Students and police riot in Sudan

While the world is closely looking at the massive protests in Egypt, a nearby nation staged a similar uprising on Sunday, reported by Reuters.

Inspired by Cairo's demonstrations, hundreds of Sudanese students gathered around Khartoum clamoring to overthrow the government.

The police broke groups of students in the capital, guarded the entrance gates of four universities and threw tear gas to student demonstrators hurting three.

An additional 500 young protesters marched in el-Obeid in the western part of the country.

It was reported that armed riot police beat the young students with batons while carrying anti-government slogans and chanting "We are ready to die for Sudan" and "Revolution, revolution until victory."

Again, the social media is playing a crucial role in communication. Online groups started to appear calling themselves "The Spark" and "Youth for Change," the latter having more than 15,000 fans.

It says in its Facebook page, "The people of Sudan will not remain silent any more. It is about time we demand our rights and take what's ours in a peaceful demonstration that will not involve any acts of sabotage."

Nine activists of a pro-democracy group called Girifina or "We're Fed Up" were detained on Saturday, the night before the demonstrations. About 40 others were arrested and five were injured on Sunday, according to the opposition party officials.

Two of the sons of opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil were arrested on their way to the protest while the daughter of al-Wan newspaper editor-in-chief Hussein Khogali was detained because she organized the protest via Facebook.

Details of this story here.