Seit der Besetzung durch die VR China ist Lithang in der Provinz Kham eine Hochburg des tibetischen Widerstands. Die Stadt mit einer großen Klosteranlage war deshalb in den fünfziger Jahren eine der ersten, die von den Chinesen erheblich zerstört wurde.

Traditionell findet in Lithang Anfang August immer ein großes Pferderennen statt, das in der Vergangenheit auch von der chinesischen Touristenbehörde vereinnahmt wurde. In diesem Jahr hat die KP das Pferderennen mit den Feiern zum 80. Gründungstag der Volksbefreiungsarmee zusammengelegt - eine für die Tibeter besondere Provokation.

The attacks happened 450km east of the capital Algiers

Fifteen people have been killed in a clash between Islamist militants and Algerian security forces in the eastern region of Batna, local media report.

The militants carried out a rocket attack on an army post, killing five soldiers, while 10 Islamists reportedly died in an army counter-attack.

A BBC correspondent in Algeria says this is the most serious Islamist attack for several months.

They are thought to belong to a group now renamed "al-Qaeda in the Maghreb".

Earlier this week, the Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat (GSPC) announced that it had changed its name.

This latest clash comes amid repeated calls by the army to the general population to help them in their fight against armed militants.

Contrast
The army has put up posters across north-central Algeria, urging people to give them any information they had about "terrorists".

It is the first time since the start of the violence linked to radical Islamists in 1992 that the army has used this method of gathering information on the militants.

The BBC's Mohammed Arezki Himeur in Algiers says the extensive use of posters by the army contrasts with the government's insistence that armed Islamist groups have been defeated with no chance of resurgence.

Last August, Algeria offered Islamic militants a six-month amnesty on condition of surrender, but fewer than 300 came forward.

Militants were promised immunity from prosecution provided they were not involved in serious crimes such as massacres, rapes and bombings.

16/12/2005 10:34 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/

Mohamed Osman

Khartoum - The presence of African Union troops in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has helped to reduce violations of a fragile ceasefire between the Sudanese government and rebels, according to a statement issued on Thursday by a team of experts that recently toured the area.

The AU Assessment Mission, headed by Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, AU special representative to Sudan, however, acknowledged that the security situation still does not allow for the return of internally displaced persons and refugees in significant numbers.

13/12/2005 20:40 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/

Addis Ababa - About 3 000 people detained during violence that rocked Ethiopia last month will face trial for roles in the clashes in which at least 48 people were killed, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday.

12/12/2005 21:40 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Maputo - The United States announced on Monday that it was increasing aid to Mozambique for humanitarian relief and disaster mitigation.

Jay Knott, the USAID mission director in Mozambique said the US had approved 4 000 metric tons of additional food aid for the country in late November and would also provide $1m for cultivation and water management activities.

He said he also had authorised the release of some other project funds to pay for the distribution of seeds to farmers in areas affected by drought.

09/12/2005 17:19 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Lagos - Nigerian police broke down the gate of a huge housing complex and ordered thousands of civil servants and their families out of their homes on Friday, witnesses said.

13/12/2005 20:39 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Rome - The UN food agency expressed "serious concern" on Tuesday over continuing food shortages facing 12 million people in southern Africa, particularly in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

02.12.2005 - Jack Jones Zulu
@ http://www.oneworld.net/

Poverty in Zambia is as elsewhere more than just a lack of material goods.

Poor people are widely excluded from decision-making processes and from the basic services the State should provide.

Yet many people are confident that the MDGs can make people everywhere more secure, more prosperous and better able to enjoy their fundamental human rights.

09/12/2005 17:18 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Addis Ababa - Belgium signed a debt cancellation agreement with Ethiopia on Friday, writing off the entire €14.62 million (about R116m) it is owed by the east African country.

The agreement is part of an arrangement made by the 19 members of the Paris Club of creditor nations at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July.

06/12/2005 18:35 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Lusaka - An evangelical church that was banned in Zambia last week for allegedly practising satanism, including human sacrifice, has decided to challenge the decision in court, said an official on Tuesday.

A court clerk said the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a sect originating in Brazil, was asking the country's high court to quash the government's ban on the grounds that it was imposed unfairly.

05/12/2005 13:57 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com

Mogadishu - A disgruntled former employee of the German aid agency, GTZ, deployed 50 heavily armed men and looted their office in Somalia, said a GTZ official on Monday in Nairobi.

He said: "They looted $24 000, but no one was injured in the incident."

13/12/2005 11:19 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Addis Ababa - Authorities have jailed two Ethiopian journalists for articles published up to seven years ago, raising the number of reporters imprisoned since a renewed crackdown on the independent press to at least 15, says a media watchdog on Tuesday.

12/12/2005 12:22 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Nairobi - Sudan's top leadership, including President Omar el-Beshir, bears responsibility for widespread atrocities committed in the troubled western Darfur region, a leading human rights watchdog said on Monday.

Beshir and 15 other current and former senior officials in the Khartoum government, military commanders and local administrators should be subjected to United Nations sanctions and probed for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

"The Sudanese government at the highest levels is responsible for widespread and systematic abuses in Darfur," HRW said in a report entitled "Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur."

07/12/2005 10:02 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Nairobi - The European Union has said Kenya has met the conditions for the disbursement of millions of euros in direct EU budget support.

The support had been threatened by a poor anti-corruption and reform record.

14/12/2005 08:38 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

New York - A great number of killings, mass rapes and "extremely" serious gender violence were committed in Sudan's Darfur region, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Tuesday, calling for further investigation.

Luis Moreno Ocampo told the UN Security Council that the ICC has gathered a comprehensive "picture of crime" in Darfur.

13/12/2005 08:35 - (SA)
@ http://www.news24.com/

Lisbon - Sudan is becoming increasingly more dangerous for aid workers because of the mounting violence in the African country, says the United Nation's refugee chief on Monday.

The United Nations peacekeeping head has warned of a "crisis" in the Horn of Africa, as western UN troops left Eritrea after being ordered out.

Almost 90 western troops have left Eritrea. Jean-Marie Guehenno said he had never experienced a similar situation in 10 years in the job.

He has been in Eritrea since Monday in a bid to solve the problems but was not able to meet President Isaias Afewerki.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have both moved troops towards their border recently.