South Africa suffers over 100 weekend bush fires. Over the weekend, over 100 bush fires sparked across South Africa, leaving at least 20 people dead, reports the BBC.  Fourteen of the deceased died in fires in the KwaZulu-Natal province and three others died when their shack caught on fire in the Eastern Cape, say police. Three people in the Mpumalanga province also perished in the blazes. The fires, which started in the bush, spread and were made worse by strong winds, leaving dozens of people homeless in Cape Town. And a local forecaster is not optimistic about them ending soon. “There are still fires burning on the eastern Highveld, in Swaziland and northern KwaZulu-Natal and there are isolated fires over Limpopo,” said the forecaster. The fires, which have already burned 125,000 acres of land, are unprecedented in the nation. “This particular situation has never been experienced before. Reports are coming in from all over the country,” a spokesman from Johannesburg’s Emergency Services told the BBC.

Plane crashes in Congo. A plane, carrying charity workers, crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reports the BBC. Fifteen people and two crew members were aboard the plane when it crashed. The aircraft lost contact Monday night with ground control after leaving Kisangani, and 10 minutes before reaching the city Bukavu. The plane crashed in pouring rain. A rescue helicopter was not able to land near the crash, so it is unknown whether there are any survivors. Because the country has a bad air safety history, many humanitarian agencies coordinate their own air travel. They used Air Serv, a non-profit.

Hijacked Sudanese plane lands in Libya. A plane, hijacked not too long after leaving Sudan’s Darfur region, landed in Kufra, Libya, reports CNN. The plane, believed to be hijacked by rebels, had about 87 passengers and 10 crew members on board, although the number of hijackers onboard is not known. Some of the passengers on the plane were officials from Sudan’s interim government, according to a Sudanese news service. They originally had wanted to land the plane in Egypt, but the Egyptian government would not give them permission, said Sudan’s U.S. ambassador, John Ukec. But at least one Egyptian official is saying that story is not true. “The hijacked plane never entered Egyptian airspace. It never requested to land on Egyptian soil …We understand that it had a tank that would allow it to fly for four hours. It flew directly toward Kufra,” said the leader of Egypt’s civil aviation control. The airline says passenger safety is their number one priority. “We are in contact with Libyan officials because of this dangerous event. We want to resolve the situation as soon as we can in a way where we can guarantee the safety of all our passengers,” an Sun Air airlines official told a Sudanese news service.

Castro says judge deserved to get kicked in the face

Cuba’s former leader, Fidel Castro, stuck up for an athlete who kicked an Olympic judge in the face, reports The Associated Press. Angel Matos, who competed for Cuba in this year’s Olympics doing taekwondo, was so mad he was disqualified from a match that he kicked the judge in the face. Officials of the sport would like him to be banned for life for the conduct, but Castro is standing strong behind Matos, saying he “was predisposed and indignant” when he was unfairly disqualified. “He couldn’t contain himself.” Matos was actually winning the match when, after a hard fall to the mat, he had to take an injury timeout. Competitors are only allowed one minute, so he was disqualified when he took more time than allotted. Cuba’s showing in boxing also got Castro heated and crying foul. “I saw when the judges blatantly stole fights from two Cuban boxers in the semifinals. Our fighters … had hopes of winning, despite the judges, but it was useless. They were condemned beforehand,” he wrote in a newspaper editorial. Cuba, considered an Olympic boxing powerhouse, took home no boxing golds this year. (They won four silver and four bronze boxing medals).  Overall, the nation only took home two golds in this year’s games, which is less than the nine they won in Athens.

Plane crash in Guatemala kills 10. A Guatemalan plane carrying 14 people crashed Sunday, killing 10 people, reports CNN. Eight Americans are among the dead.  About 45 minutes after the Cessna Caravan 208 took off, the pilot started making calls about engine failure, according to the country’s director of civil aeronautics. But the air-traffic tower lost contact with the plane at 9:45 a.m. and it crashed in Zacapa, killing the pilot, co-pilot and the Americans on board. The other four passengers were taken to a hospital after the crash. “It seems like the pilot tried her best to make a safe landing in an open field but was not successful. On impact, the aircraft was split into pieces,” a Zacapa firefighter told reporters at the scene.  

