Latest articles on Khartoum

The United States said on Monday it will recognise South Sudan as the world's newest nation as it moved to taking the north off a terrorism blacklist.

Turnout at south Sudan's independence referendum has defied gloomy expectations and is almost guaranteed to reach the 60% needed for a valid poll.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir pledged on Tuesday to help build a secure, stable and brotherly state in the south if it votes for independence.

A Sudanese court on Wednesday convicted eight models who took part in a mixed-gender fashion show with "indecency" and ordered them to pay a fine.

Aid workers in South Sudan have criticised the government for not helping with the influx of citizens hoping to vote from the north.

The south Sudanese army accused the north's troops of provoking it, with the intention of breaking a ceasefire agreement between the two.

Sudan on Wednesday denied trying to import arms on a ship intercepted in Cyprus, saying explosives on board had been ordered by a mining company.

Darfur rebels on Wednesday condemned a death sentence on two of its members by a Khartoum court, saying it endangered the peace process.

The US and other countries are urging Sudan to reverse its decision to expel aid groups who help vulnerable populations throughout the country.

Sudanese security officers burst into a theatre in the cultural capital of war-torn Darfur and arrested three actors when the curtain came down.

Escalating banditry has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to halve food deliveries in Darfur, and without immediate cash the United Nations agency will ground its humanitarian flights at the end of the month. So far his year, hijackers have attacked five WFP passenger vehicles and 45 WFP-contracted trucks, the agency said in a statement.

A British woman jailed in Sudan for insulting religion by naming a teddy bear after the Prophet Muhammad was to be released on Monday after being granted a presidential pardon. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir signed the pardon after meeting two British Muslim peers who flew to Khartoum on a mercy mission.

Two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords were in Khartoum on Saturday to seek the release of a British woman teacher jailed for insulting Islam after she named a teddy bear Muhammad. Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi, from the upper house of Britain's Parliament, were to meet with Sudanese officials in a bid to free Gillian Gibbons (54).

The Islamist Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) announced on Wednesday that it would boycott Darfur peace talks due to open in Libya on the weekend, bringing to seven the number of rebel groups intending to stay away. The JEM said it had taken its decision in the light of consultations with six other rebel groups.

Sudan's National Congress Party (NCP) of President Omar al-Bashir on Friday criticised the decision by former southern rebels to withdraw from the Khartoum government. "The heart of the problem is that a group within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement wants to end our partnership," the northern NCP's number two, Nafie Ali Nafie, said.