Democratic Republic of Congo

By Harry van Versendaal

Hubert Sauper and Alexandru Solomon are but a couple of the filmmakers heading to this year's Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF), according to organizers as they unveiled the lineup of tributes to be screened at the annual international festival in the northern port city, this year from March 13 to 22.

The African Union called Jan. 30 for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.
 
The call for collective action came as leaders of the 54-member bloc opened their two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where they were addressing a string of crises across the continent.
 

Military medical team joins peacekeepers in Africa

BELGRADE -- A contingent of Serbia's military doctors departed for the Central African Republic on Thursday.

They will provide medical assistance to the UN peacekeeping mission within the operation MINUSCA.

BELGRADE - A contingent of Serbia's military doctors departed for the Central African Republic on Thursday, where they will provide medical assistance to the UN peacekeeping mission within the operation MINUSCA.

About 100 people were slaughtered last week in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the latest massacre to shake the restive region, lawmakers told AFP on Nov. 24.
      

A doctor said to be "extremely ill" after being infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone was being treated in the United States on Nov. 16, while the world's most powerful economies vowed to "extinguish" the deadly epidemic.
      

Ebola screening at Serbian airports "not rigorous"

BELGRADE -- The World Health Organization has recently said that Europe is "very well prepared" for a possible Ebola outbreak.

However, experiences of travelers arriving from Africa show that airport checks are "not very rigorous."

The fifth annual Embassy Tennis Tournament will be held on Sept. 13-14 and Sept. 20-21 at the Ankara Tennis Club, with a total of 30 ambassadors displaying their skills on the tennis court, rather than on the negotiating table.

Britain's Africa minister Mark Simmonds resigned on Monday, barely a week after another Foreign Office minister quit over the government's policy on Gaza.
      
Officials insisted that Simmonds' decision was unrelated to that of Sayeeda Warsi, who quit last Tuesday in protest at the government's failure to take a tougher line against Israel over its assault on Gaza.

At least 96 people have been killed in four days of clashes between tribal gunmen and Ugandan troops in the west of the country, the army said Tuesday.
      
"Since the operation began we have killed 75 attackers," army spokesman Ninsiima Rwemijuma in the Rwenzori region told AFP Tuesday.