Sudan Orders Tribes To Disarm Arab Militias
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir, ordered tribal leaders in the Darfur region to form security forces to disarm Arab militias blamed for violence that has killed as many as 50,000 people during an 18-month conflict.
The decision, announced late Thursday after two days of talks between government officials and Darfur tribal chiefs, comes amid intense international pressure to end the Darfur crisis, which has forced 1.5 million people from their homes.
The United Nations describes Darfur's plight as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The European Union, United States and humanitarian groups accuse Bashir's government of backing the Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, with vehicles, helicopters and airplanes -- a charge denied by Sudanese officials.
It was not clear how effective the government's move would be. Despite previous efforts to restore order, including the deployment of police to the troubled region, U.N. officials and aid groups say fighting and other violence continues.
Europe
• TBILISI, Georgia -- Negotiators agreed to a cease-fire after three nights of gun and mortar fire in breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, a Georgian official said.
Meanwhile, Georgia's parliament called for suspending the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in the region, accusing Russia of taking sides as tensions have threatened to erupt into open conflict. Lawmakers want Western peacekeepers to replace the Russians.
Hours before the truce was reached, a convoy carrying Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania came under fire during a visit to ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia. No one was injured in the shooting.
• VIENNA -- A student priest was convicted of possessing child pornography in a sex scandal at a seminary that has rocked the Austrian Roman Catholic Church.
A court in St. Poelten, west of Vienna, found the 27-year-old Polish man guilty of downloading hundreds of images depicting child pornography from the Internet. He was given a six-month suspended sentence, a court spokeswoman said. He had faced up to two years in prison.
Asia
• SHANGHAI -- The most powerful typhoon to hit China in seven years roared inland after killing 115 people and injuring more than 1,800 others along the coast and leaving a path of destruction though farms, towns and fishing ports.
Typhoon Rananim weakened to a tropical storm after crossing into Jiangxi province, where it brought heavy rain to China's central lakes region, meteorologists said. Sixteen people were missing in Zhejiang province, just south of Shanghai, where the typhoon made landfall Thursday night with winds of more than 100 mph, China Central Television reported.
• MANILA -- A southern Philippines court sentenced 17 members of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group to death for kidnapping nurses from a hospital three years ago.
