Ousted Party Chief Forms His Own Bloc

Islamic ideologue Hassan Turabi formed his own party a day after he was replaced as head of Sudan’s ruling National Congress party. Thousands of Turabi’s supporters gathered outside his house in Khartoum, the capital, to celebrate the founding of the Popular National Congress party. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir has been stripping power from Turabi, a hard-line Islamist and anti-Westerner who was once Sudan’s kingmaker. Bashir wants to end Sudan’s political isolation and is reaching out to countries that have seen Sudan as a nation gripped by militant Islamic fundamentalism.