Humanitarian Aid

The Obama administration has begun sending arms aid to the beleaguered government of Somalia, officials said Thursday, in an escalation of its commitment to one of the world's most troubled states. State Department officials said the support was intended to help sustain a transitional government that is steadily losing ground to Islamic militants in fighting that has been catastrophic for civilians.

More than a million people in Darfur will not get their food rations starting in May if Sudan and the United Nations can't fill gaps left by the expulsion of more than a dozen foreign aid groups, a joint U.N.-Sudanese assessment team said Tuesday. Even if other relief organizations in the region help, those are "Band-Aid solutions, not long-term solutions," said John Holmes, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees suspended aid to the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing Hamas of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the second time this week. The announcement by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency deepened tensions between the international body that assists the majority of Gaza's 1.5 million people and the Islamic militant group that controls the coastal strip.

On the first Friday since Israel ended its 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians gathered for weekly mass devotions by spreading prayer rugs on the streets outside the wreckage of mosques devastated by missile strikes. Among those not making a public appearance, however, was the top local political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. Rumors had been rife that Haniyeh, an Islamic religious scholar, would emerge from weeks of hiding to deliver a sermon.

With jets streaking overhead and explosions thundering in the distance, the Greek surgeon stood Sunday beside a stalled convoy carrying blood bags and syringes, hoping to slip through the black gate at the Egyptian border to reach the wounded in the Gaza Strip. It was the second straight day that Mouzala Ioannis, five other physicians and a nurse from Doctors of Peace waited at the locked Rafah crossing amid eerie silence.

The United Nations on Wednesday accused the militant group Hamas of breaking into a Gaza Strip warehouse and stealing food and blankets intended for distribution to 500 needy families. Armed Hamas police officers Tuesday broke into the warehouse in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City and confiscated more than 3,500 blankets and 400 food parcels, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said.

Angered by the Sudanese government's decision to expel 13 foreign aid groups in Darfur, leaders at one of the region's largest displacement camps are threatening to reject all humanitarian assistance until the organizations are allowed back. The self-imposed aid embargo at Kalma camp, which includes the monthly food distribution, is heightening concerns about the welfare of the 88,000 residents. The World Food Program said Kalma leaders Thursday refused a grain delivery. The U.N.

The Sudanese government is allowing four aid organizations expelled from the country after its president was accused of war crimes to return under slightly different names, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Thursday.

The U.S. military trucked in supplies and marshaled helicopters and Navy ships as the Philippines struggled with the aftermath of back-to-back storms that have left more than 600 dead. Filipino rescuers said they still hoped to find more survivors in the stricken north of the country, but Saturday they retrieved only bodies. With roads blocked and bridges washed away, the Philippine government's resources have been stretched thin. Officials have asked U.S. troops in the country for an annual military exercise to extend relief operations.

Walt Staton wanted to help people, and his tool was a water jug. On the morning of Dec. 4, he and three others drove southwest from Tucson, to the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which tens of thousands of illegal immigrants traverse each year. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the plastic jugs he left for the immigrants endanger wildlife, and this week Staton was sentenced in federal court in Tucson on a charge of littering. He was given one year of unsupervised probation and ordered to spend 300 hours picking up trash.