Chad President Claims 'Control' of Country

(NEWSER) - Supporters of a woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers were beaten and teargassed by police in Sudan yesterday, the Guardian reports. Some her female supporters wore pants in solidarity with Lubna Hussein, in defiance of the country's law against "indecent dressing." "We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them," said one woman outside Hussein's court hearing. More»

Boys as young as 13 held captive by African nation's army

(NEWSER) - The UN has obtained access to 80 child soldiers, some as young as 13, who have been taken prisoner in Chad near the Sudanese region of Darfur. UNICEF says that the children were captured and paraded before television cameras after a battle in early May between the Chadian army and a rebel group. According to the BBC, both sides in the ongoing Chad conflict are using child soldiers. More»

(NEWSER) - George Clooney figures prominently in New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof's latest report from Africa, which Kristof describes as "yet another hand-wringing column about Darfur." He offers to swap dirt on the Hollywood heartthrob for readers' interest—then offers a chilling tale of a "petty and mean-spirited" move by the UN, which yanked the Americans' security escort. More»

Assault was crushed, says Sudan prez

(NEWSER) - Sudan today severed ties with Chad, charging that the nation aided hundreds of Darfur rebels who launched a surprise assault on the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman late yesterday. Khartoum and Omdurman were heavily guarded and under curfew after the assault hundreds of miles from rebel bases in the west. Sudanese leaders assured residents that the threat was over. Chad has denied involvement. More»

Chad's president pardons aid workers

(NEWSER) - The six men imprisoned for kidnapping 103 Chadian children have been pardoned and freed from a French prison, reports the BBC. Convicted in Chad and sentenced to hard labor, the members of charity group Zoe's Ark had been transferred to a facility in France, and received a pardon from Chadian president Idriss Deby yesterday. More»