US expels DR Congo diplomats

The United States has expelled two diplomats from the Democratic Republic of Congo in retaliation for the expulsion of two US diplomats from Kinshasa.

The State Department said the Congolese diplomats had been given forty-eight hours to leave the United States.

On Friday the government in Kinshasa had accused the two Americans of carrying out activities incompatible with their status.

A Congolese church leader had said on television that the diplomats had told church and civil society leaders that it was time for President Laurent Kabila to go. A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said the Americans had done nothing to warrant expulsion, and described the allegations as false and outrageous.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service