Homemade bomb kills 13 civilians in Afghan south (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – A roadside bomb exploded under a civilian van in southern Afghanistan on Saturday morning, killing 13 people, including four women and two children, the Interior Ministry said.

The attack in Shamalzai district of Zabul province comes two days after another roadside bomb killed 13 civilians and wounded 33 in southwestern Nimroz province.

The Interior Ministry said Saturday's bomb was planted by the "enemies of peace and stability" in Afghanistan, a reference to the Taliban-led insurgents fighting the Afghan government and its Western backers.

Violence has flared in Afghanistan since the Taliban insurgents began their spring offensive at the start of May, after record deaths in 2010.

Foreign military casualties were slightly lower in the first six months of 2011 than the same period of 2010, but the United Nations said May 2011 was the deadliest month for civilians since it started keeping records four years ago.

There were 368 "conflict related" civilian deaths in May this year and 593 civilian injuries, the United Nations said, with insurgents and their supporters responsible for around 80 percent of those killings.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Rockets push back rebels south of Libyan capital (Reuters)

BIR-AYYAD, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels who had advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital were forced to retreat on Friday after coming under a barrage of rocket fire from government forces.

The rebels advanced five days ago to the outskirts of the small town of Bir al-Ghanam, raising the possibility of a breakthrough in a four-month old conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Rebel fighters who had been massing on a ridge near Bir al-Ghanam and preparing for an attack were pulled back under fire from Russian-made Grad rockets, said a Reuters photographer in Bir-Ayyad, 30 km to the south.

The rebels returned to the same positions on the edges of Bir al-Ghanam on Friday afternoon, said Reuters reporters there.

The rocket barrage reached as far back as Bir-Ayyad, a road junction in the foothills of the Western Mountains range south-west of Tripoli from where the rebels had launched their advance last week.

The back-and-forth battle underlined the military stalemate between Gaddafi's forces, who have withstood 15 weeks of bombardment by NATO missiles and warplanes, and rebels attempting to break through their lines on three fronts.

In an audio address carried by Libyan television and broadcast to some 100,000 supporters who gathered on Friday in Tripoli's Green Square, Gaddafi vowed to stay on and warned NATO to stop its air war or face defeat.

"We advise you (NATO) to retreat before you face a catastrophe," Gaddafi told the huge crowd, by far the largest pro-Gaddafi demonstration since a rebellion against his 41-year rule erupted in February.

"I advise you to ground your planes ... and to hold discussions with the Libyan people," Gaddafi said, denouncing arrest warrants for him, his son and his brother-in-law issued on Monday by the International Criminal Court.

Supporters waved green flags and posters of the Libyan leader, who said the huge turnout was voluntary and proved he was popular among Libyans. Guns were fired into the air and fireworks exploded over the capital at the end of the address.

Two hours after the speech, three explosions were heard and columns of black smoke were seen rising from the direction of Gaddafi's central Bab Al Aziziya compound in what appeared to be NATO air strikes.

Frustration at the slow progress is growing inside the military alliance, with some members worried about the cost, civilian casualties and the fact the campaign has now been going on much longer than its backers anticipated.

There are also differences about how proactive NATO members should be in aiding the rebels, who are hampered by a lack of organization and a shortage of equipment.

France this week became the first member of the anti-Gaddafi alliance to acknowledge that it had supplied weapons to the rebels, saying this was justified to protect civilians.

It said it used parachutes to drop assault rifles and rocket launchers, along with humanitarian supplies, to rebels in the Western Mountains.

That admission prompted Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to accuse France of a "gross violation" of a U.N. arms embargo.

Even France's NATO allies distanced themselves from the French operation, though Britain and the United States said they believed it was justified under U.N. rules.

NATO STRIKE

Gaddafi has said the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's plentiful oil.

Gaddafi's daughter, Aisha, said in a television interview broadcast late on Thursday her father's administration was prepared to cut a deal with the rebels if that was what it took to stop the bloodshed.

"There are direct and indirect negotiations and we should stop letting Libyan blood," Gaddafi's daughter said in an interview with France 2 television.

Although her remarks marked a shift in tone, her father again called on his supporters in his audio address to continue fighting the rebels, whom he dismissed as "traitors, a fifth column and mercenaries."

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Gaddafi's representatives had been meeting officials from France and Britain on the Tunisian island of Djerba.

Citing unnamed sources from the Gaddafi and opposition camps, the newspaper said Gaddafi was willing to step down if he was spared prosecution and allowed to live in his hometown of Sirte, northern Libya, with guarantees for his security.

African Union leaders offered on Friday to host talks on a ceasefire and transition to democratic government, but left open whether there was any future role for Gaddafi. There was no immediate reaction from either side to the offer.

Anti-Gaddafi rebels rejected talks with the Libyan leader's regime after the ICC issued its arrest warrants, saying there was no point talking to a war criminal.

Some Libya-watchers say Gaddafi has floated the possibility of a peace deal several times to stall for time and weaken the resolve of the Western alliance to push him out.

But others say he may be looking for a negotiated exit as his options narrow. International sanctions are causing a shortage of fuel in Gaddafi-controlled areas, and NATO strikes are eroding his ability to enforce his power.

The Libyan conflict has sent ripples far beyond the North African country of six million people.

The fighting has halted Libyan oil exports, helping push up world crude prices to about $111 a barrel.

It has also created a security vacuum which officials in the region say could be exploited by Islamist militants and al Qaeda's North African wing.

"If this civil war goes on, it would be a new Somalia, which I don't say lightly. In three months we could be dealing with extremists," Marouane Abassi, World Bank country manager for Libya, told Reuters in the Tunisian capital.

(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Lutfi Abu-Aun in Tripoli, Omar Fahmi in Cairo, Joseph Nasr in Berlin, Sami Aboudi in Dubai and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Christian Lowe and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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North and south Sudan agree to 20 km buffer zone (AFP)

KHARTOUM (AFP) – North and south Sudan agreed Wednesday to set up a demilitarised buffer zone along their border days before the country splits, the African Union said, but no truce has yet been reached in South Kordofan.

Wednesday's accord, signed in Addis Ababa and overseen by the chief African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki, requires both sides to withdraw their forces 10 kilometres (six miles) on either side of the border before the formal independence of the south on July 9, an AU statement read.

"The agreement ... is another building block for ensuring stability and unhindered development along the common border between north and south Sudan," the statement said.

Unarmed observers from both sides will work with UN observers to make sure the agreement is observed, and scattered checkpoints will be manned by Ethiopian peacekeepers.

This follows a recent agreement for the north to pull its troops out of the contested Abyei region, and a deal signed on Tuesday in which the two sides pledged to resolve their differences in the northern state of South Kordofan, where government forces are battling pro-south militia.

But Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan's top presidential adviser and a signatory to Tuesday's framework accord, told reporters in Khartoum on his return from negotiations in Ethiopia that no ceasefire has been agreed.

"We didn't agree on stopping the hostilities in South Kordofan. But we have created a joint military committee that is going to meet in Addis Ababa next week," he said.

