The resolution, the first the United States has introduced since the latest bloodshed began in September 2000, was approved last night, winning support from 14 of the 15 council members Syria abstained. Speaking on behalf of Arab nations, Syria’s UN Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said the resolution was “very weak” and didn’t deal with the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “the question of the Israeli occupation.” Syria abstained, rather that voting against the resolution, “to send a message” and not break the unity of the council, Wehbe said. US Ambassador John Negroponte countered that it was “a strong resolution on the Middle East,” capturing a broad consensus on the goals and next steps in the peace process and speaking out strongly against terrorism. “Our intent in doing this was to give an impulse to peace efforts and to decry violence and terror,” he said after the vote. Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian UN observer, called the resolution important and welcomed the council’s first reference to two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side.

Even though the Palestinians didn’t support everything in the US text, he indicated if he had a vote he would have approved it. US diplomats said the idea of separate Palestinian and Israeli states was voiced by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech last November, and has been echoed by President George Bush. Police said tests had shown her death was due to a “combination of drowning and attack by crocodile”.She and her friends were using 1999 edition of the Rough Guide to Kenya, which said the lake once had a population of “harmless dwarf crocodiles” but was now a pleasant place to swim.A spokesman for Rough Guides said a new edition due to be released next month would advise readers against swimming in any inland waters in Kenya.. The service advised visitors not to swim in any lakes or rivers in Kenya, he added.Mrs Bell insisted yesterday that the company’s initial understanding was that the service had advised that the lake was safe. “There have been so many conflicting reports coming out of Kenya we are not saying any more,” she said.Miss Nicholls’ body was due to be flown home yesterday after the autopsy. There is no way these elections can be described as substantially free and fair,” said Reginald Matchaba–Hove, chairman of the network.A coalition of church and civic groups known as the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee said it was considering calling for a general strike to channel the inevitable voter anger over a rigged Mugabe victory into a peaceful protest.The opposition party said Tuesday afternoon that its observers had been locked out of counting centers in Harare and Bulawayo and that ruling party militants were trying to intimidate opposition observers at two other counting centers.(rn/clt). The Kenya Wildlife Service denied advising that it was safe to swim in a lake where a British student died, after an autopsy confirmed she was attacked by a crocodile.

By Saturday afternoon, many rural stations were nearly empty, he said.The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of civic groups, produced a laundry list of problems related to the election, including attacks on voters by police and ruling party militants and the redistribution of polling stations from the opposition stronghold urban areas to rural districts.The election was “total confusion and chaos … Polls opened hours late Monday and police chased thousands of voters away at 7 p.m., in some cases using tear gas.In Mugabe’s rural strongholds, the announced turnout was as high as 69 percent, figures the opposition disputes.While each rural polling station covered an area with less than 1,000 registered voters, stations in Harare covered 5,300 people, who also were voting for mayor and city council, Vollan said. Election officials said 3,130,913 people voted out of 5,647,812 registered.”This is a runaway victory,” Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said. “It was won on the issue of the land,” he said, mentioning Mugabe’s policy of seizing white–owned land and turning it over to landless blacks.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change rejected the results.”No sane person can say this is anything that comes even close to a free and fair election,” David Coltart, an opposition member of parliament, said. State radio said there were 1,637,642 votes for Mugabe and 1,185,793 for Tsvangirai. The Zimbabwean army took to the streets in greater numbers today as President Robert Mugabe was officially declared victorious in the presidential election, although opposition politicians and observers insisted it was deeply marred by irregularities and ruling party violence.

Three other candidates earned insignificant numbers of votes. She said the poll was “conducted in an environment of strong polarisation, political violence and an election administration with severe shortcomings”.Amnesty International said that 1,400 polling agents and observers had been arrested during the elections as part of the government’s “politicallymotivated crackdown”.But the Zimbabwe police said hundreds had been arrested for cheating during balloting in Harare.In the first six of 120 constituency results in, Mr Mugabe had nearly 70,000 votes against just under 60,000 for the opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai – or roughly 54 per cent of the vote to 45 per cent. Kare Vollan, head of Norway’s 25-strong mission – the largest from Europe following the expulsion of the EU mission last month – said the election “failed to meet key, broadly accepted criteria”. President Robert Mugabe has a large lead over his opposition challenger in Zimbabwe’s turbulent presidential election, which the rest of the world has condemned for blatant irregularities.With about 69 per cent of districts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, Mugabe led oppositon leader Morgan Tsvangirai by about 55 per cent to 42 per cent State television reported total turnout was 55.4 per cent. Nine white farmers have died and hundreds of black farm workers have been displaced since farm seizures began in February 2000.(Reuters). It called the alleged handouts “despicable and patronising”.A drought and the violent occupation of white-owned farms have threatened severe food shortages in Zimbabwe, once the region’s bread basket. Jonathan Samukange, a lawyer for the farmers, said his clients had been released on bail and ordered to surrender their passports.As vote-counting got under way following the three-day election, the state-owned Herald newspaper accused whites of trying to bribe rural voters with money, food and transport to swing the poll for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.The newspaper ran an editorial attacking the whites who, along with Britain, are a persistent target of Mr Mugabe’s rhetoric.