Sudan Government Officials

The United States has ordered the expulsion of a Sudanese diplomat suspected of aiding terrorists who plotted to blow up the United Nations and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. U.S. officials told Ahmed Yousif Mohamed, a second secretary at the Sudanese mission to the United Nations, on Tuesday that he had 48 hours to leave the country, James P. Rubin, a spokesman at the U.S. mission, said Wednesday.

Ask a Sudanese citizen what troubles him these days and he might not even mention Darfur or the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the president. To many here, it's the economy that is keeping them up nights. Sudan's once-hard-charging economy, a source of national pride over the last five years, is in danger of grinding to a halt because of plummeting oil prices. With the nation's oil-dependent budget in tatters, government employees are facing pay cuts.

Sudanese army units took up positions around the nation's capital Monday as citizens of Africa's largest country anxiously waited to see if forces loyal to parliament Speaker Hassan Turabi would dare to fight an emergency decree imposed by his rival for power, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

Islamic ideologue Hassan Turabi formed his own party a day after he was replaced as head of Sudan's ruling National Congress party. Thousands of Turabi's supporters gathered outside his house in Khartoum, the capital, to celebrate the founding of the Popular National Congress party. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has been stripping power from Turabi, a hard-line Islamist and anti-Westerner who was once Sudan's kingmaker.

Sudan recalled three of its diplomats who were assaulted outside their homes in Cairo and ordered the families of its embassy staff to leave Egypt. The move followed beatings of Egyptian and Sudanese diplomats in both Cairo and Khartoum over the weekend. Relations between the Arab neighbors have worsened since Egypt accused Sudan of plotting a June 26 assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak.

Sudanese Prime Minister Sadek Mahdi told Parliament that he will resign in a week unless the armed forces give him a free hand to form a new government and work for peace in southern Sudan. Mahdi made the threat hours before a deadline, given him by Sudan's officer corps to introduce reforms, expired. The officers are exasperated by setbacks in the war with southern rebels and the collapse of a peace plan late last year.

Sudan's Prime Minister Sadek Mahdi, bowing to pressure, said he will form a new government in an effort to end nearly six years of civil war. A new Cabinet could be announced as early as today, a government spokesman said. Mahdi, who had threatened to resign after being given an ultimatum two weeks ago by the military, held a press conference in Khartoum after signing a "national peace declaration" with rival political leaders and several key trade unions.

The broad-based "Peace Cabinet" of Prime Minister Sadek Mahdi was sworn in Saturday shortly after the State Council, Sudan's collective presidency, endorsed all 23 candidates. The Cabinet includes almost all the nation's political groups as well as the trade unions. Saturday's swearing-in ended a political crisis that had confronted Mahdi since January.

The U.S. government has banned further aid to Sudan because coup leaders have not restored democratic government, a U.S. official said Thursday. Earlier, aid had been barred because Sudan was behind on interest payments, the official said. John Riddle, a spokesman for the Agency for International Development, said the ban went into effect against Sudan on Feb. 28 because of a law prohibiting aid to any coup government that has not restored democratic rule in eight months.

Sudanese army units took up positions around the nation's capital Monday as citizens of Africa's largest country anxiously waited to see if forces loyal to parliament Speaker Hassan Turabi would dare to fight an emergency decree imposed by his rival for power, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

Whipping up popular anger over a U.S. missile strike, President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir said Saturday that Sudanese are prepared to die in a holy war. "America is attacking us because we are guardians of Islam," Bashir told a crowd of at least 5,000 people who rallied in a square outside his offices in central Khartoum. "We have tasted the sweet flavor of jihad [holy war] and martyrdom, and what we seek now is to die for the sake of God," Bashir said. "Go! Go!

Sudan's first vice president, Maj. Gen. Zubair Mohammed Saleh, and at least seven others were killed when their plane overshot a small runway in heavy fog and plunged into a river in southern Sudan. Officials denied a claim by the Sudan People's Liberation Army that the plane was shot down by its rebels. Official media said the Antonov military plane carrying 57 passengers crashed in Nasir, about 435 miles south of Khartoum. Many passengers are still missing.

The United States has ordered the expulsion of a Sudanese diplomat suspected of aiding terrorists who plotted to blow up the United Nations and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. U.S. officials told Ahmed Yousif Mohamed, a second secretary at the Sudanese mission to the United Nations, on Tuesday that he had 48 hours to leave the country, James P. Rubin, a spokesman at the U.S. mission, said Wednesday. A U.S.

The United States has ordered the expulsion of a Sudanese diplomat suspected of aiding terrorists who plotted to blow up the United Nations and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. U.S. officials told Ahmed Yousif Mohamed, a second secretary at the Sudanese mission to the United Nations, on Tuesday that he had 48 hours to leave the country, James P. Rubin, a spokesman at the U.S. mission, said Wednesday.

Sudan recalled three of its diplomats who were assaulted outside their homes in Cairo and ordered the families of its embassy staff to leave Egypt. The move followed beatings of Egyptian and Sudanese diplomats in both Cairo and Khartoum over the weekend. Relations between the Arab neighbors have worsened since Egypt accused Sudan of plotting a June 26 assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak.

Sudan said it uncovered a plot to overthrow the government and arrested more than a dozen military officers and several civilians, Egypt's Middle East News Agency said. Maj. Gen. Mohammed Talba Awaida, the Sudanese armed forces' spokesman, said on national radio that 10 serving officers, a number of retired officers and a few civilians had confessed to planning a coup during interrogation.

The U.S. government has banned further aid to Sudan because coup leaders have not restored democratic government, a U.S. official said Thursday. Earlier, aid had been barred because Sudan was behind on interest payments, the official said. John Riddle, a spokesman for the Agency for International Development, said the ban went into effect against Sudan on Feb. 28 because of a law prohibiting aid to any coup government that has not restored democratic rule in eight months.