largely
secular Awami National Party, which strongly opposes the Taliban and other Islamist militants and has been targeted before.
Forces from the United Nations and the Congolese army have secured an airport in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo after heavy fighting. On Sunday, at least 100 armed men attacked the capital of Equateur province Mbandaka, killing three UN staff. Thomas Fessy reports from Kinshasa.
The airport was retaken on Monday morning after a new joint offensive between Congolese and UN troops. Both sides have now confirmed that operations are underway around the airport and the provincial capital to find the in
surge
nts. A UN spokesman in Kinshasa says that a few fighters have been arrested by the Congolese police, but the number of insurgents detained is still unknown. The Congolese army is expected to send an
assessment
mission in the coming days to decide whether reinforcement is needed.
The United States government says it intends to impose the maximum penalty available on the Japanese carmaker Toyota over the way it handled the mass recall of its vehicles because of safety faults.
The US Transportation Department said it would seek to fine Toyota more than 16 million dollars for failing to inform Washington about problems with the accelerators in a number of models. In some cases, the malfunction caused cars to
accelerate
uncontrollably.