South Sudan moves closer to independence

South Sudan moved a step closer to independence yesterday after organisers of its secession referendum said the vote's turnout would pass the 60 per cent threshold needed for it to be binding. Voters are expected to choose independence in the week-long poll which began on Sunday.

Secession would split Africa's largest country in two. The referendum was promised in a 2005 accord that ended decades of civil war between the mostly Muslim North and the mainly Christian and animist South.