Congo parliament says to drop controversial part of election law

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's lawmakers will remove part of an electoral reform bill that the opposition says was aimed at keeping President Joseph Kabila in power, the head of the national assembly said on Sunday. Parliamentarians will vote on the bill on Sunday, Aubin Minaku said, potentially ending a violent standoff in which some 42 people have been killed in the capital and other parts of the country during violent protests over recent days. "The line in question be purely and simply withdrawn from the law," Minaku told journalists in Kinshasa. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)