Congo's children's army leads to indictment

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed their first indictment Monday, charging a former Congolese warlord for allegedly abducting and recruiting children as young as 10 to fight in Congo's brutal civil war.

Thomas Lubanga was accused of forcing families to give up at least one child to his militia and abducting other children, training them and sending them to the battlefield against ethnic rivals in Congo's lawless Ituri region.

Deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office was citing six individual cases meant to represent "a significant number" of children ages 10 to 15 conscripted into Lubanga's organization known by its French acronym UPC and its armed wing, the FPLC.

Lubanga has denied all the charges.

Caracas, Venezuela

Chávez allies say U.S. should name groups

Supporters of President Hugo Chávez are calling for the U.S. government to identify all groups receiving U.S. support for pro-democracy work in Venezuela, saying a policy of withholding many groups' names is improper and suspicious.

An international group representing nongovernmental organizations, CIVICUS, agreed recipients should be identified. But it also expressed concerns Monday about a proposed law aimed at cracking down on foreign funding for Venezuelan NGOs.

Chávez has accused the United States of quietly funding efforts to destabilize his government, while the Bush administration has publicly called him a threat to democracy, expressing concerns about his oil-funded arms purchases and his ties with U.S. enemies such as Cuba and Iran.

U.S. officials insist the aid is politically neutral and argue that identifying the groups would expose them to harassment and possible prosecution.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

28 die as military clashes with rebels

Sri Lanka's armed forces launched airstrikes and fired artillery as they advanced Monday on a strategic Tamil Tiger-held enclave, killing at least 28 people, the military and rebels said.

The military said eight soldiers were killed and 28 wounded as ground troops backed by jets battled their way toward rebel-held Sampur, to the south of the strategic Trincomalee port.

The insurgents said at least 20 ethnic Tamil civilians died.

The push to retake Sampur opens a new front in the more than two-decade conflict between ethnic Tamil rebels and the Sinhalese-dominated government. At least 65,000 people were killed before the 2002 cease-fire halted fighting.

In recent months, however, Sri Lanka has returned to the brink of full-scale war, although neither has officially withdrawn from the cease-fire.

Also

Brazil: Election authorities have banned about 1,500 candidates charged with fraud from running in Brazil's general election Oct. 1, officials said Monday.

Sudan: The war-torn Darfur region is on the brink of a fresh humanitarian disaster threatening "massive loss of life," a top U.N. official warned the Security Council on Monday. Without safer conditions for aid workers, greater access to those in need and an end to the violence, the humanitarian operation could collapse, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said.

Plane diverted: An Egypt Air flight with more than 300 passengers was diverted Monday to Newfoundland after smoke was detected in the cockpit, an airport official said. No fire was found on the Boeing 777, which was headed for New York.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters