The Sudanese government signed a framework cease-fire agreement Thursday with a rebel group from the country’s war-torn Darfur region, according to state-run media.

The agreement was signed in Doha, Qatar, by Sudanese official Ghazi Salahuddin and Al-Tigani Sessi of the Movement for Liberation and Justice, according to SUNA, a Sudanese state-run news agency.

The Movement for Liberation and Justice is an umbrella group comprised of 10 rebel groups that united last month, according to the Sudan Tribune.

Thursday’s signing comes less than a month after the Sudanese government signed a framework peace agreement with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.

The framework agreement is considered the first step toward the achievement of a lasting peace accord in Darfur.

The signing Thursday, which took place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha, according to the Qatar news agency, was attended by Sudan’s vice president, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, and a number of other high-ranking officials from other countries, including Chad and Eritrea, according to SUNA.

Qatar has been mediating talks between the two sides in the Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum government.

The government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign, aided by government-backed Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is under pressure to end the fighting, particularly after the International Criminal Court charged him with genocide last year in connection with the government’s campaign of violence in Darfur.

In the past seven years, more than 300,000 people have been killed through direct combat, disease or malnutrition, according to the United Nations.

An additional 2.7 million people fled their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied militias.

(CNN) — English Premier League side Fulham launched a stunning comeback to send two-time European champions Juventus out of the Europa League on Thursday.

Fulham trailed 3-1 from the first leg in Turin and made the worst possible start when French striker David Trezeguet scored for Juve after just two minutes.

But the home side hit back just seven minutes later when Bobby Zamora outmuscled Fabio Cannavaro to turn home Paul Konchesky’s cross.

On 25 minutes Fulham’s task got a little easier when Cannavaro was sent off for bringing down Zoltan Gera, and 14 minutes later Gera reduced the deficit further when he turned home Simon Davies’ cross.

Gera then converted a penalty after Diego was adjudged to have handled inside the area before United States international Clint Dempsey sealed Fulham’s remarkable comeback with a delicate lob.

There was still time for another red card, as Jonathan Zebina kicked out at Damien Duff, meaning Juventus finished the game with nine men.

“I just thought ‘what the heck’ and tried to put it in the far post and it went in,” Dempsey said of his goal on ESPN television.

“Nine times out of te

ustin, Texas (CNN) — If you spend any time on the Internet, you’ve no doubt seen “David After Dentist,” the YouTube video of a woozy 7-year-old boy in the back seat of a car, struggling to understand the effects of anesthesia.

The viral clip has been viewed almost 54 million times and gave rise to the catchphrase, “Is this real life?” It was the second most-watched video of 2009, according to YouTube, trailing only Susan Boyle’s appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

It’s also been an unexpected bonanza for the boy’s Orlando, Florida-area family, who, despite some criticism that they exploited their child by posting his image online, has turned the one-minute, 59-second home video into a lucrative sideline.

“We embraced it,” said the boy’s father, David DeVore, who shot the famous clip on a Flip camera from the car’s front seat. “We said we will make a family adventure out of this and see what happens. Nothing has happened that we felt uncomfortable doing.”

He would not say exactly how much the family has earned from the video but said it’s in the “low six figures.”

DeVore gave a presentation this week at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, where he explained what the family’s life has been like in the 13 months since the video went viral.

“Well, I’m David DeVore, also known as David’s dad, or the idiot that posted a video of his son on YouTube,” he told the audience as he began his talk. DeVore then played a video greeting from David, who is now 9 years old and looks noticeably older than he does in the famous video, which was shot in May 2008.

The United States hasn’t caught soccer fever yet, but it’s running a bit of a temperature.

While U.S. athletes rate among the best in many sports, Americans are rarely mentioned when talk turns to the world’s soccer stars.

But many people, including agent Richard Motzkin, contend that the planet’s most popular game will soon snap American ambivalence. They point to a steady upward arc in interest from 1986, when the U.S. last failed to qualify for the World Cup, to today, as the team prepares for a sixth straight finals bid.

When Motzkin made the decision to begin representing soccer players in 1995, the U.S. didn’t have a competitive pro league, and Major League Soccer wouldn’t kick off for another year.

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“Many people thought it was crazy and questioned what I was doing with my life,” said Motzkin, who now represents some of the U.S. national team’s biggest stars, including captain Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu.

Times were “challenging” at first, Motzkin said, but soccer was enjoying a popularity boost from the 1994 World Cup. Also, the domestic youth leagues had been swelling for years, as the Internet and expanded cable and satellite offerings made “the beautiful game” more accessible.
“You just didn’t know what the best soccer looked like, but if you’re a top soccer player [today], you’re probably watching a little bit of Manchester United or AC Milan every week,” he said. “Eleven-year-olds who play soccer know exactly who Arsenal is.”

