A round-up of other world news in brief
Warring sides in Sudan agree to peace talks
DUBAI – Sudan’s government and a leading Darfur rebel faction agreed yesterday to meet for peace talks and signed a deal with concessions from both sides. The Qatari mediator urged all other rebels and Chad to come to the table.
The agreement included measures to aid and protect refugees in Darfur and a commitment by the two sides to continue negotiations in Doha. Rebel group Justice and Equality Movement also wants a prisoner swap.
– (Reuters)
Iranian reformer told of death risk
TEHRAN – Iran’s most influential pro-regime newspaper has warned the country’s reformist former president, Muhammad Khatami, that he risks being assassinated if he stands in the forthcoming presidential election.
The warning from Keyhan which backs the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is being seen as a thinly veiled threat by hardliners that they will resort to violence to prevent Mr Khatami winning June’s poll. – (Guardian service)
Guadeloupe ‘on verge of revolt’
POINTE-A-PITRE – Protesters ransacked shops and burned cars in Guadeloupe overnight as a strike over the cost of living escalated, and one senior local official said the French Caribbean island was “on the verge of revolt”.
Tree trunks and smoking car wrecks were strewn across streets in the island’s largest town Pointe-a-Pitre and in other areas after a night of clashes between police and protesters.
– (Reuters)
Refugees flee fighting in Congo
GENEVA – Thousands of refugees are fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo in several directions as a result of separate flare-ups of fighting, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said yesterday. More than 15,000 Congolese have fled to southern Sudan in recent months to escape violence from Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.
– (Reuters)
LONDON– Cancer sufferer Jade Goody is to marry her fiance Jack Tweed on Sunday, her publicist confirmed yesterday.
The 27-year-old reality TV star, who was told last week she has just months to live, briefly left London’s Royal Marsden Hospital yesterday in a wheelchair to exchange engagement rings with Tweed (21).
Friend and publicist Max Clifford said the couple are preparing for a Sunday ceremony. – (AP)
