Deadly clashes erupted this week between Moroccan forces and local rebels in Western Sahara — a long-disputed region of northwestern Africa.

The violence coincided with a round of talks — informally backed by the United Nations — between Morocco and representatives of Polisario Front, the region’s independence movement.

Polisario said Moroccan authorities raided a camp on Monday in Western Sahara, leaving 19 people dead, 723 wounded, and 159 missing, and the group said the fighting has continued since then. Morocco’s official news agency said eight Moroccan police officers also died in the raid.

Ahmed Boukhari, a Polisario representative, told CNN in an e-mail Tuesday that “the tragic events” were “the result of a deliberate act carried out by Morocco to undermine the current U.N. peace process.”

The News:
http://edition.cnn.c … o.clashes/index.html

Republic of Kiribati recognizes the Republic of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, informs the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Kosovo.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kiribati has notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo through a verbal note that this country has decided to recognize the independence of the Republic of Kosovo on October 21, 2010.”

At the same time, the Republic of Kiribati has expressed readiness to enter the Republic of Kosovo diplomatic bilateral relations to develop friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries in political, trade and economic.

Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979.

The News:
http://www.newkosova … dence-of-Kosovo.html

Russian troops pulled back from a small village of Perevi at the western part of administrative border of breakaway South Ossetian on Monday evening.

Georgia said the withdrawal was “a step made in the right direction.”

“The de-occupation of each village is of outmost importance for Georgia and especially for the population residing in those villages,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on October 18.

“However, it should be emphasized that the withdrawal of Russian occupational forces from Perevi is just a miniscule step in comparison with commitments envisaged by the ceasefire agreement of August 12 2008 which Russia still has to comply with,” it said.

The News:
http://www.geotimes. … ?m=home&newsid=22940

Several dozen Russian official media outlets reported on October 9 that a video of Last Appeal by 4 representatives of guerrillas, fighting in the Far East of the present-day Russia for freedom and independence of their country - the Amur Republic with its capital in Vladivostok - had been posted on the Youtube.

According to informal polls, the majority of the population of in Russian Far East wants to join Japan as its mainland province or to have their own independent state.

Russian media outlets suggest that the guerrillas in the Russian Far East use military experience of the Mujahideen of the Caucasus Emirate, and perhaps, at least some of them have secretly converted to Islam.

The News:
http://www.kavkazcen … 10/10/10/12604.shtml

Somaliland President Ahmed Sillanyo accused the Eritrean government of training and arming Ogaden National Liberation (ONLF) militias then smuggling them to Somaliland so that they would clandestinely cross the border to Ethiopia and wage war there.

President Ahmed Sillanyo condemned the Eritrean government for organizing and sponsoring the landing of ONLF militants on Somaliland soil.

He said the Eritrean government’s action is an act of terrorism, a gross interference in Somaliland’s affair, and a threat to neighboring countries.

The News:
http://www.somalilan … /sl/2010/453/4.shtml