They’ve sent their draft back to their principals in Tripoli and Benghazi for approval.

If President Fayez al Sarraj of the Government of National Accord and Khalifa Haftar of the  Libyan National Army say OK to their delegates proposals, the Geneva meeting will be reconvened.

It would facilitate the safe return of hundreds of thousands of  civilians to their areas and stop Libya from sliding into a proxy war involving Turkey, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Military observers would be appointed and backed by the UN Mission in Libya.

The deal should also stop attacks on Tripoli by Haftar’s troops. 

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Ships had to be moved to avoid forest from oil storage tanks set ablaze.

Relief at yesterday’s resumption of peace talks on Libya quickly turned to frustration as news of the rocket attack on the Tripoli port reached Geneva.

The Government of National Accord walked out until, it said, a firm position is adopted against the aggressor and violence.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the government is blaming Russian-backed rebel leader Khalifa Haftar.

UN special envoy on Libya Ghassan Salame says he’s confident the peace talks can be rescued. 

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Three billion dollars was pledged at the three-day ministerial gathering in Geneva to help people fleeing their countries to escape war and conflict.

The three billion dollars pledged in Geneva  is in addition to the more than two billion dollars  pledged by the World Bank to help re-house refugees and finance 50 000 resettlement centres.

Germany, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees is giving 1,7 billion euros.

The United States under President Donald Trump is a dark cloud over this issue. The limit of 18 000 refugees imposed for 2020 is the lowest  figure in modern American history.

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The United States joined Zimbabwe, the world’s largest exporter of elephants,

in voting against the measure that will severely restrict trade in this endangered species.

Conservationists are disappointed that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, has left a loophole for the sale of baby elephants by Zimbabwe and Botswana to approved destinations but only with international approval.

Zimbabwe’s sold more than 100 elephant calves in the past seven years mostly to Chinese zoos.

In the fierce debate lasting several days, Zimbabwean delegates unsuccessfully argued that the healthy state of their elephant population made any restrictions on their selling the animals unnecessary.

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Moursi died in prison on Monday after appealing for improved conditions and was buried in Cairo hours later under strict security.

Spokesman for the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Rupert Colville says Egypt’s obliged to treat prisoners humanely.

Concerns have been expressed about the way Hosni Mubarak was treated after the 2013 coup by current President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

Moursi became Egypt’s first democratically elected president in 2012.

Colville listed inadequate medical treatment for the chronically ill 67-year-old, limited access to lawyers and family and prolonged solitary confinement. 

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It follows the death from EBOLAS in Uganda yesterday of a five-year-old body who had come from the Congo.

Tomorrow’s meeting in Geneva will the third time the United Nations health body will be meeting on the EBOLA outbreak that has killed 1 400 people in the DRC since last July.

Twice before – most recently in April – the WHO stopped short of declaring an international emergency because the second worst EBOLA outbreak in history had been contained within the DRC.

Now that it has jumped the border, the WHO determination could trigger immediate international action to deal with the deadly hemorrhagic disease.

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The deadly haemorrhagic virus has killed 740 people in the DRC since last August.

This is the second time the WHO expert panel has considered whether to classify the EBOLA outbreak in the DRC a Public Health Epidemic of International Concern.

As they did last October, the 11-person body sitting in Geneva determined that it was not because it had not spread to neighbouring  Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The outbreak has spiked since then, sickening more than 1200 people and killing 63% of them.

The WHO has declared a global health emergency, which affects surveillance, trade and travel, only four times since 2005.

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Making this assertion, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu welcomes last week’s talks between the government of Western Sahara and the kingdom of Morocco that occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the international community.

The United Nations Special Envoy on Western Sahara Horst Koehler has expressed cautious optimism on the Geneva talks.

The Western Sahara government and kingdom of Morocco were directed by the UN Security Council to break six years of silent stand off and engage constructively, showing political will.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu says South Africa wants a just, lasting, mutually acceptable solution in Western Sahara that will provide for self-determination. 

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He’s draw heavily on his experience as one of South Africa’s top trade unionists before becoming a billionaire businessman.

At the headquarters of the International Labour Organisation, President Cyril Ramaphosa and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven  are chairing the Global Commission on the Future of Work.

They’re presiding over a meeting of academics and technical experts in the economy and social fields and of government, business and labour representatives.

They are considering the rapid changes in the labour market and key challenges facing the world of work ahead of the landmark ILO report due to be published in January.

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Trade and travel restictions could follow if the UN body decides it is.

Weeks after the all clear was sounded after the  Ebola outbreak recorded in Equateur Province in the DRC last May another outbreak occurred in the conflict torn North Kivu Province in the east of the Central African giant.  

Since the beginning of the month it’s killed 25 people and the WHO must determine whether there’s a real danger of it spreading  across the border to Uganda , Rwanda and Burundi

Public health emergencies were declared for the H1 N1 swine flu outbreak in 2009,  the polio that re-emerged with the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the Zika fever outbreak in 2016.

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