The conflict in Sudan's central border region has dramatically escalated tensions between north and south in the run-up to southern independence.

Although reliable casualty figures are hard to obtain because of heavy restrictions on the movement of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, diplomats say the numbers could run into the hundreds.

Nafie said that despite the agreement to establish a demilitarised buffer zone, the two parties have yet to finalise the demarcation of the border itself, which is more than 2,000 kilometres long and remains disputed in a number of places.

On Monday, the UN Security Council ordered a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei to monitor the withdrawal of northern troops who occupied the disputed border region on May 21.

On the sensitive issue of citizenship after the country divides, Nafie said the two sides agreed to a nine-month transitional period to allow southerners living in the north and northerners in the south "to settle their situations."

"For the the southerners that want to work in the private sector in the north, they will have to get permission and residency permits," he added.

Millions of southerners fled to Khartoum during the devastating 22-year civil war between the northern government and ex-southern rebel army the SPLA that ended in 2005.

While many have returned to the south since last year, hundreds of thousands remain in the north, with its better job opportunities, but there have been growing concerns about their citizenship and employment rights.

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Yemen's Saleh to reappear as violence grips south (Reuters)

RIYADH/SANAA (Reuters) – Wounded Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, not seen in public since an attack on his palace in early June, is well enough to return soon to Yemen and will make a media appearance within the next couple of days.

Speculation about Saleh's health and the likelihood of his return to Yemen have been rife since he was hurt in a bomb blast on June 3 in a mosque in his presidential palace. He flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment, leaving behind a country on the verge of civil war.

The president has not been seen in public since the explosion, which killed several people and wounded the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers and the speakers of both parliamentary chambers. It is not clear what role if any Saleh, under pressure to step down, sees for himself in ruling Yemen.

"He will appear within the next 48 hours despite our fear that the burns on his features and on different parts of his body will be an obstacle given that his appearance will not be as the media expects it," said Ahmed al-Sufi, the President's media secretary.

Yemen has been rocked by months of protests against Saleh's three decades of rule. Before that he was grappling with a rebellion in the north, separatist violence in the south and a resurgent wing of al Qaeda.

Sufi said Saleh was in good health and continued to direct Yemeni affairs from abroad. Saleh's deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has been at the helm while the president recovers.

A source close to the president said Saleh's condition was good enough to allow him to travel to Yemen soon.

"The bomb in the mosque was in close proximity to the president when it went off. He was really lucky to get out," the source, who was with Saleh during the attack, told Reuters.

Saleh is suffering from burns but they cover less than 40 percent of his body, the source said, addressing reports in recent weeks about the extent of his injuries.

Yemeni officials previously accused an opposition tribal coalition of shelling the palace, which it denied.

ANTI-SALEH MARCH

Last week, a Western diplomat told Reuters Saleh was unlikely to return home soon, as Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to push for a transfer of power under an existing Gulf Arab proposal for a transition in Yemen.

They fear a power vacuum and tribal warfare will be exploited by the local wing of al Qaeda to launch attacks in the Gulf region and beyond.

Tens of thousands marched in Sanaa on Sunday to demand Saleh leave power, condemning the United States and Saudi Arabia for what they saw as a failure to take a strong stand against him.

"The position of the United States and Saudi Arabia is against our revolution ... We want a transition council to be set up and for the remainders of the regime to leave," said demonstrator Imar Naji, referring to Saleh's sons who hold top military and security posts.

The proposal by Gulf Arab neighbors calls for Saleh to hand power over to his deputy, Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is acting president, as a step toward forming a new government and preparing for an election.

Ahmed Saleh, the president's son who heads the elite Republican Guards, said he backed Hadi's "efforts ... and meetings with opposition leaders and representatives of the international community to resolve the crisis..."

But he also voiced support for "constitutional legitimacy," terms often used by Saleh backers to justify his refusal to leave power, according to a statement on a Defense Ministry website.

Upon his return, President Saleh aims to propose two solutions, a source close to Saleh said.

"The first is to shift all power to the parliament and become just a figurehead," said the source. "The second will be to let a coalition government be formed and then hold early presidential elections and leave quietly."

VIOLENCE IN SOUTH

Underscoring the chaos in the country, especially in the south, an air raid on Saturday killed six militants on the outskirts of a village at the entrance to the volatile Abyan province.

A local official in Abyan told Reuters three soldiers were killed on Sunday in clashes with jihadist militants who took control of the province's capital Zinjibar in May.

Earlier, authorities detained the head of a prison and his deputy for questioning over the escape of 63 al Qaeda-affiliated inmates in the southern port city of al-Mukalla this week.

The jailbreak stoked fears militants are exploiting the unrest to gain a foothold in the impoverished state, from which they could launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Saleh's opponents say he is deliberately letting militants tighten their grip in the country to prove that only he stands in the way of an Islamist takeover.

In a sign of international unease, The U.N. Security Council voiced "grave concern" with the deteriorating security situation in Yemen, putting aside disagreements that had prevented the 15-nation body from speaking unanimously on the unrest there. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden and Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa; writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Wildfires burn across the South

Texas Forest Service responds to new fires across the stateSmoke continues to cover skies in Florida and Georgia41 fires burn across the country, says Fire Center

Dallas (CNN) -- A new fire in Texas forced home evacuations and consumed hundreds of acres, while fires in other states across the southwest and southeast challenged firefighters' efforts to contain them.

The Texas Forest Service responded to a new wildfire Thursday in Wheeler County in the Texas panhandle and expects more critical fire weather conditions across the west and northwest parts of the state, said the service in their daily report Friday.

The fire, although 90 percent contained, covered 500 acres and forced evacuation of three homes, the report said.

The Texas Forest Service and fire departments have battled 12,779 fires that burned more than 3 million acres since the beginning of fire season on Nov. 15, 2010. The report stated that 228 of Texas' 254 counties have burn bans in place.

In Florida, satellite pictures showed the extent of the fires' reach through blankets of smoke that covered much of Florida, parts of Georgia and some of the Atlantic Ocean. There are currently 14 active fires in rural Florida and Georgia, which have eaten up thousands of acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Currently, 41 active fires exist across the southwest and southeast. Firefighters contained eight fires Thursday, one in Arizona, Oklahoma and Florida and five in Texas, according to the NIFC.

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First lady Michelle Obama arrives in South Africa (AP)

PRETORIA, South Africa – First lady Michelle Obama is beginning a goodwill visit to sub-Saharan Africa and Botswana, accompanied by her two daughters, a niece, a nephew and her mom.

Mrs. Obama received a warm welcome upon her arrival Monday night at the air force base in the capital of South Africa, Pretoria, after 18 hours and more than 1,800 miles of travel.

Throughout the week, the first lady will promote youth leadership, education and HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

She'll also pay tribute to the legacy of Nelson Mandela and others like him whose struggles and sacrifices ultimately led to the undoing of South Africa's system of segregation.

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Michelle Obama is fond of saying there's no magic to her being first lady.

