News Brief: The Race to be the World's Biggest Jerk

• After Chad and Sudan signed their sixth peace accord in two years on Thursday, Chadian rebels vowed to continue their fight to overthrow the government.
• China set a Monday deadline for the surrender of protesters in Tibet. Chinese media reports 10 confirmed deaths, but Tibetan leaders claim the Chinese police are responsible for 30 confirmed deaths and up to 100 unconfirmed deaths. Travel and reporting are tightly restricted by the Chinese government, who’ve “pledged a harsh crackdown” if demonstrations continue beyond midnight on Monday. Chinese authorities, meanwhile, claim they secured the capital city Lhasa without gunfire—an account denied by Tibetan leaders in exile in neighboring India.
• Peace and justice don’t always go hand in hand. Indictments by the International Criminal Court, originally requested by the Ugandan government, are proving to be the final sticking point for peace negotiations with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Many Ugandans seem to support forgoing prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity in favor of an enduring peace agreement. This raises interesting problems about the nature of peace, justice, and international human rights obligations—a lengthy discussion, for another day.
• On a more positive note for the ICC, Charles Taylor is finally facing accountability for an astonishing and horrifying repertoire of egregious human rights violations.
• ‘Bushmen’ woman have died in Botswana after eviction from their land by diamond mining company Gem Diamonds, who bought the land concession from De Beers in 2007. The evictions were deemed illegal by the High Court in Botswana in 2006, but the Bushmen have been unable to return to the land.
• The Council on Foreign Relations released several interesting pieces on five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Check out the slideshow, video, and article on efforts to forge a political compromise.
• Call to Action and report by the Friends of the Congo on the appalling violence faced by women in the DRC.