In Brief

ANGER – Thousands of young supporters of Sudan’s ruling party vented their anger at the United Nations and Washington in a protest against UN plans to deploy peacekeepers in the troubled region of Darfur.

Up to 5 000 demonstrators, mostly from the National Congress Party’s student and youth organisations, rallied in front of the parliament building in Khartoum. * CRASH – A South African minibus carrying a group of primary school teachers to a funeral collided with a truck on Saturday, killing 14 teachers.* VOTED – Italians went to the polls in a referendum on changing the constitution trumpeted by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but critics warn its proposals could endanger national unity.* MISSILE – South Korea urged Stalinist North Korea quickly to allay international concern about its nuclear and missile programs, saying the fear they provoke is destabilising the region.* REFERENDUM – Almost a million voters in the west African state of Mauritania were being asked to cast their ballots in a referendum on a new constitution, seen as the first step on the road to democracy in the huge, poverty-stricken nation.* CANDIDATE – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accepted his nomination by the leftist Worker’s Party (PT) to run for a second term in October elections.* KILLED – The Afghan defence ministry said that 149 rebels had been killed in the past two weeks as part of the biggest anti-Taliban operation since the hardliners were removed from power in 2001.- Nampa-AFP-Reuters* CRASH – A South African minibus carrying a group of primary school teachers to a funeral collided with a truck on Saturday, killing 14 teachers.* VOTED – Italians went to the polls in a referendum on changing the constitution trumpeted by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, but critics warn its proposals could endanger national unity.* MISSILE – South Korea urged Stalinist North Korea quickly to allay international concern about its nuclear and missile programs, saying the fear they provoke is destabilising the region.* REFERENDUM – Almost a million voters in the west African state of Mauritania were being asked to cast their ballots in a referendum on a new constitution, seen as the first step on the road to democracy in the huge, poverty-stricken nation.* CANDIDATE – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accepted his nomination by the leftist Worker’s Party (PT) to run for a second term in October elections.* KILLED – The Afghan defence ministry said that 149 rebels had been killed in the past two weeks as part of the biggest anti-Taliban operation since the hardliners were removed from power in 2001.- Nampa-AFP-Reuters