Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has vowed to fight on in seeking support for new austerity measures that have sparked strikes and protests.
Greek ruling party deputies are holding an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis that has shaken global markets.
To a standing ovation, Mr Papandreou said he would reshuffle his cabinet before putting it to a vote of confidence by the parliament.
He was speaking after some figures in his party appeared to move against him.
"I seek and will continue seeking wider consensus," said Mr Papandreou. "Our response to the challenges we face is stability and to stay on our course of reforms."
The proposed measures are necessary to gain EU and IMF aid, but have been met with fierce opposition inside Greece.
Athens witnessed some of the most violent protests in more than a year on Wednesday, as demonstrators went on to the streets and took part in a general strike.
More time?
Mr Papandreou faces the threat of a revolt in his socialist Pasok party over the controversial package, with two deputies resigning on Thursday in protest against the proposed austerity measures.
The EU leaders are at loggerheads over the issue: should Greece be allowed to do a soft, controlled, partial default on its debts which forces banks and pension funds to lose some of the money they lent to Greece?”
End QuotePaul MasonEconomics editor, BBC Newsnight
The resignations do not affect the party's five-seat parliamentary majority as the seats are automatically allocated to the next Socialists in line, but they are an indication of the difficulties Mr Papandreou faces in winning confidence in his leadership, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.
President Karolos Papoulias has urged Greek politicians not to make matters worse by turning the economic crisis into a political one.
A confidence vote in the new cabinet is expected on Sunday, reports say.
This would give the EU more time to finalise a package to help Greece.
Assuming that some form of Greek government emerges out of the political discussions now under way in Athens, it is now almost certain that Greece will get the official money it needs to stay above water for a few more weeks, notably the next tranche of last year's EU-IMF bailout, says the BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders.
All the eurozone ministers have to do is agree in principle to fill the funding gap in the Greek economic programme, which they will now do on Sunday, adds our correspondent.
The IMF is expected to pay the next tranche of Greek aid of 12bn euros ($17bn) on the basis of a promise of future EU funding rather than any concrete commitments.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is set to announce a new cabinet in a concessionary move as he seeks support for new austerity measures.
Mr Papandreou, who will stay in his post, says he will put the cabinet to a vote of confidence in the parliament.
Renewed fears that Greece will default on its debt have shaken markets.
Greek ruling party deputies are set to hold an immediate emergency meeting of their parliamentary group to discuss the current crisis.
President Karolos Papoulias has urged Greek politicians in a statement not to make matters worse by turning the economic crisis into a political one.
The proposed measures are necessary to gain EU and IMF aid, but have been met with fierce opposition in Greece.
Athens witnessed some of the most violent protests in more than a year on Wednesday as demonstrators went on to the streets and took part in a general strike.
A confidence vote in the new cabinet is expected on Sunday, reports say.
"The discussions on the vote of confidence will begin on Sunday evening and will be completed by midnight on Tuesday," a parliamentary aide, who declined to be named, told Reuters news agency.
MPs' resignations
Mr Papandreou had also faced the threat of a revolt in his socialist Pasok party over the controversial package.
The EU leaders are at loggerheads over the issue: should Greece be allowed to do a soft, controlled, partial default on its debts which forces banks and pension funds to lose some of the money they lent to Greece?”
End QuotePaul MasonEconomics editor, BBC Newsnight
On Thursday, Greek government MP George Floridis resigned in protest at the austerity plan. He was followed shortly afterwards by Ektoras Nasiokas, another Socialist MP.
Earlier this week, another Socialist MP defected, leaving the party to sit as an independent.
The resignations do not affect the party's five-seat parliamentary majority as the seats are automatically allocated to the next Socialists in line, but they are an indication of the difficulties Mr Papandreou faces in winning confidence in his leadership, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.
The IMF is expected to pay the next tranche of Greek aid of 12bn euros ($17bn) on the basis of a promise of future EU funding rather than any concrete commitments.
This would give the EU more time to finalise a package to help Greece.
