World leaders should enforce a ceasefire in Gaza to protect civilian lives and infrastructure, a group of 38 charities has said.

INTERNATIONAL observers gave south Sudan’s independence referendum their seal of approval yesterday and said a vote for secession was now “virtually certain” in their first official judgment on the poll.

Women broke out in song and men wrapped themselves in flags as voters in Southern Sudan began casting ballots today in a week-long independence referendum likely to create the world’s newest nation about five years after the end of a brutal civil war.

The football superstar turned presidential candidate called for a halt today in vote counting that had him heading for defeat in war-ravaged Liberia, but also urged his angry supporters to remain calm.

Atlanta’s Emory University has no plans to rescind an invitation to former Irish president and UN human rights official Mary Robinson to be the keynote speaker at its May 10 graduation ceremony, despite a petition claiming she failed to show sensitivity to anti-Semitism.