Darfur Rally Weekend Update

Crisis in Darfur Is Expected To Draw Thousands to Mall

Massive "Stop Genocide" rallies are planned on the Mall and across the nation today to urge the Bush administration to take stronger action to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
Thousands of people are expected to converge on Washington, including 240 busloads of activists from 41 states, local and national politicians and such celebrity speakers as actor George Clooney, Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel and Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek.

The rallies, scheduled to take place in 18 cities, would be the largest public outcry for Darfur since the conflict began three years ago. There, Sudanese troops and pro-government Arab militias called the Janjaweed launched a campaign of killings and rapes, prompting the Bush administration to label the atrocities as genocide. At least 200,000 have died in the conflict, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes.

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Sudan Darfur peace deal up in the air: mediators

ABUJA (Reuters) - Peace talks on Sudan's Darfur region remain very fluid and chances of a deal are "50-50" as a deadline nears, senior mediators said on Sunday after a meeting with two of the three rebel factions.

The government of Sudan said earlier it was ready to sign a peace plan drafted by African Union (AU) mediators who have set a deadline for the warring parties to reach a deal by the end of Sunday. more

A Loss of Hope Inside Darfur Refugee Camps

NAIROBI -- On a stretch of the austere desert in Chad, just across the border from the Darfur region of Sudan, signs of tragedy came into full view: tattered clothing caught on the branches of thornbushes, carcasses of camels and goats that died on the long journey out.

Then the people began to appear: haggard young girls with siblings on their backs, old men riding atop donkeys piled high with cooking pots, water jugs and mats, and elderly grandmothers, some with gunshot wounds, being pushed through the sand in wheelbarrows. More