or rather, names.

Misleading headline for good article.

Intermittent clashes since January have in the past month turned into substantial military engagement on the ground, with repeated reports of aerial bombardment by Sudan.

Blame the victim, not the perpetrator. As usual.

The one part of Africa that no state claims as part of its territory.

Smuggling coffee into Sudan

My cousin Sarah in Africa's newest country.

It's official!

"As his country begins the countdown to independence, legendary South Sudanese commander Gen. Joseph Lagu talks about days gone by, and of his people's secret ties with Israel."

My old friend Tim Waters: "the real danger to peace is not peoples’ desire to form new states. It is the willingness of the present powers in this world to resist that desire with violence. Chaos and death are not consequences of opening Pandora’s box – they *are* the box. We have stumbled onto that truth in Sudan, after 40 years and Niles of…

Running tally of the referendum count. I wonder if the pro-unity vote can close the gap? (Actually, no I don't.)

I had lunch with him back in April - quite a character.

"The Greeks of south Sudan are a tribe. We are not Dinka, we are not Acholi, but we are south Sudanese," George Ghines says proudly as he recalls that it was traders like his family who first founded the regional capital Juba. - I've been to his restaurant, the Notos; highly recommended.

This somehow catches at the heart.

More from Maggie (and a colleague)

My friend Maggie Fick reports.

Interview with Deng Alor Kuol, minister of regional cooperation of the government of Southern Sudan; he discusses the future of Abyei; the question of citizenship, after the referendum, which almost certainly will see a vote for separation; and the issue of future reunification.

"this initiative, like so many others in these technology-obsessed days, promotes a "tech-heavy", expensive and - needless to say - fashionable solution above existing mechanisms that exploit that rather under-utilised, unfashionable and ignored resource, local people"

Excellent if slightly grim photo-essay from Time