displace
d in South Kordofan following
aerial
bombardments by the Sudanese military, which says some Nuba remain allied to former rebels in southern Sudan.
Reports (from Saudi Arabia) say Saudi Arabia will begin withdrawing most of its security forces from neighbouring Bahrain from next week because it views the situation there as calmer. About 1,000 troops were deployed there in mid-March
at the height of
the pro-democracy unrest which swept Bahrain, but it's unclear exactly what role they played in the security operation to
quell
the demonstrations.
A court in Ecuador has found six police officers guilty of crimes against security of the state during a protest last September in which the president was
forcibly
detained. President Rafael Correa had to be rescued by the military after being tear-gassed and held for several hours in a hospital by police angry about plans to cut their bonuses. He described the events as an attempted coup.
A piece of flying debris has
narrowly
missed the International Space Station, forcing six members of the crew to
rush to
their rescue shuttle and prepare for an emergency evacuation back to Earth. Here's Jonathan Amos.
There are thousands of pieces of debris floating around in orbit, bits of old satellite or rocket even tools dropped in the past by space-walking astronauts. The speed at which this debris moves means any sort of impact with the space station would be catastrophic. Normally, mission control can move the station out of the way, but today's alert was raised too late for such a