La Repubblica, Rome, on U.N. Security Council action on Darfur, from the Washington Post:

Not even Osama bin Laden's nonsense can wake the U.N. Security Council up, although it has done all it could: it condemned the civil war in Darfur, Sudan ... and on Tuesday, it adopted sanctions against four people involved in the massacres. It is not allowed to do more by the two friends of Khartoum: China, which relies upon Sudanese oil, and Russia that sells weapons to Khartoum ...

Nevertheless, the U.N. had laid the premises for a change: its Commission had identified the serious violations of human rights, committed mainly by Khartoum, and those responsible (for them) ... And surprisingly, the Council then accepted the request to defer the issue to the International Criminal Tribunal. But this is where it all went aground. Twelve months have passed, and the Chief Prosecutor has still not formally asked Khartoum to allow investigations in Sudan.