Sudan and South Sudan have failed to meet an African Union deadline to reach an agreement on the contested Abyei region by December 5, officials said Tuesday, with no talks scheduled on the issue.

The flashpoint Abyei region, a Lebanon-sized area claimed by both sides, is one of the most contentious outstanding issues after South Sudan won independence from former civil war foes in Khartoum in July 2011.

Two people were killed and more than 20 arrested in a raid on an Islamist training camp in Sudan, which wants a lifting of U.S. sanctions over its alleged support for terrorism, a state governor said Sunday.

"Over the last two days, up until this morning, security services and police attacked them in their training camp, killing two, while four police were wounded," Ahmed Abbas, the governor of Sinnar state in southeast Sudan, told Agence France Presse.

About 100 protesters rallied in Khartoum on Wednesday proclaiming the flashpoint Abyei region Sudanese territory, ahead of a deadline for Sudan and South Sudan to settle the area's status.

"Abyei 100 percent north Sudanese," said one banner carried by the group.

About 100 protesters rallied in Khartoum on Wednesday proclaiming the flashpoint Abyei region Sudanese territory, ahead of a deadline for Sudan and South Sudan to settle the area's status.

"Abyei 100 percent north Sudanese," said one banner carried by the group.

Iranian warships will return to Sudan on Friday, the armed forces said, one month after a similar port call followed Khartoum's accusation that Israel bombed a military factory.

Sudan's links to Iran have come under scrutiny after Khartoum accused Israel of the October 23 strike against the Yarmouk compound, which led to speculation that Iranian weapons were stored or manufactured at the factory in Khartoum.

Sudanese rebels have seized an army compound in the Darfur region, the insurgents said on Saturday, as the Red Cross reported the release of three soldiers captured by rebels.

The pre-dawn attack came on Friday about five kilometers (three miles) northeast of Kebkabiya in North Darfur state, said Ibrahim al-Hillu, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA's) Abdelwahid Nur faction.

Sudanese-born British Taghreed Elsanhouri, whose documentary about last year's partition of Sudan premiered in her homeland on Thursday night, is making footsteps.

The award-winning film-maker said she wanted Sudanese to have "ownership" of their history -- and by doing so to take responsibility for what happened.

Sudan on Thursday said it arrested 13 people including the former head of the country's powerful intelligence service for an alleged plot to sabotage national security.

A witness saw armored vehicles moving in the streets of the capital before daybreak, as state-linked media first reported that the "plot" had been averted.

Sudan on Thursday said it arrested 13 people including the former head of the country's powerful intelligence service for an alleged plot to sabotage national security.

A witness saw armored vehicles moving in the streets of the capital before daybreak, as state-linked media first reported that the "plot" had been averted.

South Sudanese troops attacked a rebel base in the latest violence in troubled Jonglei state, killing at least 19 rebels for the loss of one soldier, officials said Wednesday.

Troops launched an attack on a base of rebel commander David Yau Yau on Monday, firing "rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells,” said army spokesman Philip Aguer.