Congo

An international relief organization based in Carroll County has re-established primary health care, battled disease and built basic infrastructure that will help ensure the health of nearly 8 million people in the remotest areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo. IMA World Health, headquartered in New Windsor, has released the results of its four-year project in the central African country, an effort funded with more than $40 million in U.S. aid. According to the group, the project trained more than 33,000 native health care workers, vaccinated nearly 1 million children and delivered treatment that has saved countless lives.

Rep. Todd Akin's fame - more accurately, his infamy - now reaches all the way to the Congo. There, Eve Ensler, the award-winning American author of “The Vagina Monologues” and herself a survivor of rape, wrote an open letter castigating last week's suggestion by the Republican congressman that when a woman is a victim of “legitimate rape,” her body has means of preventing pregnancy. As it happens, Ms. Ensler is in the Congo working to help some of the thousands of women raped in the fighting there.

YESTERDAY'S peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda could spell an end to Africa's biggest war. But only if its guarantors -- South Africa and the United Nations -- can quickly establish an effective peacekeeping mechanism and disarm rebel groups that did not sign the pact. That will be difficult, but not impossible. All that is required is an unwavering commitment by the various combatants to halt the bloodshed. They include not only a bewildering array of guerrilla factions but also the countries of Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which sent troops to help Congo, and Uganda and Burundi, which have been backing rebels.

SATURDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Nationwide Michigan 250: qualifying ESPN211 a.m. Sprint Cup Heluva Good 400: qual. SPEED1 Nationwide Carfax 250 2, 73:30 MLB Orioles@Washington 13, MASN2, MASN1 Yankees@Cubs 45, 54 Orioles@Washington (T) MASN8 Detroit@Colorado MLB8 White Sox@Arizona WGN-A8 Orioles@Washington (T)

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A landmark presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo is headed for a runoff this fall between two former rebel leaders seeking to lead Africa's second-largest nation, officials said yesterday. But a violent clash during the evening between militias loyal to the two candidates heightened fears of renewed violence. Joseph Kabila, the transitional president, led the count from the July 30 race with 45 percent of the 16.9 million ballots cast, according to preliminary results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Putting on elections in Congo is a daunting task. The vast Central African country, the size of the United States east of the Mississippi, has few passable roads and armed rebel movements in the east and south. The man many Congolese would choose as their next president is not running in today's elections, and the hugely respected Roman Catholic Church, one of the few functioning institutions in a deeply dysfunctional state, is threatening to demand a boycott of the country's first democratic polls in more than 40 years.

Is Bob Dole secretly behind "Congo"?No movie has made or will make the Republican senator and presidential candidate seem more right in his assault on debased popular culture than this tawdry, cruel, ugly exercise in cynicism and utter insensitivity. Isn't it a little late in the game to expect an audience to get with a film that watches gleefully as guys with automatic weapons mow down an unknown species of gray gorilla? Talk about natural born killers!OK, they're only men in monkey suits, and as a movie illusion, the old man-in-the-monkey-suit bit hasn't advanced much beyond the '40s and "Ramar of the Jungle."

An international relief agency housed at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor is implementing a $40 million federal grant to restore public health in war-ravaged zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. IMA World Health, formerly known as Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc., has been active in African relief efforts since its founding in 1960. The nonprofit organization works around the globe through a worldwide network of a dozen church agencies. "It's a hidden jewel," said Sher Horosko, who moved to Westminster 11 years ago. Horosko learned of IMA's work last year before becoming its director of development and communications in January.

WESTMINSTER -- As boys growing up in the Congo in Africa, Didier Ngoyi-Ngoho and Guy Herve-Moukoko learned about American farming -- the various machines used for planting and harvesting, what chemicals and fertilizers to put on crops to make them grow."

