Wednesday, October 28, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama renewed sanctions on Sudan Tuesday, a week after unveiling a new policy of pressure and incentives toward the Khartoum government aimed at settling the simmering conflict. "The crisis constituted by the actions and policies of the government of Sudan... has not been resolved," Obama said in a message to Congress about the one-year extension of sanctions. "These actions and policies are hostile to US interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."The sanctions restrict US trade with and investment in Sudan, freezes the Sudanese government assets in the United States, and bans transactions with individuals and entities linked to the conflict in Darfur. They are part of a revised US policy that seeks to ensure the country does not become a "safe haven for terrorists" and that a peace deal to end a 22-year civil war in the south is fully implemented. In an example of how these sanctions are enforced, Washington lobbyist and former State Department employee Robert Cabelly was indicted on Tuesday for violating Sudan sanctions regulations. Cabelly, who was said to have brokered oil business contracts and transactions benefiting Sudan and provided Khartoum with sensitive controlled US government information, also faced charges of money laundering, passport fraud and making false statements.The new strategy involves US engagement with Khartoum government officials, although the outreach will not include President Omar al-Beshir, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on war crimes charges over the Darfur conflict.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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