Darfur conflict causes its presidential hopeful to quit the race

South Sudan's leading party has withdrawn its candidate from the first multi-party elections the country has seen in 24 years.

Yassir Arman, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), said he would boycott the April poll because of electoral irregularities and conflict in Darfur.il

The party is calling for the election, due to be held 11-13 April, to be postponed until November.

Arman was seen as the main challenger to President al-Bashir because he could attact voters from both the north and the south of the country.

"We decided that Yasir (Arman) should end his campaign for the presidency of the Republic," Riek Machar, the SPLM vice-chairman, told reporters.

Arman was the most credible opponent to incumbent Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989 and has had a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The decision could affect the referendum to be held next year by the semi-autonomous south that will determine whether Sudan is split in two.

President al-Bashir had already threatened to cancel the referendum if the SPLM boycotted the election.

He said: "Holding elections in the Sudan is a national obligation that should be fulfilled."

The referendum was agreed under the peace agreement signed in 2005 to end the conflict in Darfur.

The civil war started between the Arab Muslim north and black Christian south started in 1983 and has claimed an estimated two million lives.

Black Widows distract media from Russia's other internal threat

The suicide attacks on Moscow's metro has reminded Russia that the Chechen problem never went away.

When Vladimir Putin became President a decade ago he vowed the crush the Chechen separatist movement.

What followed was a brutal military campaign that has inflicted wounds and grievances on Chechens that are likely to pass down generations.

Despite managing to reimpose Kremlin control over the province the conflict has spilled over into neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.

The attack prompted strong rhetoric from President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin, who promised to destroy those responsible for the terrorists attacks.

Another brutal military operation is therefore likely. But Russia faces a greater existential threat than crazed extremists indoctrinated in Islamic fundamentalism with bomb belts strapped to their waists.

A week before the metro bombings the Russian people were up in arms about a scam that epitomised their country's endemic corruption.

It emerged that an official at a state agency sold four Mig 31 warplanes to a fictitious company for $5 each, then bought them back for $100,000.

Russia is ranked 146th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption index, which estimates that bribery costs the economy £300bn a year.

Corruption also costs lives. The fire that tore through a nightclub in Perm in December was blamed on lax safety inspections. It killed 155 people, more than the death toll from Monday's suicide bombings and Novembers Nevsky Express explosion combined.

Therefore while the terrorist outrages and the prevention of further attacks will undoubtedly take priority, Medvedev should not forget that ordinary citizens will be judging him on whether he fulfils his promise to clamp down on the corruption which is making life that is already tough in a recession even tougher.

Female suicide bombers strike Moscow metro

At least 38 people were killed Monday morning when two female Chechen separatists detonated their explosive belts on Moscow metro trains in the morning rush hour.

The first bomber hit central Lubyanka station at 0756 (0356 GMT), killing 24. A second explosion killed 14 at Park Kultury station in the southwest of the city.

Russian authorities are blaming Chechen separatists for the attack, which is no surprise considering their history.

Monday's suicide bombing is the first since August 2004, where a female suicide bomber killed 10 after blowing herself up on outside Rizhskaya station.

Chechen rebels have a long history of bombing Russia's transport infrastructure since fighting for independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The attack was both deadly and symbolic. The FSB, the successor to the KGB, has its headquarters situated above the Lubyanka station.

The Moscow metro is a symbol of Russian pride and is one of the busiest in the world, carrying seven million passengers a day.

Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov has declared himself emir of the North Caucasus mountain range and has pledged to introduce Sharia law there.

Russia has fought two wars with Chechen separatists but declared the conflict to be over last year. However violence has since spread into neighbouring provinces Dagestan and Ingushetia.

Umarov declared responsibility for the bombing of the Moscow to Saint Petersburg Nevsky Express in November last year, warning that "the war is coming to their cities."

Women have a history of taking part in Chechen separatist attacks. They were among the group that held a Moscow theatre hostage in 2002 and the gang that took over a school in Beslan in 2004.

Deal struck to bring Greece back from the brink

France and Germany have agreed on a deal for a financing plan to help debt-laden Greece, which will include the IMF.

The package will amount to 23bn euros (£21bn).

The French presidency said there were "very precise conditions" under which the 16 eurozone members "could be led to intervene" to help Greece.

