World in brief: Government lifts diamond trade ban
The Liberian government said Saturday it had lifted a six-year moratorium on the diamond trade, put in place after former President Charles Taylor was accused of using “blood diamonds” to fuel civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Kpandeh Fayia, deputy minister of Lands, Mines and Energy, said that “as of Monday, people can start applying for mining, selling and broker licenses” for diamonds.
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Liberia’s diamonds in May 2001 and, to comply with the sanctions, the Liberian government placed a moratorium on all mining.
Liberian officials hope a restored diamond trade will provide jobs in a country with an 85 percent unemployment rate.
BEIRUT, Lebanon
Troops storm militant hideout
Lebanese troops stormed an Islamic militant hideout in a Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, killing eight fighters, state-run media reported. A Lebanese army commander said the final assault to crush the remaining Fatah Islam fighters there was “imminent.”
The army pounded Fatah Islam’s remaining positions with artillery, tank fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the National News Agency and witnesses said. The five-hour bombardment created plumes of heavy black smoke above the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, witnesses reported.
The military command renewed calls Saturday for the militants to allow their families to leave the camp.
The conflict in Nahr el-Bared is Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war. An undetermined number of militants – at least 60 – and more than 20 civilians have died in the fighting, according to Lebanese government and U.N. relief officials. More than 120 troops have been killed since fighting erupted May 20.
LIMA, Peru
President issues apology to poor
President Alan Garcia apologized to poor Peruvians on Saturday for failing to improve their lives during his first year in office, and he vowed renewed efforts against poverty.
Garcia, one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, has overseen a booming economy, but his popularity has slipped as the poor grow frustrated at being left out of the bonanza.
“I would have loved to do a lot more,” Garcia said in his nationally broadcast state of the nation address to Congress, acknowledging that his government had not worked fast enough to help the poorest Peruvians.
“We apologize for this,” Garcia said to thunderous applause.
He said increased public investment will “change the social face of Peru” by slashing the poverty rate to 30 percent from 44 percent now, and said the government would build housing for 1.2 million Peruvians by the time his term ends in 2011.