■ Sudan
Rebels to get oil profits
The governing party has said it would was planning to start sharing its oil wealth with the southern rebels from January, even if a comprehensive peace agreement has not been reached by then. Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, leader of the governing National Congress Party, was quoted by the BBC as saying that time had come to give money and power to all states of Sudan. Sudan produces approximately 320,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Its two main oil fields are located in the southern part of the country, while the refineries and pipelines are in the north.
■ United Kingdom
Gunfire kills female soldier
A military policewoman has become the first British female soldier to die in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion but her death was believed to have been caused by a non-hostile incident, officials said yesterday. Sergeant Denise Rose, 34, died from a gunshot wound at an army base at the Shatt al-Arab Hotel in the Basra area in southern Iraq on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Rose went to Iraq on Sept. 27 as part of a small team of specialist investigators.
■ United States
Prizewinning author sues US
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, praised by President George W. Bush and honored at universities for her work on behalf of democracy and human rights, is suing the US government for standing in the way of the publishing of her memoirs. In her lawsuit, Ebadi argued that Treasury Department regulations restricting the publication in the US of works by authors in countries subject to US trade sanctions is unconstitutional. Ebadi and The Strothman Agency, a literary agent that wants to work with her, filed the suit in New York last week. A hearing date has not been set.
■ Australia
Terror suspect going mad
Australian terror suspect David Hicks, who has been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2001, says he is on the brink of madness because of his isolation and treatment. "I feel as though I'm teetering on the edge of losing my sanity after such a long ordeal, the last year of it being in isolation," Hicks wrote in a recent letter to his father, released to reporters yesterday. Hicks, a 29-year-old convert to Islam arrested in late 2001 during the US-led war in Afghanistan, was among the first group of four al-Qaeda suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba to face a US military tribunal. Hicks pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy to commit war crimes and was set for trial on Jan. 10.
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