Assuming that some form of Greek government emerges out of the political discussions now under way in Athens, it is now almost certain that Greece will get the official money it needs to stay above water a few more weeks, notably the next tranche of last year's EU-IMF bailout, says the BBC's economics editor, Stephanie Flanders.
All the eurozone ministers have to do is agree in principle to fill the funding gap in the Greek economic programme, which they will now do on Sunday, adds our correspondent.
Eurozone finance ministers will decide on a new bailout in July, according to EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.
"I am confident that next Sunday, the Eurogroup will be able to decide on the disbursement of the fifth tranche of the loans for Greece in early July. And I trust that we will also be able to conclude the pending review, in agreement with the IMF," he said in a statement.
Such an approach "means that the funding of the Greek sovereign debt can now be ensured until September, while we take the decisions for the medium term, beyond September, in July", he added.
This is a critical month for Greece, our correspondent says. It has very little money left in its coffers and will literally run out of cash in July unless it receives the next tranche of money from the first bail-out which was agreed in May 2010.
'Road of duty'
Mr Papandreou, who came to power in 2009, has not indicated the extent of his ministerial shuffle, but correspondents say it may include the replacement of Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou.
Economic analysts predict the post is likely to be filled by Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank.
May 2010: EU and IMF agree bail-out package to prevent Greece defaulting on its debts; in return, Greece agrees to make 30bn euros of budget cuts over the next three years
February 2011: EU and IMF experts tell Greece it must make further cuts to keep its recovery on track
April 2011: EU figures reveal Greek deficit revised up to 10.5%, worse than previously thought
May 2011: Greece begins privatisation programme but is warned the IMF may not release more funds because Athens cannot guarantee it will remain solvent for the next 12 months
29 June 2011: Deadline for Greece to agree new austerity package
Greece's debt was downgraded by Standard & Poor's ratings agency earlier this week, making the debt the lowest-rated of the countrries it monitors.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of activists and unionists gathered in Syntagma square in Athens, near parliament.
A further 20,000 people also demonstrated in Thessaloniki, police said.
The general strike was the third in Greece this year.
The events destabilised markets, with major indexes witnessing the biggest drop on Wednesday since 1 June, and the euro sliding more than 1% against the dollar.
Yields on Greece's 10-year bonds reached a record high of 18.4%.
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A powerful explosion has hit the Nigerian police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, officials say.
"The police force headquarters has been bombed, everywhere is bombed," deputy police spokesman Yemi Ajayi told AFP.
An emergency official said a suspected suicide bomber had died in the blast.
A Red Cross worker told Reuters other bodies were being evacuated from the scene, from where a large plume of smoke can been seen rising. No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
However, Islamist group Boko Haram has recently been targeting police and government officials.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Lagos says for the Nigerian authorities, the attack is an embarrassing strike at the very heart of their security establishment.
Officials say the explosion took place in the car park of the police headquarters.
"A suspected suicide bomber died in the incident. Many vehicles were destroyed," Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency told the AFP news agency.
Residents say the explosion was heard across the city.
Inauguration bombing
"My windows were shaking and I heard the loud noise. I saw smoke coming up," Reuters news agency quotes one witness as telling a local television station.
An eyewitness told the BBC Hausa Service that he heard two explosions and saw more than 30 dead bodies and about 40 vehicles destroyed.
A bus commuter who saw the blast told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "All of a sudden there was this loud explosion. Everybody was scared and people began to run around."
He said police and Red Cross officials had rushed to the scene, and had moved people away from the area.
"We are evacuating the dead bodies, it is too early for us to judge how many. Our priority is to treat the living casualties right now," a Red Cross spokesman told Reuters.
Most of Boko Haram's attacks have been in the northern city of Maiduguri.
But the group said it was behind a series of bombings that took place hours after President Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration last month.
On Tuesday, Nigeria's police chief promised to decisively deal with the group by sending more troops and equipment to the north, declaring they would be finished within a few months.
The group accuses Nigeria's government of being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to overthrow the state and impose Islamic law on the country.
