Sudan: Investigate US Diplo "assassination.

Despite the protestations of Khartoum that this is not a terrorist linked killing, the headline reads: Sudan probes assassination

Sudanese police, who are working closely with the US to investigate the high profile assassination, have invited several witnesses for questioning.

Khartoum condemned the assassination in the strongest possible terms, but it ruled out its link with terrorists. The incident was a rare one in many years, as the capital is not synonymous with violent crimes.

The US Agency is a leading international donor that has contributed more than US $2 billion for humanitarian programs in the country and eastern Chad since fiscal year 2004. USAID provides life-saving assistance to more than three million people affected by a long-running conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

USAID formally reopened its mission in Sudan in May 2006. This followed the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between the North and South Sudan.

A former Sudanese slave and activist, Simon Deng, said this is not the first time a diplomat has been killed in Khartoum. Deng accused Sudan of playing a "cat and mouse game."

The Sudan comes to the Iowa Caucus: Simon Deng's been a busy guy as he rallied for the cause of Sudan (with Manute Bol!) in Des Moines, too.

Sudanese Americans rallying in Iowa on New Year's Day urged the U.S. presidential candidates to speak out on the situation in the northeast African country, where a U.S. diplomat was shot and killed Tuesday.

The event in Des Moines came two days before Iowa holds the caucuses that formally launch the presidential selection process.

Planned before the shooting, the rally was called to coincide with the 52nd anniversary of Sudan's independence, to focus on the carnage in Darfur and to urge America's next president to pursue "an effective foreign policy plan for Sudan."

The rally organizers included Simon Deng, a Sudanese human rights campaigner and a former slave, and the Sudan-born former NBA star, Manute Bol.

"This is not the first time a diplomat has been killed in Khartoum," Deng said in a statement. "Though we mourn the killing of the American diplomat this morning, sadly it is not an [abnormal] incident for Sudan."

Deng said the Sudanese planned the gathering in Iowa "because Sudan is still a terrorist regime which has spilled the blood of millions by perpetrating genocide, slavery, systematic starvation and mass human rights abuses."

"American Sudanese demand to know what the candidates intend to do about it," he added.

And there's this sad report from John Granville's hometown paper: The Buffalo News.
Granville’s sister told the CNN television network that she believes hospital workers did not notice her brother had been shot in the stomach, which caused fatal internal bleeding. His family now is working with the U.S. State Departmet and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, to send Kathleen McCabe to retrieve the body.

You can read more about Mr. Granville's life and work here.