JOHANNESBURG

Four shot, wounded at mine as months of unrest continue

South African police and security guards fired rubber bullets and tear gas Monday at sacked gold miners who were attacking colleagues to block them from working, the mine owner said.

Police said four people were wounded at the mine that used to be partially owned by President Jacob Zuma’s nephew.

The clash at the Gold Fields mine east of Johannesburg, reported by police and Neal Froneman, the CEO of Gold One International, was the latest violence to hit South Africa’s mines in months of unrest.

Company spokesman Sven Lunsche said some 12,000 of the company’s workers “continue to engage in an unlawful and unprotected strike” that began Wednesday. He said it involved an internal dispute between local union leaders and members of the National Union of Mineworkers, the country’s largest union.

South Africa’s mining unrest reached a bloody climax on Aug. 16 when police shot 112 striking workers, killing 34 of them, at a platinum mine at Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg. The state violence was reminiscent of apartheid days and has seriously damaged the government’s image.

Prosecutors dropped murder charges against 270 striking miners after being criticized for using an apartheid-era law to hold them liable for the deaths of their 34 fellow workers.

On Monday, 91 arrested miners were released, but many more remained in custody.

The case will be postponed until a judicial commission of inquiry completes its work.

Report: Journalist confronts Tanzanian police, dies

The Media Institute of Southern Africa says a prominent journalist has been killed in a confrontation with Tanzanian police who were clashing with rallying supporters of the country’s biggest opposition party.

It quotes witnesses as saying that Daudi Mwangosi of Channel Ten TV demanded to know why police had arrested a fellow journalist. In the ensuing confrontation, Mwangosi was surrounded and being assaulted by police. Then, according to the institute, a blast was heard and Mwangosi was seen lying on the ground before he died.

The institute’s Levi Kabwato expressed shock in a statement Monday and said the safety of journalists in southern Africa has become a growing concern.

Tanzania recently banned a newspaper critical of the government and a journalist in Zambia was attacked by a politician.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Pirate Bay co-founder arrested, awaits expulsion

A co-founder of popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay was arrested in Cambodia at the request of Sweden, where he faces a one-year prison term for violating copyright laws, authorities said Monday.

Cambodian authorities arrested Gottfrid Svartholm Warg on Thursday at a home he had rented in the capital, Phnom Penh, said national police spokesman Kirth Chantharith.

“He is being detained in Cambodia and we are waiting to expel him,” Kirth Chantharith said.

Cambodia has no extradition treaty with Sweden but has requested details of Svartholm Warg’s crime in order to process his handover, he said, adding that Cambodia would act as quickly as possible.

Svartholm Warg and the site’s three other founders were convicted in 2009 by a Swedish court of assisting copyright infringement by helping millions of the site’s users to illegally download music, movies and computer games.

All were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay $3.6 million to entertainment companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

Svartholm Warg failed to show up at an appeal hearing in 2010. At the time, his defense attorney told the court he had received text messages from Svartholm Warg’s mother saying her son had fallen ill in Cambodia and would not appear in court.

JERUSALEM

Netanyahu: ‘Clear red line’ could avert anti-Iran strike

Military action against Iran’s nuclear program could be averted if the international community sets a clear “red line” it will not permit Iran to cross, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

Netanyahu’s comments came as the U.S. reportedly is considering making such a declaration to head off a possible Israeli strike on Iran. President Obama has said the United States won’t allow Iran to have nuclear weapons, while Israeli leaders have said that Iran even attaining the capability to make them would pose an existential threat to their country.

“This is a brutal regime that is racing ahead with its nuclear program, because it doesn’t see a clear red line from the international community,” Netanyahu said Monday at a meeting in Jerusalem, according to an emailed statement. “The greater the resolve and the clearer the red line, the less likely we’ll have conflict.”

Obama is considering new steps to forestall a unilateral Israeli strike, including a declaration on what Iranian actions might trigger a U.S military response, The New York Times reported Sunday.