Rescuers battling to reach two Australian miners entombed in a collapsed gold mine said they were directly beneath the men late on Monday, with as little as 30cm of hard rock left to cut. Brant Webb (37) and Todd Russell (34) spread grout over loose rocks beneath their cage to prevent fresh rock falls when miners tunneling toward them from below finally break through.
The United Nations humanitarian chief hurriedly left a Darfur camp for displaced people on Monday when a crowd demonstrating for UN peacekeepers attacked a translator, accusing him of supporting the government, a UN spokesperson said. Jan Egeland and his entourage cut short their visit to Kalma camp when an NGO translator was manhandled.
At least 31 people have died as a searing heatwave brought temperatures of nearly 47ºC to central Pakistan, officials said on Monday. The hot spell comes amid a warning from the country’s top meteorologist that Pakistan faces a possible drought with no significant rain expected in the next two months.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was found not guilty in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman at his Johannesburg home in November last year. Judge Willem van der Merwe found that Zuma and his accuser had consensual sex in Zuma’s main bedroom.
Australian spinner Shane Warne has hit back at former captain Steve Waugh, who claimed his team were too friendly with the English players during last year’s Ashes series. The teams often met after a day’s play in the series, which England won 2-1, and Waugh felt it contributed to the Australians’ surrender of the Ashes for the first time in 17 years.
Two homeopaths holding top positions in the organisation that regulates the conduct of all South African homeopaths are being investigated for apparent fraudulent qualifications. This is the latest scandal to hit the Allied Health Professionals Council of South Africa, a government-established statutory body.
South African telecommunications giant Telkom confirmed on Monday that it will not be pursuing a stake in Portugal Telecom. The local fixed-line operator confirmed in March that it had been approached by Portuguese investors to participate in a rival bid for the Portuguese operator, for which Sonaecom was bidding.
An initiative by the child-welfare NGO Save the Children is managing to overcome the timidity of urban dwellers in Swaziland about ”getting involved” in neighbours’ domestic disputes. ”Looking the other way … has led to tragedies,” says Elizabeth Kgalolo, programme director at Save the Children.
Nearly 900 students attend the high school in Orlando, a suburb of Johannesburg’s sprawling Soweto township, but there is only one qualified teacher to teach the three basic science subjects, the library has no up-to-date books and the ”computer lab” has no computers.
Greek detectives arrive in London on Monday for talks with Scotland Yard as Athens steps up its efforts to combat the international trade in smuggled antiquities. After the recent discovery of priceless relics in an Aegean island home, they hope the meeting will not only shed light on the murky business but also illuminate London’s role as a hub for traffickers.