CONGO inaugurated Joseph Kabila as its first freely elected president in more than four decades yesterday, installing a rebel leader’s son who ushered in a plan to end years of fighting to help the country take a place among the world’s democracies.

A rebel leader’s son who ushered in a peace plan was sworn in today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first freely-elected president in more than four decades.

A hearing on vote fraud charges will be delayed and continue in a new location in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa after part of the country’s supreme court caught fire yesterday amid gunfire and street fighting among supporters of the runner-up, officials said today.

Gunshots sounded and street brawls broke out today in Kinshasa among a crowd rallying for the runner-up in Democratic Republic of Congo’s landmark presidential vote as he pursued a court challenge of his loss.

Incumbent President Joseph Kabila was declared the winner of Congo’s tense decider election, defeating his ex-rebel leader rival in the war-torn country’s first multi-party contest in more than 40 years.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo have finished voting in an election that marks the climax of its four-year postwar transition.

UN troops in armoured vehicles are standing guard at the site of a three-day gun battle that broke out between forces loyal to president Joseph Kabila and a former rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

THE chief of staff to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila has been assaulted and robbed in northwest London, outside a TV studio.

FIGHTING flared for a third day yesterday between supporters of Congo’s two presidential candidates.

Heavy gunfire erupted in Kinshasa this morning around the home of Congo’s top presidential challenger, a day after fighters trapped diplomats who had to be evacuated by UN peacekeepers.

GUNFIRE broke out yesterday near the home of a leading Congolese politician, prompting the UN to send scores of peacekeepers in armoured vehicles to remove foreign diplomats trapped inside.

Heavy gunfire echoed through the Congolese capital today, with the shooting apparently centred close to the home of ex-rebel leader turned presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Electoral officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) backed by riot police faced down stone-throwing boycotters to allow voters a second chance, underlining the challenge to democracy in Africa: keeping ethnic, regional and political disputes from reigniting into war.

Hiding in the bushes, Amuzati Nzoli watched as rebel soldiers turned from killers into cannibals and ate his six-year-old nephew.

THE UN yesterday confirmed it had found evidence of cannibalism, mass executions, torture and rape