The continuing genocide in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region was the world’s worst human rights abuse last year, the US said today in a global report that found freedoms eroding in numerous other nations, including US allies Afghanistan and Iraq.

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor named a Sudanese minister and a militia commander on Tuesday as the first suspects he wants tried for war crimes in Darfur and suggested more may follow.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir today rejected the deployment of UN troops in Darfur, saying they were not required and that African Union troops could maintain order in the war-wracked region of western Sudan.

Actor George Clooney expressed frustration today over the lack of action to end the conflict in Darfur which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The International Criminal Court expects to finalise its first case by February against suspects in war-torn Darfur who bear the greatest responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The chief of the only Darfur rebel group that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government set an ultimatum today for Khartoum to disarm the feared janjaweed paramilitary group by the end of December.

Sudan has agreed in principle to allow a joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force into Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today opens an international meeting in Ethiopia to discuss the situation in Darfur and to push again for UN peacekeepers to replace a beleaguered African force in Sudan’s troubled western region.

The United Nations said today that hundreds of men identified by residents as Janjaweed militia forces killed about 50 civilians in an attack last week on West Darfur villages and a camp for displaced people.

OF the litany of human rights abuses taking place in the west Darfur theatre in Sudan, perhaps the greatest and the most difficult to understand is the sheer indifference of the UN security council to the plight of the vulnerable millions of innocent people.

SUDAN’S Darfur region is facing a new wave of killings and rapes, with fighting between rebel factions displacing thousands of villagers despite a recent peace agreement, the UN humanitarian chief has warned.

China’s sales of military vehicles and weapons to Sudan, Nepal and Burma have aggravated conflicts and abetted violence and repressive rule in those countries, Amnesty International said in a report today.

Recent fighting in Darfur has killed more than 60 people as armed factions battle over territory ahead of a planned disarmament, African and UN officials have said.

SUDAN yesterday denied Darfur rebel reports that its troops had attacked their camps, breaking a ceasefire and a peace deal signed this month to end the conflict which has killed tens of thousands.

The African Union stepped up pressure on Sudan’s holdout rebels to sign a deal to end Darfur’s three-year civil war and appealed for a stronger African peacekeeping force to monitor implementation of the peace agreement signed by the government and the main rebel group.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief left a Darfur refugee camp in a hurry Monday after demonstrators – calling for UN peacekeepers – attacked a translator, accusing him of supporting the feared Janjaweed militia, a UN spokeswoman said.

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.

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.

Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden issued ominous new threats today, apparently seeking to justify attacks on civilians in the West and calling on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed UN force in Darfur.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese people marched through Khartoum protesting against plans to deploy UN peacekeepers in conflict-torn Darfur.

The African Union has accused Sudanese government forces of attacking civilians in Darfur, committing acts of “calculated and wanton destruction” that have killed at least 44 people and displaced thousands more during the past two weeks.

THE UN High Commissioner for Refugees said an unprecedented attack on a displaced persons’ camp in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region has reportedly killed 29 people.

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.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to shore up one fragile peace accord in Africa while preserving hopes for another in the Middle East.

Nato has started a three-month airlift of African peacekeepers into Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, the alliance said today.

The International Criminal Court is to launch a formal investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.

The Red Cross said today it had begun airlifting food supplies to refugees in the violence-wracked Darfur region, saying a rising number of attacks on aid convoys made it too risky to move the food by road.

International donors pledged an additional €160m to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur today during a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to raise money to stop the ongoing violence in western Sudan.

The US has today pledged an additional €39m to fund the African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur during a conference of international donors.

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.

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.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed sending a 10,130-strong force to monitor a peace deal ending Sudan’s civil war, and warned of the “hugely complex task” that would await the mission, according to a report released today.

UN 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 at last.

US legislators have vowed to push for UN sanctions against the Sudanese government after meeting with Darfur rebels in western Sudan and visiting camps for Sudanese refugees in Chad over the weekend.

The UN World Food Program suspended food convoys to the Darfur region in western Sudan after rebel forces attacked the market town of Ghubaysh and the government retaliated, UN humanitarian officials said.

Travis frontman Fran Healy today described the lack of clean water in war-torn Sudan as “unbelievable”.

Sudan has claimed 25 people, including 22 policemen, were killed in rebel attacks on Monday on several camps housing tens of thousands of people displaced by the 21-month Darfur conflict.

Aid workers fled into the bush today to escape fierce clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region before being rescued by helicopter and flown to safety.

A new draft resolution circulated within the United Nations Security Council urges warring parties in southern Sudan and western Darfur province to reach peace agreements, promising international support and possible debt forgiveness.

Sudan’s foreign minister yesterday dismissed claims by the UN that his country’s Darfur region is experiencing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, saying instead that atrocities committed there were caused by “tribal conflict”.

GOAL’s John O’Shea has a question for Bertie Ahern. Why did he come out and make a plea for the release of British hostage Kenneth Bigley?

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees proposed autonomy for the troubled Darfur region of Sudan – an extreme measure that Khartoum has resisted but said today it would be willing to discuss.