The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has charged Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide yesterday accusing him of killing 35,000 persons and persecuting 2.5 million refugees in the process.

In a landmark case, for the first time the world court has sought the arrest of a sitting head of a state. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecution attorney, said evidence collected during a three-year investigation proved ultimate responsibility for crimes in Darfur rested with Bashir.

“The decision to start the genocide was taken by Bashir,” Ocampo said, adding: “Bashir is executing this genocide without gas chambers, without bullets, without machetes. It is a genocide by attrition.” Ocampo charged the Sudanese President with three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape, and two counts of war crimes.

Armed groups from the Fur, Masalit and Zarghawa tribes had launched a rebellion in Darfur in 2003, protesting at their marginalisation. Sudan’s response was a brutal counter-insurgency in which civilians were targeted by the government forces and Janjaweed militia. While President Bashir did not directly carry out attacks himself, he was the mastermind with “absolute control”, the prosecutor said.

However, the wide-ranging nature of the charges has brought criticism from some analysts, who felt the prosecutor was “over-reaching”. The genocide charges are “pretty extreme”, said Alex de Waal, a Sudan analyst at the Social Science Research Council in New York. “It will be very hard to prove he directly authorised these crimes.” Others said the formal genocide charge might give the UN additional leverage to hammer out a peace deal.

At a time when the major political parties, mainly the CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, are at loggerheads over the power-sharing in the new government to be formed soon, the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Tuesday published its schedule to elect the president and the vice-president on July 19.

According to Mukunda Sharma, spokesperson of the Legislature-Parliamentary Secretariat, a meeting of the Business Advisor Committee of the CA held this morning, decided to hold the elections on July 19 to elect the country's first president and vice-president.

As per the schedule, candidates should file their candidacy by Wednesday along with five CA members as their supporters. The election committee formed under the convenorship of general secretary at the CA Secretariat would publish the names of the candidates on Thursday.

Thereafter, on Saturday, 601-members in the CA, the newly-elected supreme body of Nepal, will have to cast their votes secretly at the International Convention Center, where the CA meeting will take place and elect the country's head of the state through a simple majority in the CA.

Following the restoration of democracy and reinstatement of the dissolved parliament in April 2006, the then House of Representative had made a historic proclamation on May 18, 2006, by stripping off all executive, political and cultural rights of the dethroned king Gyanendra.

The CA meet last held on June 18 was adjourned for indefinite period as the government failed to produce any agenda to discuss at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the major political parties have been intensifying political consultations to form a new government soon.

Baquba, July 15
A string of suicide attacks against Iraqi security forces killed at least 37 persons today, including 28, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up among a crowd of recruits at an army base.

The two bombers, one of whom wore an Iraqi military uniform, detonated their explosives-filled vests at a recruitment centre on the Al-Saad base, east of the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba, a security official said.

At least 55 persons were also wounded in the morning attack, which came ahead of a promised Iraqi army offensive in the province, an Al-Qaida stronghold just north of Baghdad.

“We were about 30 persons standing at the entrance,” said one of the wounded, Falah Ali Hussein, 17. “They had just called our names when suddenly there was a big explosion.”A police officer said the victims were from a first batch of men called from across the province to participate in a military recruitment drive.

“The bombers blew themselves up amid the crowd. One bomber was dressed in Iraqi military uniform, while the other was wearing civilian clothes,”the officer said.

The US military said 20 Iraqi army recruits were killed and 55 wounded. The base has a joint Iraq-US security post but the American military said it suffered no casualties.

BRIEFLY

Taliban kill seven Afghans for spying
KABUL: The Taliban shot dead at least seven Afghan civilians whom they captured on suspicion of working for the government or other organisations, the police and militants said on Tuesday. The civilians were taken from cars, buses and taxis that were stopped on the main road between Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, said the deputy police chief for Zabul province, Jailani Khan. — AFP

Ancient bones could help combat TB
JERUSALEM: A team of German, Israeli and Palestinian researchers is studying 6,000-year-old bones found in the biblical city of Jericho for clues that could help scientists combat tuberculosis. ''We see a re-emerging wave of tuberculosis all over the world and perhaps learning from the past will help us understand the present,'' Andreas Nerlich, professor of pathology at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University, said on Monday. — Reuters

Public vote to assess performance of officials
BEIJING: Earning the confidence of superiors will no more suffice for officials aspiring for promotions in China, as they now have to win the approval of people as well. In a new step that seeks to plug loopholes for checking under-the-table manipulations and corruption, the central government has launched a public poll for the first time to assess the performance of officials in order to give a greater say to the people in deciding their promotions. — PTI

Global warming may increase kidney stones
WASHINGTON: More Americans are likely to suffer from kidney stones in the coming years as a result of global warming, according to researchers at the University of Texas. If global warming trends continue as projected by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the US can expect as much as 30 per cent growth in kidney stone disease in some of its driest areas, said the findings published in Monday's proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. — AFP

Belgian PM offers to resign
BRUSSELS: Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme offered his government's resignation to the King after talks on a larger degree of autonomy for the country's Flemish-speaking region failed, a source close to the government said. “He will present his government's resignation," the source said on Monday under cover of anonymity. — AFP

7 killed in shell explosion
MOSCOW: Seven soldiers were killed and another six injured in Russia’s Chechen republic on Tuesday when a live tank shell they were loading accidentally exploded, Russian agencies reported. “While reloading ammunition from a tank into a vehicle, presumably as a result of a detonation, an unintentional explosion occurred,” agency Interfax quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying. — Reuters