American youngsters are even being sought out by top European clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton, which are developing partnerships in the U.S.

Motzkin has enjoyed soccer’s ascent. Three years ago he sold his agency to Wasserman Media Group, a marketing agency, and he’s noticed dealings with clubs, agents, partners and sponsors becoming increasingly international.

“There’s more of a reflection that it’s a worldwide marketplace,” he said.

Soccer isn’t poised to take on the Super Bowl, Kuper said, but its top product rivals those of America’s Big Four: the well-heeled NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, whose lengthy seasons provide year-round entertainment.

In 2006, the World Cup final — with 16.9 million Americans watching, five million of them the Spanish broadcast — beat out deciding games of baseball’s World Series (16.3 million) and basketball’s NBA finals (15.7 million).

“Soccer is going to get a place at the top table,” Kuper said, “but baseball, basketball and football aren’t going to go anywhere.”

Evidence that soccer is shedding its second-class citizenry may lie in the ticket sales for the World Cup in South Africa. Speaking on March 4, U.S. Soccer Federation spokesman Neil Buethe said at least 125,000 tickets had been sold stateside, more than in England or Brazil and second only to South Africa.

It’s difficult to compare this year’s ticket sales, Buethe said, because FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, has changed how it sells them.

The federation had about 10,000 tickets allotted for the U.S. team’s first-round games in the 2006 World Cup in Germany — not enough to sate the 40,000 applicants but enough to top the combined American sales of the 2002, 1998 and 1990 World Cups combined, Buethe said.

“I think there’s definitely been a noticeable change in the interest level, not only with fans but also with broadcasters and media in general,” he said.

ESPN approached the U.S. Soccer Federation last year and shared its plan to pump the World Cup into American homes. The network aired a handful of World Cup games in the 1980s and none in 1990, but showed every game of the 1998 and 2006 tournaments live.

Americans can expect the same this year, as ESPN plans to put its muscle behind soccer like never before, said Seth Ader, the network’s senior director of sports marketing.

London, England (CNN) — The locals wear long, all-covering robes. They pray five times a day in one of the city’s many mosques. Each year, they celebrate Ramadan, fasting from dawn to dusk.

Many expatriates, instead, love to hang out at the beach, often in skimpy bathing suits making the most of the year-round sunshine. They go to beach-side cafes to drink and eat with friends, enjoying the tax-free lifestyle of the sunny sheikdom-by-the-sea.

Only rub is expatriates overwhelmingly outnumber locals — by more than eight to one.

Welcome to Dubai, the tiny, sun-drenched, desert sheikdom where a whopping 85 percent of the population hail from somewhere else, demographics unheard of anywhere else in the world.

And although the unusual co-existence is largely peaceful, friction can bubble up, like in the recent case of a British couple facing up to a month in jail for kissing in public.
The couple, a British man living and working in Dubai, and a British female tourist visiting the Persian Gulf city-state, were arrested in November accused of kissing and touching each other intimately in public — violations of law against public indecency — and consuming alcohol. The couple have been granted bail pending appeal. A hearing is scheduled for April 4.

Dubai’s foreign population has soared in recent years as expatriates, courted by the country, flocked to the booming emirate to work.

“It’s one of the countries in the world which has had the most rapid structural transformation we’ve ever seen for an economy,” said Nasser Saidi, chief economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority. “If you look at it like that, you start to understand the dynamics of the economy, why you need to attract a vast population from across the world.”

The population changes have challenged the now vastly outnumbered Emiratis, though, raising concerns among the local population that the breakneck modernization of the sheikdom threatens their deeply conservative social and religious identity.

The case is the third of its kind involving Britons in under two years. Expats who live in the emirate say authorities seem to be increasingly sensitive to such culture clashes.

“Expats need to know that no matter how modern and open-minded this country is, it’s an Islamic country,” said Heike Moeckel, a cultural consultant at Embrace Arabia, an Abu Dhabi-based, Emirati-owned company providing cultural training to expats and Emiratis alike.

Moeckel said “the amount of ignorance” by expats to Islamic traditions was the “biggest obstacle” in her work. She said there were beaches in Dubai where a local Emirati woman would not dare bring her children because of the dress code and behavior there, considered “completely inappropriate” by local people.

