Sudan's Beshir to be sworn in as president

Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.Chan Reec, the chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau in charge of polling in the south, said a whopping 99.57 percent of those who voted in the south chose secession.

Until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that a pro-independence referendum for southern Sudan was overwhelmingly likely to end in massive bloodshed. Now it looks like things may work out fairly happily. How’d it happen? Elizabeth Dickinson explains the American diplomacy at work:

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir said on Monday that Khartoum has accepted the outcome of the referendum on southern independence, hours before final results were expected to confirm a landslide for secession."We will announce today, in front of the world, that we accept the result and we respect the choice of southern Sudanese," Bashir said in a speech to women and students at the headquarters of the ruling National Congress Party.

Almost 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north and create a new country in a January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had already put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark 9-15 January referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

Close to 99 percent of south Sudanese chose to secede from the north in a landmark January 9-15 referendum, according to the first complete preliminary results announced on Sunday.Earlier partial results had put the outcome of the vote beyond doubt but official figures were announced publicly for the first time during a ceremony attended by president Salva Kiir in the southern capital Juba.

North and south Sudan leaders began talks on Saturday on a strategy to ensure a smooth transition should a referendum next year result in the war-scarred south gaining its independence.Talks between President Omar el-Beshir's National Congress Party (NCP) and the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) were focused on planning a peaceful transition for January's referendum.

Sudan's government and a Darfur rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, signed Thursday a framework peace accord, as talks with the larger Justice and Equality Movement appeared to falter.The agreement for a ceasefire and talks was signed in Doha by Ghazi Salahuddin, an adviser to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, and LJM leader El-Tijani El-Sissi."This is an important step which will give momentum to peace efforts in Darfur," said Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, who attended the signing of Qatari-sponsored agreement.