Tuesday, February 8, 2011
With the announcement of final voting results, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan said Monday that his government would accept the choice of the long-embattled region of southern Sudan to separate from the north, setting the stage for the creation of the world’s newest country this summer.
According to the final count, announced in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, 98.83 percent of the more than 3.8 million registered voters in southern Sudan chose to separate from the north. In many parts of the country the vote was over 99 percent.
[Read more…]
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Guyana has become the sixth Latin American country to recognise an independent Palestinian state.
“It is Guyana’s hope that the increasing recognition of the state of Palestine will contribute to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the creation of lasting peace and stability in the region,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Guyana’s decision, the statement said, “is in keeping with Guyana’s long-standing and unwavering solidarity with, and commitment to, the just and legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine for the exercise of their right to self-determination and to achieve a homeland of their own, independent, free, prosperous and at peace.”
Guyana joins Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Ecuador in recognising Palestine as an independent state within the borders that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
The News:
http://english.aljaz … 111415632686804.html
Monday, January 17, 2011
Both the UN and international election observers hail last week’s referendum on independence in South Sudan as a success. Meanwhile, the counting of the ballots has already started in Juba.
The UN panel tasked with monitoring the referendum on the future status of South Sudan already yesterday said it was “satisfied” with the polling, which had lasted for a week and ended on Saturday. The UN panel concluded the process had been well organised and enabled the people of the region to express their will freely.
The panel, headed by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, again confirmed that the 60 percent voter turnout threshold for the referendum to be valid had been met. The presence of over 22,000 Sudanese and international observers helped make the process transparent, the members of the panel said, adding that staff at referendum centres “coped admirably with the very high turnout.”
The News:
http://www.afrol.com/articles/37099
Friday, January 14, 2011
West Africa’s Guinea-Bissau has become the 74th country to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Kosovar acting Foreign Minister Vlora Citaku confirmed the information to NKR on January 13.
Guinea-Bissau is the second country to recognize Kosovo in 2011, with Qatar having done so on January 4.
The News:
http://www.newkosova … y-guinea-bissau.html
Monday, January 10, 2011
Basque separatist group ETA called a permanent ceasefire on Monday, Basque regional newspaper Gara said on its website, three months after the weakened group announced a halt to armed attacks.
The group, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of armed struggle for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, has been crippled by arrests and a rise in support among Basques for legal politics.
“ETA has decided to declare a permanent and general ceasefire which will be verifiable by the international community,” the group said in an English-language statement on www.gara.net.
ETA Declaration sent to newspaper Gara:
http://www.gara.net/ … 0108_declaration.pdf
The News:
http://www.nytimes.c … html?_r=1&ref=europe