One student is dead and scores have been arrested amid clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and Egyptian police at a Cairo university campus.

When northern Sudanese troops seized the disputed border town of Abyei, it was a sign that the fragile six-year-old peace was teetering.

A confidential UN report warns that the invasion by Sudan’s military of the contested north-south region of Abyei could lead to "ethnic cleansing".

Voters standing in a second day of long lines in Southern Sudan’s capital sat patiently and rested against concrete walls for hours to cast ballots.

President Omar al-Bashir said on Tuesday he will help the oil-rich South if next week’s vote splits Africa’s largest nation in two.

Nearly four million people in Southern Sudan are registered to vote in an independence referendum to be held on January 9.

The government of south Sudan wants 1,5-million southerners who fled to the country’s north to return home before a crucial referendum.

A northern Sudan official said on Saturday the commission organising the crucial southern independence referendum has requested the vote be delayed.