Thousands of people who fled attacks by a Uganda-led rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Kamango need urgent aid, the U.N. humanitarian office said Wednesday.

The town of Kamango in the northernmost part of DR Congo's unstable North Kivu province was attacked and briefly occupied on July 11 by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

Guantanamo detainees are marking six months of an unprecedented hunger strike that has trained attention on the more than 150 men held at the U.S. military prison without charge or trial.

The strike began on February 6 as a spontaneous reaction to a cell sweep in which guards allegedly mishandled copies of the Koran, but soon grew into a mass protest against the legal limbo within the walls of the War on Terror prison.

An intercepted conference call between al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and his top operatives was prompted the United States to close its Middle East diplomatic missions, according to a report Wednesday.

Online journal The Daily Beast, citing U.S. intelligence sources, said more than 20 al-Qaida operatives from across the militant group's global network were on the call.

South African church leaders on Wednesday led prayers in front of the hospital where critically ill former South African president Nelson Mandela is soon to mark two months in care.

Archbishop Joe Seoka used the eve of the sorrow-tinged anniversary to urge South Africans to rally together.

The Czech parliament met Wednesday for a confidence vote on the new technocrat government, which is unlikely to win but could still remain in power with a little help from its ally, the president.

Appointed by President Milos Zeman on July 10, the government of leftwing economist Jiri Rusnok replaced a center-right coalition cabinet that was toppled by a bribery and spy scandal in June.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday warned his Spanish counterpart that the escalating tit-for-tat over border tensions in Gibraltar risked damaging relations between their countries.

Cameron and Mariano Rajoy discussed ways to calm the situation in a call Britain described as "constructive" after tensions rose at the weekend when Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo threatened to impose steep tolls to cross the border.

South African police Wednesday made 45 arrests after firing rubber bullets to disperse a protest against poor living conditions in a township west of Johannesburg.

Residents of Fochville, many of whom live in shacks, have been protesting since Tuesday, demanding better homes and access to running water.

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Sweden in early September, the Swedish prime minister's office announced on Wednesday.

"On Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 September, U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Sweden at the invitation of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. It will be the first time an incumbent U.S. president pays a bilateral visit to Sweden," the office said in a statement.

Four men, including a policeman, were remanded in custody by a Turkish court on Wednesday over the death of an anti-government protester who was beaten during a June demonstration, local media reported.

The four were placed in detention by a court in the northwestern town of Eskisehir where student Ali Ismail Korkmaz, 19, died of a brain hemorrhage on July 10 after spending 38 days in a coma.

Argentine authorities on Wednesday combed through the charred ruins of an apartment building destroyed by an explosion and fire that left at least 10 people dead.

Another 62 people were injured and 13 are missing after Tuesday's thunderous blast caused by a gas leak in the building in Rosario, the country's third largest city, said Santa Fe province's health minister Miguel Cappiello.