shelling targets. Neither side can afford to lose Aleppo as weapons and fighters mass and prepare for what is likely to be a major battle. What does seem guaranteed is that large numbers of civilians will be caught in the crossfire and significant numbers could be killed.
Rebels fighting the Sudanese government in areas close to the border with South Sudan say 150 people a day are dying of disease and hunger. The rebels are in talks with the Sudanese government in Ethiopia to allow humanitarian access to the areas in most need. Martin Plaut reports.
Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Malik Agar, the head of the rebel SPLM North, said the situation was catastrophic even before the current rains. Now, women, children and the elderly are dying every day. His rebels in the Nuba Mountains in the Blue Nile have been fighting the Sudanese government for the past year. Attacked from the air and the ground, their people had little chance to cultivate. The rains have turned large areas into an inaccessible
swamp
.
A member of a South African white extremist group accused of plotting to kill Nelson Mandela and attempting to overthrow the government in a bombing campaign has been found guilty of high treason in Pretoria. Mike du Toit, a former academic, is the first of 20 men from an organization called Boeremag or Boer Power to be convicted.
BBC News
A senior United Nations official has told the BBC that Democratic Republic of Congo army units supported by UN forces have pushed Congolese rebels out of the towns of Rugari and Rumangabo in the east of the country. Helicopter gunships and