Thousands of people have joined a Facebook group calling for anti-government protests across Sudan today, the day preliminary results are due on the vote on southern independence.
Entitled “January 30, a word to the Sudanese youth,” the Facebook site shows an angry protester holding an Arabic placard that reads: “A better Sudan.”
The call comes after Egypt’s April 6 Facebook group set up by young Egyptian activists three years ago helped bring tens of thousands onto the streets this week for anti-regime rallies.
With about 9,000 followers so far, the Sudanese site calls for peaceful demonstrations in Khartoum and other Sudanese cities at 11am to demand an end to “injustice and humiliation.”
“We will come out to protest the high cost of living, corruption, nepotism, unemployment and all the practices of the regime, including striking women ... that are contrary to the most basic laws of Islam and humanity, and violate the rights of minorities,” the Facebook site says.
“We will go out to prove to the whole world that the people ... will not remain silent in the face of persistent injustice and humiliation,” it adds.
Widespread economic and political discontent in north Sudan, where the security forces exert tight control, has led to sporadic protests in recent weeks.
The preliminary results for Sudan’s Jan. 9-15 referendum on independence for the south, to be announced today in the southern capital Juba, are expected to deliver a crushing majority for secession, which would split Africa’s largest country in two.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the ruling party has called for dialogue with the opposition, the state news agency said late on Friday, in a bid to end anti-government protests fueled by popular unrest across the Arab World.
Thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets of Sana’a in recent days demanding a change of government.
“We ... call for the halting of media propaganda and urge all political parties to work together to make the dialogue a success and arrange for upcoming elections,” a committee of the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party was quoted as saying on the Web site of the Saba state news agency.
“Furthermore, we urge an end to protests that ignite dissent to avoid dragging the country into conflict or sedition,” it said.
The streets of Sana’a were quiet on Friday, after about 16,000 Yemenis demonstrated across the city on Thursday in the largest rally since a wave of protests erupted in Yemen last week.
Further protests were expected yesterday.
The GPC said in October it would participate in an election scheduled for April, dashing opposition hopes that the government would delay the poll to allow more time for talks on long-promised reforms.
Current unrest appears to be partly a reaction to a proposal last year by GPC members to end presidential term limits that would require Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down when his term ends in 2013.
Saleh’s party backtracked last week in an effort to calm discontent, floating the idea of a new amendment that would limit a president to two terms of either five or seven years.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
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A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number