For the first time, Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell said yesterday that * genocide has been committed in the Sudan* where mass rapes, killings and other abuses have forced over a million Sudanese to flee their homes. Powell said the Sudanese government and the government-sponsored Arab militias * bear the responsibility* for the attacks on the black African population. Powell also issued a * report* based on over 1,000 interviews with refugees. More than 60 percent of them had witnessed the killing of a family member. This comes as the United Nations Security Council is debating a resolution to impose new sanctions against the Sudanese government and to form a UN commission to determine if the government and the militia are responsible for genocide. According to the Washington Post, * a finding of genocide does not impose obligations on the United States*, but as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, the United States is committed to preventing and punishing genocide.

Hurricane Ivan Death Toll Up To 23
The death toll from Hurricane Ivan has risen to 23 people including at least 13 in Grenada where the government estimates 90 percent of the island’s homes have been damaged. The hurricane — the worst in the Caribbean in a decade — is expected to hit Jamaica later today and then Cuba. In Florida, evacuation of the Keys have already begun.