Today's other stories in brief
70 tribesmen killed in Darfur battles
KHARTOUM - Up to 70 Arab tribesmen were killed on Wednesday in armed clashes over water and grazing land in South Darfur, a senior member of one the groups involved said yesterday.
The fierce fighting between the nomadic Rizeigat and Misseriya tribes was also fuelled by bad blood over past killings and the ready supply of small arms in the region, tribal leaders said.
Sadig Babo Nimir, brother of the leader of the Misseriya, said the fighting broke out late Wednesday morning in the remote Abu Jabra area, close to the region's border with southern Kordofan.
"Everyone has Kalashnikovs there, because of the impact of the fighting in Darfur and the south," said Nimir, referring to Sudan's north-south civil war that ended in 2005. - (Reuters)
Bankok bomb kills journalist
BANGKOK - A car bomb exploded yesterday in a town in southern Thailand that has been a target of insurgent attacks, killing a journalist and wounding 30 government officials and shoppers, security officials said.
The explosion came minutes after a bomb hidden in a motorcycle was remotely detonated near a busy restaurant and the police station in Sungai Kolok, police said. The first explosion caused no casualties. More than 3,000 people have been killed in four years of separatist attacks in the largely Malay-speaking region. - (Reuters)
Ghana's warning on climate deal
ACCRA - Time is running short to agree a new UN climate treaty that will need billions of dollars a year to help the poor cope with global warming, host Ghana told the start of 160-nation UN climate talks yesterday.
"The clock is ticking," Ghanaian president John Kufuor told the talks in Accra, meant to work on details of a UN deal to combat global warming to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. "We need more than rhetoric to make progress in the next 12 to 18 months," he told 1,000 delegates in a conference hall in Accra. - (Reuters)
Banda takes over in Zambia
LUSAKA - Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa, who died on Tuesday after suffering a stroke, will be buried in Zambia on September 3rd, acting president Rupiah Banda said yesterday.
Mwanawasa (59) died in a French military hospital on Tuesday after suffering a stroke in June. Banda (72) has taken over as head of government until elections are held. - (Reuters)
Crew bailed, but cocaine missing
BISSAU - Guinea Bissau has released on bail the Venezuelan crew of an executive jet suspected of flying cocaine into West Africa, a police source said yesterday.
The bail granted to the three Latin Americans frustrated local law enforcement officials who are outgunned in their battle against the international cocaine cartels and have seen previous arrests undone by a weak judiciary.
Guinea Bissau, a tiny former Portuguese colony on the tip of West Africa, has become a major hub in the flow of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.
The latest incident involved a Gulfstream jet that landed at the country's main airport in July and was seized by the army.
Although the Venezuelan crew was arrested, the judicial police investigating the drug trade were prevented from searching the plane for days.
After intense international pressure, the police and foreign narcotics agents were allowed on board with sniffer dogs. The jet was empty but they confirmed cocaine had been on board, fuelling claims that the military is involved in the trade. - (Reuters)