Alternative Spring Break

Howard University Radio, WHUR (96.3 FM), is planning "A Helping Hand," a 12-hour radiothon Sunday with the goal of raising $50,000 to send more than 300 Howard University students to Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans, as well as across the D.C. area, to help families dealing issues that include illiteracy and the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina.

The effort is part of the university's 14-year-old Alternative Spring Break program. Every year, many Howard students give up vacation time to perform public service. For the past three years, hundreds of students have spent spring break helping people devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

This year, some will return to New Orleans to help in the city's legal department. In the Washington area, students will confront homelessness in the District, Maryland and Virginia, and provide mentoring and tutoring to area students. Other Howard students will assist efforts to reduce gun violence by working with churches in Chicago and assist literacy programs for students in Detroit. - Washington Post

If Katrina wasn't so mean, they'd be partying in Cancun. But they're mean there too.

Darfur update

(CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force has begun flying equipment into Darfur to support a United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in the war-ravaged Sudanese province, the military announced Wednesday.

Two giant C-17 Globemaster III aircraft made the trip from Kigali in Rwanda to Darfur, the statement said, each carrying about 30 tons of Rwandan equipment.

The United States is providing only transport, not personnel, for the peacekeeping mission.

The Air Force will transport more than 150 tons of equipment and supplies including nine oversized vehicles, water purification systems, water trailers, tents and spare parts, the Pentagon's new African command, Africom, said in the statement.

As long as it's for the best...

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As Sudan awaits the International Criminal Court's decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir, the government has resumed bombing attacks against rebel groups in the western region of Darfur.

Omar al-Bashir (file photo)

Last November, President Bashir announced a unilateral ceasefire in the government's fight against rebel groups in Darfur. But a week ago, rebels said the government had resumed bombing raids in the region.

Sudan's military confirmed Wednesday it had conducted air raids on rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement around the town of Muhajiriya in South Darfur. - VOA NEWS

Like I said time and time again...a ceasefire is a ceasefire.

Zimbabwe Minister Says "No More Aid"

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's social welfare minister says aid groups must stop field work in his country.

In a memorandum sent to aid groups late Thursday, the minister, Nicholas Goche, said he had learned that aid groups were violating the terms of their agreement with the government. He did not elaborate in the brief statement.

The statement says all aid and development groups are ordered to "suspend all field operations until further notice." - Los Angeles Times

"But we are just trying to help..."