Free Republic

KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel - U.N. observers in southern Lebanon called the Israeli military 10 times during a six-hour period to ask it to halt an airstrike before their observation post was hit, according to details of a preliminary U.N. report on the incident. Four U.N. observers were killed in the bombing Tuesday. During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a U.N. official who had seen the preliminary report, which was released to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The U.N. observers said the area within half a mile of the post was hit with...

More flee Darfur as pleas to Bashir go unheeded By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 14/10/2004) An upsurge of fighting in Darfur has forced a further 220,000 people to flee their homes for refugee camps and severely disrupted the international relief effort, the United Nations said yesterday. The situation in Sudan's war-torn western region has continued to worsen despite heavy pressure on President Omar al-Bashir's regime and constant official assurances that the violence would be curbed.Members of the Sudanese Liberation Army on parade Mr al-Bashir repeated these pledges when he met Tony Blair in Khartoum last week and agreed to...