Ethiopia

Countries pledge more for Darfur peacekeeping

International donors pledged an additional $200 million Thursday to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Sudan’s western Darfur region during a conference to discuss the ongoing violence.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said officials were still analyzing the pledges but it appeared enough money was raised to bolster the force in Darfur.

Canada made the largest new pledge, promising $134 million. The State Department’s senior representative on Sudan, Charles Snyder, said Washington was adding $50 million to the $95 million already pledged to end what he called “acts of genocide” in the ongoing conflict.

The AU has 2,270 peacekeepers in western Sudan trying to stop the fighting between rebels and Arab militias. The AU plans to increase the number of troops to more than 12,300. The organization has asked for $723 million to help finance and equip the Darfur operation, but was $350 million short at the beginning of Thursday’s conference.

United Nations

Plan elusive as nuclear conference nears end

All but paralyzed on its next-to-last day, the global conference on the nonproliferation treaty was reduced Thursday to quibbling over a footnote, having failed to agree on any concrete new steps to deal with growing nuclear fears in the world.

The quibble had symbolic meaning: whether a conference report should point to past disarmament commitments many say the United States is shirking.

But in their closing sessions today, after a month’s work, the delegations of more than 180 nations will have no final document of consensus recommendations to approve. At best, they may adopt a brief statement endorsing nonproliferation principles.

The members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty convene only once every five years to identify weaknesses in implementing the 1970 treaty, and to forge political agreement on steps to remedy them.

Egypt

Election reform referendum approved

Voters overwhelmingly cleared the way for Egypt’s first contested presidential election, according to referendum returns released Thursday. Government opponents dismissed the results.

It was a day of mixed news for President Hosni Mubarak as the White House denounced the beating of protesters during Wednesday’s vote.

Six opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, had called for a boycott of the referendum, but the Interior Ministry said 54 percent of the 32 million registered voters – about 16.4 million Egyptians – participated. Of that, 83 percent approved the referendum.

A high turnout was important to the government, which has been trying to portray opposition groups as a small, out-of-touch minority of Egyptians.

Mubarak, who has served for 24 years through unchallenged yes-no referendums, touted his call for multicandidate presidential elections as a major democratic reform.

Congo

Search continues for plane crash survivors

Twenty-six people were missing and feared dead after a plane crashed in eastern Congo, an aviation official said Thursday.

The plane, which disappeared shortly after takeoff Wednesday, was found Thursday by a government-led search team flying near Bunyakiri, a village in dense forests and mountains, said Raymond Sangara, coordinator of Congo’s civil aviation authority.

The missing Antonov-12 had crashed into the side of a cliff, with pieces of the plane and clothing scattered in the valley below, said Sangara, who was aboard the search plane.

Sangara had earlier said authorities feared all had died, but a search for any survivors and the recovery of the dead will begin today.

Bunyakiri is about 60 miles southwest of Goma in rugged, mountainous terrain. All 21 passengers were Congolese traders, including women and children, said Sangara. The pilot was Russian and the four crew members were Ukrainian, he said.

Thailand

Hmong camp closes

The largest refugee camp for ethnic Hmong who fled communist Laos to Thailand was officially closed Thursday, ending another chapter of the Vietnam War era.

The closure of the camp in Thailand follows the relocation of 10,000 Hmong, a mountain-dwelling ethnic group, to the United States. Another 5,300 are expected to resettle there by September.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA enlisted the Hmong to help U.S.-backed government forces fight communist insurgents in Laos.

When the communists won, many Hmong fled for fear of retribution. A small number continue to fight the government in the jungles of northern Laos.

Under pressure from Thailand, which contended the camp had become a center for drug trafficking and political intrigue against neighboring Laos, Washington started a registration process to accept the refugees. About 15,000 registered.