AFRICA: The African Union decided Friday to extend its peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region for six months to give itself time to negotiate a peace agreement, but it promised to transfer control to the United Nations once that is accomplished. The compromise will disappoint Western leaders who wanted the U.N. to take over and reinforce the beleaguered African Union force as soon as possible. But Sudanese officials also lost their bid to keep the U.N. from ever assuming control of the mission. At least 180,000 people have died — some estimates are far higher — and some 2 million have been displaced since the start of a 2003 revolt by rebels from Darfur’s ethnic African population. The Arab-dominated Sudanese government is alleged to have responded to the revolt by unleashing Arab militias, who carried out sweeping atrocities against ethnic African villagers. Full Story
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