Cash injection for Sudan
2004-08-25 12:08
Beijing - A Chinese woman facing possible execution for trafficking heroin was forced by police to have an abortion so she could be punished, a report said on Wednesday.
Ma Weihua, 29, was arrested in January by police in Lanzhou, the capital of the north-western province of Gansu, for transporting 1 606g of heroin in a vest, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
She had agreed to help a friend take the drugs from Urumqi, the capital of neighbouring Xinjiang, to Lanzhou for 5 000 yuan ($600), the report said.
The amount of drugs she was carrying was enough to make her punishable by execution under China's strict criminal code.
Khartoum - The European Commission announced on Wednesday a further €20-million in humanitarian aid for Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur, saying the situation in the region had not improved.
"The situation is still not optimistic from a humanitarian point of view," Peter Holdsworth, of the EC's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), through which the funds will be channelled, told reporters.
The commission said that €15-million from the donation would be used to support World Food Programme operations in Darfur and the balance of €5-million would go to humanitarian agencies.
The new funds are expected to provide victims of the 18-month conflict "with food, nutritional support, shelter, access to clean water and sanitation, emergency health care and protection of vulnerable civilians," according to the commission.
The donation brings to €104-million the EC's total humanitarian assistance for Darfur since the beginning of this year.
Between 30 000 and 50 000 people have died in the conflict in Darfur between rebel groups and government forces, with more than a million displaced from their homes and a further 180 000 driven into exile in neighbouring Chad, according to the United Nations. - AFP
- SAPA