Germany

Study: Dark chocolate good for blood vessels

There’s more good news for chocolate lovers.

Scientists have found that eating dark chocolate appears to improve the function of important cells lining the wall of blood vessels for at least three hours.

The study, involving 17 healthy young volunteers who agreed to eat a bar of dark chocolate and then get an ultrasound, found that eating dark chocolate seemed to make the blood vessels more flexible, which helps prevent the hardening of the arteries that leads to heart attacks.

But experts cautioned that the weight gain from eating a lot of chocolate probably would cancel out the benefit.

Cardiologists at Athens Medical School in Greece conducted the study.

Sudan

Cease-fire violation reported before deadline

The village of Um Hashab lay ruined and abandoned Sunday, the ground charred, after residents said Sudanese soldiers attacked with a warplane and helicopters, driving farmers from their homes days before a U.N. deadline to end the violence in the ravaged Darfur region.

African Union cease-fire monitors were investigating the claims of the government attack, which rebel officials said came after Sudanese troops ambushed rebels nearby. The rebels say assaults by the government and Arab militiamen have continued in the past week, the latest Sunday.

The government is fighting two African rebel groups in Darfur and is accused of backing Arab militiamen known as the Janjaweed, who have carried out a campaign of violence against black Africans, burning down villages and raping and killing residents.

Kenya

New parliament inaugurated in Somalia

Somalia inaugurated a transitional parliament Sunday, taking an important first step toward forming a new government for the devastated country even as rivalries continue to plague a peace process still far from complete.

Newly chosen members of the 275-member assembly took their oaths in a ceremony attended by regional diplomats and U.N. officials, who promised to support the latest of more than a dozen attempts to restore order to the Horn of Africa nation.

Leaders of Somalia’s major clans have been meeting in Kenya since October 2002 in an attempt to end 13 years of fighting. They hope to establish the first effective central government since 1991, when warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre before turning on each other, plunging the country into chaos.