WASHINGTON -- Political events do not often happen on a convenient schedule. Just as the administration of President George W. Bush is getting its foreign policy apparatus organized, an opportunity is opening to break the logjam in the Lusaka peace process in central Africa and carefully move the process forward. The window is not a slit, but it is relatively narrow -- the month of mourning for Congo's late head of state Laurent Kabila. Mr. Kabila was the principal obstacle to the implementation of the 1999 Lusaka accords.

The audience peers in at the world of "Ruined" as if through the chinks of a boarded-up window. Our eyes adjust gradually to the light inside Mama Nadi's brothel in the Belgian Congo. We notice that though the paint is chipped and worn, the furniture still contains traces of once-vibrant reds and peacock blues. (Alexander V. Nichols designed the evocative set.) We notice that a prostitute so brutalized by soldiers that she walks with a limp still dresses in breezy chintzes that drape sinuously over her lovely limbs.

An international relief organization based in Carroll County has re-established primary health care, battled disease and built basic infrastructure that will help ensure the health of nearly 8 million people in the remotest areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo. IMA World Health, headquartered in New Windsor, has released the results of its four-year project in the central African country, an effort funded with more than $40 million in U.S. aid. According to the group, the project trained more than 33,000 native health care workers, vaccinated nearly 1 million children and delivered treatment that has saved countless lives.

Oakland Mills senior point guard Joe Kiely knew it was coming, and so far, he's been up to the task. The Scorpions were loaded with returning talent and pegged the decisive favorites to win the Howard County title. Ranked No. 9 in the Metro area, the Scorpions are 14-0 and their fearless point guard is a big reason. In his third season as a starter, Kiely is averaging 8.2 points, 5.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 2.8 steals as the team's catalyst. Just as impressive, he has turned the ball over only 21 times as the team's primary ballhandler.

There are plenty of reasons to be upset about what's going on in the Congo. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's angry response to a student who asked her what her husband thought about a matter of local importance is not one of them. The United Nations reports that there have been 200,000 acts of sexual violence in the Congo since 1998, 65 percent against children. Since January, more than half of the thousands of rapes reported were perpetrated by the Congolese army, according to Human Rights Watch.

The desperate plight of civilians caught between warring militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo was underscored last week by three Congolese church leaders who visited Baltimore to deliver an urgent appeal for help. The two bishops, accompanied by a nun, spoke at the Catholic Relief Services headquarters in downtown Baltimore, where they related the havoc wrought by militia groups and bandits who have raped and massacred thousands of innocent civilians and driven a quarter-million refuges from their homes since fighting flared up again in August.

Congo rebels withdraw from front lines RWINDI, Congo: Rebels in Congo pulled hundreds of fighters back from several front-line positions as promised yesterday in what the United Nations said was a welcome step toward brokering peace in the volatile nation. Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda told U.N. envoy Olusegun Obasanjo over the weekend that he was committed to a cease-fire and U.N. peace efforts. Rebels announced Tuesday that their fighters would immediately withdraw 25 miles from hot spots north of Goma to prevent further fighting.

LAURENT KABILA, the Congo dissident who fronted for the Rwandan-led forces that toppled the crumbling Mobutu dictatorship last year, has yet to show he can hold his country together and improve the lives of 45 million suffering compatriots. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit emphasized U.S. support for his role as transitional president, but also acknowledged the absence of choice. He's the only game in Kinshasa.What the U.S. wants from Mr. Kabila is freedom for political opposition.

IN 14 MONTHS as ruler of Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, Laurent Kabila has not coped.His victory last year over the tyranny of Mobutu Sese Seko was greeted with joy. But it was easy to doubt he was up to the job.A small-time revolutionary of the 1960s, he was propped up by an invading army of largely Rwandan Tutsis defending the Banyamulenge, their kin in Congo, and pursuing their Hutu enemy. The people wanted anyone but Mobutu.The rebellion against Mr. Kabila, now spreading from eastern Congo toward the capital Kinshasa, appears to come from the Tutsi army that put him in power but also to be picking up Congolese soldiers.