Rebels from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are to blame for a church massacre the day after Christmas that left 45 people butchered, according to the Ugandan army. A spokesman for the LRA, however, says the group had nothing to do with the killings. The horrific attack happened in a Catholic church in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aftermath was “horrendous … dead bodies of mostly women and children cut into pieces,” said Capt. Chris Magezi. At least 189 people were killed as a result of attacks in Congo just last week, according to the United Nations. The LRA has been involved with peace talks with the Ugandan government (sponsored by the South Sudanese government) for a long time. But the two sides haven’t been able to agree on terms. LRA head Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, will not sign a deal until his arrest warrants and his fellow LRA members warrants are dropped.

U.N. official says both sides are to blame for Congo crisis. Both rebels and government forces are to blame for violence in Congo that has forced 250,000 people from their homes, according to a United Nations official. In his report for the U.N. Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote that the country’s army and police “were responsible for a large number of serious human rights violations during the reporting period [from July to November], namely arbitrary executions, rape torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.” The Tutsi rebel forces, led by Gen Laurent Nkunda, also took part in atrocities including “mass killings, torture abductions, forced recruitment of children, forced displacement and destruction of camps, forced labor and sexual violence,” said the report. It also says that the government arrested human rights activists and journalists. Last week, an additional 3,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops were approved to be deployed into the nation to help stop the fighting.

Jamaica is “not in crisis,” says official. The current economic crisis is hitting the world hard, but Jamaica’s finance minister insists the problems are not so bad in his country, reports the BBC. Unlike other countries like the United States, Audley Shaw doesn’t believe Jamaica needs a national rescue plan. While he expects tourism to be down, Shaw says Jamaica’s economy is “not in crisis.” The nation’s economy will be soothed by an expected decrease in its energy bill along with reasonably priced loans from financial agencies. Shaw did announce some budget and debt reforms.

World Lens Photos: Don King shows up in Israel, Barack Obama’s grandma gets a special visit, protesters get riled up in South Africa. See pics.

Rebels in Congo declare a cease-fire. After days of fighting government forces in the nation, a Congo rebel leader has declared a ceasefire, reports CNN. The Tutsi general who heads the National Congress for the Defense of the People, Laurent Nkunda, ordered the move, French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said. “We hope that it will stand, and we hope that tomorrow Mr. Nkunda will announce that he stops his offensive,” Ripert said. Fighting between rebels and the government pushed thousands of people to escape to the city of Goma, resulting in declining medical conditions throughout the region, according to the charity Doctors Without Borders. Nkunda has said that the government won’t protect Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia. The rebel attacks also drove thousands of people, who already were displaced, out of U.N.-operated camps, causing officials to be concerned. “The humanitarian situation is quite dire. We have internally displaced people streaming out of camps,” spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo Madnodie Mounoubai said. “Both parties are blocking the U.N. from reaching desperately needy people to evacuate. …I cannot emphasize how desperate the situation on the ground is.” But one representative from the charity Oxfam is hoping for the best results from the ceasefire. “We are very happy that, at least, the fighting is going to stop,” he said, also appealing for both sides to come together and “find a lasting situation to the crisis.” 

U.S. travelers warned about Guyana’s crime. U.S. travelers were warned by the American Embassy about a reported rise in robberies in Guyana, reports Caribbean News Net. According to the report, released by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, there has been a rise in gas station robberies, especially at those frequented by many embassy workers. “Due to a rise in criminal activity during the hours of darkness, the U.S. Embassy is recommending that its employees fill their gas tanks during daylight hours only. Private U.S. citizens in Guyana may wish to heed this same advice,” the report said. But one Guyanese official says the report really isn’t true because there haven’t been any robberies at gas stations recently. Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee also went on to say that this was just them trying to blow the country’s crime issue out of proportion and that the department should’ve spoken to authorities before making the claim.

Uganda wants charities to stop giving aid to rebels. Ugandan leaders want to starve rebel leaders into ending the country’s 20-year-old war. The Minister for Disaster Preparedness Tarsis Kabwegyere is asking that charities stop giving food aid to the rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), so its members will be starved out of their camps and be more likely to sign a peace deal with the government. The LRA backed out of signing an agreement earlier this year because some of their leaders had international arrest warrants. And Kabwegyere thinks they manipulated the talks to get food and medicine.  ”Whoever is giving food to LRA should say, ‘We’re giving you food only when you can sign,’” he told the BBC. The rebel group’s leader, Joseph Kony, should “know that ending the war is the best thing to do,” he continued. Many in the LRA have moved to camps on the Sudan-Congo border. Just last week, 75,000 people escaped LRA-led fighting in the Congo. Two million people were made homeless during the 20-year war.

Guyana passes strict law against sex offenders
It seems like the Caribbean is toughening up on crime as a whole. Last week Jamaica’s prime minister introduced tougher penalties for gun crimes. Now, Guyana lawmakers just passed legislation that requires people convicted of certain sexual offenses (such as molestation, rape, sexual exploitation and prostitution) to face being supervised by the police for the rest of their lives, even after they have completed their sentences, reports the BBC. Also under the new law, those convicted of armed robbery, domestic violence and hijacking, would be supervised by police for a mandatory three years after serving their sentence. Members of the opposition in the nation’s Parliament supported the law in general but were also concerned that it allowed for the prime minister to add or remove offenses without consulting the governing body first.

Rebels Attack Two Nigerian oil pipelines
A Nigerian rebel group took responsibility for damaging two oil pipelines in southern Nigeria, reports CNN. About the attack, the group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said “detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters” caused damage to the pipelines early Monday morning. The rebels believe that the pipelines, located in two different cities, are the property of Shell Petroleum Development Company. And Shell has confirmed damage to at least one of its pipelines in the country. “We are working to ascertain the extent of the damage and have shut in some production to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,” Caroline Wittgen, a Shell spokeswoman said. Nigeria is one of the United States’ major oil suppliers, and the rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the nation have led to the rise in crude oil prices. The recent attacks have cut the region’s oil production by 10 percent. “Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,” Jim LeCamp, senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management ( a company that works with wealthy clients internationally) told CNN. Since 2006, MEND has made it a point to attack big foreign oil companies – by bombing pipelines or kidnapping foreign oil employees for ransom – because they believe the oil wealth should be shared with the mostly poor citizens of the Niger Delta region. More than 70 percent of natives in the oil-rich area get paid less that a dollar each day.