DRC: prosecutor asks Senate to lift Bemba immunity

Congo's public prosecutor has asked the Senate to lift senator Jean-Pierre Bemba's immunity so he can be charged over bloody clashes between his forces and army troops last month, according to documents seen by Reuters. Public Prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba said in a letter to the provisional head of the Senate that Bemba, who flew to Portugal on Wednesday for medical treatment, was the "intellectual author" of the fighting in which up to 600 people died.