KINSHASA (AFP) - Around 100 fighters were behind simultaneous attacks Sunday on the home of the Democratic Republic of Congo president and an army base that left about a dozen people dead, officials said.

One of those arrested after the assault carried a DR Congo military identity card and was a former opposition member, a government spokesman said ( Read more... )

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My friend mentioned that one of my former colleagues is a father again, having had a baby girl just recently with his second wife.  His first family is grown, and he married for the second time last year.  He's a medical doctor and has a master in public health, is the son of a professor, and has some means.  Nonetheless, when his wife went to give ( Read more... )

I don't often take photos of people especially if I don't know them, because I don't have the journalist approach and typically feel shy about it.  I don't like to invade people's space.  But here are two that I took of people that I do know, and I hope they don't mind my sharing.  They each capture a very particular and fleeting moment in their ( Read more... )

Look at this!  If only I lived next door, I'd have thousands of TV channels...


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Apologies for the blurry quality of the photo, but I wanted to get the full-on fire glow, so I did not use flash. I could have used a tripod...


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I don't know if any of you remember this.  I found out tonight that it's not always that easy.

My boss was with me and I locked the key in a different car that, fortunately, I suppose, is much more difficult to break into.  This means we had to leave a group working on breaking into the car until they get tired of it, then guarding it till morning ( Read more... )

I commented somewhere the other day that I didn't want to deal with coming home late and waking up the presidential guards in the middle of the night, which is why I stayed over at a friend's house.

For the most part, I don't have any problems.  The apartment where I am staying is close to one of the presidential residences, which means we have ( Read more... )

Last night I saw some old friends and some of their friends, all bachelors.  I lucked out because they were cooking, and it was good food!  Why did this surprise me?  I don't know - I guess I usually consider Congo to be generally more traditional when it comes to gender roles.  But I was happily wrong in this case.


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1. Unreliable electricity.  Coupure d'electricite has been very common lately: two days at the office without reliable internet, and the generator at the house didn't work last night so we had bread and cheese for dinner.

2. Traffic.  Spent hours inseveral embouteillages the other day going to and from the 2 offices and one project site; spent hours ( Read more... )