The British couple at the center of the current case were dining with friends at Bob’s Easy Diner, one of a stretch of cafes on a popular strip behind the city’s Jumeirah Beach, when an Emirati woman with her family reported their behavior to police.

“It’s very easy to make an economy out of different kinds of people with different religious backgrounds and nationalities,” Shahidul Haque, regional representative for the Middle East for the International Organization for Migration, told CNN. “But it’s often very difficult to develop a social fabric with the same populations.”

“That’s a huge challenge for any country,” Haque said, adding that incidents like the couple kissing “happen for social and economic reasons,” rather because of religious differences.

The economy of Dubai, a once tiny pearling village with limited natural resources, was built by expatriate labor. And the high number of expats needs to be maintained to ensure growth, experts say.

Oil sales account for less than five percent of Dubai’s economy now. The majority of its income comes from service industries, retail, trade and tourism.

Asked if the Dubai economy could continue to grow without its large expat population, chief economist Saidi replied no.

“It’s clear they need them,” he said. Saidi said that although the population of the emirate is very young and growing fast, it will take “a couple of generations to build up the skills needed.”

Until such point, Dubai continues to need — and court — its foreign workers, despite culture clashes like the one with the British couple.

“The local labor market cannot provide” what is needed, Haque said. “You either have to depend on foreign labor, or reduce the economy.”

CNN

Chicago, Illinois (CNN) — A Chicago man charged in two international terror plots, including the 2008 Mumbai, India, attacks, pleaded guilty Thursday to a dozen counts against him, and now will not face a trial.

David Headley, 49, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago to a dozen federal terrorism charges. Authorities said he scouted out targets for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people, and planned an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Headley, who was born in Washington, has agreed to cooperate with the government and testify before a grand jury.

He could have faced the death penalty if convicted, but in exchange for his guilty plea and cooperation, the government has taken execution off the table.

However, he will not be sentenced until after the conclusion of his cooperation, the Justice Department said. According to sentencing guidelines included in the plea agreement released Thursday, Headley is expected to serve a life sentence in prison.

He has been cooperating with the government since he was arrested October 3 in Chicago, authorities said, although he originally pleaded not guilty to the charges last year.

Authorities said Headley attended training camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and received instructions in 2005 from three members of the group to travel to India to conduct surveillance. He traveled to India five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks, and took video of places including the the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Hotel, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station and the Chabad House, the plea agreement said.

The two luxury hotels, the train station and the Chabad House, a Jewish center, were among the places attacked with guns and grenades during the three days in November 2008. The United States blames Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization, for the attacks.

Six Americans were killed in the attacks.

Read more about David Coleman Headley

Headley also admitted that in early November 2008, a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba member in Karachi, Pakistan, instructed him to scout the Copenhagen and Aarhus offices in Denmark of the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten newspaper in preparation for an attack. The newspaper had published controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

The alleged plan against the Danish newspaper was never carried out.

According to the plea agreement, Headley also took surveillance outside the newspaper’s offices, and went inside, on the pretext that he was seeking to place an advertisement in the paper.

The plea agreement also says that Headley met in Pakistan with Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged leader of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the U.S. Justice Department said has “trained terrorists [and] executed attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir under Indian control.” Kashmiri also is alleged to have links with al Qaeda.

Kashmiri told Headley he had a European contact who could provide Headley with money, weapons and manpower for the attack on the newspaper, the plea agreement says. He also told Headley that the attack should be a suicide attack, it says.

“Among other details, Kashmiri stated that the attackers should behead captives and throw their heads out of the newspaper building in order to heighten the response from Danish authorities,” the plea agreement says.

Kashmiri said the “elders,” which Headley understood to be al Qaeda leadership, “wanted the attack to happen as soon as possible,” the plea agreement says.

An indictment released in January said that the plan was put on hold because of pressure after the Mumbai attack.

Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, or Abdur Rehman, a retired major in the Pakistani military, have also been indicted in the plot against the Danish newspaper. Chicago resident Tahawwur Rana, a Candian citizen, was indicted on three counts alleging material support of the Denmark and India plots and support of Lashkar. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to media reports.

Neither Syed nor Kashmiri are in U.S. custody.

In response to Headley’s guilty plea, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Americans face “real threats from homegrown and international terrorists, and we will continue working to disrupt, dismantle and defeat terrorism at home and abroad to ensure the safety and security of the American people.”

CNN

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dismissed the idea that US-Israeli relations are in crisis amid a row over Jewish settlers in Arab East Jerusalem.Mr Mitchell had been due to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday but the trip has been put off to an as yet undetermined time, officials said.

