Actress Jolie visits refugees on Libya-Tunisia border

RAS JDIR: US film star Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to Tunisia’s border with Libya on Tuesday and met desperate refugees fleeing fighting in the north African country.

Jolie, star of such films as “Salt” and “Mr & Mrs Smith”, is a goodwill ambassador for UN refugee agency UNHCR and last month made a similar surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Crowds of refugees jostled to see the star’s arrival in a military-escorted convoy at the Choucha refugee camp, a transit centre for the tens of thousands of people who have fled Libya’s conflict.

“Angelina we love you!” cried excited Ghanaians, Congolese, Nigerians and Ivorians.

During the visit, Jolie visited two tents hosting refugee families and then met with UNHCR officials running the camp.

“We’re tired of being here! We want to return to Nigeria, take us with you!,” one Nigerian refugee shouted to the star.

“It’s a very good thing that she is here, even if I have not seen her films,” said Congolese refugee Emmanuel Gatoni.

Many of those fleeing the violence in Libya were guest workers from other African nations who had been employed in the country.

Jolie, married to fellow actor Brad Pitt, is known for her humanitarian work, in particular with refugees. AGENCIES

Congo rebels seize Indian pilot in attack on plane‎

GOMA: Congolese rebels took an Indian pilot hostage on Saturday when they attacked an aircraft on a remote airstrip in a tin mining zone in the country”s North Kivu province, army and mining officials said.

Congolese army General Baigwa Dieudonne Amuli said Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels were to blame for the attack in Walikale. Goma Express, whose aircraft was attacked, said a Russian colleague escaped and flew the plane back to Goma, the provincial capital 150 km away, with a wounded Congolese national on board.

The airstrip is often used to export cassiterite, a tin ore partly blamed for funding armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo”s simmering eastern conflict.

“The FDLR attacked a plane with the assistance of Mai Mai Sheka (militia). We are pursuing the rebels in the bush,” Amuli told Reuters.

“They took money and the co-pilot of the plane,” he added, saying $60,000 in cash had been stolen.

Pedro Kadogi, director of Goma Express, confirmed the incident and said the plane had been looted before it returned to Goma. He said food supplies, rather than money, had been on the plane.

“Everybody fled the scene into the bush and the co-pilot has been taken hostage,” he said. “After two hours the Russian pilot panicked and refused to wait and flew the plane back to Goma.”

About 15 planes a day land at Walikale”s airstrip to export tons of cassiterite from the Bisie mine in the deep jungle.

230 dead after DR Congo tanker truck explosion

SANGE: A fuel truck exploded and set fire to a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing more than 230 people and injuring scores, officials and local residents said Saturday.

Flames engulfed dozens of earth and straw constructed homes as villagers, many of them children, crowded around the tanker after it overturned late on Friday to scavenge its contents.

“People tried to escape but were caught by the fire and reduced to ashes,” said Tondo Sahizira, a 28-year-old teacher at Sange, home to some 50,000 people located around 70 kilometres (40 miles) south of the Sud-Kivu regional capital of Bukavu, close to the border with Burundi.

The flames spread rapidly to a local cinema hall where a crowd had gathered to follow the World Cup football matches being played in South Africa, said Mbaka Munyerere. “They were taken by surprise and we could not save them,” he said. “It”s terrible!”

Sud-Kivu governor Marcellin Cishambo said: “When we arrived in Sange at about noon, we were already up to 230 dead. In our presence, three more bodies were added. We are therefore at more than 230 dead and 105 injured.”

Desire Kama from the Congolese Red Cross said that according to a provisional estimate at 1100 GMT there were 221 deaths — of whom 61 were children and 36 women — and 214 were injured.

Red Cross: 8 staff kidnapped in eastern Congo

GENEVA: Eight Red Cross staff have been kidnapped by an armed group in eastern Congo, the international aid group said Tuesday.

The seven Congolese and one Swiss national were seized Friday afternoon near the town of Fizi in South Kivu province by the MaiMai Yakutumba rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Geneva.

