Forty-one miners died and 57 others are missing after two separate disasters in China’s beleagured coal-mine industry, a government agency and state media said on Monday. The bulk of the casualties came when a gas explosion ripped through a mine in China’s north-west Xinjiang region, killing at least 40 miners.
Army and rebel officials in Côte d’Ivoire have agreed to begin disarming by late September, just one month before crucial October 30 presidential elections, officials said on Sunday. The two sides came to their agreement after three days of talks ended on Saturday in the capital, Yamoussoukro.
Zambia’s ruling party has expelled a senior member and popular politician over allegations of corruption just days before the start of a national convention called to elect a new party leadership, a spokesperson said on Monday. Austin Chewe had been tipped to win the party’s vice-presidency at the convention.
Heavily armed gunmen in Somalia’s lawless capital of Mogadishu overnight shot dead an outspoken Somali aid worker and peace activist who headed an NGO in the shattered African nation, witnesses said on Monday. They said about six gunmen raided the home of Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, hauled him out of his house and shot him dead.
A strike in the glass industry entered its second day on Monday with no wage settlement in sight, unions said. Solidarity and the General Industries Workers’ Union of South Africa said workers walked off the job on Friday after refusing a ”miserable 5%” from July 1 and another 0,5% from January 1 next year.
Between 75% and 80% of South Africans have limited or no access at all to health services, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday. This inequity is limiting access to medical treatment, she said at the presentation of the draft Charter of the Public and Private Health Sectors of the Republic of South Africa.
As the convoy of lorries trundled through torrents and thunderstorms over the hills of eastern Bosnia into Srebrenica, Mando was puzzled by one thought. ”What’s all the fuss about?” shrugged the young Srebrenica Serb on Sunday as the town swelled with Bosnian mourners.
Israel looked on Monday to international support for its pull-out from the Gaza Strip, requesting a multibillion-dollar aid package from the United States and lobbying for European Union backing from visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. The pull-out operation is to begin in mid-August.
Four men appeared briefly in the Wynberg Magistrate’s court on Monday in connection with the murder of a six-month-old baby last month. The court proceedings were held in camera because one of the accused is 16-years-old, said police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton went on the attack against President George Bush in a speech, accusing him of damaging the economy by overspending while giving tax cuts to the rich. The Democrat from New York also accused Bush of depriving United States soldiers of equipment needed to fight the war in Iraq and cutting funding for scientific research.