In news from Africa, a top UN official said the death toll in Sudan over the past five years may now be as high as 300,000. John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, mentioned the new estimate in a speech at a UN Security Council meeting on the conflict in the western Sudanese region.

John Holmes: “A study in 2006 suggested that 200,000 had lost their lives from the combined effects of the conflict. That figure must be much higher now, perhaps half as much again. Yet we continue to see the goalposts receding, to the point where peace in Darfur seems further away today than ever.”

Sudan’s UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem said the figure was grossly exaggerated.

Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem: “The death of even a single Sudanese is something very regrettable and tragic. But in our own calculations, the number, total number, does not exceed ten thousand.”