It has killed dozens of people, mostly shot by gunmen riding motorbikes, in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
Last year, officials blamed two explosions in Abuja during celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence on militants from the oil-rich Niger Delta around Port Harcourt.
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The long-serving second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been appointed its head following the death of Osama Bin Laden, the militant organisation said in a statement.
Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan in early May.
Al-Qaeda warned it would continue to fight a holy war against the US and Israel under Zawahiri's direction.
Analysts say Egyptian-born Zawahiri, 59, is intelligent but lacks the charisma of his predecessor.
He is claimed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 9/11 attacks on the US.
For years Bin Laden's deputy, with a $25m (£15m) bounty on his head, he had been widely anticipated to replace Bin Laden at the helm.
The statement announcing his appointment was posted on a militant website and attributed to al-Qaeda's General Command.
"Sheikh Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, may God guide him, assumed responsibility as the group's amir [leader]", it said.
It vowed that under Zawahiri, it would pursue jihad or holy war against the US and Israel "until all invading armies leave the land of Islam".
'Jihadist renaissance'
Zawahiri, whose 60th birthday is believed to be this Sunday, warned just over a week ago that Bin Laden would continue to "terrify" the US from beyond the grave.
Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri was always going to be the default choice to succeed Osama Bin Laden.
A highly intelligent Egyptian extremist, he was the man who got Bin Laden to "think global" in the 1990s, broadening his message from just complaining about US troops on Saudi soil to a whole range of Muslim grievances from Kashmir to Palestine.
But experts say al-Zawahiri lacks the personal charisma of his predecessor. There are also doubts as to whether, as an Egyptian, he will command full authority over al-Qaeda's operatives from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
In a video message posted on the internet on 8 June, Zawahiri said al-Qaeda would continue to fight.
"The sheikh has departed, may God have mercy on him, to his God as a martyr and we must continue on his path of jihad to expel the invaders from the land of Muslims and to purify it from injustice," Zawahiri said.
"Today, and thanks be to God, America is not facing an individual or a group, but a rebelling nation, which has awoken from its sleep in a jihadist renaissance."
The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jon Leyne, says priorities for al-Qaeda's new leader may include attempting to to mount a big attack to show the organisation is still in business.
In addition, he says, Zawahiri will want to turn the wave of unrest in the Middle East to al-Qaeda's advantage - perhaps building more of a power base in Yemen and working to intensify the instability there.
Divisions?
In his message last week, Zawahiri applauded the Arab uprisings against "corrupt and tyrant leaders" and urged those involved to continue their "struggle until the fall of all corrupt regimes that the West has forced onto our countries".
But our correspondent adds that the delay in announcing Zawahiri as al-Qaeda chief - coming as it does more than six weeks after Bin Laden's death, despite his being the obvious choice - may point to divisions within the leadership.
Zawahiri has for years had a bounty on his head and security analysts have suggested he is most likely to be hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
However, Bin Laden and other key militant leaders who were also believed to be concealed there have instead been discovered in Pakistani towns and cities.
Bin Laden's killing by US special forces in a covert operation in the garrison town of Abbottabad on 2 May strained Washington's relations with Islamabad.
US President Barack Obama said "someone" was protecting Bin Laden, but Pakistan has denied any knowledge of Bin Laden's whereabouts and has arrested alleged CIA informants.
Greek PM George Papandreou has proposed a unity government as he tries to win support for austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF, state TV reports.
Some reports said Mr Papandreou had even offered to step down, in talks with opposition leader Antonis Samaras.
Mr Papandreou has been facing the risk of a revolt in his Pasok party over the controversial austerity package.
Greek police clashed with protesters outside parliament over the measures, and unions held a general strike.
Mr Papandreou is seeking support for a new austerity programme of 28bn euros (£24.6bn; $40.5bn) in cuts to take effect from 2012 to 2015.
On Tuesday, one member of parliament defected from Mr Papandreou's Pasok party, leaving it with only 155 of the chamber's 300 seats.
At least one other Pasok deputy has threatened to vote against the new programme of cuts and privatisation of state assets, and a number of others are said to be wavering.
