Digital Journal

French authorities have arrested in Paris the alleged leader of a Rwandan rebel group accused of mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday. Callixte Mbarushimana, described as a leader of the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, FDLR), was held after a sealed warrant was issued for his arrest on allegations the rebel group was involved in hundreds of rapes in DRC's...

Nordic countries continue to show the world how to bridge inequality between men and women. Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden are the top four, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2010. The index’s scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap that has been closed between women and men. The 2010 report features a total of 134 countries, representing over 93% of the world’s population. Others in the Top 10 are New Zealand (5), Ireland (6), Denmark (7)...

Ideas, perspectives are usually the domain of the elite. Certainly, in terms of finding a space. But a new anthology is breaking ground. It has urban planners, washermen, and even a maid discussing what sort of city Delhi could or should be. Delhi, most agree willy-nilly, is in a mess. The glitz created by the Commonwealth Games is grossly superficial; it glosses over the hardships that the Games have caused to many. Too many, for comfort. As the city is re-imagined, dug up and built upon, the...

Matt Damon is out of the next Bourne film. And so is ― believe it ― Jason Bourne himself. Director-screenwriter Tony Gilroy has said Damon’s character, Jason Bourne, will not feature in The Bourne Legacy, which is due to be released in 2012. Gilroy told Hollywood Elsewhere: "This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one's replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter … this is a stand-alone project. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much...

The film based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is all set to become the most expensive film ever made. Sir Peter Jackson’s cinematic rendition, the two-part precursor to The Lord of the Rings biopic trilogy, will cost $500 million. The entire three-part The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King – had cost $281 million in contrast. If all goes according to plan, the first part of The Hobbit will open in December 2012, with the second following a...

The son of a Baloch nationalist leader who was killed during Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s rule has offered a bounty of Rs 1 billion and 100 acres of land to any person who beheads the former dictator. The offer was made by Talal Akbar Bugti, the son of late leader Nawab Akbar Bugti and chief of the Jamhoori Watan Party, in the North West Frontier Province town of Quetta on Saturday. Nawab Bugti was killed in a cave, about 150 miles east of Quetta in August 2006. Musharraf, on the...

A new carnivore species has been discovered in the marshes of the Lac Alaotra wetlands in central eastern Madagascar. The small, cat-sized, speckled brown mammal has been named Durrell’s vontsira (Salanoia durrelli) by scientists. The discovery, announced in the latest issue of the taxonomic journal Systematics and Biodiversity, was made by researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Natural History Museum, London, Nature Heritage, Jersey, and Conservation International. The...

The former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia Erwin Arnada has surrendered. His lawyer said Arnada complied with the law on Saturday and turned up at the prosecutor’s office. He has been convicted for violating the Islamic nation's indecency laws. “He was not taken to the prosecutor’s office by use of force. He would not escape, but he gave up himself,” Todung Mulya Lubis was quoted by Jakarta Post as saying. When asked why the journalist did not surrender earlier, Todung said his client...

A Montana woman drove 1,500 km from Montana to a museum in Loveland, Colorado so she could destroy a controversial piece of art featuring Jesus. Kathleen Folden has been arrested for damaging a print that portrays Christ engaged in a sex act. The woman entered the Loveland Museum Gallery on Wednesday, used a crowbar to break glass over the art and ripped the print, the Associated Press reported quoting the Loveland Reporter-Herald. Folden was reported to have been screaming, "How can you...

Rewards totalling $10,000 are being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally killing an endangered gray wolf in Oregon's Umatilla National Forest. The US Fish and Wildlife service announced Friday it is offering $2,500. A coalition of conservation groups has chipped in with another $7,500 to the kitty. The wolf was a two-year-old male from the Wenaha pack and had been captured and fitted with a radio tracking collar in August...