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{{The United States says that is had advised Omar al-Bashir not to make the trip to New York to attend this month’s UN General Assembly.}}

The US State Department disclosed that the Sudanese President had officially requested for an entry visa to the country ahead of the annual meeting of the UN’s top decision making organ.

In a press statement Monday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the US condemned the request, and asked Mr Bashir to first answer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has indicted him for genocide and crimes against humanity.

“We can confirm that we have received a visa application for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan to attend events related to the opening of the UN General Assembly,” Ms Harf said.

“We condemn any potential effort by President Bashir to travel to New York, given that he stands accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, the statement added.

State Department would not confirm if Mr Bashir would still get the visa, while Khartoum was yet to respond officially to the American position. The UN is considered extra-national territory.

The two countries have tense diplomatic relations with Washington having placed Khartoum on its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and has since 1997 imposed economical sanctions on Sudan.

Terrorism list

This week Sudan demanded the US to take it off the list as Washington’s new envoy to the Sudans region, Donald Booth, took office.

The Hague-based International Criminal Court in 2009 and 2010 issued two warrants against President Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Sudan is not a member of the ICC, and Mr Bashir has so far refused to co-operate with the court.

Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has also been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, will make the trip to the General Assembly, Kenyan diplomats earlier indicated.

Mr Kenyatta’s trial begins on November 12, while that of his deputy, Mr William Ruto, gets underway Tuesday after an adjournment last week.

Kenya’s parliament, in which Mr Kenyatta’s coalition holds a majority, has instigated a move to pull out of the court.

NMG

{{In laidback Mozambique with its endless white sand beaches and bustling markets, alcohol is easily available, but a proposed law seeks to end the country’s liberal drinking culture.}}

A crowd of teenagers gather at a street side bar playing checkers using beer tops.

Crates of lager are stacked roof-high, while shelves groan under rows of wine and whisky bottles.

At a nearby minibus depot, commuters spill out of their rides and head for the bars and restaurants.

“It is always a party here – day or night,” says Joao, who tends a street stall or “barraka” selling booze in central Maputo.

“It is different here than in other countries,” he said. “When people buy drinks, they drink in the road, not often at home.”

The easy access to alcohol is blamed for a range of social ills, notably abuse by minors, even though the legal drinking age is, in theory, 18.

The scourge is “becoming a “big health problem”, said Mozambique’s National Public Health Director Mouzinho Saide. “The worry is that alcohol is starting to be consumed by people at an increasingly young age.”

New law

Until now there has been little or no control over where or when liquor can be sold in Mozambique, where beach vendors peddle alcohol out of cooler boxes day and night.

Moonshine with dangerously high alcohol content is easily available in the bars lining the streets.

Some repackaged imported spirits, with apt names like “Temptation” and “Lord Gin”, sell for as little as $1 a pint.

But the government recently proposed a new law designed to crack down on boozing.

The raft of measures, developed in conjunction with the liquor industry, would curb alcohol sales after 20:00 and ban the sale of booze to under-age children, even if they are sent my older people.

The law would also ban giant public billboards from advertising booze, and any liquor advert featuring children or “sensual” women.

Bar patron Joao Celestino believes that most people indulge in alcohol as an escape.

“They have no alternative, they are suffering a lot ,” he said.

The former Portuguese colony is one of the world’s poorest, with most of its 23.4 million population living on a dollar or less a day.

The discovery of coal and natural gas deposits is likely to boost its income, but for many times are still hard.

The country is also still suffering the effects of a nearly three-decade-long civil war. Many survivors have found comfort in the bottle.

news24