Industrial action has spread in South Africa with a wildcat strike by 15,000 gold miners, while few workers reported for duty at in the fourth week of a stoppage at a platinum mine.

South Africa is withdrawing controversial murder charges against 270 miners for the killings of 34 striking co-workers shot dead by police.

South Africa is withdrawing controversial murder charges against 270 miners for the killings of 34 striking co-workers shot dead by police.

A quarter of the workforce returned to the Marikana platinum mine yesterday where 44 men were killed last week in clashes that evoked memories of apartheid-era violence.

More than 30 people have been killed after South Africa’s police officers opened fire on striking workers at a Lonmin PLC mine.

Police in South Africa said today they have discovered four bodies deep in an abandoned mine, after a Johannesburg newspaper reported that guards at the mine owned by relatives of Nelson Mandela and President Jacob Zuma shot and killed illegal miners.

Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson is considering standing in the British general election, it was reported today.

Russell Brand has called another grandparent on a radio show, sending up the lewd calls he made to 'Fawlty Towers' actor Andrew Sachs.

South Africa’s finance minister resigned along with most leading Cabinet members today in the wake of president Thabo Mbeki’s departure.

THINKING of the behaviour of the Cork train drivers this week brought Rudyard Kipling to mind. It was he who first coined the term “power without responsibility”.

A water pipe burst and soil in an underground shaft probably collapsed, trapping about 3,000 workers in a gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic capital and gold-mining centre, the workers’ union said.

IT’S all about place, Maura Harrington says. Protect a place and it will protect its people.

The two unions representing striking South African gold miners today agreed to accept management’s latest offer and return to work, ending the industry’s worst strike in 18 years.

AROUND 100,000 South African gold miners were due to launch the first industry-wide strike in 18 years last night to press demands for better wages, the country’s biggest mining union said.

Informal talks have opened between the UK's mineworkers’ union and the biggest rail union in Britain with a view to a merger, it was learned today.