World In Brief

Students call for uni to boycott Israel

SOUTH AFRICA: Students at the University of the Witwatersrand announced plans today for an acdemic and cultural boycott of Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The school’s student representative council is calling for an immediate investigation into any academic, financial and cultural relations with Israeli institutions.

Almost 300,000 teachers strike

KENYA: Nearly 280,000 teachers are staying away from work to demand long-overdue pay raises, paralysing resumption of classes after holidays.

National Union of Teachers chairman Wilson Sossion said today that its 240,000 members did not report to work, responding to a call to strike by the union.

And Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers secretary-general AKelo Misori said its 38,000 members had not shown up for work on Monday.

Drone kills al-Qaida ‘mastermind’

YEMEN: A US drone strike has killed an al-Qaida militant wanted for masterminding a 2002 attack on a French oil tanker, Yemeni military officials said today.

The Defence Ministry said that Khaled Batis, who was wanted in connection with the attack on the Limburg off the coast of Yemen that killed one person, was among five militants riding a vehicle struck by a US drone in the southern city of Hadramawt.

14 dead after coalmine explosion

CHINA: Another coalmine explosion has killed at least 14 people just days after a blast in the country’s south-west left 44 dead.

Dozens of miners were working when the blast ripped through the Gaokeng coalmine in Jiangxi province’s Pingxiang city at midday on Sunday.

Of those caught in the blast, 23 escaped or were rescued and 14 were confirmed dead. Xinhua News Agency said one miner remained missing today and 11 were still in hospital.

NZ to withdraw all troops by April

NEW ZEALAND: The government formally announced today that it will withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the end of April.

The withdrawal date is five months earlier than first planned. New Zealand has stationed 145 soldiers in central Bamiyan province since 2003.

Five New Zealand soldiers were killed in two incidents last month.

Toxic waste spills into Amazon tributary

PERU: Authorities have said that waste water laced with heavy metals has spilled into a tributary of the Amazon, contaminating at least six miles of the waterway.

Toxic waste water from the Atacocha zinc mine escaped from a sedimentation well into the Huallaga River last Wednesday.

Peru’s national water authority granted Atacocha a permit last year to remove metals including mercury, cadmium, lead, iron and manganese from the mine’s wastewater and release the treated water into the Huallaga.

Rig crews return after hurricane

US: Crews returned to offshore drilling rigs and production platforms today as the weather cleared after Hurricane Isaac.

The Federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said 71.5 per cent of the Gulf of Mexico’s daily oil production remains shut down.

Companies operating in the gulf say it takes a few days to fully restore production.

Staff remain evacuated from 18 rigs, or just under a quarter of those operating in the gulf.