The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the UN that has the final word in disputes among states, will on Thursday, 14 February deliver its judgment in the case concerning an international arrest warrant issued on 11 April, 2000 by a Belgian judge against Abdulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, then the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) foreign minister, for "serious violations of international humanitarian law".

The impact of the conflict on children is devastating, depriving thousands of vulnerable young people of anything approaching a normal childhood, the Refugees International (RI)nongovernmental organisation (NGO) said on Wednesday in its bulletin entitled "Children in the Eastern Congo: Adrift in a sea of war and poverty".

The Democratic Republic of Congo is an enormous country with a population of approximately 50 million people. Its capital Kinshasa alone is home to more than 5 million people. Its vast land-mass is currently divided amongst the many participants in its civil war. The telephone take-up rate is one of the lowest rate in world and its telephone infrastructure is very decrepit from years of corruption, neglect and war. The current period of "not quite war" has focused attention on its enormous potential. Despite all these unpromising factors, its internet services and users have grown across the many different provinces of the country. Eric Nzita and Nico Tshintu attempt for the first time to chart the spread of internet access.

A recent survey by the aid agency International Rescue Committee has shown widespread reluctance among residents of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, to relocate outside the volcano stricken town, despite the danger of further eruptions in the region.

Two Congolese anti-government groups have agreed that their combined force set up to "aggressively track down" other marauding dissidents in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo will be based at Kalemie, Katanga Province, rebel-controlled radio reported on Friday.

The general humanitarian focus in the volcano-stricken town of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is shifting from an emergency intervention to longer-term needs.

UNICEF said on Wednesday that at least 600 children separated from their parents following the eruption of Mt Nyiragongo on 17 January had been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo and across the border in Rwanda.

If the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is to have any chance of success, it must confront the issue of natural resource extraction in a serious and explicit manner, says the international aid charity, Oxfam, in a briefing document issued on Tuesday.

Goma, the volcano-stricken town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, from which 350,000 people fled 12 days ago, is "doomed" in the short-to-medium term, Piero Calvi of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team told IRIN on Monday.

It is used in everything from mobile phones to the Sony Playstation - and many other electronic devices on the market today. It's called coltan - a rare mineral that has become synonymous with conflict in Central Africa. A Gemini News Service correspondent looks at the international efforts to curtail the mineral's wartime role.

The Australian government will provide $500,000 in emergency aid following the devastation caused by the eruption of Volcano Nyiragongo last Thursday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Representatives of the political opposition and civil society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - meeting in Brussels this week to discuss the future of their country - signed a 14-page document on Thursday aimed at paving the way towards the inter-Congolese dialogue.

A Swiss nongovernmental organisation, Foundation Hirondelle, in collaboration with the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo plans to start a nationwide radio station within the next month, the mission's information officer, David Smith, said at the weekend.

Thousands of people who fled their homes in the eastern Congolese town of Goma following a volcanic eruption on Thursday have begun streaming back home, ignoring continued tremors from Mt. Nyiragongo and warnings by UN officials.

Aid agencies were poised to start substantial emergency supplies to the stricken Congolese town of Goma on Tuesday after a leading expert said Africa's deadliest volcanic eruption in 25 years appeared over.

Fresh concerns over the impact of coltan mining in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo were raised this week by a local pressure group following a marked decline in the livelihoods of communities close to the sites where the rare mineral is extracted.

The Lutheran World Federation reports from Rwanda that tens of thousands of people fleeing a volcano near Goma, Congo, have made their way across the border into Rwanda seeking shelter in churches, schools and public buildings. Others are believed to have fled into the forests and along the shores of Lake Kivu. Some have already returned to their city to find lost loved ones.

Aid agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been struggling to help thousands of desperate people in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. Many refugees refused to go into camps to be fed and insisted on returning to their homes in Goma to inspect damage, relief officials said on Sunday.

Research by International Peace Information Service, an independent Belgian institute, shows that European companies trading coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) contribute to the financing of the Congolese war.

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement has expelled 193 Burundians from Museke in the Ubwari Peninsula of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.