All 33 miners trapped in blast found dead in China

All 33 coal miners trapped underground in a gas explosion earlier this week in China’s Chongqing have been found dead, according to Chinese state media.
Two miners survived Monday’s explosion but rescuers working around the clock found no others alive at the privately owned Jinshangou mine, where the explosion occurred before midday.
All bodies have been recovered and rescuers were shown bowing their heads in memorial for the dead.
Gas explosions inside mines are often caused when a flame or electrical spark ignites gas leaking from the coal seam.

South Korea President Park names Kim Byong-joon as PM

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has replaced her prime minister and two other top officials in an attempt to restore public confidence amid a political scandal involving her confidant.
Wednesday’s reshuffles came as prosecutors were investigating whether a personal friend of Park’s with no government job used her ties with the president to pull government strings from the shadows and pushed businesses to donate money to foundations she controlled.
Prosecutors were expected to seek an arrest warrant for the friend, Choi Soon-sil, later in the day.
Park acknowledged last week Choi had edited some of her speeches and provided public-relations help.
South Korean media speculate Choi perhaps played a much larger role in government affairs.
Park’s office said on Wednesday that she nominated Kim Byong-joon, a former top policy adviser for late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, as her new prime minister.
The nomination, which requires parliamentary approval, is seen as an effort by the conservative Park to reach out to liberals for bipartisan support amid the scandal that has already forced her to

Burundi’s capital Bujumbura introducing parking fees

Cyclists and motorists in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura are being forced to pay parking fees for the first time.
This is the latest move by the government to raise money after Western donors cut aid to the poor central African state.
They were angry with President Pierre Nkurunziza for deciding last year to extend his decade-long rule, and cracking down on protesters.
The government has also scrapped free scholarships for university students.
It says they will have to repay tuition costs when they start working.
In the terms of a directive issued by city officials, monthly parking fees in Bujumbura would range from around $2 for a bicycle to $60 for a big lorry.
Buses, the main mode of transport in the city of about five million people, would have to pay about $6 a month.

Ivory Coast approves new constitution, opposition dismisses the vote

An opposition-boycotted referendum to change Ivory Coast’s constitution has easily passed, electoral officials said Tuesday, but opponents swiftly dismissed the vote as fraudulent.
President Alassane Ouattara said the changes were necessary to help end years of instability linked to disputes over national identity while critics labelled the vote an attempt to line up a successor for when his term ends in 2020.
The “Yes” camp won 93 percent of votes cast in Sunday’s constitutional referendum, but most eligible voters stayed at home, following the opposition call to boycott, with the official turnout rate put at just over 42 percent.
An opposition leader quickly dismissed the official results as “fake”.
The package, put to the country’s 6.3 million voters, also includes creating a post of vice president as well as a senate, a third of whom would be appointed by the head of state.

Rwanda accuses 22 French army officers of planning and executing the 1994 genocide

Rwanda has published a list of 22 French officers it accuses of helping plan and execute the 1994 genocide, in the latest sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (known by its French acronym CNLG) issued the list on Monday, a month after French investigators said they were re-opening a probe into who shot down then-president Juvenal Habyarimana’s jet triggering the genocide in which 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were killed.
“High-ranking French officers and political figures committed very serious crimes in Rwanda,” the CNLG said in a statement.
“The refusal to put an end to the judicial investigation and to exonerate Rwandan leaders who ended the genocide is designed to camouflage these responsibilities.”
A Rwandan enquiry found ethnic Hutu extremists responsible for Habyarimana’s assassination, but the French investigation was inconclusive.