An international court ordered the Democratic Republic of Congo to pay DIG Oil of South Africa $617-million for failing to honor two oil contracts, weeks before outgoing President Joseph Kabila finally approved one of the deals. The previously undisclosed ruling is the latest twist in an 11-year dispute over concessions in the central African nation, which may hold as much as 6 percent of the continent’s oil reserves. Kabila’s belated assent to one of the contested contracts suggests the state may be seeking ways to avoid paying the penalty.