Sudan

Officials do not object to more foreign forces

Sudan does not object to the deployment of more foreign cease-fire monitors and protection troops in crisis-torn Darfur, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Saturday.

Ismail’s comments followed U.N. calls for Sudan to allow more than 3,000 troops into Darfur, where a 19-month conflict has killed an estimated 30,000 people and driven more than 1 million from their homes. Khartoum has not yet agreed to the U.N. demands.

The European Union kept up pressure on Sudan, renewing its threat to push for U.N. sanctions, including a possible oil boycott and cutting financial aid to the impoverished country, if the government does not act to end the fighting in Darfur.

Uganda

10 bodies recovered from collapsed building

The death toll in a building collapse climbed to 10 Saturday as workers continued to excavate the site outside Uganda’s capital in search of more victims.

Police and volunteers carried away the rubble of the three-story building, which collapsed Wednesday when workers removed supports used to construct the partially completed hotel complex. It was being built along the highway between Kampala and the international airport at Entebbe.

Rescuers gave up on finding more survivors on Friday after pulling 21 people from the wreckage.

South Korea

Scientist admits 3 or 4 uranium tests in 2000

A prominent South Korean scientist acknowledged Saturday that an unauthorized experiment to enrich uranium was conducted in three or four tests in early 2000, but said the amount in question was “so small it’s almost invisible.”

South Korea scrambled to deny it had ambitions for a nuclear program after the country admitted its scientists conducted an unauthorized experiment in 2000 to enrich a small amount of uranium. The revelation threatened to complicate an international standoff over communist North Korea’s nuclear weapons development.

The experiments were conducted between January and February 2000 at the government-affiliated Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, its President Chang In-soon told The Associated Press Saturday.

Nigeria

Troops battle fighters threatening oil city

Soldiers battled militia fighters around a southern Nigeria oil-industry center on Saturday in a new government campaign against militants blamed for an upsurge of deadly raids around the city, officials said.

Troops in helicopters and gunboats began attacking ethnic fighters Friday in the mangrove swamps and creeks around Port Harcourt “to protect the city and allow people go about their lawful affairs,” army spokesman Col. Mohammed Yusuf told The Associated Press.

Yusuf said the operation continued Saturday but declined to give further details, including any casualty count.

London

Man charged in machete attack on spy service

Police on Saturday charged an unemployed man over a machete and knife attack at the headquarters of MI5, Britain’s domestic spy service.

London’s Metropolitan Police said 41-year-old William Cornford, who had no fixed address, had been charged with aggravated burglary and attempted robbery in connection with the attack, which injured two security guards.

Police said a man charged the entrance of the riverside building in central London Friday afternoon and attacked two security guards before armed police arrived and subdued him with a stun gun.