The EU and IMF are demanding the measures in return for the release of another 12bn euros in aid next month which Athens needs to pay off maturing debt.
Greek police have fired teargas at protesters outside parliament as MPs prepare to debate new austerity measures required for the EU and IMF bail-out package.
Demonstrators around Syntagma Square in Athens responded by throwing yoghurt and stones.
Thousands are taking part in a general strike, the third in Greece this year.
Ports, public transport and banks are badly disrupted as the main public- and private-sector unions go out on strike.
Prime Minister George Papandreou is seeking support for a new austerity programme of 28bn euros (£24.6bn; $40.5bn) in cuts to take effect from 2012 to 2015.
State-run companies have also joined the walkout, while hospitals are only offering emergency care. However, airports are operating normally after air traffic controllers called off their strike.
For all the leftist iconography plus the presence of that by now familiar demographic, the Facebook youth, or 'graduates with no future', this thing has gone beyond left and right - it's clear that for many people it is the Hellenic republic versus the rest of the world”
A top credit agency has cut Greece's rating, making it the least credit-worthy nation out of 131 countries it monitors.
The Greek government said the downgrade by Standard & Poor's - from B to CCC - ignored its efforts to secure funding.
In order for the next tranche of rescue loans to go through, parliament must adopt the new austerity plan by the end of June.
'Fight the battle'
Police thwarted protesters who were attempting to blockade parliament and stop MPs getting in for the debate.
They sealed off the roads leading to Syntagma Square and created a pathway for deputies.
The Greek demonstrators are calling themselves the "indignants", linking themselves to Spanish anti-austerity protesters who set up camps in Madrid and Barcelona.
The square is awash with Greek and Spanish flags, as well as banners reading "Resist" and the battle cry from the Spanish civil war, "No pasaran" (they shall not pass), the AFP news agency reports.
May 2010: EU and IMF agree bail-out package to prevent Greece defaulting on its debts; in return, Greece agrees to make 30bn euros of budget cuts over the next three years
February 2011: EU and IMF experts tell Greece it must make further cuts to keep its recovery on track
April 2011: EU figures reveal Greek deficit revised up to 10.5%, worse than previously thought
May 2011: Greece begins privatisation programme but is warned the IMF may not release more funds because Athens cannot guarantee it will remain solvent for the next 12 months
29 June 2011: Deadline for Greece to agree new austerity package
Mr Papandreou faces the risk of a revolt in his own Pasok party over the plans.
One MP defected from the party on Tuesday, leaving it with only 155 of the chamber's 300 seats.
"You have to be as cruel as a tiger to vote for these measures. I am not," George Lianis, a former sports minister, said in a letter to parliament's speaker announcing his departure from the parliamentary group.
At least one other Pasok MP has threatened to vote against the new programme of cuts and privatisation of state assets.
Another 14 MPs are wavering in their support for the austerity plan, our correspondent says.
Meanwhile, eurozone finance ministers have failed to agree on how to make private creditors contribute to a possible second Greek bail-out.
Ministers meeting in Brussels continued their discussions late into the night on Tuesday on ways of making private bondholders share the cost of a second rescue package without throwing financial markets into turmoil.
As a result of their failure to reach a deal, the cost of insuring Greek debt against default shot to an all-time high.
The Greek government has appealed for consensus over its proposals, which would see 6.5bn euros (£5.7bn; $9.4bn) in tax rises and spending cuts this year.
"Every Greek, particularly the new generation, demands that we fight the battle with all our power, a battle to avoid a disastrous bankruptcy which will undermine the future of the country," government spokesman George Petalotis told reporters.
"We are fighting the battle to serve the common good, in the most crucial moment in the country's modern democracy."
In a sign of possible contagion from the Greek crisis, credit rating agency Moody's said it might downgrade the three largest banks in France because of their exposure to Greek debt.
Share prices for BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale all fell as a result.
France appealed for calm, saying it opposed a Greek restructuring which could entail write-offs for private banks.
"The French position is voluntary - no restructuring, no credit event and in line with the ECB," government spokesman Francois Baroin told reporters in Paris.
