The UN is halving emergency food supplies for up to three million people in Darfur because of attacks on its lorries.

Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Thandie Newton have called on the world's governments to unit and bring an end to the bloody conflict in Sudan.

BOX-OFFICE favourite George Clooney is stepping up the pressure on one of the main Olympic sponsors to take a stand over China’s foreign policy, the BBC reported yesterday.

FILM director Steven Spielberg should be congratulated for his decision to pull out of his role as artistic director of the Beijing Olympic Games due to China’s involvement in the Darfur crisis.

CHINA expressed regret yesterday over US film-maker Steven Spielberg’s decision to cut ties with the Beijing Olympics, saying it was unacceptable to link politics to the sporting extravaganza.

China said today day that “ulterior” motives were behind some criticism of its actions in Sudan, and that the problems there should not be linked with this summer’s Olympics in Beijing.

Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a rally at a former Khmer Rouge prison today, pushing her group away from a barricade as they tried to lay flowers to commemorate victims of genocide.

A US diplomat was shot and wounded while in a car in Khartoum, Sudan, today in an attack that also killed the official’s Sudanese driver, the US Embassy said.

Sudan’s government committed to a ceasefire in Darfur at the start of peace talks, but many rebels boycotted the UN-sponsored negotiations.

Negotiators moved to lower expectations ahead of the opening of the Darfur peace talks today, with almost none of the key rebel leaders present to negotiate an agreement with the Sudanese government.

Yoko Ono has pledged to donate the royalties from the newly-released 'Make Some Noise' album to a human rights charity in an effort to raise awareness about the Darfur crisis.

The conflict in Darfur in western Sudan remains a “huge source of concern” to both the Irish and UK governments, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said today.

On the eve of a high-level UN meeting on Darfur, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged world leaders to “break their silence” and put justice at the top of the agenda because there will be no peace as long as alleged war criminals remain free in Sudan.

HUNDREDS of demonstrators marched through London yesterday to call for immediate action to end the conflict in Darfur.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon voiced optimism today for a peaceful resolution of Sudan’s conflicts as he headed to the south of the country to inspect progress in the peace deal between former southern rebels and the government.

Key players in the Darfur crisis are meeting in Paris today in a bid to build a unified international response to violence in the troubled region of Sudan - although Sudan itself has not been invited.

Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting over water sources, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon claims.

SUDDENLY President George W Bush calls for an environmental summit and proposes $30m for Darfur — as if these grand gestures will divert Americans from the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention obscene petrol and food prices.

The Group of Eight world leaders start their first day of joint talks in Germany today with tough issues like climate change and possible independence for Serbia’s Kosovo province in front of them.

Sudan has dismissed as unjustifiable the threat of slapping new sanctions because of the Darfur conflict, vowing to do everything it can to protect what it sees as its national security.

The US envoy for the Sudan, Andrew Natsios, arrived in the war-torn African country last night for talks on the Darfur crisis.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor will today name suspects in war crimes and crimes against humanity in cases expected to include rape and murder in Darfur.

The African Union today chose Ghana to head the 53-member bloc, for the second year in a row – turning aside Sudan’s bid because of the Darfur crisis.

The African Union’s annual summit is set to begin on Monday as war is flaring in Somalia and the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur is spilling over the border, aggravating rebellions in Chad and the Central African Republic.

George Clooney arrived in Egypt during his campaign to raise awareness about killings in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu today said Israel has refused him permission to lead a fact-finding mission to investigate Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting on the Darfur crisis following a request to do so today by 29 countries, UN spokesman Rolando Gomez said.

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan urged the global body’s human rights watchdog today to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impartially and said it was time to focus attention on ”graver” crises such as Darfur.

Statistics, as we know, can be infuriatingly boring. However, in the case of the Darfur tragedy they can be helpful to understand the seriousness of the situation.

A United Nations aid worker was shot and wounded in eastern Chad after being pulled from her car in a volatile region near the Sudanese border, the agency said today.

Sudan appeared ready today to agree to disarm Arab militias in Darfur and to accept more rebels into its security forces, key concessions that could clear the way for real progress at the Darfur peace talks.

Thousands of people joined celebrities and lawmakers at a US rally yesterday urging the Bush administration and Congress to help end genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Sudanese government confirmed today that it will sign a draft agreement with rebels from its Darfur region as talks continued despite a question marking hanging over the deal.

The African Union will end talks among warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region by April 30 if the Khartoum government and rebel factions fail to agree to a peace deal, a senior mediator says.

Anti-poverty campaigner and Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof today accused China of being responsible for the continuing civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Foreign ministers met at African Union headquarters in Ethiopia today, to discuss whether to turn over their peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region to the United Nations.

The United Nations has decided to significantly reduce UN staff in parts of Sudan’s volatile West Darfur region because of increasing insecurity and the growing possibility of a war between Sudan and neighbouring Chad.

The UN Security Council has demanded that the warring parties in Sudan’s Darfur region honour a ceasefire agreement and reaffirmed its determination to hold accountable anyone impeding the peace process and breaking the arms embargo.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says there has been progress in Darfur but the world will not accept mere promises from Sudan’s new government to halt the violence.

Sudan’s government and two rebel groups signed an agreement on how to resolve the conflict in the country’s western Darfur region.

DONORS promised $4.5 billion (€3.5bn) yesterday to help Sudan recover after Africa's longest civil war, but Washington told Khartoum to end atrocities in Darfur or risk a slide "back into the depths".

Fighting in eastern Congo, where thousands are dying every month, has made the crisis the worst humanitarian situation in the world, overtaking Sudan’s embattled Darfur region, the UN’s humanitarian chief said today.

The UN now estimates that about 180,000 people have died in Sudan’s western Darfur region as a result of violence, disease or malnutrition since October 2003 – ,more than twice the previous estimate.

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded speedy prosecution of Sudanese officials and militiamen guilty of crimes against humanity in Darfur, as members of the Security Council came under renewed pressure to tackle the issue.