SOUTH AFRICA: At least 14 artisanal miners have been killed and scores injured at a disused mine, police said today.

The South African Police Service said the miners had been found dead at a mine near the city of Rustenburg, around 80 miles north-west of Johannesburg.

The police service did not give more details on the circumstances of the deaths, but it said the provincial police commissioner was on the way to the mine.

FRANCE: The government has banned unsolicited telemarketing calls under a new law aimed at protecting consumers from intrusive sales pitches and shielding vulnerable people from fraudulent commercial practices.

The law came into force today.

LEBANON: Parliament abolished the death penalty today, making Lebanon the first country in the Arab world to replace the execution with life imprisonment and aggravated hard labour.

The country has committed to an unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004. However, dozens of death sentences have been issued since then, only to be suspended or commuted later.

AUSTRALIA: Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly is to become next head of the country’s trade union movement, following  the resignation of Sally McManus, it was announced today.

Ms McManus, secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (Actu), and its president, Michele O’Neil, revealed last month that they would step down after eight years as the first all-female leadership team in the organisation’s 99-year history, during which time they played a major role in shaping the Labour government’s workplace agenda.