State department spokesman Philip Crowley said Mr Mitchell would not meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders before a Middle East Quartet meeting in Moscow on Friday but talks would be scheduled at some point.

BBC state department correspondent Kim Ghattas, in Washington, says the pressure is piling up on Israel but the question being asked is whether the US can get anything from Israel at this stage.

It is possible the Israeli prime minister cannot deliver what Washington wants without paying too heavy a price at home, our correspondent says.

Although he has apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement, Mr Netanyahu has stood by Israel’s policy, telling parliament on Monday there can be “no curbs” on Jewish building in Jerusalem.

The BBC’s Paul Wood in Jerusalem says there seems to be an impasse – if Mr Netanyahu caves in and cancels the new settlements, the stability of his government may be in doubt; if he does not, it is hard to see how the peace talks can take place.

‘Day of rage’

Tensions in East Jerusalem have risen in recent days with the settlements issue and the rededication of a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City, which Palestinians have condemned as provocative.
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, was quoted by Israeli media on Monday as saying that ties between the US and Israel were at their lowest point since 1975.

Asked if that was the case, Mrs Clinton said: “I don’t buy that.”

She said Washington had an “absolute commitment to Israel’s security”.

But, she added, the US did not always agree with its international allies on everything, and it had expressed its “dismay and disappointment” to Israel over last week’s incident.

Last week, Mrs Clinton called the settlements announcement “insulting” to the US and, in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded Israel take steps to show its commitment to peace.

The US says it is still awaiting a “formal” response from Israel to those concerns.

She said the two nations had a “close, unshakeable bond” but made clear the US wanted both Israel and the Palestinians to prove their commitment to peace.

Earlier, US envoy George Mitchell postponed a planned visit to Israel.

Heightened tensions in Jerusalem have led to violent clashes between hundreds of Palestinians and Israeli police.

Israeli police said about 60 Palestinians had been arrested and medical officials said a number of people had been injured.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged restraint from both sides, the AFP news agency reports, and reiterated that Jerusalem’s final status should be decided by negotiation.

‘Dismay and disappointment’

Israel angered Washington by announcing its plans for 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem as US Vice-President Joe Biden visited the region last week to try to kick-start stalled peace talks.

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters burned tyres and threw rocks, while police fired stun grenades and tear gas, as rioting broke out in a number of areas – including the Shu’fat refugee camp, al-Eisaweyah and the Qalandia checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank.

Israeli police said they had deployed 3,000 officers across the city.

The reopening of the twice-destroyed Hurva synagogue, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, which Palestinians seek as part of a future capital, triggered a wide backlash.

Hatem Abdel Qader, Jerusalem affairs spokesman for the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “This synagogue will be a prelude to violence and religious fanaticism and extremism.”

Militant group Hamas had declared Tuesday a “day of rage” against the move.

Thousands of people turned out in Gaza to protest against the rededication of the synagogue, not far from the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, although demonstrations there remained relatively peaceful.

Our correspondent says the call by some Palestinian officials for people to defend the Haram al-Sharif or Temple Mount, site of the al-Aqsa mosque, comes amid rumours of plans by Jewish extremists to take control of the area.

He says that although the clashes so far are small-scale, no-one has forgotten how the last Palestinian intifada – or uprising – began over the holy sites in Jerusalem.

BBC

Oprah Winfrey must defend a defamation case filed against her by the former headmistress of her girls’ school in South Africa, a US judge has ruled.

Judge Eduardo Robreno refused to dismiss the legal action on Monday, saying Nomvuho Mzamane had enough evidence to pursue her claim.

The star allegedly made remarks about Mzamane in 2007, after sex abuse complaints arose at the school.

The trial is now set for 29 March in Philadelphia.

Disadvantaged children

The abuse emerged in 2007, when one girl at complained she had been fondled while others reported being sworn at, grabbed by the neck, beaten or thrown against a wall.

A former matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy was later charged with abusing six students.

Mzamane claims that Winfrey made statements to the press and parents at the time, suggesting she was not trustworthy.

Winfrey’s lawyers argued that the remarks reflected her opinions, but the judge ruled they were potentially defamatory as they ascribed “conduct which would render her [Mzamane] unfit for her profession as an educator”.

Winfrey’s lawyer, William Hangley, declined to comment on the decision and Mzamane’s lawyer was not available for comment.

The school was opened in Johannesburg in 2007 at a cost of $40m (£26.3m).

Winfrey pledged to build the academy after a meeting with former South African President Nelson Mandela in 2002, and personally interviewed many of the South African girls from low-income families who applied for the initial 150 places at the school.

