US black church fire stokes arson fears

Washington (AFP) - An overnight fire that destroyed a small-town African-American church in South Carolina once torched by Ku Klux Klan members is reviving fears that arsonists are targeting places of worship with black congregations.

The Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Greeleyville -- 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Charleston -- is the sixth church in the southern United States to be hit by fire in less than a fortnight.

Many suspect at least some of the blazes were racially motivated, coming so soon after a lone white gunman shot and killed nine blacks during bible study at Charleston's historic Emanuel AME church on June 17 .... http://news.yahoo.com