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A matatu decorated with elections posters for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. (Enough/Maggie Fick)

By Amanda Hsiao 

Arrests and intimidation of civil society leaders in both North and South Sudan last week underscored the continued stifling of opposition and civil society groups during the country's crucial campaigning stage, with a little over a month left before elections.

Southern security personnel raided two radio stations in Juba on Wednesday, threatening and arresting the general manager of Liberty FM and director of Bakhita, a Catholic radio station. According to a Reuters interview, the armed men who entered the premises of Liberty FM said they were South Sudanese police. One station manager who was taken to a police station was told: "You are producing bad programs that bring hatred of the people." The station manager said Liberty FM had aired an interview with an independent candidate running for the governor seat in Central Equatoria state.


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  Obituary Sheikh Tantawi, 1928-2010                     
By AuthorIssandr El Amrani Sheikh Tantawi.png

Sheikh Muhammad Tantawi This morning, Muhammad Tantawi, Sheikh of al-Azhar, passed away in Riyadh from a heart attack. He was one of what may be, symbolically at least, the three most important men in Egypt, along with President Hosni Mubarak and Coptic Pope Shenouda III. All three were about the same age, and ill. Tantawi leaves a mixed legacy behind him: overall, the immediate verdict may be that he was too liberal for conservatives, too conservative for liberals, too compliant with the regime for those who want al-Azhar to be independent, and too independent for those in the regime who needed Azharite support to enact policy changes on issues as varied as Palestine, banking and TV game shows. The overall image is of a man besieged on all sides, but adept at fighting bureaucratic battles in the bloated, clerical civil service that al-Azhar has become.
 Read the full obituary at The Arabist
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Breaking News

Dark clouds gather over Southern Sudan
Unfree Media Africa : Southern Sudan
A matatu decorated with elections posters for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. (Enough/Maggie Fick)By Amanda Hsiao Arrests and intimidation of civil society leaders…
'Too liberal for conservatives, too conservative for liberals'
Unfree Media - Middle East & N Africa : Egypt
  Obituary Sheikh Tantawi, 1928-2010                      By AuthorIssandr El Amrani Sheikh Muhammad Tantawi This morning, Muhammad Tantawi, Sheikh of al-Azhar, passed…
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