INTERNATIONAL
Rebels capture eastern Congo town
Associated Press
BUKAVU, Congo - Rwandan and Burundian rebels aided by Congolese army officers captured a strategic town in eastern Congo, a Congolese rebel leader said yesterday. Adolphe Onusumba, head of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, said the capture on Sept. 7 of the town of Fizi by the rebels happened as Burundian government forces were pulling out of eastern Congo to fight rebels outside their country's capital. "The capture of Fizi is very significant because Burundian and Rwandan rebels now have an opening to mount incursions into their countries across the lake," Onusumba told The Associated Press. News of Fizi's capture some 125 miles south of Bukavu was confirmed yesterday by local and international non-governmental organizations operating in eastern Congo. The war in Congo broke out in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda backed Congolese rebels attempting to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, accusing him of threatening regional security by arming Rwandan and Ugandan rebels. The Rwandan government holds Interahamwe militiamen responsible for the 100-day slaughter of at least 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.
"There is no way one can talk of peace when there is fighting in one's backyard," Onusumba said just days after unprecedented talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the major foreign backer of Congolese President Joseph Kabila.
STATES
Napster to pay $26 million for unlawful distribution
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif - Napster Inc. yesterday agreed to pay $26 million for distributing unauthorized music in the past and made a deal that could eventually allow songwriters and music publishers to offer their music to paying Napster users. The tentative agreement would settle a lawsuit filed by the National Music Publishers' Association. It must be approved by a judge, the association's board of directors and individual publishers. Napster allowed users to swap music online at no cost until it shut down July 2. The company was expected to begin allowing users this summer to get songs for a fee, but Napster chief executive Konrad Hilbers said yesterday the pay service will start later this year. The free service shut down after Napster was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents major record labels that wanted the service to stop users from collecting copyrighted music without permission. The deal announced yesterday covers the publishing rights to as many as 700,000 songs, but Napster also needs an agreement on a song's performing rights before the company can legally distribute it.
That leaves Napster with major hurdles to overcome before it can begin distributing songs. Performance rights are owned by the labels, some of which are starting their own Internet music services and may not want to help a competitor.
One new service, Pressplay, is a collaboration between Sony and Universal Music Group. MusicNet's founders include RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI.
LOCAL
Grand Canyon fire grows at North Rim
Associated Press
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz - Weekend winds fanned a fire burning on the Grand Canyon's north rim, pushing it up to about 2,400 acres and forcing officials to partially close a trail and a road.
The sections of Old Bright Angel Trail and Cape Royal Road that were closed yesterday will be reopened when the fire threat in the area decreases, federal officials said.
The trail is closed from the junction of Ken Patrick Trail to the south and from the junction of North Kaibab Trail to the north.
Smoke from the fire is expected to settle in the canyons during the nights and rise out of the area in the mornings as the day heats up. The road is closed from the junction of Cape Royal and Point Imperial roads to the southern end of the Walhalla Plateau and east along the plateau's rim.
The park assigned an air quality monitor to measure the effects of the smoke.
