KINSHASA, Congo – Congo’s army needs more international help to prevent brutal rebel attacks such as the recent mass gang-raping in eastern Congo, a government spokesman said Thursday.
Information Minister Lambert Mende also charged that the United Nations exaggerates the amount of rape in Congo and said its top official for sexual violence in conflict [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will help any effort to bring to justice rebels accused in the “horrific” mass rape of women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
Rebels from the Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu FDLR, who occupied the town of Luvungi [...]

As a child who used to hide from his parents to dance to cassettes of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, Dong Young-bae says he was too shy to tell anyone he wanted to become a famous dancer and singer. Not anymore. Today, the 22-year-old South Korean singer and dancer known Taeyang is facing the spotlight [...]

NAIROBI, Kenya – A U.N. agency says strong rains have cut the number of hungry people in Somalia by 25 percent, but that an estimated 2 million in the Horn of Africa country still need food aid.
The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday that the gains Somalia has seen the last six months [...]

SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan braced for more flooding in the south as officials were due to hold talks in Washington on Monday with the International Monetary Fund on how to shore up the battered economy to maintain stability.
The IMF said it would review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects because of the magnitude of [...]

The murder scarred a part of Mexico that was supposed to be reasonably safe from violence and crime. Santiago is a picturesque town of waterfalls, colonial churches and holiday homes for the rich. Its mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was a blue-eyed 38-year old, educated in the United States. But it seems that no corner of the [...]

The murder scarred a part of Mexico that was supposed to be reasonably safe from violence and crime. Santiago is a picturesque town of waterfalls, colonial churches and holiday homes for the rich. Its mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was a blue-eyed 38-year old, educated in the United States. But it seems that no corner of the [...]

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon is ready to help Cambodia and Thailand resolve their deadly border dispute, a UN spokesman said Friday.
“The Secretary-General hopes that Cambodia and Thailand will resolve the dispute along their border amicably through dialogue,” Farhan Haq told a press briefing. “He stands ready to help the parties.”
[...]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally intervened to release a close aide arrested on corruption charges and under investigation for providing cash and gifts to allies, according to The Washington Post report.
The Post said that senior Karzai aide Mohammad Zia Salehi was also under investigation because of telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents.
[...]

LONDON (Reuters) – Sunderland manager Steve Bruce invited World Cup final referee Howard Webb to their training ground on Thursday after describing his team's unenviable disciplinary record as unacceptable and petulant.
Sunderland collected nine red cards last season, the highest number in the Premier League, and began this campaign with another one when Lee Cattermole [...]