KHARTOUM, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Five suspects will stand trial in Khartoum on Aug. 17 accused of murdering U.S. diplomat John Granville and his driver, state media said on Friday. Granville, 33, and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, were shot dead on New Year's Day in Khartoum in a rare attack on foreign nationals in Sudan. The Sudanese Media Centre quoted legal sources as saying the trial would begin on Aug. 17. "The papers have been filed to the court," a senior Justice Ministry official Babiker Abdel Latif told Reuters on Friday. "There are five accused, all Sudanese," he added. He could not confirm the start date of the trial but said one of the accused was a former Sudanese army officer who had been relieved of his duties before the crime was committed. Granville, an aid worker with the U.S. Agency for International Development, was attacked while returning home from New Year's celebrations in Khartoum early Jan. 1. Granville was the first U.S. government official killed in Khartoum in more than three decades. A previously unknown militant group had claimed the attack. The U.S. envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson, is due to arrive late on Friday in Khartoum and will begin meeting Sudanese officials on Saturday. (Reporting by Opheera McDoom, editing by Mary Gabriel)
A boy cools off at a fountain at Beijing World Park in Fengtai district, one of the three designated 'protest parks', in Beijing July 25, 2008. China has designated areas in ...
