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When conflict broke out in Darfur early in 2003, there were just two major rebel groups - since then the insurgents have splintered into a confusing array of competing factions, making a peace deal infinitely more difficult to reach.

“Jem [Justice and Equality Movement rebels] are moving forces into Darfur from Chad - new forces with new equipment,” he [a U.N. Diplomat to Sudan] told the BBC. He said that the government was preparing to counter any rebel threat and this is why it was blocking the Unamid patrols. The BBC’s Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the rains are over and conditions right for fighting, particularly as US President Barack Obama’s envoy to Sudan Scott Gration is attempting to get new talks under way.

“Jem [Justice and Equality Movement rebels] are moving forces into Darfur from Chad - new forces with new equipment,” he [a U.N. Diplomat to Sudan] told the BBC. He said that the government was preparing to counter any rebel threat and this is why it was blocking the Unamid patrols. The BBC’s Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the rains are over and conditions right for fighting, particularly as US President Barack Obama’s envoy to Sudan Scott Gration is attempting to get new talks under way.

(via newsweek)

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HOT SHIT!!!

azspot:

The much-hyped Solar Impulse airplane just completed its first runway test, paving the way for a 20-to-25-day trip around the world next year. Conceived by Bertrand Piccard, the single-pilot plane successfully used its four solar powered motors to taxi around the runway. If all goes according to plan the plane will be able to fly day and night without fuel, signaling a bright future for solar-powered flight.

Efforts to slow climate change may put indigenous people at risk

guerrillas:

Efforts to slow climate change are putting indigenous people at risk, warns a new report published by Survival International, an indigenous rights’ group.

The report, ‘The most inconvenient truth of all: climate change and indigenous people,’ argues that lack of recognition of indigenous land use leaves them vulnerable to displacement and environmental harm by projects done in the name of climate change mitigation, including dams, agricultural expansion for biofuels production, and carbon conservation schemes.

The report calls for indigenous people to be fully involved in decisions that affect them and recognition and upholding of their traditional land use and ownership rights. ”This report highlights ‘the most inconvenient truth of all’ – that the world’s tribal people, who have done the least to cause climate change and are most affected by it, are now having their rights violated and land devastated in the name of attempts to stop it,” said Survival International Director Stephen Corry in a statement. 

The report highlights the risk that REDD, a proposed climate change mitigation scheme that would compensate tropical countries for protecting forests, could lead to forced displacement of tribal groups from their lands by carbon traders if proper safeguards aren’t put into place. Under a poorly designed REDD mechanism, forest conservation initiatives could also potentially bar indigenous people from forests they have long used on a sustainable basis.

ARTICLE

Death Toll in Philippines Massacre Rises to 46, Including 12 Journalists

guerrillas:

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has placed two southern provinces under emergency rule after gunmen abducted and killed 46 people on Monday. The gunmen attacked a group of people as they traveled to file nomination papers for a candidate to contest the governorship in elections next May. According to Reporters Without Borders at least 12 journalists were among those killed. The group said “Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day.”

THIS & OTHER HEADLINES

After three years of troubled negotiations, officials in Israel and the Gaza Strip have recently reported progress toward clinching a deal to swap Sgt. Gilad Schalit for some 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A Hamas delegation was in Egypt on Tuesday meeting with the German official trying to finalize an agreement.

“The painful landscape of Hebron is an example of how trauma can beget trauma: a population of Jews, traumatized by a history of violence and discrimination, has turned around and traumatized another people, and in doing so, is doing untold damage to their own community.”