South African miners cleared by court

A MAGISTRATE in South Africa on Monday cleared 270 miners who had been charged with the murder of 34 colleagues, who were shot dead by police while protesting during a strike outside the Lonmin mine in Marikana last month (News, 24 August). In an article for Independent Online South Africa, the Bishop of Pretoria, the Rt Revd Jo Seoka, who is leading negotiations between Lonmin and the striking workers, said on Wednesday that the police officer in charge of the police at Marikana, who gave orders to to shoot to kill, "must be the one charged with murder, as well as the policemen who pulled the triggers [of the guns] that killed the striking miners".

West Africa to create two provinces

THE Church of the Province of West Africa is to hold a special synod later this month at which it will adopt an amendment to its constitution to allow for the creation of two administrative provinces. The synod will meet at Cuttington University in Liberia between 27 and 29 September. The Provincial Secretary, Canon Anthony Eiwuley, said that one province would "contain all the dioceses in Ghana, and the other the rest of the six dioceses in Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cameroon".

West Bank monastery defaced

HEBREW graffiti was sprayed on the walls of the Monastery of the Silent Monks at Latrun, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Tuesday. The graffiti included the name of the Migron outpost, which was cleared of Israeli settlers on Sunday, alongside the words: "Jesus is a monkey."