QUETTA, Pakistan, April 30 (AFP) - A vast area in Pakistan has been hit by the current prolonged regional drought, with thousands of people running dangerously short of food and water and losing livestock on a massive scale, officials said Sunday.

Officials said 12 of the 26 districts in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan have been worst hit. The worst hit districts were Chaghi, Zhob, Kalat and Khuzdar where 2.1 million people were affected, they said.

The government has set up 32 relief centres,

"As of yesterday, the curfew has been advanced by one hour to 9:00 p.m. following the worsening conditions here," said Sutarno (Eds:one name) from the Maluku military command's information office.

Brigadier General Max Tamaela, the head of the Maluku military command, was quoted by the Media Indonesia daily

DJIBOUTI, May 1 (AFP) - The latest Somalian national reconciliation conference starts Tuesday in Djibouti, but only one of the warlords who control the capital Mogadishu will be present.

The other faction leaders have rejected the peace plan put forward by Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh.

Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who controls northern Mogadishu, arrived in Djibouti late Sunday for the conference that was originally scheduled for April 20, according to Radio Djibouti.

After his arrival, Ali Mahdi and his

In its first annual report, the Commission on International Religious Freedom, created in 1998 to monitor religious freedom around the world, said the United States should begin a 12-month plan of incentives and disincentives to pressure Sudan to improve human rights.

"If there is not measurable improvement

The two African powerhouses made a "concrete commitment at the highest possible level," OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim told reporters after the summit called to evaluate the peace process in the DRC, where conflict has threatened to destabilize the entire central African region.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo

The clash broke out in the border area between the Batu Merah and Mahardika areas in downtown Ambon on Sunday afternoon, the Antara news agency said.

At least five people were shot dead, mostly by the security forces while two dozen people were injured, Antara said.

Two of the dead victims were yet to be identified. The security forces, who attempted to disband the mobs, fired

Seyoum Mesfin of Ethiopia and Haile Woldensae of Eritrea were to hold proximity talks aimed at implementing the peace plan brokered by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), whose rotating presidency is currently held by Algeria.

The talks, originally scheduled for the end of March, will not involve a face-to-face meeting between the warring sides.

Kassala State Governor Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid told the daily he blamed the opposition for the "cowardly" incident which occurred north of the city near the Eritrean border on Thursday.

Thousands of landmines have been buried in Kassala State by "the traitors and outlaws who believe they can take power by killing innocents", the governor told Al-Anbaa.

"We need to change our food security strategies in two directions," Meles told an audience during a conference on Ethiopia's economy and society in the 1990s.

The prime minister pointed to "voluntary resettlement of some people in those areas outside their immediate neighbourhood" as a crucial first step.

"We have seen willingness on the