The Sudanese government has accepted the UN package for Darfur, including the deployment of what is called a "hybrid" peacekeeping operation of UN and AU troops, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said last night.

Sudan has dismissed Western threats to use sanctions and no-fly zones to pressure the country into accepting United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur.

The UN Human Rights Council today refrained from criticising the Sudanese government for atrocities in the western Sudan region of Darfur.

The Sudanese army and government-backed militias are committing acts of “inexplicable terror” against civilians, including children, in Darfur, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official says.

AID workers are getting less and less access to those in need in the war-torn Darfur region even as 50,000 people fled their homes amid a government offensive this month, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan has warned.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is to hold talks with Ethiopian leaders in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, today in a bid to help ease political tensions.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is visiting the war-torn Darfur region in western Sudan today as part of a week-long trip to Africa.

The hut of thatch walls was as rickety and windblown as any other in Zamzam Camp for refugees on the sand dunes of western Sudan, but dozens of men and boys squeezed inside to watch the TV broadcasts of the World Cup.

TERRORIST leader Osama bin Laden issued ominous new threats yesterday, apparently seeking to justify attacks on civilians in the West and implying that the whole EU was at war with Islam.

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.

The annual Arab League summit was sharply divided even before it began in Sudan today, with late-night wrangling over the wording of the final declaration and the absence of a number of key leaders at a meeting meant to tackle the region’s tricky problems.

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.

The main rebel movement in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region threatened to quit peace talks with the government, alleging fresh attacks on its positions.

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.

Junior Minister Conor Lenihan is due to visit western Sudan this week to assess the situation in the war-torn Darfur region.

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.

Suffering continues in war-ravaged western Sudan. But to the south, after 21 years of conflict, things are looking up.

Northern Uganda is the world’s biggest neglected humanitarian crisis, with 20,000 kidnapped children, many of them forced to serve as combatants, says the head of UN humanitarian affairs.

ON a day when UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan begins an official visit to Ireland, he faces some hard questions about the role and effectiveness of the peace-keeping organisation from a leading activist in the developing world.

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”.

BIG-HEARTED Irish Examiner readers have dug deep once again to help support the work of GOAL in bringing relief to Darfur in western Sudan.

A visiting American senior official has said his visit to a displaced persons camp in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region was “very disturbing” and said neither Sudan, the United Nations nor the international community were doing enough to address the crisis.

GENEROUS Irish Examiner readers have helped GOAL expand significantly its humanitarian operations in Darfur, Western Sudan.

Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover has been arrested outside the Sudan Embassy in Washington DC during a heated protest march.

LETHAL WEAPON star Danny Glover was arrested on Wednesday outside the Sudan Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan’s humanitarian crisis.

HUNDREDS of villages in the Darfur region of western Sudan have been abandoned after a year-and-a-half of attacks by Arab militias, known as the janjaweed.

There has been an overwhelming response from the Irish public to provide aid for the humanitarian catastrophe which is being perpetrated on the people of Darfur in Western Sudan, and it is essential that the level of donations be maintained.

A contingent of Rwandan troops is heading to Darfur this weekend – the first foreign soldiers to deploy in western Sudan, where thousands of people have been killed in violence some are calling a genocide.

SUDANESE President Omar el-Bashir has ordered tribal leaders in the Darfur region to form security forces to disarm Arab militias blamed for the violence that has killed 30,000 people during an 18-month conflict.

Irish aid agency Trócaire has urged the Government to support a possible deployment of peacekeepers from the African Union in western Sudan.

TENS of thousands of Sudanese yesterday marched on the UN headquarters in Khartoum in protest at the possibility of Western military intervention to deal with a humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.

The Irish aid agency GOAL has called on the Taoiseach to raise the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan at the United Nations.

Irish aid agency GOAL has called for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Irish Aid agency Concern has said that it has found thousands more people who have been displaced from their homes in Western Sudan.

THE African Union demanded yesterday that Sudan arrest and prosecute Arab militiamen accused of committing atrocities in western Sudan, but said the violence in the Darfur region did not constitute a genocide.

The African Union demanded today that Sudan arrest and prosecute Arab militiamen accused of committing atrocities in western Sudan, but said the violence in the Darfur region did not constitute a genocide.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has criticised the Sudanese government, saying it fails to realise the gravity of a humanitarian crisis threatening one million people in Darfur.

The Irish aid agency Trócaire has reiterated its appeal for urgent international aid for the people of Darfur in western Sudan.

SATELLITE photos of the Darfur region of western Sudan show more than 300 villages completely destroyed, confirming the many reports of systematic killings by Arab militias.

The Irish aid agency GOAL has launched an appeal for aid for the people of the Darfur region in western Sudan.

WHILE world leaders recently gathered to mark the tenth anniversary of Rwanda’s genocide, another horror story has been unfolding in Sudan.

SUDAN'S government and Arab militias are waging a joint "scorched-earth" campaign of murder, rape and looting of non-Arab ethnic communities in western Sudan, displacing over one million people, Human Rights Watch has said.

An outbreak of the Ebola virus has spread to the Republic of Congo.