Darfur

02 October 2007 -- The Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has accused the ruling National Congress Party of Sudan of violating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The agreement was signed in 2005 to end 21 years of civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan.

Pagan Amum also says the United States has agreed to remove Southern Sudan from the list of sanctions against the Khartoum government. He is part of a delegation visiting the United States from the government of Southern Sudan and the SPLA.    » read more »

Amendment Included as Part of the FY 2008 National Defense Authorization Act

September 18, 2007 -- Washington, DC – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today announced unanimous Senate approval of an amendment to the FY 2008 National Defense Authorization Act she introduced to address the Bush Administration’s response to the crisis in Darfur.    » read more »

29 August 2007, Washington (By Ray McDonald) -- Angelina Jolie visited Iraq on August 28 to meet with refugees and U.S. troops.

Jolie - a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - made the visit during a two-day trip to the region, according to an agency statement.

It said the 32-year-old actress met August 27 with displaced Iraqis in neighboring Syria before briefly crossing into Iraq "to see firsthand the plight of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted by the ongoing conflict."    » read more »

08 August 2007 -- A Darfur rebel group says it has shot down a Sudanese government fighter jet. A spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said Wednesday that the group brought down a MiG-29 jet on Tuesday.

A Sudanese defense spokesman denied the claim, saying he knows of no missing plane.

Rebels say the plane had been bombing civilian villages in the region. They say the plane was shot down south of Adila, in the eastern part of South Darfur state.    » read more »

07 August 2007 -- Mia Farrow has offered to relinquish her freedom so that an ailing Darfur rebel can get safe passage out of a hospital.

In an August 6 letter posted on her website, the 62-year-old actress-activist made the offer to Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir.

Suleiman Jamous, a moderate who has been a key link between Darfur rebels and aid workers in the beleaguered Sudanese region, is in a U.N. hospital suffering from abdominal problems. The U.N. said he is free to leave, but he fears arrest or government reprisal.    » read more »

August 1, 2007 -- Washington, DC – Last night, just hours after the U.N. Security Council announced its decision to authorize the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Darfur, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution (S. Res. 276) sponsored by Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and Ranking Member Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) which calls for the immediate deployment of a peacekeeping mission to Darfur and lays out benchmarks for that mission.    » read more »

Manila, 01 August 2007 (By Nancy-Amelia Collins) -- Foreign ministers from around the world have begun discussions in Manila on establishing a nuclear safety watchdog for the Asian region. The discussions are taking place in advance of the annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, where VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins compiled this report.

The ASEAN Regional Forum groups the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with 17 others, including the European Union, the United States, China and Russia.    » read more »

New York, 31 July 2007 (By Victoria Cavaliere) -- The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved sending an expanded peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region. From VOA's New York Bureau, Victoria Cavaliere reports that the resolution follows eight months of negotiations over the make-up and mandate of the force.

The Security Council adopted the resolution Tuesday, just 24 hours after co-sponsors Britain and France circulated a finalized draft - the fourth revision this month.    » read more »

President Bush welcomes British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md

30 July 2007 (By VOA News) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Bush are expected to discuss the war in Iraq, global trade, and the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region during talks Monday.

The two leaders are at Camp David, the presidential retreat outside the U.S. capital in rural Maryland.

Mr. Brown arrived in Washington late Sunday and joined President Bush at Camp David for a dinner meeting.    » read more »

28 July 2007 (By VOA News) -- A spokesman for Steven Spielberg says the film director may quit his involvement with the 2008 Beijing Olympics unless China does more to stop the violence in Darfur.

Andy Spahn told the ABC news network in an article on its web site that the director will decide in the next few weeks whether to resign from his position as artistic adviser to the games.    » read more »

Washington, 29 July 2007 (By Stephanie Ho) -- Washington's envoy to the United Nations, , says he expects the world body to agree this week on a resolution to send a combined U.N.-African Union force to the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur. VOA's Stephanie Ho has more on the story.    » read more »

Menendez-Brownback resolution approved by Foreign Relations Committee

June 27, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The Senate today took a major step toward officially pressuring China to act on Darfur. The Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would officially call on China to use its “unique influence and economic leverage” with the Sudanese regime to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur.    » read more »

June 26, 2007 -- [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to the President late yesterday, urging him to confront Russian President, Vladimir Putin, about Russian arms sales to the government of Sudan when Putin visits Bush in Maine on July 1st. Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council is transferring arms to the Sudanese government in violation of the UN arms embargo currently in place. Joining Durbin in sending this bipartisan letter to the White House were Senators Brownback, Feingold and Smith.    » read more »

25 June 2007 -- France is hosting a major international conference on the crisis in Darfur, Monday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Ban Kyi Moon will be there, but African leaders have refused to attend.

Until recently, France has largely ignored the crisis in Darfur. But new French President Nicolas Sarkozy and new Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have made it one of the government's top priorities.    » read more »

Jun. 21, 2007 -- AUSTIN – Texas Governor Rick Perry today signed Senate Bill 247, which directs the state Employees Retirement System (ERS) and Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to divest financial holdings in companies doing business in Sudan.

“As one of the richest nations in the world, our country holds both tremendous power and great influence,” said Perry. “The brutal attacks on the people of Darfur are sickening. And what is worse, they are coming from the very body that should be protecting them: the Sudanese government.    » read more »