Sudan

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.

Sudan said that the International Criminal Court had no jurisdiction over its nationals and that the government would not allow any of its citizens, including rebels, to be tried outside Sudan, local media reported. Sudanese media also reported that Khartoum would put a number of people on trial next week, including military personnel, for alleged involvement in attacks in the Darfur region in Sudan's west.

The Sudanese government is quietly escalating oil exploration inside the Darfur region, a step that has led to protests from rebel leaders in a volatile area where more than 200,000 people have been killed during three years of fighting. Political and humanitarian experts say oil in Darfur could deliver much-needed development and investment to the region but that attempts to search for oil now may intensify the conflict by raising the stakes in an already war-torn area.

This sunbaked displacement camp, considered the largest in Darfur, has become a virtual no-go zone. Aid workers abandoned Gereida in December after gunmen stormed their compounds, raping an international staffer and stealing a dozen trucks. Last week, African Union troops suspended daily patrols after the shooting deaths of two Nigerian soldiers outside their base.

A high-level U.N. mission to Darfur reported Monday that the Sudanese government had orchestrated human rights crimes against its own people and urged that leaders of Sudan's government and allied militias be charged with war crimes. But the Sudanese government in Khartoum is successfully blocking United Nations attempts to stem the violence, organizing opposition to the mission's report and stepping back from its agreement to accept a joint U.N.-African peacekeeping force in the region.

A federal judge ruled in Norfolk that the Sudanese government caused the terrorist bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole and would be liable for damages to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the attack. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar said he would issue a written opinion later to explain his reasoning. He requested additional paperwork, including tax returns of the sailors killed, to help calculate damages.

He was shopping for cooking oil when Arab gunmen attacked his village. Adam Abdalla Omar, 70, tried to rescue his cow, but the invaders shot off his left arm. Now he lives in a displacement camp, so desperate and bored he worries he's losing his mind. It's a sadly familiar story in Darfur, except that Omar too is an Arab.

AT a recent cocktail party at her parents' Hollywood Hills home, Ann Reiner looked scared. While the daughter of former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner is used to the public spotlight, it's usually not pointed at her. Wearing a floral print dress and combat boots, Reiner nervously twisted her silver rings as her father introduced her to about 60 business leaders in entertainment, media and politics.