at the request of
citizens, but the refugees say that by the time the army reached Jisr al-Shughour, most of the residents had run away.
Leaders from north and south Sudan are in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss the violence that's broken out in border areas less than a month before southern Sudan is due to become independent. The meeting under the
auspices
of the African Union will focus on the disputed region of Abyei and the oil-rich northern state of South Kordofan. Human rights groups say tens of thousands of people have fled from recent fighting in South Kordofan. They say northern troops are conducting house-to-house searches for southerners.
The Libyan government says its forces have
held off
an attack by rebels on Zawiya, a key town in western Libya. A spokesman said rebel resistance had been
eliminate
d. It follows a second day of fierce fighting in Zawiya, an oil terminal an hour's drive from Tripoli. The main road and supply route from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, which runs through Zawiya, is said to have been partially closed.
Thousands of people in the Iranian capital Tehran have held a silent march to mark the second anniversary of the disputed re-election of the country's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reports say the march ended peacefully, but some protesters were arrested. The demonstrators said their aim was to show that the opposition movement was still alive, even though the government in Iran has put its leaders under house arrest.