Need to do some Video Editing

[Richard Wilson]

I am hoping someone in this list can steer me to the right packages...
My wife recently led a Women's Retreat which was captured to mini-DVD's
on a Sony HandyCam which saves things in MPEG format.

I need to pull in the video files and edit out "empty space" and
(hopefully) get three mini DVD's onto one regular size one.  

I am able to play the DVD's and copy them, but so far haven't found
anything that will allow me to edit them.  The HandyCam came with Nero
Express 6 Software (for XP of course) that does NOT allow editing.  

I am running Fedora 8, in case it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance,

Richard Wilson