"Sudan coup plotters planned to kill 38 officials"

Sudanese authorities accused an opposition party Saturday of plotting to abduct and kill more than three dozen senior government officials and blow up key sites in the capital, where the army was out in force. Two army officers and an unspecified number of privates also were arrested for cooperating with plotters of a coup attempt revealed earlier this month and that was to have unfolded Friday, according to the government's Sudan Media Center. "The officers, whose mission was to leak as much weapons and ammunition to the plotters as possible, were immediately arrested,'' according to the agency. Heavily armed soldiers and military police were posted at intersections throughout the capital Saturday and around military and government installations. Information Minister Zahawe Ibrahim Malik said the soldiers involved in the coup plot included `"some in active service and some in retirement.'' They would stand trial, he said in a statement after an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday at the Council of Ministers' heavily guarded headquarters overlooking the Nile. [more and [more ]