Democratic Republic

The high school senior was walking home when a local businessman, standing outside a hotel he owned, asked her to step into his office. Inside, she said, he raped her. Now, this 17-year-old is doing something very few Congolese women have dared: She's pressing criminal charges. "I expect justice and want him sent to prison," said the teenager, whose name and that of the man she accuses have been withheld for her protection. "My hope is that he will not do this to other girls."

The top U.N. envoy to Congo warned that renewed fighting in the east has heightened ethnic tensions and could lead to the renewal of a wider conflict in Central Africa. Alan Doss urged all militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo's hilly eastern border area, the scene of the worst fighting and a humanitarian crisis, to support a United Nations disengagement plan to bring peace to the region. The U.N. estimates that there are about 20,000 militia fighters with various groups in the east.

Ticket-holders for "Festival of Lies" at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall sit on two sides of the stage -- some at cafe tables -- with a view of a working bar on the third side and a platform for a skillful four-man pop band at the back. Welcome to a neighborhood club and performance space somewhere in Africa. Faustin Linyekula tells us that buying food and drink from the bar supports his four-member company from the Democratic Republic of Congo. But that's not true (the money goes to REDCAT).

Naomi Ewowo had just lost her parents when her family branded her a witch. She was 5. After her mother and father died unexpectedly less than a month apart, Naomi's care fell to relatives who struggled to cope with the tragedy. They sought counsel from a neighborhood "prophet," who warned that a sorcerer was hiding in their midst. Soon all eyes turned on the family's youngest, most vulnerable member.

Separatists in Cabinda province signed a cease-fire to end their 31-year struggle for independence in return for greater autonomy. Cabinda, a coastal enclave that produces about half of Angola's 1.4 million barrels a day of oil, is separate from the rest of the former Portuguese colony. It is wedged between Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) and Republic of Congo. The agreement was signed by Angolan officials and the Cabindan Forum for Dialogue.

Pygmy chief Mbomba Bokenu says he may soon let loggers cut his people's forest, and all he expects in return is soap and a few bags of salt. "The Pygmies are suffering; we accept what we are given," said Bokenu, draped in brown civet-cat skins and holding a slender carved-wood shield. "Our children live in dirt, they suffer from disease. Soap and salt are a lot to our people."

Camille Ntoto has seen too much to be this placid, this affable. Or so it would seem. True, he and his wife, Esther, are living in a spacious house in the proverbial lap of Orange County luxury and have every outward reason to be content. But they also are missionaries in sub-Saharan Africa, and that's got to do something to you. And it has.

Nations around the world solemnly noted the 10th anniversary this spring of the Rwandan genocide in which some 800,000 people were slaughtered. In the midst of the commemorations, the Sudanese government was sponsoring and taking part in the killing of tens of thousands of its own citizens in its Darfur region. Sudan is not the only country in the area plagued by civil war.

As Congress and the White House begin to set priorities for next year's budget, I ask policymakers in Washington not to forget the little girl in the famous photograph running down a road to escape napalm fire in Vietnam. I am that girl, and my life changed forever that day. I lost two cousins and many friends in that bombing 31 years ago. Sixty-five percent of my body was burned, and I had to endure many surgeries. For many years I also lost my ability to trust.

Military firing squads executed 21 people in Kinshasa on Tuesday on charges of murder and armed robbery, state radio and witnesses reported. The executions, which were open to the public, were the first mass executions in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo since President Laurent Kabila toppled veteran Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May.