Central African Republic rebels seize Ndele from army

Rebel forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) have captured the key northern town of Ndele following a surprise attack, an army source has told the BBC.

The rebels said they had also seized two smaller towns, Sam Ouandja and Ouadda, but this could not be confirmed.
Ndele is on a major route linking the CAR to Sudan, Cameroon and Chad.
The CAR has had a series of rebellions and coups since independence in 1975.
It is rich in mineral resources, including gold and diamonds, but its population is extremely poor.

Nelson Mandela suffering from lung infection

South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela has a recurring lung infection and is responding to medical treatment, officials revealed on Tuesday. The 94-year-old has been in a Pretoria hospital since Saturday.

South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela is suffering from a recurring lung infection and is responding to medical treatments, the nation’s presidency sa
 id Tuesday.
The ailing Mandela, 94, has been hospitalized since Saturday for medical tests at 1 Military Hospital near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.
The announcement ended speculation about what was troubling the ailing anti-apartheid icon. Government officials had declined repeatedly to say what caused the nation’s military, responsible for Mandela’s care, to hospitalize the leader over the last few days. That caused growing concern in South Africa, a nation of 50 million people that largely reveres Mandela for being the nation’s first democratically elected president who sought to bring the country together after centuries of racial division.
The tests Mandela underwent at the hospital detected the lung infection, said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj in a statement.

Congo's M23 rebels complete Goma pullout

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s M23 rebels completed their retreat from the regional capital of Goma on Saturday, after defying two earlier ultimatums to leave the city.

Hundreds of rebel fighters, singing and brandishing weapons, pulled out of Congo's eastern border city of Goma on Saturday, raising hopes for negotiations to end the insurgency.
The withdrawal of the M23 rebel movement from Goma on Lake Kivu, a strategic hub in Democratic Republic of Congo's war-scarred east, was agreed in a deal brokered by presidents of the Great Lakes states under Uganda's leadership a week ago.
Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York, said the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, or MONUSCO, confirmed the pullout was completed.
"The M23 has today withdrawn from Goma city in eastern DR Congo," he said in a statement. "MONUSCO mobilized 17 rapid reaction units in the city throughout the day to monitor the M23 withdrawal which took place in a largely orderly manner."
"MONUSCO troops secured key installations including the Central Bank, Governor's House and communications infrastructure at Goma Hill," Dwyer said.
Goma's fall on Nov. 20 to the Tutsi-led M23 insurgent group, which routed U.N.-backed government forces, triggered a diplomatic scramble to prevent a wider escalation of the eight-month-old rebellion in the conflict-prone region.
The rebels had said they would fight to topple Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, and march on the capital, Kinshasa, 1,600 km (1,000 miles) to the west. U.N. experts accuse Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the revolt, a charge both strongly deny.
In the centre of Goma, blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeeper

Second blast in 3 days hits Somali neighborhood in Kenya

Smoke billows from a fire in a street, on December 7, 2012, following a large explosion outside a mosque in Nairobi. Three people were killed and eight wounded in the blast, the Kenyan Red Cross and police said. The blast followed one in the same neighborhood earlier in the week.

(CNN) -- A blast ripped through a neighborhood in Kenya's capital, killing three people in the second attack in three days targeting the predominantly Somali area.

At least 16 others were injured in the Friday explosion near a mosque in Eastleigh, according to the Kenya Red Cross.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's mother: Nigeria manhunt for kidnappers

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an internationally respected economist, has tried to tackle corruption in Nigeria

Nigeria's police have launched a manhunt for the kidnappers of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's mother, a spokesman has said.

Kamene Okonjo, a professor, was taken from her home in Delta State on Sunday.
A finance ministry spokesman said Mrs Okonjo-Iweala had been threatened recently but did not know whether this was linked to the kidnapping.

Armed men attack camp in eastern Congo after rebels pullout from captured city

Colonel Sultani Makenga (C), head of the rebel M23 group, pictured in July.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• It is unclear whether anyone was killed in the attack, a U.N. official says
• Attackers looted a displaced persons camp and raped women there, the official says
• The attack comes after U.N. monitors confirm that rebels have withdrawn from Goma
• The rebels were told by regional leaders to withdraw at least 12 miles from the city

(CNN) -- Armed men attacked a displaced persons camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo early Sunday, raping women and looting at a facility where tens of thousands of people have taken refuge, a U.N. official said.

Simplice Kpandji, a spokesman for the United Nations' refugee agency, said it was unclear whether anyone had been killed at the camp, which is about 10 kilometers from Goma, the border city that has been a flashpoint for fighting between government troops and the M23 rebel group.

The Mugunga III camp houses more than 30,000 displaced people, many of whom fled to the camp when rebels advanced on Goma, Kpandji said. The attackers' identity was unknown, he said, and officials were working on gathering more information.

Word of the attack came as U.N. monitors confirmed that rebels had withdrawn from Goma, more than a week after they seized the city from government forces.

Labour strikes hit several Tunisian regions

The threat of a nationwide general strike could plunge economically struggling Tunisia back into chaos [Reuters]

Strikes and protests have hit volatile areas of Tunisia, including Sidi Bouzid where the Arab Spring started, as tensions rose between powerful unions and Ennahdha, the centre-right Islamist party that is the largest member of the ruling coalition. Workers went on strike on Thursday in Kasserine, Gafsa and Sfax, Tunisia's second largest city, as well as Sidi Bouzid, where the 2010 uprising that unseated former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali began. The closure of the largest private and public employers in those areas was called by regional branches of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), with only small shops and cafes open for business. Hundreds of protesters in Gafsa and Sidi Bouzid took part in marches, chanting slogans denouncing Ennahdha. "We demand the resignation of the government," "Ennahdha has sold Tunisia," and "Long live the UGTT, the country's biggest force," the activists shouted. The UGTT, Tunisia's main labour union with a membership of 500,000, which was the only legal union under the previous regime, said the strike achieved a 95-per cent observance rate in Gafsa, a mining region prone to social unrest. The action was seen as a prelude to a nationwide general strike called for December 13 by the UGTT to denounce an attack on its headquarters this week that it says was carried out by armed men close to Ennahdha. The call for next Thursday's national strike is only the third by the UGTT since its foundation in the 1940s. Tunisia at 'crossroads' Weeks of escalating tensions between the union and Ennahdha, culminated on Tuesday when UGTT members demonstrating at their head office were attacked by pro-government activists. Ennahdha in turn accused the UGTT of orchestrating the confrontation. The General Tunisian Confederation of Workers, a smaller trade union formed after the revolution and claiming some 50,000 members, said on Thursday it was in "full solidarity" with the UGTT. The union denounced "all the hostile actions against the UGTT," and condemned those behind them, urging Ennahdha to respect "trade union freedoms". Last week, intense clashes between police and disaffected youths in the town of Siliana, southwest of Tunis, left about 300 people wounded, after a strike and protests over poor living conditions degenerated into violence. Ennahdha's veteran leader Rachid Ghannouchi strongly criticised the UGTT, calling it a "radical opposition" group, and charging that its calls to strike had "political and not social motives". Clashes, strikes and attacks have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the revolution, plunging the country into a political impasse. Many Tunisians feel bitterly disappointed by the failure of the revolution to improve their lives, especially in the country's marginalised interior which suffers from a chronic lack of development and high unemployment. During last week's violence, President Moncef Marzouki said the coalition government was not meeting the expectations of its people and called for a cabinet reshuffle, but Jebali did not respond. He warned that Tunisia was at a crossroads between "the road to ruin and the road to recovery".