She didn't come from a wealthy or well-connected family. She came from the South Side of Chicago and is a descendant of slaves. But she says it's a passion for an education that she and President Barack Obama shared and a willingness to work hard that helped them become successful.

It's a message that young leaders in Africa soon will hear when Mrs. Obama makes her second solo trip abroad as first lady, visiting South Africa and Botswana this coming week.

"In so many ways, I see myself in you all. And I want you to see yourselves in me," she recently told Washington high school students, hoping to inspire them with her personal story.

The weeklong visit, beginning with the first lady's arrival Monday in Johannesburg, is intended to improve relations between the U.S. and Africa and promote youth engagement, education, health and wellness. In the centerpiece speech of the trip, she will appear Wednesday before a U.S.-sponsored forum of young women leaders from sub-Saharan Africa.

The president is not going, but Mrs. Obama is being joined by her daughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as her mother, Marian Robinson, and a niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson. Her family will join her on most outings, probably exposing her daughters to more of the media spotlight than they're used to.

It was during her first solo trip outside the U.S., to Mexico in April 2010, that the first lady started an effort to encourage young people to become involved in their communities and countries and not shy away from trying to solve persistent global problems.

The youth population outside the U.S. is growing fast, with young people ages 15 to 24 making up 20 percent of the world's population.

"The fact is is that responsibility for meeting the defining challenges of our time will soon fall to all of you," Mrs. Obama told thousands of university students in Mexico City. "Soon, the world will be looking to your generation to make the discoveries and to build the industries that will fuel our prosperity and ensure our well-being for decades to come."

That message is likely to resonate in a place such as South Africa, where two of three residents are younger than 30, said Jennifer Cooke, an Africa scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Botswana is a regular stop for U.S. officials. Well governed, it is considered one of Africa's best functioning democracies, Cooke said.

Many of the stops on Mrs. Obama's trip will highlight South Africa's past under apartheid, the system of white-minority rule. She'll also pay tribute to the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. He later became South Africa's first elected black president.

The size of Mrs. Obama's traveling party is sure to invite comparisons to her vacation last August in Spain with Sasha and friends. The five-day trip to Spain's Costa del Sol stoked a bit of a firestorm about the wisdom of taking a glamorous trip with such economic hurt at home and raised speculation about who was paying the bill.

Attempting to head off similar criticism this time, the White House said Mrs. Obama is allowed to bring guests with her on the plane because she's on official U.S. business, as the president is allowed on his official trips. All other costs regarding her family are to be paid for privately.

Mrs. Obama's visit opens Tuesday in Pretoria, the South African capital, at a meeting with Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, one of President Jacob Zuma's three wives, at his official residence. Zuma was scheduled to be out of the country. Back in Johannesburg, Mrs. Obama meets with Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and tours the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Apartheid Museum.

A meeting between America's first black first lady and the 92-year-old former president is hoped for but remained in doubt, given his fragile health. Mandela had an acute respiratory infection in late January that led to a two-day hospital stay. He retired from public life after leaving office in 1999 after one term, but remains a larger-than-life figure in his country and around the world.

Mrs. Obama delivers her speech Wednesday at the Regina Mundi Church in the black township of Soweto, one of many churches that became hubs of activity for political gatherings after such meetings were banned during the anti-apartheid movement. She'll also view a memorial honoring a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by government police during a June 1976 student uprising in Soweto.

In Cape Town on Thursday, Mrs. Obama and her family will ride a ferry to Robben Island for a moving visit to the closet-sized cell where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.

She'll highlight education by inviting disadvantaged students to spend the day immersed at the University of Cape Town, before meeting with groups that work to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, including by using soccer to teach children about the deadly disease. Between 5 million and 6 million South Africans live with HIV/AIDS.

Mrs. Obama also was scheduled to meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and key figure in the struggle against apartheid and in later helping South Africa overcome its past.

She heads to Botswana on Friday to call on President Ian Khama in Gaborone, the capital, and drop in at a combination clinic and center for teenagers that teaches about leadership and HIV/AIDS.

With the official business concluded by Saturday, the first lady and her family will head off for private time, including a safari and an overnight stay in the animal park.

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Online:

Michelle Obama's video message about the trip: http://tinyurl.com/6fpjc7a

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South Korean troops shoot at civilian airliner by mistake (Reuters)

SEOUL, Jun (Reuters) – South Korean Marines fired rifles at a South Korean commercial aircraft flying near the sea border with North Korea, thinking it was one of the communist North's jet fighters, but they never hit their target, military sources said on Saturday.

The shooting illustrates the level of tension between the two Koreas, still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty, which came close to all-out war last year.

A Marine Corps spokesman said two soldiers guarding an island on the waters off the South's western city of Incheon fired their K-2 rifles for about 10 minutes at around 4 a.m. on Friday.

The plane was later identified as an Asiana Airlines Airbus A320 flying from China making its descent into Incheon, Seoul's main airport.

A defense ministry source said the plane, carrying 119 passengers and crew, was undamaged as it was about 500 to 600 meters out of the range of the hand-held K-2 rifles.

Yonhap News Agency and other local media said the soldiers believed the plane was flying north of the normal air corridor. Asiana officials told the news agency the plane never left its scheduled course.

"We checked yesterday through the air force and the airport control center to make sure there were no abnormalities such as being off course," Yonhap quoted a company official as saying.

An airline official confirmed the plane was an Airbus A320 but made no other comment.

Yonhap and other news reports quoted Marine Corps officers as saying troops would undergo thorough training on how to identify civil aircraft. Airlines will be asked to ensure their planes do not deviate from set courses.

The North denies responsibility in the sinking last March of a South Korean warship and says it was provoked in the second incident, the shelling of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong after the South test-fired shells into disputed waters.

The two attacks killed about 50 South Koreans.

The North this month rejected a proposal from Seoul for a series of three presidential summits after a secret meeting of officials from the two countries. The North denounced the South's call for an apology for the two attacks.

In between the attacks, North Korea unveiled a uranium enrichment program which opens a second route to make a nuclear bomb alongside its plutonium program.

(Reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Torrential rains kills 25 in south China

At least 25 people are reported missingHundreds of thousands have been evacuatedLoss cost estimated at more than previous two floods combined

(CNN) -- Another round of torrential rains has flooded a once-drought-stricken region of southern China, killing 25 people and leaving 25 missing, authorities said Friday.

The flood has forced the evacuation of about 671,200 people and has affected 10 provinces and municipalities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs

In Zhejiang province, where the water level has exceeded the historic record set in 1955, officials have raised the disaster alert to the highest level. More than 2,000 soldiers mobilized for the emergency response in the area.

The Ministry of Finance has distributed about 130 million RMB ($20 million) for relief efforts in Hubei and Hunan.

This is the third round of heavy rains in the region this month, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The last round hit the area June 9, triggering floods and mudslides that left 77 dead and 31 people missing, authorities said.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated losses stemming from the latest flood at 12.85 billion RMB (nearly $2 billion), more than the previous two floods combined.