The EU and IMF are demanding the measures in return for the release of another 12bn euros in aid next month which Athens needs to pay off maturing debt.
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Libyan rebels say forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi have been launching attacks at a strategic border crossing with Tunisia.
Witnesses said pro-Gaddafi forces also fired rockets over the border.
Near Tripoli, Nato said it had hit several military targets, while an air strike was also reported near Col Gaddafi's compound inside the capital.
Meanwhile, Canada has become the latest country to recognise Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC).
Correspondents say there has been a resurgence in fighting in Libya, following weeks of military stalemate.
Omar Hussein, a spokesman for rebels in the western Nafousa mountains, said Col Gaddafi's forces were bombarding roads leading to the border crossing of Dahiba.
Rebels seized a number of towns in the area earlier this month, and Dahiba is a key supply route for them.
Witnesses told Reuters news agency that pro-Gaddafi forces had fired Grad rockets over the border into Tunisia.
'Rebels killed'
In the western, rebel-held city of Misrata, rockets damaged generators at an oil refinery near the port, disrupting fuel supply lines, Reuters reported.
Nato said it had carried out strikes in Misrata late on Monday, and had struck targets including a rocket launcher and an armoured vehicle mounted with anti-aircraft guns east of Tripoli on Tuesday.
Rebels were said to be advancing towards Zlitan, just west of Misrata.
On the eastern front, a rebel commander told AFP news agency that 21 rebel fighters had been killed in clashes on Monday.
Inside the capital, a column of smoke rose from near Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound, though it was not clear exactly what had been targeted.
Nato has frequently pounded the area in and around the sprawling compound.
UN resolution 'abused'
The latest strikes came amid concerns about the length of the Nato's mission in Libya.
Gen Stephane Abrial, a senior Nato official, said coalition resources would become "critical" if the operation in Libya continues.
And on Monday the head of the British Navy, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, said on Monday that priorities must change if the mission exceeds six months.
Col Gaddafi and Kirsan Ilyumzhino played chess on Sunday
But the head of the British armed forces, General Sir David Richards, told the BBC: "We can sustain this operation as long as we choose to".
Nato took over the Libyan mission on 31 March.
South Africa's President, Jacob Zuma, said the UN resolution that authorised the use of force to protect civilians in March was being abused for "regime change, political assassinations and foreign military occupation".
On Tuesday Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Russian head of the World Chess Federation, said Col Gaddafi had told him that he was ready to hold talks if Nato stopped its air strikes, but dismissed international efforts to get him to stand down.
The two played a game of chess in Tripoli on Sunday.
"I will not go anywhere, my relatives died here and I will also die in that land," Mr Ilyumzhinov quoted the Libyan leader as saying.
Libya condemned a visit by the German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, to Benghazi, calling it a "blatant violation of national sovereignty and... international laws".
Canada and Germany are the latest countries to recognised the NTC, which is based in the eastern city, as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
"We share the same goal - Libya without Gaddafi," Mr Westerwelle said.
One of the owners of a lesbian website who posted comments from a hoax blogger pretending to be a gay woman in Syria has himself been outed as a straight man from the US.
Bill Graber, 58, a US Air Force veteran, admitted he was one of the editors of the LezGetReal lesbian blog.
He posted comments from "Amina Arraf", supposedly a lesbian Syrian blogger, but actually student Tom MacMaster, 40.
When "Amina" was reported detained, activists campaigned for her release.
Mr Graber, who wrote under the name Paula Brooks, is no longer associated with LezGetReal.
In an apology to its readers, one of the other owners, Linda Carbonell, wrote: "The past three days have been devastating for all of us on LezGetReal. 'Paula Brooks' has been a part of our lives for three years now."
Betrayal of trust
Mr Graber told the Associated Press news agency he set up LezGetReal to advance the gay and lesbian cause. He said he felt he would not be taken seriously as a straight man.
"LezGetReal was not meant to be deceitful or con anyone," he said.
On Monday, Mr MacMaster, originally from the US state of Georgia but now a student at the University of Edinburgh, said he was sorry for posing as a Syrian lesbian.
