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JOHANNESBURG: Operations at a chrome mine in South Africa owned by chemicals group LANXESS have been suspended since Thursday after workers started an illegal strike over bonus payments, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Saturday.The dispute at the mine in Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, adds to growing labour tensions around South Africa's platinum belt, which are set to intensify over looming job cuts and wage talks in the sector."The strike is still ongoing, although we are trying to persuade workers to go back," said Mxhasi Sithethi, the union's regional co-ordinator for Rustenburg."The company issued a court injunction yesterday calling the workers to go back to work, but the employees reacted angrily."Sithethi said the situation around the mine had been tense on Friday, although there were no reports of violence. The union will be in talks with the workers and the company's management on Monday ...
CAIRO: Egyptian police angered by the kidnapping of seven colleagues by rebels kept a crossing into the Gaza Strip closed again on Saturday, stranding hundreds of Palestinian travellers, witnesses said.The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions.Gunmen demanding the release of jailed militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai ...
TOKYO: A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the northern coast of Japan's main Honshu island on Saturday, seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.The quake hit at 2:48 pm (0548 GMT) in the Pacific some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Namie town near the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, the United States Geological Survey said.Japan's meteorological agency estimated it as 5.9 magnitude at a depth of 50 ...
FAIRFIELD: A commuter train traveling eastbound from New York City derailed near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield during the evening rush hour on Friday and collided with a westbound commuter train, injuring up to 60 people, three critically, officials said.The collision of the two Metro North trains forced Amtrak to shut down service indefinitely between New York and Boston, the national railroad said.Three people were critically injured and 60 people were transported to area hospitals, ...
MOSCOW: Held a virtual prisoner by the Bolsheviks months before his execution, Russia's last tsar Nicholas II pasted informal snapshots of his family into an album which has now come to light in a Russian provincial museum.The photographs, most of which have never been seen before, show the last of the Romanov rulers of Russia without pomp and in unguarded moments. Many were taken by Nicholas II himself.Since the 1920s, the album has been held ...
JAKARTAA British woman could face the death penalty in Indonesia after being arrested for allegedly smuggling crystal methamphetamine into the country from China, an official said Saturday.The woman, identified only by her initials AR, was arrested at a hotel in the city of Surabaya, East Java province, last month with 1.47 kilograms (three pounds, four ounces) of the drug, the national narcotics agency said."Because she smuggled drugs weighing more than five grams, she could face ...
PARIS: France became the 14th country to legalise same-sex marriage Saturday after President Francois Hollande signed the measure into law following months of bitter political debate.Hollande acted a day after the Constitutional Council threw out a legal challenge by the right-wing opposition, which had been the last obstacle to passing the bill into law. The legislation also legalises gay adoption.But while gay rights groups hailed the move, opponents of the measures have vowed to fight ...More Articles...
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