Nairobi/Khartoum  - The Sudanese election commission has put back both the presidential and the parliamentary elections planned for 2009 until next year, local media have reported.

The Sudan Tribune quoted Abdellah Ahmed Abdellah, deputy chairman of Sudans National Electoral Commission as saying on Friday that the commission had decided to postpone both polls by seven months, to February 2010.

Nairobi/Khartoum - Three western hostages who work for international aid organization Doctors Without Borders are free after being kidnapped earlier this week in western Sudan, according to government and organization sources.

Quoting a government official, the Sudan Tribune reported the release Saturday without citing any further details. The news was confirmed by the Italian foreign ministry and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), as Doctors Without Borders is formally known.

Nairobi/Khartoum - Three western hostages who work for international aid organization Doctors Without Borders are free after being kidnapped earlier this week in western Sudan, according to reports in a local newspaper.

Quoting a government official, the Sudan Tribune reported the release Saturday without citing any further details.

On Friday, the Italian government had announced the release of the Canadian nurse, Italian physician and a French coordinator, but then had to withdraw its announcement.

Khartoum - The US embassy in Sudan authorized the departure of its non-essential employees on Tuesday, fearing potential violence against Americans and Europeans, a message on the embassy's website said.

"Recent protests have adopted a sharp anti-western rhetoric," read the statement. Sudan's government had expelled numerous aid groups and government officials have publicly called humanitarian aid workers "spies."

Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday will attend a rally in Darfur, the western Sudanese region where he stands accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Sudanese Ministry of Information said al-Bashir will attend a rally in al-Fashir, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur province and the site of sprawling camps where tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting in the area have gathered for aid hand-outs.

The planned visit is a further sign of al-Bashir's defiance in the face of a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court last week.

Khartoum - A crowd of several thousand supporters rallied in the Sudan capital Khartoum on Thursday to express solidarity with President Omar al-Bashir, a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

An aid worker in Khartoum, speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity, said that "hundreds of thousands" were demonstrating in support of al-Bashir on the streets of the capital on Thursday morning.