The people of Southern Sudan regard January’s referendum as their first genuine opportunity to exert their right to self-determination, as enshrined in the 1945 UN Charter and underlined in the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between North and South.

Below are some key milestones on the road to this referendum:

Pre-1946: The British and Egyptian governments administer South and North Sudan as separate and distinct regions.

1946: The South and North are merged into one administrative region by the British government. The Southerners are not consulted about the decision and have concerns about being subsumed by the larger and more powerful North.

1954: Southern Sudanese politicians formally call for a greater role in their own governance, failing which they reserve the right to self-determination.

August 1955: Months before independence, there is a mutiny in the Southern town of Torit. By the early 1960s this develops into a full-scale rebellion and what became known as Sudan’s first civil war, Anyanya I.

1 January 1956: Sudan gains its independence from Egypt and Britain.

1962: Civil war intensifies in the mainly Christian region of the South.

27 February 1972: An agreement is signed in Addis Ababa to end the war and grant self-governance to the South.

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Moldova ’s Political Representative at the Transnistria negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Affairs Victor Osipov stated at the 2010 OSCE Astana Summit today that Moldova has been suffering for so many years due to the problematic, separatist territory that cannot be controlled by the Chisinau constitutional authorities.

In his words, the military peacekeeping mechanism used currently has long ago reached its goal, so it needs to be replaced with an up-to-date multilateral mission of civilian observers to work in Transnistria under an international mandate.

“Protracted conflicts remain to be unresolved, complex-like problems in the OSCE area. Tragic events in the Republic of Georgia, a bloody tragedy in Kirgizia have demonstrated once again how dangerous the problem is”, said the Moldovan Deputy Premier.
Victor Osipov reaffirmed the Moldovan government’s adherence to an internationally recognized position - that Russian troops and Russia’s military equipment must be evacuated from the Republic of Moldova territory in conformity with the decisions of the previous OSCE Summit, held in Istanbul in 1999, and with Russia’s own commitments.

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Southern Sudan’s armed forces have accused the northern military of carrying out an air strike on one of their bases, wounding four soldiers and two civilians.

“A SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) helicopter gunship attacked SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) positions at Kiirabem, in North Bahr al-Ghazal, wounding four SPLA soldiers and two civilians,” Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the SPLA, said.

“The intention of the SAF in this move is to try to disrupt the referendum process,” he said in a statement.

The leaders of north and south Sudan have accused each other of building up troops in the border region ahead of the January 9 poll in which southerners will be asked if they want independence from the north.

While the south is seen likely to vote for secession, the north would like to keep the country whole.

If confirmed, the attack would be the second time this month the north has bombed targets in the south.

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Tuvalu recognizes the Republic of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo.

The Permanent Mission of Tuvalu to the United Nations sent the diplomatic recognition letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo emphasizing that the Government of Tuvalu officially recognizes the Republic of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state.

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The law enforcement bodies of South Ossetia reported a new violation of air space by a drone.
According to news agency “Res,” a source in law enforcement agencies reported that on 14 November, “a drone violated the airspace of South Ossetia from Georgia.”

“We assume that it could perform reconnaissance overflight over our territory. This is not the first case lately, when a drone violates the airspace of South Ossetia from the Georgian side. It was fired from the ground, and it left the territory of South Ossetia “, noted the source.

Earlier, the Foreign Minister of South Ossetia has already stated on more frequent flights of Georgian drones near the border of South Ossetia.

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Deadly clashes erupted this week between Moroccan forces and local rebels in Western Sahara — a long-disputed region of northwestern Africa.

The violence coincided with a round of talks — informally backed by the United Nations — between Morocco and representatives of Polisario Front, the region’s independence movement.

Polisario said Moroccan authorities raided a camp on Monday in Western Sahara, leaving 19 people dead, 723 wounded, and 159 missing, and the group said the fighting has continued since then. Morocco’s official news agency said eight Moroccan police officers also died in the raid.

Ahmed Boukhari, a Polisario representative, told CNN in an e-mail Tuesday that “the tragic events” were “the result of a deliberate act carried out by Morocco to undermine the current U.N. peace process.”

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Republic of Kiribati recognizes the Republic of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state, informs the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Kosovo.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kiribati has notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo through a verbal note that this country has decided to recognize the independence of the Republic of Kosovo on October 21, 2010.”

At the same time, the Republic of Kiribati has expressed readiness to enter the Republic of Kosovo diplomatic bilateral relations to develop friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries in political, trade and economic.

Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979.

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