Sudan

The young assassins prowled Khartoum's streets for hours on New Year's Eve, looking for Westerners on the way home from parties. They stopped a Land Cruiser but released it after seeing two children in the back seat. Another foreigner was let go because he was the "wrong" nationality, said Khartoum state Gov. Abdul Halim Mutaafi. "They wanted Americans or British," he said.

Sudan's diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court is gaining momentum in Africa, but faces stiff odds before the U.N. Security Council. The government of Sudan has been waging a high-profile political campaign since the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, last week filed charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against the country's leader.

The U.S.-brokered coalition government that has run this country since 2005 has survived Cabinet reshuffles, oil revenue disputes and even armed skirmishes this year. But can the partnership that ended a 21-year civil war between Muslim Arab northerners and mostly Christian and animist rebels from the south survive a knock-down, drag-out presidential race?

He's accused of torturing enemies, cozying up to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s and plotting to assassinate Egypt's president. But presidential advisor Nafie Ali Nafie says his moderation and pragmatism won him his latest assignment: overseeing the Sudanese government's response to the conflict in Darfur. "I was picked for this because I'm a mild person," said Nafie, maintaining a wary smile and unflappable demeanor throughout an 80-minute interview in his office here.

Kidnappers holding nine Chinese oil workers killed five of them Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said. Two others managed to escape, and two remain captive, he said. The nine were abducted Oct. 18 while traveling near an oil field in the southwestern region of Kordofan. Sudan's government has blamed rebels from the adjacent, war-torn region of Darfur for the kidnapping, but a spokesman for the group denied involvement Monday.

John Dau doesn't mind being called a "Lost Boy," even though he is no longer either. Dau is 33, recently married (to a "Lost Girl") and a new father living in Syracuse, N.Y. He is, literally and figuratively, thousands of miles from the chaos of his youth in Sudan. "My organization is American Care for Sudan Foundation. We have raised $170,000 already for the Duk County Lost Boys Clinic.

Ugandan rebels pulled out of peace talks with the government, saying they were no longer welcome by Sudan, the host of the talks. The Lord's Resistance Army rebels maintained that their security was threatened after Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir said Tuesday that the only solution to the problem of the Ugandan rebels was a military one. A rebel spokesman said the rebels would abide by an August cease-fire but wanted the peace talks moved to Kenya or South Africa.

An international aid worker was raped and others were sexually assaulted in Sudan's Darfur region, a French aid agency said. Action Contre la Faim, which fights malnutrition in the vast region, said there was also a mock execution during an attack on its compound in December in rebel-controlled Gereida town.

Sudan lost its bid to assume the rotating leadership of the African Union to Ghana after regional leaders snubbed Khartoum for a second time because of international outrage over bloodshed in the Darfur region. Alpha Oumar Konare, the African Union's top diplomat, told reporters that Ghanaian President John Kufuor would take the chairman post.

Joining a growing backlash to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Los Angeles city and county officials are taking steps this week to cut financial ties with companies that do business with the Sudanese government. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to urge the county's retirement system to divest from businesses that have interests in the East African country.