Co-ordinated bilateral and IMF loans are envisaged to help struggling country and EU officials are poised to discuss the plan.

The news broke as leaders of the 27 EU member states gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit.

Last Thursday German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would only press for aid and loans to Greece as a last resort.

She has been reluctant to offer anything resembling a bailout, which is not allowed under the current single currency rules.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called for action to stabilise the euro when he arrived at the summit.

The single currency fell to a 10-month low against the dollar on Wednesday after Portugal, another heavily indebted country, was downgraded by leading credit ratings agency Fitch.

How to live your boyhood dream: build a flying car

This is not news but it's news to me. Last year some very clever and adventurous bods from Wiltshire built the Skycar and drove it on land and in the air from London to Timbuktu.

That involved flying from Spain to Morocco...in a car.

Awesome.



Have a look:

http://www.skycarexpedition.com/about_skycar.php

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7909034.stm

Saudi Arabia arrests 113 'Al-Qaeda militants'

Saudi forces have detained more than 100 suspected militants thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda, Saudi officials said.

58 Saudi nationals and 55 foreigners were accused of planning to target oil facilities and security forces.

A large group of 101 suspects, described as a network, comprised 47 Saudis and others from Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, interior ministry Mansour al-Turki said.

Two other groups totalling 12 people, described as cells', were also arrested, he said.

Weapons, cameras, documents and computers were seized with the suspects.

"The network and the two cells were targeting the oil facilities in the Eastern Province and they had plans that were about to be implemented," Mansour al-Turki said.

All three independent groups were linked to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed when two regional offshoots of the Islamic militant network merged in January 2009.

The group has vowed to topple the Saudi monarchy and Yemeni government and establish an Islamic caliphate.

Analysts said AQAP has exploited the instability in Yemen to set up bases there.

The arrests can be seen as both a success on the Saudi security forces part for their vigilence but also of a reminder that the threat posed by the group, which has waxed and waned over the past decade, could become more serious.

In February 2006 Al-Qaeda launched a suicide attack on the Abqaiq oil refinery, the largest in the world, in north-eastern Saudi Arabia.

The attack killed three and injured 10, but car bombs caused only a 'minor fire' that was swiftly brought under control.

Targeting oil facilities in the oil rich Gulf states has long been a tactic of the militant group.

The aim is to sabotage the oil supply, thereby destabilising Saudi Arabia and causing economic damage to the West.

Even if an attack causes little damage the news of a terrorist attack can cause sudden spikes in the price of oil.

However the failure to damage Abqaiq and the killing or capturing of most of its operational personnel was a major blow for Al-Qaeda.

Therefore today's arrests can be seen as a further and deeper blow to Al-Qaeda's credibility in launching attacks in Saudi Arabia.

The deluded rabbi

Was the story of Jesus entirely made up or actually based on a real person? Christopher Hitchens believes there is evidence for the latter, precisely because the story itself is so riddled with inconsistencies and fabrications. What follows is a summary of his argument:

One of the many prophecies made in the Bible is that the son of God will be born in the house of David, in the line of David and in the time of David. In other words, he must be born in Bethlehem. But Jesus of Nazareth was born in...well, Nazareth. What follows is a huge fabrication in order to get him to Bethlehem.

A census is proposed by Caesar Augustus but no such census ever took place. The people of the region were not required to go back to their home town to be registered. The gospels say that Corenius was the governor of Syria at the time, but he was not. None of the nativity story is true in any detail.

But the fabrication says something, for if it had all been made up and there never was such a person, there would have been no need to bother with the Nazareen business. Jesus could have just been said to have been born in Bethlehem.

So the very falsity of it, the very fanatical attempt to to fabricate the story does suggest there was some charismatic deluded individual wandering about at that time.

Furthermore, most of the witnesses of the resurrection are hysterical, deluded, illiterate females who would have had as much chance of being heard in a Jewish court then as they would have in an Islamic court today.

What religion that wants its fabrication to be believed is going to say 'you have got to believe it because we have got some illiterate, hysterical girls'? It is impressive that the evidence is so thin, so feeble, so hysterical and so obviously and strenuously cobbled together because it does suggest that such a character did in fact exist.

I hope you found that interesting, because I can't give you the time it took for you to read it back to you. Sorry!