Afghanistan

U.S. military searching for missing aircraft

The U.S. military said today that it was searching for three civilian crew members and three military passengers who were aboard an aircraft that went missing over Afghanistan.

It said troops and planes were scouring the Hindu Kush mountains in the center of the country, from where it had received a signal from an emergency locator transmitter. It was unclear if the missing aircraft had crashed.

The civilian CASA 112 plane was under contract to the U.S. military to carry troops and equipment in Afghanistan, the military said in a statement. It didn’t identify the operator or give further details of the six on board.

The plane took off Saturday from the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul, but never arrived at its undisclosed destination or any other airfield.

Myanmar

Nobel peace laureate’s detention extended

The ruling military junta of Myanmar has placed Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s charismatic opposition leader, under an additional year of house arrest, dashing hopes for an opening to democracy any time soon, government opponents said Monday.

Police visited Suu Kyi’s lakeside home in Rangoon, the capital, over the weekend and informed her of the move, according to members of her party, the National League for Democracy.

The decision, not officially announced, follows the junta’s release last month of 9,000 prisoners, including former student leader Min Ko Naing, the second most prominent political detainee. However, he was among only a few dozen political prisoners released, opposition figures said.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for nine of the last 15 years. She won the Nobel Peace Prize while detained in 1991. Her most recent confinement began in May 2003, after a bloody crackdown by government-sponsored gangs on her and her supporters.

Congo

Troops to be sent to Rwandan border

Congo intends to send 10,000 reinforcements toward its eastern border with Rwanda, a presidential spokesman said Monday, after credible reports that thousands of Rwandan troops crossed into its territory, raising fears of reigniting a devastating five-year regional war.

A Western diplomat said Monday that thousands of Rwandan troops moved into the remote forested hills of east Congo — an account supported by park rangers and local chiefs near the border of the two neighbors and wartime enemies.

Rwanda refused to confirm or deny the reported incursion, and the U.N. mission in Congo said U.N. helicopter patrols and other sorties had failed to turn up any immediate sign of Rwandan troops.

The reports of a Rwandan incursion come just days after Rwanda threatened to send its forces into eastern Congo to hunt down Rwandan Hutu rebels. Rwanda argued that a 5-month-old U.N.-led disarmament campaign there had failed to act aggressively enough.