The Christian Science Monitor

Johannesburg, South Africa - Reaction to Obama's new "integrated" Sudan policy of incentives and possible punitive measures against the Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir was mixed on Monday, with human rights defenders warning that the new strategy risked being too soft and African leaders saying the West's overall approach to Sudan may provoke a backlash.

On Monday, the Enough Project – an anti-genocide lobby group based in Washington – warned against any "softening" of the US government's pressure on Sudan, and urged Obama to make Sudan a top priority on his upcoming visit to Beijing next month. China is one of Sudan's top trading partners, and the chief investor in Sudan's oil industry.

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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sudan's crucial presidential and parliamentary elections – a possible milestone for peace in a country rattled by two decades of civil war – appear to be well underway.

This week, a former southern rebel group that now shares power in Khartoum with its northern rivals signed a memorandum of understanding to form an electoral alliance with a northern opposition group, bringing the strongest-yet challenge to the rule of President Omar al-Bashir.

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 Johannesburg, South Africa - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's job has just gotten harder. Just as he hits the road on a three-week tour to convince rich Western nations to end their sanctions against Zimbabwe and to send more aid money, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, is back home in Harare, reminding the world that he doesn't pay attention to their rules.

At a regional summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) held this week in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, Mr. Mugabe has held meetings with, among others, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the first sitting president to ever face an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

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At 2 p.m. today, the Senate foreign relations committee holds a hearing called “Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California and Sen. Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin will preside over the hearing, which will include testimony from 2 panels of experts, including John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project; and Eve Ensler, founder of the women’s rights group V-Day who’s best known for writing and starring in The Vagina Monologues.

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New York and Los Angeles - Your cellphone purchases might be fueling the world's worst sexual violence.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a place most of us will never go, and the war there is affecting people most of us will never meet. But the link between our demand for electronic products and mass human suffering is incredibly direct.

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Like the Holocaust of Jews and others during World War II – the scale and shame of the world's inaction during the Rwandan genocide still staggers the mind.

Fifteen years ago today, men and women picked up machetes and murdered their neighbors by the hundreds of thousands. And the world watched. The 100-day massacre has since inspired books and Hollywood movies, and left a mark on the global conscience, prompting international campaigns for intervention, such as in Darfur. 

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Johannesburg, South Africa; and Kigali, Rwanda - Like the Holocaust of Jews and others during World War II – the scale and shame of the world's inaction during the Rwandan genocide still staggers the mind.

Fifteen years ago today, men and women picked up machetes and murdered their neighbors by the hundreds of thousands. And the world watched. The 100-day massacre has since inspired books and Hollywood movies, and left a mark on the global conscience, prompting international campaigns for intervention, such as in Darfur. 

Continue reading here.