Region called stable after revolt quelled
SUDAN
KHARTOUM -- Sudan said yesterday its western Darfur region was stable after the military quelled a revolt there and police would maintain security. Rebels who took up arms last year, saying Khartoum neglected the poor region, signed a cease-fire with the government in early April, but have since accused it of several violations. "The situation in Darfur is stable and the threat indicator has been brought down from the color red to the color yellow," said Ahmed Mohamed Haroun, state minister for internal affairs, at a ceremony to see off more than 1,000 police to Darfur. Red is the highest of Sudan's three security levels. Yellow indicates relative stability that can be controlled internally by police, and green indicates no threat to civilians. (Reuters)
FRANCE
Sikh boys must wear hairnets, not turbans
PARIS -- Sikh school boys must exchange their turbans for hairnets when a new law banning religious apparel in public schools takes effect in September, France's education minister said yesterday. Education Minister Francois Fillon spoke after education officials adopted, with some misgivings, a set of guidelines to help school officials apply the law, which was enacted in March. The law forbids conspicuous religious symbols and attire in the classroom, such as the Jewish skull cap and large Christian crosses, but it is chiefly aimed at the Muslim head scarf. Asked in an interview about the turbans worn by Sikhs, Fillon said, . "We've come up with an arrangement. They accept wearing a hairnet. It's less aggressive, less showy." (AP)
UNITED NATIONS
Annan hits exclusion of activist in Burma
NEW YORK -- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Burma's constitutional convention, which opened yesterday, lacks credibility by excluding the country's chief democracy activist. Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has been confined to her home since September, her telephone cut off, and visitors restricted. Before that, she was detained at a secret location. "For the National Convention to be credible, it must be all-inclusive and all the delegates must be able to express their views without sanction," Annan said in a statement read by his spokesman, Fred Eckhard. (Reuters)
Pakistan welcomes Gandhi's peace pledge
NEW YORK -- Pakistan welcomed a pledge by Sonia Gandhi, India's prime minister-elect, to continue a peace process with Islamabad and said yesterday it was ready to resume talks with its neighbor soon. Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri of Pakistan, visiting New York, said the process should not begin anew when Gandhi's government is sworn in tomorrow. "So much hard work has already been done, and I think the best thing is not to reinvent the wheel," Kasuri said after chairing a UN Security Council meeting on peacekeeping. Pakistan holds the council's rotating presidency for May. "The fact that people on both sides want peace, wish peace, should help the two governments go forward with the process," Kasuri said. (Reuters)
ITALY
Modified crops help farmers, UN says
ROME -- Genetically modified crops are helping poor farmers and have posed no adverse health or environmental effects so far, the UN food agency said yesterday in a report on how biotechnology can help feed the world's hungry. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization called for greater government regulation and monitoring of genetically modified, or transgenic, products to make sure they are safely used and said more research is needed on their long-term health and environmental impacts. In a positive report expected to fuel the biotech debate, the agency said the biggest problem with genetically modified technology is that it has not spread fast enough to small farmers and has focused on crops mostly of use to big commercial interests. (AP)