The US talk-show host has said she was herself abused as a child and has campaigned against abuse in the US.

She described the abuse charges at her school as one of the most devastating experiences in her life.

BBC

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng continues following comments from China’s foreign minister.

Yang Jiechi said the well-known lawyer had been sentenced after being charged with subverting state power.

But it was not immediately clear whether that referred to an old charge, or a new one brought against Mr Gao.

There has been growing international concern about the activist, who disappeared more than a year ago.

Mr Yang was speaking at a news conference in Beijing, held with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is currently visiting China.

No clarification

Mr Yang said: “Gao Zhisheng has been sentenced on the charge of subverting state power.”

The Chinese foreign minister denied a suggestion that Mr Gao had been tortured, saying that his rights had been protected.

He said he hoped foreigners would respect China’s judicial system.

“We are willing to have human rights dialogue with the UK and other countries on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” Mr Yang added.

Mr Miliband said that he had raised the lawyer’s case with the Chinese government.

Mr Gao was given a three-year prison sentence – suspended for five years – for inciting subversion in 2006, but Mr Yang’s comment did not make it clear if new charges had since been brought.

After Mr Yang spoke, the foreign ministry declined to clarify the comments.

Rare case

Mr Gao went missing at the beginning of last year. He was believed to be in police custody, but no-one knows for sure.

His case is unusual because there has been little official word on what has happened to him – apart from several contradictory comments from Chinese officials.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said earlier this year that Mr Gao was “where he should be”.

Last month, China’s embassy in Washington told a US-based human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, said Mr Gao was working in Urumqi, a city in the far west of the country.

The foreign minister’s comments look set to deepen the speculation surrounding Gao Zhisheng.

BBC

England have released Delon Armitage, Ugo Monye and Courtney Lawes from the squad for Saturday’s final RBS Six Nations game against France in Paris.

The absence of the out-of-form Armitage looks set to give Ben Foden his first start at full-back, while Monye’s exit could see a reshuffle in the backs.

Mike Tindall could come into the starting XV at centre, with winger Chris Ashton tipped to make his debut.

Captain Steve Borthwick will have his knee injury assessed on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old left England’s base at Pennyhill Park after a light training session on Tuesday to seek specialist treatment on the problem.

England manager Martin Johnson, who will name his side at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, said: “Steve has gone for treatment for a long-term wear-and-tear issue.

“Hopefully it is just precautionary and he will be fine.”

Armitage and Monye have started all of England’s games so far in the Six Nations, while Lawes came off the bench against Scotland to win his second cap.

London Irish full-back Armitage has struggled for form since returning from injury, while Monye – who was taken off at Murrayfield on a stretcher after a nasty clash of heads – has also not been at his best during a campaign in which England’s backline has struggled for fluency.

Lawes, meanwhile, is seen as one of the most dynamic and promising young forwards in the English game, but Johnson looks set to prefer the vastly more experienced Simon Shaw at the Stade de France.

The trio were among 11 players released from the squad on Tuesday, with Steffon Armitage, Jordan Crane, Shontayne Hape, Charlie Hodgson, Paul Hodgson, Lee Mears, Matthew Mullan and Dan Ward-Smith the others to be deemed surplus to requirements.

More to follow.

BBC

The Pakistan Cricket Board banned Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan indefinitely after the tour to Australia after they had been involved in “infighting … brought down the whole team”.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal also face fines or bans.

Khan says the players need to be disciplined and that they should still be motivated to play for their country but insists the foundation of the team’s problems lie in the way Pakistan cricket is run.

“I was a very strict disciplinarian,” he said. “I did not tolerate indiscipline but I also know the problems I used to face with the cricket board which was run on an ad hoc basis.

“Without discipline you cannot have teamwork. (But) you cannot have players who are not trying their best simply because they do not like the captain or something.

“You go out to represent your country and you have to give your best shot.

“I do believe that players should be disciplined but the real problem still lies in making the cricket board into an institution.”
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan says the country’s cricket structure needs to be changed to help revive the fortunes of the national team.

Pakistan’s cricket team is in disarray after a host of players were recently sanctioned after they lost all nine matches of a tour to Australia.

“Pakistan cricket has to sort itself out,” ex-all rounder Khan told BBC Asian Network.

“The team is a symptom of Pakistan cricket not being an institution.”

Khan added: “The president of Pakistan should not appoint a cricket board chairman, that’s where the problems begin.

“The chairman should be elected through regional organisations and, because that doesn’t happen, the team basically reflects the chaos which lies in the cricket board.”

BBC

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