Sudan’s election tension leads to more arrests
Sudan’s proposed 2010 election is lurching from bad to worse, after security forces fired tear gas at more than 200 opposition protesters demanding reforms ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls. Riot police arrested some 40 demonstrators near the parliament buildings. The tensions have been building ever since police arrested three leaders from Sudan's former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement last week. South Sudan is seeking to secede in a 2011 referendum, but the ruling northern National Congress Party is doing its best to keep the oil-rich south within the fold. The south and north have been at political loggerheads since the end of a 22-year civil war in 2005. The north is largely Arab and the south is black African, and they don’t see eye to eye. Read more: Reuters, BBC
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