1) DRC Supreme Court strikes down Article 22 of National Assembly's
rules and regulations

Article 22 of the rules and regulations of the new National Assembly
was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice on
Monday, March 26.

The article provided that the bureau and the committees of the
National Assembly had to be proportionally earmarked for majority and
opposition parties according to their numerical strength.

In its ruling, however, the Supreme Court found that the article was
"discriminatory" and thus violated Article 13 of the Constitution,
which proscribes any form of… ( Read on! )

Former Defense Minister and newly elected MP, Charles Mwando Simba,
wrapped up his information mandate at 11:00 this morning with a press
conference at Venus Hotel, in downtown Kinshasa.

Mwando's press briefing comes hard on the heels of the audience he had
yesterday with Kabila at the latter's office at the Palais de la
Nation. During the short audience with Kabila, Mwando handed to the
Prez his final report on his information mandate that consisted in
identifying the parliamentary majority (from which will stem the
oncoming Prime Minister), paying heed to the opposition's observations
and… ( Read on! )

Several years ago, when Africa's World War was still raging on, my
Burundian buddy and then housemate Alexis Sinduhidje told me one day
in Cambridge, MA: "If you think this war is bloody, then brace for the
looming bloddier Africa's Water Wars, whose battleground will also be
the Congo!"

I've always taken seriously everything Alexis says.

But most Congolese I've talked to since then about the looming water
wars didn't take that possibility seriously--with the exception of one
senior officer of the FARDC General Staff who actually brought the
subject in a conversation I had with him several weeks… ( Read on! )

Yesterday at 7:31 (Kinshasa Time: GMT + 1) I got a call from my
daughter Elikia who was on board a plane on the tarmac of Edinburgh
airport, Scotland, en route to Washington, D.C. She was using Skype on
her laptop.

A part of the conversation went like this:

"Hey, dad, you know that guy on Kony 2012 video--the narrator?"

"Yeah... Jason Russell."

"Right. You won't believe this: he was arrested in San Diego. He was
naked in the street, masturbating!"

Unbelievable! At the moment, as Elikia only mentioned the incident by
the end of the short phone call, I thought Russell had gone Pee-wee
Herman in a big way.… ( Read on! )

You'd know right away that times have dramatically changed at the
sound of those cans of worms popping open and the clamor of the
outraged posse zeroing on Staff Sgt. Robert Bales--the "Infidel" and
the financial crook who, drunk and high, went postal in Boondocksistan
on Sunday, March 11.

The once valorous combatant, drunk and high, just snapped... and
blacked out. According to credible testimonies from his comrades, Sgt.
Bales had sneaked out of Camp Belambay and gone on a killing spree in
the nearby village... Body count: 16.

Remember this though: the man has no memory of the deadly… ( Read on! )