Major companies to stop making Confederate flags

Prominent US flag makers said on Tuesday they will stop manufacturing and selling Confederate battle flags after last week's attack on black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Reggie VandenBosch, vice-president of sales at privately owned Valley Forge Flag, said the Pennsylvania-based company came to the decision as pressure grew on South Carolina to remove the banner from outside the State House in Columbia.

Annin Flagmakers, based in Roseland, New Jersey, announced that, it, too will stop making the flag, used by the pro-slavery Confederate states during the 1861-65 American Civil War.