Global Notebook

LONDON – Amid renewed violence in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur, the UN has warned of possible war crimes prosecutions. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for an end to attacks, and for those responsible to be tried. The UN Security Council has ruled that the International Criminal Court can prosecute human rights violations in Darfur.

In one recent incident, pro-government Arab militias at a refugee camp reportedly killed 34 people. According to the BBC, the attackers are believed to be Janjaweed Arab militiamen, described as criminals by the Sudanese government. The government called it the first direct assault on a refugee camp since the conflict began more than two years ago. read more

WASHINGTON – As huge crowds assembled in the U.S. capital for anti-war protests in late September, biohazard sensors were picking up the presence of small amounts of potentially dangerous bacteria. According to the Washington Post, traces of the bacteria tularemia were found between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, but health officials claimed the levels were too low to be a threat.

"We pretty much feel there is no public health threat here," said Von Roebuck, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We just wanted to alert the medical community to watch out for cases." read more

RIYADH – Saudi Arabia‘s foreign minister has issued a blistering assessment of the situation in Iraq, warning that the country is “gradually going toward disintegration.” Meeting with the international media on Sept. 22 – but directing urgent comments to the U.S. and British administrations – Prince Saud al-Faisal said, “There seems to be no dynamic now that is pulling the country together. All the dynamics there are pushing the people away from each other." read more

SALT LAKE CITY – The U.S. military is in the market for mass quantities of anthrax, according to contract requests discovered by the Sunshine Project, a U.S.-German organization that opposes the use of biological and chemical weapons. According to New Scientist, the controversial move is likely to raise questions over the U.S. commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

The contract requests relate to the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and ask companies to bid for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax and equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents. read more

NEW YORK – A three-day UN meeting on bringing the nuclear test ban treaty into force ended with a plea for ratification of the pact by 11 key holdouts, including the United States, China, Israel and Iran. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has been ratified by 125 countries, but nine years after its initial adoption the prospects remain doubtful.

Ratification by 11 more countries is required before the treaty takes effect, and six of them boycotted the event – the United States, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Vietnam and Iran. read more

GAZA STRIP – Dangerously low drinking water reserves, dilapidated decontamination facilities, and a nearly dry water table are the warning signs of a looming crisis in Gaza, according to Shaddad al-Atili, water and ecological affairs advisor to the Palestinian Authority. "We are heading toward an ecological catastrophe," he told Agence France Presse last week, citing as one reason Gaza’s rapidly growing population of 1.3 million people, 900,000 of them refugees.

Rain alone isn’t enough to sustain the Palestinian territory, which receives between 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion cubic feet of rainwater annually but consumes about three times that amount, Atili says. "Besides, Israel has not authorized us to import water from regions outside Gaza." Israel has offered to sell them desalinated water for $1 per cubic meter, which the Palestinians find too costly. read more