- Swedish battery maker Northvolt to slash 1,600 jobs, quarter of staff
- Joshua says boxing career 'far from over' after Dubois defeat
- Stock markets inch higher on rate hopes
- 182 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- Friedkin Group reach deal to buy Everton
- UniCredit ups stake in Commerzbank to 21 percent
- Big rate cut was 'appropriate' first step: Fed official
- Stock markets diverge as eurozone economy struggles
- Lebanon says 100 dead in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds
- Man City's Akanji sends defiant title message after Arsenal battle
- Madrid's 'many styles' key to unbeaten streak: Ancelotti
- UK's Labour pledges economic rebuild amid free gifts row
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen to undergo knee operation
- French mass rape trial moves on to new defendants
- Israel warns Lebanese as intense strikes target Hezbollah
- UK's Labour looks to be more cheerful despite gifts and welfare row
- Eurozone business activity slumps after Olympics boost
- Russia, Ukraine cross swords in sea dispute court battle
- Albania plans Sufi Muslim microstate within its borders
- EU launches WTO challenge against China dairy probe
- Murdoch's REA ups offer for property website Rightmove
- India's one-horned rhino numbers charging ahead, govt says
- Rescuers comb muddy riverbanks after Japan floods kill seven
- Asian stocks boosted by US rate cut, China stimulus hope
- Sri Lanka's new leader says no magic solution to crisis
- Israel warns Lebanese as wave of strikes hits Hezbollah
- New Socceroos coach Popovic confident he can rescue World Cup campaign
- 'Put Austrians first': On a pub crawl with far-right voters
- Trial begins in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Family of murdered Sri Lanka editor seek justice from new president
- Austria's far right woos anti-vaxxers with fund for vaccine 'victims'
- Long wait for justice in India's backlogged courts
- Rohingya refugees detail worsening violence in Myanmar
- Rescuers comb muddy riverbanks after Japan floods kill six
- Sri Lankan leftist leader sworn in after landslide election win
- Indonesia, NZ deny Papua rebel claim 'bribe' paid for pilot release
- Swearing, shoeys and swift legs: Singapore GP talking points
- South Korea warns of 'decisive' action against trash balloons
- Football Australia names Tony Popovic as Socceroos coach
- Japan quake, flood victim attempts fresh start with wife's memory
- Japan quake, flood victim attemps fresh start with wife's memory
- Asian markets extend gains as focus turns to US inflation
- Six dead after floods in central Japan: media
- Australian golf prodigy suffers career-threatening eye injury
- Gaza hospital a symbol of the ruin of war
- October 7: how Israel's deadliest day unfolded
- Bibles, sneakers, silver coins: Trump's merch for sale
- Met Opera opens season with tech-heavy 'Grounded'
- Colombia's Inirida flower: from 'weed' to emblem for UN meeting
- Colombia rebel group imposes control in restive coca zone
S.Sudan rivals seal security pact in peace 'milestone'
In what has been hailed as a major breakthrough, South Sudan's rival leaders sealed an agreement Sunday on a key military provision of their stuttering peace deal.
President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, agreed on the creation of a unified armed forces command, one of several crucial unresolved issues holding up implementation of the 2018 deal to end the country's bloody five-year civil war.
"Peace is about security and today we have (achieved) a milestone," said Martin Abucha, who signed the agreement on behalf of Machar's opposition SPLM/A-IO.
Minister of presidential affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin hailed the deal -- signed following mediation by neighbouring Sudan -- as a "necessary step... that opens a route for the stable government of the Republic of South Sudan".
Tensions between forces loyal to Kiir and former rebel leader Machar have spiralled recently, triggering fears in the international community of a return to full-blown conflict in the world's youngest nation.
Both men were at the ceremony in the capital Juba for the signing of the accord, which stipulates a 60-40 distribution in favour of Kiir's side of key leadership posts in the army, police and national security forces.
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the number two in Sudan's post-coup ruling council, had arrived in Juba on Friday in a bid to break the deadlock over the security arrangements.
Sudan, one of the guarantors of the 2018 deal, drew up the proposal after Kiir on March 25 issued a presidential decree on the formation of the military command structure, a move that had been swiftly rejected by Machar as a "unilateral" action.
Landlocked South Sudan, one of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves, has suffered from chronic instability since it declared independence from Sudan in 2011, spending almost half of its life as a nation at war.
It has struggled to draw a line under the 2013-2018 conflict that erupted after Kiir accused Machar of an attempted coup. Almost 400,000 people lost their lives and millions more were displaced by the fighting.
- UN warning of potential 'catastrophe' -
Although the two men formed a power-sharing unity government more than two years ago, South Sudan has continued to lurch from crisis to crisis, battling flooding, hunger, violence and political bickering that threatened to undo even the limited progress in the faltering peace process.
The fragile peacemaking was put under further pressure last month when Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) pulled out of a body monitoring the process to protest at continued "unprovoked" attacks of its bases by its "peace partner".
The United States last week expressed concern over the growing tensions, deploring reported clashes in Upper Nile State and warning that the opposition move undermined the peace agreement.
Last month, the UN Security Council voted to prolong its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for one more year, although Russia and China abstained.
The operation, with up to 17,000 soldiers and 2,100 police officers, is one of the most expensive for the UN, with an annual budget surpassing $1 billion.
In a presentation to the Security Council, the UN envoy for South Sudan, Nicholas Haysam, issued a stark warning to the country's leaders to do more to prepare for elections due to be held in less than a year.
"Elections have the potential to be a nation-building moment, or a catastrophe," he said.
Although he highlighted progress in some areas including the operation of key government institutions and parliament, other issues are stalled, including the process of drafting a new constitution.
The UN has repeatedly criticised South Sudan's leadership for its role in stoking violence, cracking down on political freedoms and plundering public coffers.
South Sudan also faces humanitarian woes caused by conflict as well as climate-related disasters such as flooding and drought, prompting the UN on Thursday to launch a $1.6 billion aid plan.
It said the funding will be used to provide urgent life-saving assistance and protection in a country where it is estimated more than two thirds of the population, nearly nine million people, require aid relief.
D.Schneider--BTB