In news from Sudan, the African Union has announced it would strengthen and extend the life of its peacekeeping force in Darfur. The African Union currently has about 7,000 peacekeeping troops in Darfur but their mandate had been set to end at the end of the month. The Sudanese government has rejected attempts by the United Nations to replace the African Union force with 22,000 UN soldiers and police officers. On Wednesday, thousands of Sudanese marched on the US Embassy in Khartoum to warn against the deployment of UN troops.

• Protest organizer Adnan Soliman: “We send America this message: What you saw in Afghanistan, what you saw in Somali and what you saw from Hizbollah in southern Lebanon, was only a picnic compared to what you will see in Sudan.”

In other news on Sudan–President Bush has named Andrew Natsios to be his special envoy to that country. Natsios is the former head of U.S. AID and the former head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority which oversaw the scandal-plagued Big Dig construction project in Boston.