The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 09-08-30

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From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] DR Congo Forces Killed 400

The Democratic Republic of Congo military said Saturday it had killed or captured more than 500 Rwandan Hutu rebels in the country's east since launching an offensive against them six weeks ago.

The army has killed 354 rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and captured 151 in Sud-Kivu province, Colonel Delphin Kahimbi told AFP

Forty-three DR Congo soldiers have been killed and 29 hurt since the offensive began in mid-July, said Kahimbi, who commands army forces in Sud-Kivu.

Many of the rebels have fled to neighbouring Tanzania and Burundi, he said by telephone from the city of Bukavu.

"The second phase of operations will begin before September 10 in the Fizi district (near the Tanzanian border), the only one that was not addressed in the first phase," said Kahimbi.

An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 FDLR rebel fighters had been in Nord and Sud-Kivu provinces, some having taken part in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi minority in Rwanda before crossing into DR Congo.

The head of the UN mission in DR Congo, Alan Doss, earlier this week said high-population areas in the region were now under government control. DR Congo forces have received logistical support from UN troops.

News item: 26225

[02] US: Mass Murder in Georgia

A murder investigation has been launched in the US following the discovery of seven bodies and two further people critically injured at a Mobile Home Park in Brunswick, Georgia. The two injured were taken to hospital for treatment.

Glynn County Police spokesman said that the county coroner was working to identify the victims of the new mass murder in the US.

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said ""We have never had such an incident with so many victims, that I know in the history of this county."

There has been a spate of mass killings in the United States since the spring. In Pennsylvania earlier in August a man who said he had suffered constant rejection by women, walked into a gym, opened fire on a dance class and killed three women before turning his gun on himself. Three similar incidents occurred in April.

In New York, on April, 3 a man barricaded a civic center in upstate New York, killing 13 people, many recent immigrants, before shooting himself. Soon afterwards, in Washington state a man shot and killed his five children, aged seven to 16, then turned the gun on himself after his wife told him she was leaving him.

On April 7, a gunman killed his wife, daughter and two other people with a gun before killing himself in Greenhill, Alabama.

News item: 26223

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