LONDON (AFP) — Israel has plunged the Palestinians into unprecedented levels of poverty and despair through 40 years of occupation, yet failed to ensure its own security, Amnesty International said Monday.

KHARTOUM — Business leaders managing Sudan’s economic boom predict the new US sanctions imposed because of Darfur will have little impact on this country’s oil-based economy, mostly because they avoid targeting key Chinese interests here.

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Violent attacks and retaliation by security forces led to the deaths of two police officers and five civilians in Mogadishu Monday, a day after Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammad Gedi escaped a suicide car bomb attack.