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9 North Koreans defect to the South

North Korean refugees prepare to release a balloon with leaflets condemning Kim Jong Il during a rally in Paju Wednesday.The group makes the border crossing over the weekend in the Yellow Sea They travel in a boat with no engine South Korean authorities are questioning them about their motives

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Nine North Koreans defected to the South by boat over the weekend, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

The group made the border crossing Saturday in the Yellow Sea off the west of the Korean peninsula, according to the JCS.

The nine defectors made the journey in an engineless boat and are being questioned by South Korean authorities about their motives and their route, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The development comes four months after a group of 31 North Koreans accidentally crossed over into South Korean waters on a fishing boat. Four members of that group decided to defect to the South, despite Pyongyang's demands that they all be repatriated to the North, the South Korean Red Cross said in March.

There are currently more than 20,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea, according to the South's Unification Ministry. The number of annual defectors has risen drastically since the turn of the century and continues to climb.

Defectors who are forcefully repatriated to the North after attempting to cross over into places such as China, Mongolia or Southeast Asia are commonly sent to prison camps as a punishment. Many defectors who live in South Korea fear for the lives of their family or relatives who remain in the North.

CNN's Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.

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North, south Sudan clash before split: south army (Reuters)

KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) – South Sudan's army said it clashed with northern troops in the disputed Abyei border region on Wednesday, in the latest sign of deteriorating relations in the build-up to the secession of the south in July.

Long-standing tensions between northern and southern-aligned groups along the shared border have come to a head less than a month before the independence of the oil-producing south.

Southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a January referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north, fought over religion, ethnicity, oil and ideology.

A return to full north-south conflict could have a devastating impact on the region by sending refugees back across borders and creating a failed state in the south at birth.

The south's army said its troops clashed with northern soldiers in Abyei on Wednesday more than three weeks after the northern military seized the fertile, oil-producing area.

A spokesman for the northern army said he had no information about any clashes on Wednesday.

The northern army has also been fighting southern-aligned armed groups in Southern Kordofan -- a northern, oil-producing state that surrounds Abyei on the ill-defined north-south border -- since June 5.

OBAMA CALL

President Barack Obama urged Sudan's government to halt military operations in Southern Kordofan and called for a ceasefire.

"There is no military solution," Obama said, appealing directly to leaders on both sides in an audio message issued through the U.S. government-funded Voice of America network.

Analysts have said the north may be trying to assert its authority along the north-south border to stamp out any remnants of southern support ahead of the split.

The division of Africa's largest country is a highly sensitive subject for the Khartoum government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir which stands to lose around a third of its territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when the south leaves.

The United Nations on Wednesday said air strikes on Southern Kordofan may have killed as many as 64 people and caused tens of thousands to flee.

"There is a growing sense of panic among some of the displaced populations who find themselves trapped by the ongoing violence and the ethnic fault lines," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said the situation in Southern Kordofan was deteriorating and that a "humanitarian corridor" should be created for aid deliveries.

"The problem is that the fighting is spreading by the day," said Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba.

"POLITICAL RUMOURS"

Some civilians were being targeted at checkpoints, she said.

"We even have unconfirmed reports -- people are telling us about torture, harassment, sometimes summary executions at checkpoints ... It is difficult for us to confirm that, but that is what displaced are telling us," she added.

Northern official Rabie Abdelati on Tuesday dismissed allegations of arbitrary torture, arrest and killing in Southern Kordofan as "political rumors."

Both north and south still have to resolve a list of issues ahead of the split, including how they are doing to share the country's oil wealth, the position of their border and the status of Abyei.

Abyei was a key battleground in the civil war and a symbol for both the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most follow Christian and traditional beliefs.

"SPLA and SAF clashed in Abyei in the area of the Kiir bridge (on Wednesday)," southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said, referring to the north's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

The river, known as Kiir in the south and Bahr al-Arab in the north has become a frontline between northern and southern troops since Khartoum occupied the region.

Aguer said there had been casualties, but did not release any numbers.

The north says it moved into Abyei after southern soldiers attacked its troops in the area. The north has also accused southern-backed groups of trying to start a revolution in Southern Kordofan, the north's main oil state and home to some groups that sided with the south during the civil war.

After talks in neighboring Ethiopia over the weekend, both sides announced on Monday they had agreed "in principle" to pull their troops out of Abyei and deploy Ethiopian peacekeepers.

Southern minister Deng Alor told reporters in Addis Ababa the north was now holding up discussions over the withdrawal of northern troops with last minute conditions.

"Bashir has agreed to withdraw, but the problems are over his request to administer Abyei and over the status of the Ethiopian troops," Deng Alor, south Sudan's minister for regional cooperation, told reporters in Addis Ababa.

(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Geneva and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Andrew Heavens)

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South Africa mourns anti-apartheid veteran Sisulu (AP)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – South Africans are mourning a woman celebrated for her role in the fight against apartheid, and for her nurturing of a new generation of leaders.

Crowds singing hymns and songs from the anti-apartheid era began gathering hours before Albertina Sisulu's funeral service Saturday at a 40,000 seat football stadium in Soweto. The service followed a week of national mourning. Officials of the governing African National Congress fanned out to every province to lead a series of memorial services. President Jacob Zuma, who is to deliver the eulogy, declared an official funeral — as close as possible to a state funeral reserved for presidents — "befitting for a leader of her stature."

Sisulu collapsed and died at her Johannesburg home June 2 at the age of 92.

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South Sudan accuses north of air attack, clashes flare (Reuters)

JUBA/KHARTOUM (Reuters) – South Sudan's army accused the north on Friday of bombing a southern border village and said southern forces were getting ready to defend against a possible ground attack.

The south is preparing to secede on July 9 and fears of fresh fighting between the two long-standing rivals grew after the north seized the contested Abyei region on May 21.

The United Nations said fighting between northern forces and southern-aligned armed groups in the north-run oil state of Southern Kordofan had spread to the tip of the southern Unity state and that tens of thousands may have fled the clashes.

Philip Aguer, spokesman for the south's Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, said the northern military was trying to occupy areas near the border -- whose exact position is yet to be decided -- in an attempt to control the country's oil fields.

"There has been an air bombardment by northern forces in Unity state, in the morning yesterday and again in the afternoon. Three people were killed in the morning," Aguer said. The three dead were civilians, he said.

"We are expecting not only air attacks but also ground forces. We know their forces are moving from Abyei toward Unity state. ... We are getting ready to defend ourselves. Our forces near the border are on maximum alert and are expecting an attack any time," he added.

A spokesman for the northern army was not immediately available to comment. In previous statements, it blamed southern or southern-aligned forces for provoking fighting in Abyei, Southern Kordofan and elsewhere.

The White House said on Friday night it was "deeply concerned" by the developments in southern Sudan.

"The United States condemns reported acts of violence in Southern Kordofan that target individuals based on their ethnicity and political affiliation," the Obama administration statement said. "We call on the UN to fully investigate these incidents, and we demand that the perpetrators immediately halt these actions and be held accountable for their crimes."

