Southern Sudan may secede from the Muslim-dominated north of the country in an upcoming referendum because unity has become “unattractive,“ the south’s leader said Monday.

A Sudanese cargo plane crashed Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Sharjah International Airport north of Dubai, killing the entire six-member crew but causing no other casualties on the ground, an official said.

A Sudanese woman who immigrated to the United States in 2005 is facing a murder charge in connection with the death of her 5-month-old son. Marlen Ramadan Taboor, 21, was arrested Friday by Henrico County police and was being held last night in the Roanoke City Jail, according to law enforcement spokesmen. Taboor, according to online court records, was charged in Roanoke last Tuesday in the death of her son, Christopher George, last October. It was unclear last night why Taboor was in the Richmond area. She was arrested in the 6300 block of Clover Lane in Henrico, near the intersection of Lakeside Avenue and Hilliard Road.

Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court Tuesday during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public.

The charitable work a Goochland County couple does in central Virginia is being felt on the other side of the world. Darryl and Jennifer Ernst have spent the past 10 years helping the Sudanese—first assisting southern Sudan refugees as they resettled in the Richmond area and then raising money to build a secondary school in southern Sudan through the nonprofit organization they formed, Hope for Humanity.

Whenever I need to hire a cab, I call my favorite driver, Hamad. He moved alone to the U.S. from Sudan 20 years ago to earn money to send back to his wife—a common arrangement among Ameri can immigrants from poorer countries. Hamad owns his own taxi and earns a good living, but he misses his wife and school-age children. Fortunately, he returns to see them for a few months every year. During a recent trip, he saw that people can now make a good living in Sudan, but there is no going back for Hamad—America is home now.