Sudan

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.

Beijing In this era of here today and gone tomorrow, the Lopez Lomong story just keeps on giving. Michael Phelps is already yesterday's news. Lopez Lomong was last week's, yesterday's, today's and generations to come. Phelps' place is secure in the record books, Lomong's in our hearts. Tuesday was meet-the-parents day here. Rob and Barbara Rogers of Tully, N.Y., added to the tale of their son, Lopez, whom they adopted, as one of Sudan's Lost Boys, from a refugee camp in Kenya in 2001.

Sudan said it knows the location of 11 European tourists and their kidnappers, in Sudan about 15 miles from the Egyptian border, but has no immediate plans for a rescue. A Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Khartoum that negotiations were underway for the release of the tourists and their eight Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped while on a Sahara desert safari in a remote corner of Egypt. Germany is conducting the negotiations, Egyptian officials said. The kidnappers are demanding up to $15 million for the five Italians, five Germans, one Romanian and their Egyptian companions, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

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.

A robotic submarine searched beneath the Mediterranean for damaged communications cables that link Europe and the Middle East, two days after Web and telephone access was knocked out for much of the region. Telecommunication providers from Cairo to Dubai scrambled to reroute voice and data traffic. Internet access was largely knocked out for two days in at least six countries: Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Yemen.

Ugandan rebels fleeing a multinational offensive have raided a Congolese village and killed at least 15 people, U.N. peacekeepers said. Troops from Uganda, Congo and southern Sudan launched an assault Dec. 14 against the Lord's Resistance Army. They so far have failed to corner its reclusive leader, Joseph Kony. The U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said fleeing fighters this week attacked the village of Faradje, near the border with Sudan. In addition to killing villagers, they looted and destroyed homes, it said.

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.