South Sudan voted to secede in a January referendum promised by a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of brutal civil war between the north and south.

That vote went more smoothly and peacefully than many analysts and humanitarian groups predicted, but a lack of agreement between the two sides on questions such as how to share debt and oil revenues has complicated the split.

The secession could see the north lose some 75 percent of Sudan's current 500,000 barrels a day of oil output, the lifeblood of both the northern and southern economies.

VOLATILE BORDER

Northern forces have been fighting armed groups in the volatile Southern Kordofan border state since a police station was attacked on Saturday.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people may have fled fighting in the state capital, Kadugli, alone, the United Nations said on Friday. The town's normal population is estimated at 60,000.

"The fighting has spread to the disputed border area of the northernmost tip of Unity state in southern Sudan," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.

Armed checkpoints were set up on the main roads inside and around Kadugli and there had been reports of "large-scale" looting as late as Thursday, she added.

Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for UNMIS, the local U.N. Mission in Sudan, said separately that MiG and Antonov aircraft bombardments were reported in the state's Umm Dorain, Umm Serdiba, Heiban and Saraf el-Gamos on Thursday, and artillery fire could be heard near Kadugli on Friday.

"The security situation in Kadugli and its environs remains volatile," he said. "Military build-up is continuing in various locations."

Analysts have seen Southern Kordofan as a flashpoint because it is home to thousands of northerners who sided with the south against Khartoum during the last civil war. Northern officials have called last week's clashes an "armed rebellion."

The region also holds the most productive oil fields that will be left in the north after the split.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday to discuss Southern Kordofan and Abyei and was scheduled to travel to Juba to meet officials there on Friday, state news agency SUNA said.

Abyei, long a centerpiece of the north-south divide, has been one of the most contentious issues before southern secession. It is used all year by the south-linked Dinka Ngok people and part of the year by northern Misseriya nomads.

Khartoum took control of the area with tanks and troops nearly three weeks ago, following an attack on a convoy of northern soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers that was blamed on southern forces. The move drew an international outcry.

Abyei was "calm but unpredictable" with sporadic shooting in the region's main town, OCHA said on Friday. Some 101,800 people may have fled the fighting there, it added, up from a previous estimate of 96,000.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum; Editing by Louise Ireland and Peter Cooney)

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After Tensions with North, South Korea Ponders Its 63-Year-Old Draft (Time.com)

If Private Jeon is celebrating inside, his disciplined military exterior doesn't show it. Dressed in khaki with black, wide-rimmed spectacles, the 22-year-old is due to finish his 21 months of military service next month, an obligation for almost all of South Korea's 25 million men. "It's good experience for my job," Jeon says during an educational tour of the Demilitarized Zone, the barb-wired no-man's land that has divided the Korean peninsula for 58 years and counting. "Frankly," he adds, "I don't like the military culture. But there's a lot of economic uncertainty."

A national duty and, in theory, an equalizer in a nation with a growing income gap, South Korea's mandatory military service has become an issue of much debate following last year's sinking of the Cheonan Navy vessel and shelling by the North that killed four people on Yeonpyeong Island close to the maritime border. In response, hawks called on the government to increase the period of service from 21 to 24 months, while other segments of society said Seoul should continue a long-standing policy under which compulsory military service is scheduled to be reduced. At 687,000 strong, South Korea's military is the sixth-largest in the world, requiring all healthy men to serve between the ages of 19 and 36. (See pictures of the shelling of Yeonpyeong.)

So far, President Lee Myung-bak has not increased or reduced service. Instead, in December, he froze the current term at 21 months while his government grappled with why last year's attacks happened and what the government and military should do about it. Seoul's military spending has risen nearly 6% this year to $27.7 billion and the government has passed a host of military reforms. But in the end, Seoul did nothing to retaliate - a decision that did not go down well with the average South Korean. A poll by daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo at the end of last year found a majority of people feel the government's response was inadequate.

Disputes over the nation's mandatory military service - a policy that has been in place for the full 63 years of the country's existence - have been brewing for years. Civic and human rights' groups, students, the political opposition, women's organizations, men who have been deemed healthy enough to serve and critics of some privileged few who have not have all asked who should serve, the extent to which objectors should be tolerated and whether those that do their time deserve bonuses upon re-entering the job market. The policy of compensating soldiers returning to work, abolished in 1999 on sexual equality grounds, is now gaining popularity again: A Gallup Korea poll at the end of May found nearly 80% of South Koreans are in favor of reinstating the payment.

Meanwhile, dodging the draft has become something of an art. Conscientious objectors and the rich and famous have gone to extraordinary lengths to escape the draft, an act which carries a minimum 18 months in prison. Some have opted for last-minute full-body tattoos that disqualify them for service; others have lost extreme amounts of weight to fail the medical exam, faked personal records or even changed their nationality. At present, 850 South Koreans are in jail for dodging the draft, including many Jehovah's Witnesses who say it is contrary to the 'love thy neighbor' doctrine, according to Amnesty International.

A number of celebrities and family members of the rich and powerful have in the past tried to elude military service by the use of doctored medical records and even bribes, among other means. South Korea's biggest pop sensation Rain is due to serve in September, and it's not yet clear whether he'll swap his trademark sunglasses and snappy suits for combat boots and khakis. His entourage recently started to bar journalists' questions on the issue.

The backdrop to these shenanigans, however, is more serious. South Korea has in the past year has conducted a greater number of military exercises with the U.S. in and around the DMZ, leading to a series of verbal threats by the North. Popular support for military action against its northern neighbor has risen dramatically in recent months. After the sinking of the Cheonan in March 2010, less than 30% of South Koreans backed a military response. That figure rose significantly after the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island to nearly 70%, according to a December poll by Chosun Ilbo. (See rare photos from inside North Korea.)

At Hongik University in Seoul, the verdict on military service is almost unanimous among male students. "I hated it," says 25-year old math major Lee Sung-hwan. But despite the usual complaints that all cadets have to wear the same clothes and short hair cuts and can't see their girlfriends, Lee believes military service in South Korea is more necessary than ever. Why? "Because of North Korea," he says.

Not surprisingly, it's at the DMZ - both a macabre tourist destination and a very real frontline - where the thousands of young men who comprise South Korea's military might are most visibly on display. The DMZ serves as a temporary home to servicemen enlisted as glorified tour guides in and around sites that attract about five million tourists per year. These draftees are the face of the South Korean military to the world and the enemy - and are, unsurprisingly, tall and easy on the eye. "Is he handsome?" asks a Chinese tour guide in Mandarin as a young, gangly soldier walks onto a tour bus to check passports and ID cards before crossing into the DMZ. A handful of (mostly female) tourists on the bus have a look. "Handsome," they reply.

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South African President Zuma flies into Tripoli (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma flew into Tripoli Monday to try to broker a peace deal with Muammar Gaddafi, just hours after NATO's secretary-general said the Libyan leader's "reign of terror" was coming to an end.

Zuma was met by a host of dignitaries, not including Gaddafi himself, who has not been seen since May 11 when he was shown by Libyan state television meeting what it said was tribal leaders.