Civilians killed by Sudan’s government forces, witnesses say. Sudanese forces attacked a refugee camp in Darfur, killing at least 32 civilians early Monday, witnesses say. The witness accounts of the attack are chilling. More than 50 vehicles “packed with armed men wearing police and security forces’ uniforms … hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns,” resident of the refugee camp, Mandela Abdullah Mohammed, told The Associated Press. He also said the victims included many women and children. One rebel group spokesman from the Sudan Liberation Army claimed an even higher death toll - 45 people dead and 135 people wounded - due to the Sudanese soldiers “storming” the camp and attacking. “The government sent a strong military force and attacked the camp with the intentions of killing civilians,” another spokesman for the group told AP.  A Sudanese military spokesman, though, insists they had good reason to fire on the camp. “They were surprised by heavy gunfire from within the camp. There was an exchange of fire and a number of victims,” the spokesman, Sawarmy Khaled, said.  But the United Nations say they received reports about Sudanese police surrounding and attacking the camp in southern Darfur, which resulted in “injuries and deaths of civilians.” The United Nations would not give an estimate on the death toll, but a coordinator for nearby clinic run by Doctors Without Borders says that at least 65 people were admitted for treatment for gunshot wounds. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is facing genocide charges brought on by the International Criminal Court for allegedly supporting attacks against the nation’s ethnic Africans. Since fighting started in Darfur in 2003, about 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been made homeless.

Why did Obama’s campaign plane make an emergency landing?

Did Obama’s campaign plane have to make an emergency landing last month? ABC News says it got hold of control tower tapes that indicate the MD-80 aircraft had to make an unscheduled landing in St. Louis because the pilot said he was having trouble controlling the pitch of the plane, asked to land, and requested that the airport have crash equipment stand by. The Federal Aviation Administration isn’t disputing the network’s report. A spokeswoman says reporters were told there was no emergency because that’s what the agency was told at the time. She also notes a pilot may declare an emergency to make sure he has priority to land and to make sure there is rescue equipment ready in case there is a real problem. Obama told reporters later that day the incident was a “little glitch.” The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident. Federal investigators say an initial check of the plane turned up no evidence of missing parts or tampering.

U.N. will remove staff from Darfur
The UN-African Union mission (UNAMID) announced it will be removing staff from the Sudan, reports the BBC. There are 9,600 uniformed peacekeepers and around 1,300 civilians involved with the mission in Darfur. No word yet on how many will be removed; however a UNAMID commander said that despite the withdrawal, the peacekeepers would still be looking to keep up their presence in the region. “We will continue to protect the U.N. personnel and U.N. facilities that are here, and we will continue to help the humanitarian organizations to continue to do their job of rendering humanitarian services to the people in Darfur,” Gen. Martin Luther Agwai said. The process will begin today, according to a Sudanese official, who added, “This is a unilateral decision which the Sudanese government was not involved in.” This announcement comes not too long after an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor announced he was looking to arrest Sudan’s president on war crimes charges. The U.N. officially has nothing to do with the ICC, but with the troop withdrawal, it may be preparing itself for a potential increase in problems within the region, reports the BBC. Earlier this month, an attack on UNAMID peacekeepers by a militia in Darfur left seven dead and 22 injured.

Drug plane with a fake Red Cross logo seized in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone police seized a plane loaded with an estimated $54 million worth of cocaine at an airport not far from the capital Sunday. The small white plane, which reportedly had a fake Red Cross symbol on it, landed in Freetown’s Lungi airport, without being authorized, a police spokesman told BBC. “When police searched the aircraft, some 600kg (1,320 lbs.) of cocaine was discovered along with gallons of fuel and several AK47 and AK48 rifles … with 339 rounds of cartridges,” the spokesman told Agence France-Presse. Eight foreigners have been arrested in connection with the incident. The pilots of the plane fled in a vehicle that drove up to the fence by the runway, and airport security did not try to stop them, reports the BBC. After setting up roadblocks, though, the police later arrested seven foreigners – three Colombians, two Mexicans a Venezuelan and a U.S. citizen, not too far from the airport. On Monday, another suspect, a Cuban-American, was arrested. Sierra Leone citizens also have been questioned by police. “It’s drawn attention to the fact that we have to do more. There must be many more flights like this. It’s something that governments can lose control over,” said Michael Schulenburg, who heads the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone. The group warned last month that smugglers are seeking new ways of getting drugs from South America to Europe.