Survive or die together': More than 400 killed in Eastern Ghouta

More than 400 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta, a monitoring group said, as the Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes continued their aerial bombardment of the rebel-held area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that at least 403 people were killed in the "hysterical attack" that began on Sunday, including 150 children. Almost 2,120 others were wounded.

UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire in comments made ahead of Thursday's UN Security Council meeting.

"The humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta is appalling and, therefore, we need a ceasefire that stops both the horrific heavy bombardment of Eastern Ghouta and the indiscriminate mortar shelling on Damascus," he said.

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UK invites Libyan rebels to open office in London

London (AMIPS) - The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, invited Thursday Libya's dissident Transitional National Council to open an office in London during talks with rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil. "The government is today inviting the council to establish a formal office here in London," Cameron said after the talks in Downing Street, his first face-to-face discussions with Mr. Jalil. The Chief of the Rebel National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, urged allies to send the rebels more weapons so they could drive the Libyan leader from power. NATO airstrikes on Kadhafi's compound on Thursday killed three people, hours after Libyan state television showed the first footage of Kadhafi since another attack on April 30 that the regime said had targeted him .

“Only independence will restore us”: A Sahrawi refugee recalls Western Sahara’s invasion

40 years ago, thousands of Sahrawi were driven from their homes. Akhdaja Salak, who was 22 and pregnant at the time, describes the experience. It’s early September 1975 and Akhdaja Salak, 22, is sitting in her home in Ajdiri, Western Sahara. She is seven months pregnant and still undecided about what to do to next: whether to take the risk of staying at home or leave and endure the pains of travelling while heavily pregnant. Akhdaja’s fears started when she first received the news that Morocco was preparing an armed invasion to occupy Western Sahara. In 1973, the Saharawi Liberation Movement (the Polisario Front) was founded to fight for independence from Spanish colonisation. Two years of Polisario attacks forced the Spanish to retreat from Western Sahara’s interior to the coastal cities and reluctantly accept negotiations. The two sides agreed that the Polisario would stop its military attacks and release Spanish prisoners of war, and that in return Spain would withdraw from the regi...

40 years of hurt: The never-ending scandal of the Western Sahara

For Africa, the UN and the powers in the Security Council, the ongoing occupation of the Western Sahara is an embarrassment. For Saharwis, it’s a profound injustice. Forty years ago tomorrow (6 November), Morocco invaded Western Sahara, a former Spanish colonial possession – mostly made up of desert – in West Africa. As Spain walked away, Morocco claimed the territory as part of its ancient empire. The UN had declared that it was up to the people of the territory to decide their own future, but before they could do so, King Hassan II of Morocco organised the “Green March” in which hundreds of Moroccans were bussed to the border and – in front of the international press – pushed into Western Sahara waving Moroccan flags. Meanwhile, many miles away from the media, columns of tanks, armoured cars and truck-loads of Moroccan soldiers swept into the territory. So too did troops from neighbouring Mauritania which also claimed swathes of ground. These foreign troops were met by indigenous fi...

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