His walk down the red carpet at Tripoli airport was accompanied by a band and children chanting "We want Gaddafi!" in English while waving Libyan flags and pictures of the leader.

Zuma's visit is his second since the conflict began. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce.

NATO warplanes have been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the center of the city being hit repeatedly.

Britain said Sunday it was to add "bunker-busting" bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said would send a message to Gaddafi that it was time to quit.

"Our operation in Libya is achieving its objectives ... We have seriously degraded Gaddafi's ability to kill his own people," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a NATO forum in Varna, Bulgaria.

"Gaddafi's reign of terror is coming to an end. He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad. Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting."

Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.

BUNKER-BUSTERS

Britain and other NATO powers are ratcheting up the military intervention to try to break a deadlock that has seen Gaddafi hold on to power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule and weeks of air strikes.

U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the Joint Operations Command at Naples, declined to comment on whether NATO would put forces on the ground but suggested a small force may be needed to help the rebels once Gaddafi's rule collapses.

He told the Varna forum: "I would anticipate that there might be a need at some point to unfold a small force ... a small number of people there to help them in some way."

Britain said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tone and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a reinforced building, had arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.

"We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi's inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday in a statement.

The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down the rebellion against Gaddafi.

But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to NATO being dragged closer toward putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid.

Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.

Sunday Al Jazeera television station broadcast video footage of what it said were foreign forces, possibly British, on the ground near the rebel-held city of Misrata.

There were a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realized they were being watched, the footage showed.

Gaddafi's foreign minister held talks in Tunisia Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.

The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain's government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Gaddafi.

ROCKETS FIRED

Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.

Helped by NATO air support, the rebels have been able to push back attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces but in many places they are still under bombardment and cut off from supplies.

Libyan state television reported that NATO air strikes killed 11 people in Zlitan Monday, the next town westwards on the coast road toward Tripoli from Misrata.

Libya's state news agency Jana also reported that NATO airstrikes hit the Tiji area, near the Western Mountain town of Nalut, overnight, causing "human and material losses."

Libyan officials took journalists Sunday to a school in Tripoli near the part of Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound that had been hit by NATO planes during air strikes Saturday.

There was little evidence of damage, but head teacher Hamid Miftar said the nearby blast had broken one or two windows and terrified the children as they sat for the first day of exams.

"Imagine the scene, with children this age in a school of this capacity. They all tried to run out at once," he said. "These are civilians."

As reporters toured classrooms, teachers led the schoolchildren in chants of "Allah, Muammar, Libya together!."

(Additional reporting by Stefano Ambrogi in London, Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Matt Robinson in Zintan; Writing by Christian Lowe and Jan Harvey; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Thousands flee Sudan's Abyei as militias move south (Reuters)

KHARTOUM/JUBA (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people fled Sudan's contested Abyei region as northern militias accused of helping seize the area over the weekend moved further south, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Armed groups, thought to be northern militias, also opened fire on four U.N. helicopters in Abyei on Tuesday, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

North Sudan sent tanks into Abyei, a central, oil-producing region claimed by both north and south Sudan, on Saturday, sparking an international outcry.

The move came at a highly sensitive time for Sudan, less than seven weeks before the country's south is expected to declare independence from the north, as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war.

Abyei was a key battleground in Sudan's last civil war and a symbolic emblem for both sides. The region is used all year round by the south-linked Dinka Ngok people and for part of the year by northern Arab Misseriya nomads.

Analysts fear further north-south fighting over the region could spark a return to full-blown conflict, a development that could have a devastating impact on the surrounding region.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged north and south to return to the negotiating table and resist "further acts of aggression."

"We must all impress on the parties that military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he told heads of state at an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa.

Thousands of Abyei residents initially fled to the town of Agok, just over the border into south Sudan, said aid groups.

U.N. and aid agencies said up to 40,000 had now been forced to leave their homes and were moving deeper into south Sudan.

"There are enormous numbers of people now on the road from Agok to Turalei, on muddy roads. Many kids need to be treated for dehydration," said Gustavo Fernandez, program manager with aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Most refugees in Agok were living under trees, while 2,800 had found shelter in a local school, said the Anglican Alliance aid group.

"Civilians are down on streets and in bushes, no food, no shelter, no water and no medical assistance," the Anglican church umbrella group said in a report.

Misseriya militias started pushing further south after people left the region's main settlement Abyei town, said U.N. spokeswoman Hua Jiang.

"There are reports that they are moving south," she said.

Southern army spokesman Philip Aguer accused the north of using the Misseriya to carry out a land-grab ahead of the separation of the south.

"Misseriya are being transported by SAF (the northern army) to Abyei. They want to claim the land," he told Reuters.

NORTH DEFIANT

U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon urged north and south to return to the negotiating table and resists "further acts of aggression."

"We must all impress on the parties that military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he told heads of state's at an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa.

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir defied U.S., U.N. and other calls to pull back, saying Abyei belonged to the north. "We will not withdraw from it," he said in Khartoum on Tuesday.

The north's show of force could shake a fragile political balance that has held in Africa's largest country since the 2005 deal ended the civil war that left millions dead.

It could also delay the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between north Sudan and the outside world.

The United States on Monday ruled out dropping it from a terrorism list and restoring Washington's ambassador to Khartoum if it continues to occupy Abyei.

A total of 14 rounds were fired when the United Nations helicopters took off from a U.N. compound in Abyei town on Tuesday but they landed safely, U.N. spokeswoman Jiang said.

Jiang said Misseriya militias supported by Khartoum were probably responsible for the attack.

Fighting and looting -- some of which targeted supply bases of U.N. agencies -- had died down, she added.

Northern forces had deployed military aircraft at a northern airbase in El Obeid within striking distance to Abyei, said the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), a monitoring group.

"The presence of these attack-capable planes in close proximity to Abyei is consistent with reports of SAF (northern) bombing attacks in Abyei within the past five days," said SSP.

No reliable casualty figure have emerged yet as aid agencies struggle to reach Abyei. Britain's ambassador in Khartoum, Nicholas Kay, wrote on his blog that two embassy staff had lost relatives in the disputed region.

(Additional reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer in Cairo; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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South Africa's Zuma to meet Gadhafi

South African President Jacob Zuma was also part of an African Union delegation that visited Libya last month.NEW: It is Zuma's second trip to LibyaHe will meet Gadhafi in "his capacity as a member of the African Union" panelThe meeting comes amid a diplomatic spat over the fate of a South African photojournalistAnton Hammerl, who has been missing in Libya since April, is believed dead

Johannesburg (CNN) -- President Jacob Zuma will visit Tripoli next week for talks with embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, according to a statement on the South African leader's website.

Zuma will meet Gadhafi Monday in "his capacity as a member of the African Union high level panel for the resolution of the conflict in Libya," the statement said.

The African Union panel to Libya includes Uganda, Mauritania and South Africa.

It is the second trip for Zuma, who was part of an African Union delegation that visited the nation last month.

