-level flight training, as well as medical and dental assistance projects. The ELDP members were divided into two groups during their stay, and alternated between visiting Joint Task Force African Lion 12 training sites and experiencing the Moroccan culture first-hand. For ELDP participant Kevin Mahoney, this was not only his first visit to the African continent, but an immersion experience that has given him a "better understanding of the DOD as a whole." "This visit has been phenomenal," said Mahoney. "It's turned out to be much more than I expected. The culture here is incredible there is an atmosphere of such genuine, sincere hospitality." Other members had a different takeaway from the day's events -- their first experience getting tased. In keeping with the goal of "hands-on training," several ELDP members volunteered for riot-control training with Marines and Moroccan forces conducting peace support operations in Tifnit, Morocco. "It was truly an electrifying experience," deadpanned Air Force Major Zach Hall during a cultural dinner held for the ELDP members, a comment that elicited laughter from around the room and caused a few to wince at the recent memory.

During remarks at the dinner, Brigadier General Charles Chiarotti, deputy commanding general for Marine Forces Europe and Africa, tied the day's events together for ELDP members eager to hear about his leadership experience and the job his Marines were doing during AL-12. "The young men and women that wear the eagle, globe and anchor on their cover are proud, professional and proficient out there in the field," said Chiarotti. "All I have to worry about is keeping up with them." Though their visit to AL-12 may have been short, ELDP members have experienced yet another real-world demonstration of joint, multi-national training that will leave a lasting impression along with the service members they have worked alongside. "I personally loved getting to know the junior enlisted leaders," said Mahoney. "I am consistently impressed with the caliber of our military members."
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News Headline: United Nations News Centre - Africa Briefs | News Date: 04/16/2012 Outlet Full Name: United Nations News Service News Text: UN envoy for sexual violence in conflict to step down next month 16 April Margot Wallstrm, who has been spearheading United Nations efforts to tackle sexual violence in conflict, will step down from her post at the end of May due to family considerations, it was announced today. Advance team of UN observers arrives in Syria to report on cessation of violence 16 April The first group of six United Nations unarmed monitors tasked by the Security Council to report on the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence in Syria has arrived in the capital, Damascus, and began their work, according to a spokesperson for the world body. Mali: UNESCO chief appeals for protection of Timbuktu's documentary heritage 16 April Reports that rebels have over-run and looted centres containing thousands of ancient books and documents in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu has led the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to appeal to all relevant authorities to be on the alert against any attempt to traffic items stolen from these centres. UN condemns deadly weekend raids by insurgents in Afghanistan 16 April Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations mission in Afghanistan today strongly condemned the coordinated attacks carried out on Sunday against the country's institutions and international organizations, including foreign diplomatic missions, in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere. Security Council strongly condemns DPR Korea's satellite launch attempt 16 April The Security Council today strongly condemned the attempted launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) of a so-called application satellite,' stressing that last week's action, as well as any other use of ballistic missile technology, is a serious violation of the United Nations resolution.
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