Albright Jabs Sudan Officials For Ongoing War in South

SUDAN responded sharply yesterday to comments made by US Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright, who accused Khartoum of not doing enough to end the civil war in southern Sudan.

She said the government obstructed relief assistance to the south, where the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army is fighting government forces, and said Sudan risked isolation if it did not improve its human rights record and stop sponsoring international terrorism.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Hussein Suleiman abu-Saleh responded that the ambassador's comments were counterproductive to the dialogue between Sudan and the US.

Somalis keep American hostage

INTENSIVE negotiations failed Saturday to win the release of an American relief worker held hostage by Somali gunmen. Alfred Peters, a water and sanitation worker, was kidnapped Thursday by gunmen a few hundred yards from a United Nations checkpoint. He had been sent by the Red Cross to Mogadishu to help provide health services.

Olajida Ogunsanya, a UN worker from Nigeria was also seized by gunmen Thursday but escaped on Friday. The two abductions were the latest in a series that followed the departure last month of most troops from the US and other Western nations.