That visit included talks on a cease-fire, which appear to have failed.

The visit is part of an international effort to end a months-long standoff as forces loyal to Gadhafi battle rebels demanding his ouster.

A coalition of nations under NATO have struck military targets in the nation as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians.

The airstrikes started in March after the United Nations Security Council authorized "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from government forces eager to crush the uprising.

Zuma's visit comes amid a diplomatic spat between the two nations over the fate of South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl, who has been missing in Libya since April and is believed dead.

South Africa says it got assurances from Libya that the journalist was alive. But a Libyan government spokesman said his whereabouts are unknown.

"We never had him with us at any stage," spokesman Musa Ibrahim said.

As the clashes and airstrikes rage on, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for Gadhafi and two relatives, linking them to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians as they struggle to retain power in Libya.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said the court in The Hague will also investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in the war-torn country.

Gadhafi welcomes the court's investigation, a government official said, adding that prosecutors "have not been to Libya to do an investigation" amid the allegations.

CNN's Nkepile Mabuse contributed to this report.

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North Sudan Abyei seizure 'illegal,' says south (AFP)

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) – Northern troops seized control of most of Abyei district on Sudan's north-south border Sunday, Khartoum said as the south accused it of an "illegal invasion" that threatens the lives of thousands.

The seizure, coming in the run-up to international recognition of the south's independence in July, was condemned by the world powers as a threat to peace between Sudan's north and south.

Abyei was granted a special status under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended 22 years of devastating civil war between north and south and requires both sides to keep their troops out until a vote to determine its future.

"We are in control of Abyei and all the (Bahr al-Arab) area north of the bank of the river," Khartoum's minister of state for the presidency, Amin Hassan Omer, told a news conference in Khartoum.

"This is because there is still elements from SPLA (the south?s Sudan People?s Liberation Army) trying to enforce its presence in Abyei, and this is not acceptable according to Abyei protocol and the CPA."

South Sudan's government warned the north's "illegal occupation" of Abyei risked tipping the country back to a conflict that would threaten the lives of thousands of civilians.

"This is an illegal invasion and breaks all the peace agreements, endangering the lives of thousands of civilians," said south Sudan's information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin.

"They (the north) are in a fighting mood but we can not accept that they drag the people of Sudan down the drain."

Both sides said they were committed to the CPA.

Omer said "the next step is that we are ready for engagement and negotiations to stop the problem.

"We are a responsible government, we'll not leave any part of Sudan in a security vacuum," he said.

The south's Benjamin said: "We are committed to the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement."

SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said earlier that "the fighting has been very, very bad" and that "indiscriminate" bombing forced people to flee.

"People have fled the area, because the bombardment was indiscriminate -- bombs from the air and from tanks on the ground," he added.

Troops loyal to the SPLA had all retreated into the south from the disputed district on the border with the north, he added.

Britain on Sunday joined the growing chorus of international condemnation of the north's move into the contested district.

"I condemn recent military actions in and around Abyei, including the attack on Abyei town by the Sudanese armed forces on 21 May and the attack on a joint Sudanese armed forces and UN convoy on 19 May," said Foreign Secretary William Hague in a statement.

The United Nations had called Saturday for an "immediate cessation of hostilities," after the United States and France called on Khartoum to withdraw its forces.

A UN base in Abyei came under attack, with a mortar round landing inside the compound, but there were no casualties, a UN spokesman said.

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, which runs health clinics in Abyei town and 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the south in Agok, said in a statement the "entire population of Abyei town fled the city."

Its clinic in Agok had received 42 wounded people by Saturday evening.

Fighting in Abyei has pitted the former civil war enemies against each other since January when the district was due to vote on its future alongside a referendum on independence for the south which delivered a landslide for secession.

But the plebiscite was postponed indefinitely as the north and south disagreed on who should be eligible to vote in an area where conflicted loyalties and land disputes keep tensions high.

A UN Security Council delegation met Sunday with representatives of the Sudanese government in Khartoum but neither Foreign Minister Ali Karti, who was expected to lead discussions, nor Vice President Ali Osman Taha were present.

"The issue of Abyei was of course at the heart of discussions and the Sudanese party expressed its will to cooperate" with the international community, a participant told AFP on condition of anonymity.

State news agency Suna, meanwhile, said Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir ordered mixed local administrative units be replaced, a move violating the 2005 peace treaty.

The district's future is the most sensitive of a raft of issues the two sides had been struggling to reach agreement on before July.

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South African photographer missing in Libya believed dead (Reuters)

LONDON/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – A South African freelance photographer missing in Libya since April is believed dead after being shot in the stomach and abandoned in the desert by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, his family said Friday.

Anton Hammerl, 41, who also had Austrian nationality and lived in London, was hit in the stomach after coming under fire on April 5, family friend Bronwyn Friedlander said in London.

South Africa and Austria criticized Gaddafi's government on Friday with Pretoria saying Libya had misled it about Hammerl and the ruling ANC also accused Tripoli of dishonesty.

Two American journalists and a Spanish photographer who were with Hammerl were taken captive by forces loyal to the Libyan leader. They could not report what had happened until their release in Tripoli Wednesday.

According to the released journalists, Hammerl was left behind bleeding while they were taken away by Gaddafi forces, Friedlander said.

"His injuries were such that he could not have survived without medical attention," she said.

"Anton was shot by Gaddafi's forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert," the Hammerl family said in a statement on Facebook.

The American reporters, James Foley and Clare Gillis, spoke by telephone with Hammerl's wife Penny Sukhraj in London late on Thursday.

The attack took place on the outskirts of the eastern oil town of Brega when the journalists were fired on by pro-Gaddafi troops in two Libyan military trucks, Foley and Gillis said in an interview published on the GlobalPost website.

BRUTAL ACTION

Austria's Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said in a statement Libya failed to provide any helpful information despite repeated requests.

"This brutal action by Gaddafi's soldiers is a shocking example of the dangers that journalists in particular face in conflict situations. Freedom of the press is especially important in just these situations," Spindelegger said.

South African President Jacob Zuma has been criticized for not bringing up the issue of Hammerl with Gaddafi on a visit to Tripoli last month.

South Africa's foreign ministry, which said this month it had proof Hammerl was still alive, said Friday the Libyan government had misled it about the photographer.

"We kept getting reassured at the highest level that he was alive until his colleagues were released and shared the information...," International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters Friday.

A senior ministry official who asked not to be named said: "She accused them of lying."

South Africa's ANC said it was incensed at the use of deadly force against civilians and the media.

"We are gravely incensed by the senseless and indiscriminate use of deadly force against innocent civilians and members of the media by the Libyan government ... We are particularly disappointed by the dishonesty of the Libyan government, which assured our government that our citizen was alive and in custody," the ANC said in a statement.

Hammerl, who had three young children, had lived in Britain for five years. His family had hoped he was still alive in captivity after he went missing in April, and had run a campaign for his release.

"From the moment Anton disappeared in Libya we have lived in hope as the Libyan officials assured us that they had Anton," his family said in a statement.

