ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR BASHIR

Warrant issued for Sudan's Bashir

Sudan's president has denied committing war crimes
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
However, the court stopped short of accusing Omar al-Bashir, who denies the charges, of committing genocide.
Reports say Sudan's capital, Khartoum, was tense as people awaited the decision, with fears of unrest.
The UN estimates some 300,000 people have died and millions been displaced in six years of conflict in the region.
The spokeswoman for the court in The Hague, Laurence Blairon, said Mr Bashir was suspected of being criminally responsible for "murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians and pillaging their property".
She said the violence in Darfur was the result of a common plan organised at the highest level of the Sudanese government, but there was no evidence of genocide.
The court would transmit as soon as possible to the government of Sudan a request for his arrest and surrender, she added.
It is the ICC's first ever warrant issued against a sitting head of state.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had requested that the court issue a warrant for Mr Bashir's arrest in July 2008.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7923102.stm