Troops deployed following unrest

South Africa: Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said yesterday that the army has been deployed to support police in areas still volatile after a spate of attacks on immigrants.

She made the announcement in Alexandra, near Johannesburg, where a Zimbabwean couple who survived an overnight shooting were treated in hospital, then discharged.

Troops were also sent to the coastal city of Durban, where the attacks began.

Marchers protest at xenophobic rioting

Malawi: Nearly 2,000 protesters marched to the South African high commission in the capital Lilongwe, protesting at the wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

The organisers called on the African National Congress government to better protect immigrants and handed a petition to high commissioner Cassandra Mbuyane-Mokone. Some marchers carried posters reading: “South Africa, why kill your fellow blacks?”

US urges Pristina to try terrorists

Kosovo: Senior US official Stephen Rapp advised the Pristina administration yesterday to set up a court to try Albanian terrorists accused of organ-trafficking and “disappearing” hundreds of Serb prisoners.

Mr Rapp, the US ambassador for war crimes, told local media that failure to do so could lead Russia and Serbia to raise the issues at the UN.

A Council of Europe report alleged that former PM Hashim Thaci headed a criminal network.

Blast in Kandahar leaves three dead

Afghanistan: Two police officers and a female civilian were killed yesterday and 17 people were wounded by an explosion at a police station in the city of Kandahar.

Provincial spokesman Samim Khpalwak said that the authorities had first believed a car bomb was to blame but admitted later to being unsure.

Attacks on Afghan security forces have intensified in recent weeks as insurgents mount their annual summer offensive.

Neruda reburial put off for tests

Chile: The body of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda will not be reburied this week as planned, the judiciary press office said on Monday.

Plans to reinter the lifelong communist, who was exhumed in 2013, at his home in the coastal town of Isla Negra were suspended after family members asked for more tests to determine the cause of his death.

He died shortly after the US-supported 1973 military coup that overthrew socialist president Salvador Allende’s government.

State forces claim advantage over Isis

Iraq: Security forces claimed yesterday to have recaptured areas lost earlier to the Islamic State group (Isis) in and around the city of Ramadi.

Police said that government forces had regained control of the city’s Paediatric and Maternity Hospital and the surrounding area after fierce clashes with Isis militants.

They also said that troops were fighting to regain control of Soufiya, one of three villages that fell to Isis last week.

Seven miners die in Datong flood

China: At least seven coalminers have died and 13 remain trapped after a shaft flooded at the Jiangjiawan mine near the city of Datong in northern China, state media reported yesterday.

More than 600 rescue workers are pumping water and drilling holes from the surface in the hope of reaching those still inside.

Some 247 miners were underground when water rushed in on Sunday evening and 223 made it safely to the surface.

Hundreds protest at murder of Christians

Ethiopia: Hundreds of demonstrators protested in Addis Ababa yesterday over the murder of dozens of Christians by pro-Islamic State extremists in Libya.

Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom told members of parliament that the government would take “all necessary action” to protect citizens and will start repatriating those who wish to come home.

He said most of the human traffickers of Ethiopian migrants are themselves Ethiopians.