"It is intolerably cruel that Gaddafi loyalists have known Anton's fate all along and chose to cover it up."

Last month two photojournalists -- Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tim Hetherington and Getty photographer Chris Hondros -- were killed after coming under fire in the besieged Libyan town of Misrata.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Vienna; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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South Africans vote as toilet row grabs headlines (Reuters)

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africans on Wednesday voted in municipal elections in which squalid, open toilets built for the poor have become a potent symbol of local government neglect nearly 20 years after apartheid ended.

The African National Congress, in power since South Africa's first all-race elections 17 years ago, will almost certainly storm to victory given the public support it still enjoys for bringing down white-minority rule.

But the ANC and its leader, President Jacob Zuma, could be embarrassed by any gains for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which runs Cape Town and has campaigned as the party that can deliver municipal services.

The DA, a party once associated with white privilege and now trying to reinvent itself as providing good governance for all, said it was confident of securing more votes than in the 2006 local elections, when it took about 14 percent of votes.

What once appeared as a dull race for control of 278 municipalities, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, heated up as a row over toilets whose users are exposed to public view dominated headlines.

The ANC scored political points a few months ago when it found the DA had not built walls around public toilets in shantytowns in an area it controlled.

But it came under fire when it was revealed just before the vote not to have built such walls either in a town it controlled, with a local ANC official being paid state funds despite the shoddy construction.

Zuma wrote in his Twitter microblog that the peaceful election campaigns across the country showed that South Africa's democracy was "maturing in only 17 years."

Balloting stations opened at 0500 GMT (1 a.m. EDT) and will remain open until 1700 GMT (1 p.m. EDT). Results are expected to trickle in from late Wednesday night with the final outcome only due on Friday.

An Ipsos/Markinor opinion poll released on Wednesday found that the ANC would win outright in four of the country's eight biggest metropolitan areas but undecided voters could force the party to enter into coalitions in three other metros.

The poll said the DA would retain Cape Town but it may be forced into a coalition with smaller parties to keep control.

VOTING FOR CHANGE

In a squatter settlement in the Meadowlands area of South Africa's biggest black township Soweto, voters were patiently queuing for hours ahead of the polls opening.

Adeline Ndlanzi, 58, standing outside a voting station in a tent among shacks and piles of rubbish, said she wanted change.

"We are living in a dirty place. I want our place to be nice, I am voting for change. There have been changes since 1994 but not enough," Ndlanzi said.

Since Zuma took power in 2009, the ANC has faced violent protests from its traditional base of poor blacks. In 2010, 111 protests over basic service delivery were recorded by research firm Municipal IQ, compared to 105 in 2009 and 23 so far this year.

Many are frustrated with the slow delivery of electricity, sanitation, functioning schools and basic health care since the ANC came to power in 1994.

"We have to vote for a change in life. Look around, this place is a dump but we live here and our lives have to also get better," said Steven Maluleke, a jobless Meadowlands resident.

Some were likely to show their anger by either not voting or doing what was once unthinkable: casting a vote for the DA.

"This is the first time in the post-apartheid South Africa that our politics appears to be moving toward being about the issues rather than about the identity of the voters," said independent political analyst Nic Borain.

The election may show the ANC is vulnerable, but it could take decades before a viable alternative will challenge it.

"We are too close to the end of apartheid ... to expect a massive transformation of the vote," Borain said.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Writing by Marius Bosch; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Top US officials tour tornado-hit South

NEW: "Our world will never be the same," a Mississippi pastor saysNEW: The University of Alabama's student newspaper is trying to track down the missingA tornado that decimated a north Alabama town is upgraded to EF5FEMA's director is among the federal officials visiting the area

Smithville, Mississippi (CNN) -- Several top federal officials toured tornado-ravaged areas of the South as churches honored the storms' victims in Sunday services.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate were among the officials visiting parts of Alabama and Mississippi decimated by one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

The visit comes as damage reports from Wednesday's storms grow and the number of dead and injured mounts. The death toll had climbed to 339 Sunday, according to emergency management officials in six states.

"We were changed. Our world will never be the same. This moment will forever be etched in the forefront of all our imaginations," Pastor Wes White said at a service in Smithville, Mississippi, where at least 15 people were killed in the storms.

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A tornado demolished the Smithville Baptist Church, but White urged several hundred congregants gathered under a tent Sunday not to lose hope, but to turn to Jesus.

"In these moments of change and in these moments of hurt, as we look on what was our precious building ... let me remind you of this truth first: when you don't know what to do, you can know where to go," he said.

Alabama's governor declared Sunday a day of prayer to honor victims Sunday, as the funeral of at least one -- University of Alabama graphic design student Morgan Sigler -- was scheduled to take place.

Sigler huddled in a hallway with friends as the tornado hit. But the twister demolished everything in the house but a closet, where one friend took shelter and survived, later finding Sigler's body in the rubble across the street.

"She just lit up our world; she was our baby," mother Vega Sigler said Saturday. "We know where she's at, but it doesn't make it any easier."

Sigler's story is one of scores of heart-rending tales emerging from the battered South.

In Alabama -- the state hit hardest by Wednesday's storms -- the death toll Sunday morning was 250 and the number of injured was 2,219, emergency management officials said. Nearly a half million customers in the state remained without power.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said his city, where at least 39 people have died, faces a "humanitarian crisis." Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and many more have been rendered homeless, he said.

Rescuers and volunteers were canvasing neighborhoods, searching for missing victims and people left homeless by the storm.

Some have remained in partially damaged homes or moved in with relatives, volunteer Martin Izaguirre said. In the Hispanic community, he said, many are afraid to go to shelters.

He said some have told him, "We are afraid we won't be welcomed in places where Spanish is not spoken."

While searchers fan out across the city, some have taken a more high-tech approach. The University of Alabama's Crimson White student newspaper is trying to track down some of the city's missing using the #UAMissing hashtag on Twitter, said Hannah Mask, a former editor who has been working on the project.

"It's been really efficient," she said, noting that the list of those unaccounted for seems to be decreasing.

Damage to larger Alabama cities such as Birmingham and Tuscaloosa may have been greater than the damage suffered by smaller towns, but rural areas will likely have a harder time recovering, Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster said.

"In terms of suffering, these people have lost their loved ones, they've lost their community. There are people who don't have home to return to," Foster said.

She noted the sad response she received from one Hackleburg, Alabama, resident after asking her whether the town could recover.

The woman simply shook her head, Foster said.

The National Weather Service has upgraded a tornado that devastated the north Alabama town to an EF5, the deadliest ranking for a twister. The agency said the twister -- which moved at a speed of at least 200 mph -- destroyed several subdivisions, the town's high school and a Wrangler Jeans plant.

It also obliterated an assisted living center adjacent to the town's emergency shelter, a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and a Dollar General store, the Red Cross said.

Emergency management officials have tallied 34 deaths in Tennessee, 34 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Arkansas.

CNN's Martin Savidge, Raja Razek and Gustavo Valdes contributed to this report.

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