“The ICRC has been able to get in touch with some of our colleagues after the incident,”” spokesman Marcal Izard said.

He declined to say whether the Red Cross is in contact with the kidnappers.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the situation and was in touch with the Red Cross and Congolese authorities.

The Red Cross has several offices in South Kivu, which like much of eastern Congo has been wracked by violence since the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda spilled war across the border.

“It is in order to protect and assist armed-conflict victims that we have been carrying out our activities in the area,”” said Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the ICRC”s mission in Congo.

“We continue to insist that the strictly neutral, impartial and humanitarian nature of our work be recognized, and that our colleagues be able to return to their loved ones soon,”” he said in a statement.

Staff of the neutral aid group have also been targeted for kidnapping in other conflict regions recently.

Three foreign Red Cross workers were kidnapped in the Philippines last year, and French staff members were seized in Chad and Sudan. All have since been released.

Hillary Heads To Congo After Angola

Angola: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday to target an epidemic of sexual assault in the violence-torn nation after wrapping up a trip to Angola where she pushed democratic reform and trade.

Clinton will leave Angola after signing a new agreement with Angolan health officials to fight HIV/AIDS and meeting President Eduardo dos Santos, who has ruled for 30 years and has been criticized for postponing a presidential vote scheduled for this year.

In the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, she will visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutumbo, a native of Congo, and hold a town hall meeting. On Tuesday, she travels to the devastated east of the country to meet victims of rampant rapes and other sexual crimes.

While in the eastern city of Goma, Clinton also plans to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila to press him and his government on democratic reform and fighting corruption in the wake of a brutal conflict that at its height drew in a half dozen of the country’s neighbors.

Clinton delivered a similar message in oil-rich Angola, which is struggling to rebuild after 27 years of war that ended in 2002.

On Sunday, she urged Angola’s government to build on successful legislative elections held in 2008 — the first in 16 years — by holding presidential elections as soon as possible and dealing with the legacy of 27 years of civil war.

“We look forward to Angola building on this positive step, including the adoption of a new constitution, investigating and prosecuting past human rights abuses and holding a timely, free and fair presidential election,” she said.

“So, Mr. Minister, we have our work cut out for us,” she said.

Clinton stressed the need for greater accountability and transparency in Angola’s petroleum sector, particularly with revenue from exports, which account for nearly 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to officials traveling with her.

Clinton came to the Angolan capital on the third leg of a seven-nation trip to reinforce America’s presence in a country where it increasingly is competing for energy resources with China. Beijing has loaned Angola billions of dollars in recent years without pressing reform.

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Hillary Heads To Congo After Angola

Iraq Bombing’s Wave Leave 41 Killed

BAGHDAD: At least 41 people were killed and nearly 150 wounded in a spate of bomb attacks near the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul and in the capital Baghdad on Monday, police said.

In the deadliest single attack, two booby-trapped lorries exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of Mosul, leaving 25 people dead and 70 others wounded. Thirty-five houses were destroyed in the village, which is home to members of the tiny Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin.

In Baghdad, two car bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning hours looking for jobs.

The first bomb exploded at Hay al-Amel, in the west of the capital, killing nine people and injuring 46. The second bomb attack in Shurta Arbaa in the north of the city killed seven people and wounded 35 others.

On Friday, a powerful car bomb blast killed at least 37 people were killed near a mosque in Mosul in a wave of attacks that also killed 10 people in Baghdad.

Despite a marked reduction in violence in recent months, attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk.

The number of violent deaths fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following the pullout of US forces from urban areas.

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Iraq Bombing’s Wave Leave 41 Killed

Flood Rocked Taiwan, 12 Dead and 52 Missing

TAIPEI: At least 12 people were confirmed dead and 52 others were missing in Taiwan on Monday after Typhoon Morakot caused the island’s worst flooding in half a century, the rescue services said.

The military was also trying to rescue thousands of people cut off by fallen bridges or raging rivers after the typhoon dumped a record 2.5 metres (100 inches) of rain on the island before it headed for the coast of mainland China.

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Flood Rocked Taiwan, 12 Dead and 52 Missing