He has now re-titled the blog, originally A Gay Girl in Damascus, simply as A Hoax.
In his second apology, he wrote: "I never meant to hurt anyone. I am really truly sorry and I feel awful about this... I betrayed the trust of a great many people, the friendship that was honestly and openly offered to me, and played with the emotions of others unfairly.
This deception... has sown confusion, distraction and absorbed energy and attention at a time when real people are in danger in Syria and in other countries in the region.”
"I have distracted the world's attention from important issues of real people in real places."
Activists and bloggers angrily criticised Mr MacMaster when he admitted he had created the Amina blog five months ago. In it, he described life in Damascus and the current political unrest.
In an open letter to Mr MacMaster on the OGay Middle East blog, activist Sami Hamwi wrote: "Your apology is not accepted, since I have myself started to investigate Amina's arrest. I could have put myself in a grave danger inquiring about a fictitious figure. Really… Shame on you!!!"
'Stand-up guy'
Mr Graber defended his actions, saying he had helped unmask Mr MacMaster by tracking his posts to computer servers in Edinburgh.
"He would have got away with it if I hadn't been such a stand-up guy," Mr Graber told AP.
Entries on the Amina blog covered "her" social life and relationships, but also criticised President Bashar al-Assad and spoke about "her" role in the growing anti-government protests.
On 6 June, a post purporting to be written by Amina's cousin said she had been seized by armed men believed to be members of President Assad's Baath party.
The news was widely reported, including by the BBC. Bloggers and activists launched an online campaign to secure her release.
Mr MacMaster told BBC Scotland he had wanted people to listen to the facts without paying attention to "the man behind the curtain".
An intensive bombing campaign in Sudan is causing "huge suffering" for civilians, the UN says.
A UN spokesman said two planes had dropped 11 bombs near the South Kordofan town of Kauda on Tuesday.
Aid workers say pro-southern groups are being ethnically cleansed in the area, while a deal has been done to withdraw troops from the nearby Abyei region.
The fighting comes less than a month before South Sudan is to secede from Africa's biggest country.
It raises fears of renewed north-south conflict despite a 2005 peace deal which paved the way for the end of decades of war.
Some 140,000 people have fled the recent clashes.
Although South Kordofan is north of what will soon be the international border, it is home to many pro-south communities, some of whom fought with southern rebels during the long civil war.
"People are being hunted down for their ethnicity," John Ashworth, an adviser with the Sudan Ecumenical Forum, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
He said many areas inhabited by ethnic Nubans were being bombed and shelled by northern forces and that people had fled further into the area's hills and mountains to escape the attacks.
Aid workers say that some 40,000 people have been forced from their homes in South Kordofan, on top of some 100,000 in Abyei.
Amnesty International's Tawanda Hondora told the BBC's Network Africa programme that some people had been arrested outside the UN base in the South Kordofan capital, Kadugli, and were later shot dead.
"We think this is the start of what might be ethnic cleansing of South Kordofan, Unity State and Abyei, with the precise purpose of ensuring that, come independence, the areas will not have people who are perceived to be sympathetic to the south," he said.
Aid agency offices have been looted, churches have been ransacked and buildings destroyed.
But this was denied by Rabbie Abdelattif Ebaid, an adviser to Sudan's information minister.
"The armed forces are targeting the rebels. The area has now been freed from all rebels. Everything is now quiet in the main towns," he said.
On Friday, the south accused the northern military of bombing areas in Unity State to seize oil fields from the south.
The north-south war ended with a 2005 peace deal, under which the mainly Christian and animist south held a referendum in January on whether to secede from the largely Arabic-speaking, Muslim north.
Some 99% of voters opted for independence. President Bashir said he would accept the verdict of the south, where most of Sudan's oil fields lie.
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan's arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-producing region of Abyei was due to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south, but it has been postponed indefinitely.
Europe 
Mr Papandreou faces the threat of a revolt in his socialist Pasok party over the controversial package 
Rape victims face 'honour killings'
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