Sunday International News

First fatality from California
blazes as fires rage on
Agence France-Presse . Los Angeles
California’s wildfire crisis claimed its first fatality as firefighters battled to hold the line against hundreds of fires blazing across the state.
Sheriff’s officials Friday confirmed the body of a person had been discovered inside a home gutted by flames in Concow near the northern California town of Paradise, 90 miles north of Sacramento.
Butte County Sergeant Steve Pelton said the body was discovered by sheriff’s deputies checking on residents, adding that the body was burned so badly it was not possible to determine if it was a man or a woman.
News of the fatality came as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered an extra 2,000 members of the National Guard to be deployed.
‘I am ordering 2,000 additional California National Guard personnel to boost our firefighting forces,’ Schwarzenegger said.
‘Once these new troops are trained and certified, they will be ready to pitch in at a moment’s notice throughout the fire season.’
Earlier, Federal Emergency Management Agency official Glen Cannon told a news conference the state’s firefighting resources had been ‘exhausted’ by the sheer scale of the fires.
A wave of infernos erupted across California on June 20, when lightning from thunderstorms ignited tinder-dry forest and parkland.
So far some 753,000 acres have been consumed by flames, making the current crisis the largest in terms of size in Californian history, although a relatively small number of homes – 100 – have been razed.


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Zimbabwe regime rejoices as
UK, US lick wounds
Agence France-Presse . Harare
Zimbabwe’s government rejoiced Saturday at the failure of a UN bid to impose fresh sanctions on the president, Robert Mugabe, and his inner circle, but there was exasperation in London and Washington.
Particular praise from the Harare regime was bestowed upon the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who has been criticised for his policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’ by those who want to put Mugabe under greater pressure.
‘We would like to thank countries that supported us at the United Nations and we would like to tell them that we will not disappoint them as we will address our problems ourselves,’ the information minister, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, said.
‘We would like to thank president Thabo Mbeki, who is a leader par excellence as he has not yielded to international pressure and to the machinations of the West led by Britain and United States,’ Ndlovu said.
China and Russia on Friday vetoed the US draft resolution that would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe as well as an assets freeze and travel ban on Mugabe and 13 of his closest allies. South Africa, Libya and Vietnam voted against the resolution, while Indonesia abstained.
The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the decision would be ‘incomprehensible’ to the people of Zimbabwe and America’s UN envoy warned that Russia’s veto cast doubt on its reliability as a G8 ally. Russian later slammed this criticism as ‘unacceptable.’


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Sudan seeks Arab League
talks about ICC
Reuters/bdnews24.com . Cairo
Sudan asked the Arab League to hold an emergency meeting of foreign ministers after reports the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor may seek the arrest of Sudan’s president, Egyptian media said on Saturday.
A senior European diplomat said on Friday the ICC’s prosecutor would likely seek president Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s arrest in a new war crimes case he will open on Darfur on Monday.
Sudan has said any such move could undermine the peace process in Darfur. The issue could also pit the demands of the UN-backed ICC against UN interests in deploying a peace force there, and aid officials fear a potential backlash.
Egypt’s state news agency MENA said Sudan called for an emergency Arab League foreign ministers’ meeting ‘to look into the situation between Sudan and the International Criminal Court.’
It cited Khartoum’s ambassador to the Cairo-based League as saying Sudan had submitted its request to the office of Arab League chief Amr Moussa, but gave no further details.
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is due to submit to judges ‘evidence on crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years’ and seek to charge an individual or individuals, a prosecution statement said on Thursday.
It gave no details. The Washington Post quoted UN officials and diplomats as saying the prosecutor would charge Bashir with genocide and crimes against humanity on Monday.
Moreno-Ocampo said last month that Sudan’s ‘entire state apparatus’ was involved in an organized campaign to attack civilians in Darfur and said he would present judges with evidence implicating senior Sudanese officials in July.
Judges will probably take several weeks or months to rule on the likely application for new arrest warrants.


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Mubarak, Sarkozy prepare
Mediterranean summit
Agence France-Presse . Paris
The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, met the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, on Saturday to prepare the founding summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, a new forum to bolster regional cooperation.
Mubarak and Sarkozy will co-chair the summit in Paris on Sunday to be attended by some 43 leaders from Europe, the Middle East including Israel, north Africa and the Balkans.
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, arrived earlier in Paris ahead of the summit and to hold talks with Sarkozy, making a comeback to the international stage after years of isolation.
He is also to meet with the Lebanese president, Michel Sleiman, for the first time since his election in May, fuelling speculation that the two leaders could announce the formal establishment of diplomatic relations.
Syria has yet to recognise Lebanon since both countries gained independence from France in 1943.