ZAMBIA

Trapped miner rescued

Rescue workers have pulled out the first survivor of a landslide on Friday last week that inundated an open-pit copper mine and trapped at least 25 people who were working there without a permit, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit said yesterday. The rescue team also retrieved one body, which had yet to be identified, it said in a statement posted on Facebook. “A 49-year-old man has been rescued from the collapsed mine slug dump site in Chingola after being trapped with several other miners,” it said, adding that he was being treated in a hospital. President Hakainde Hichilema on Tuesday said that he was still hopeful that the trapped miners were alive, as rescue efforts continued.

THAILAND

Officials fired over wealth

Four officials have been dismissed after authorities found more than 2 billion baht (US$57 million) in their bank accounts, with investigators calling the group “unusually wealthy.” While officials are often accused of accepting small bribes and payoffs, sums of this magnitude are rare. The money was discovered in multiple accounts held by three women and a man who work in the Revenue Department in Samut Prakhan province. The National Anti-Corruption Commission has referred the case to the attorney general’s office and requested that the Criminal Court for Corruption also investigate. The four were “unusually wealthy,” and their listed assets did not match their government incomes, commission assistant secretary-general and deputy spokesman Sornchai Chuwichian said in a statement on Monday. The man, Danai Damrongchaiyothin, had 1.1 billion baht in seven accounts, while one of the women held more than 500 million baht in five accounts.

NEPAL

Russian army scam busted

Police have detained 10 people they say charged unemployed youths huge amounts of money for travel visas, then sent them for illegal recruitment into the Russian army, an official said yesterday. Kathmandu asked Moscow this week not to recruit its citizens into the Russian army, and to send any Nepalese soldier in its armed forces back to the Himalayan nation after six of its citizens serving in Russia’s military were killed. Kathmandu District Police Chief Bhupendra Khatri said that 10 people were in police custody after being detained over the past few days following tip-offs. Khatri said the detainees illegally charged each person up to US$9,000 and sent them to Russia on tourist visas, mainly through the United Arab Emirates. They were then recruited into the Russian army. “It is a case of human smuggling … organized crime,” he said.

PERU

Fujimori to be released

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered the release of former president Alberto Fujimori, 85, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity committed on his watch. A court ruling ordered the “immediate” release under supervision of Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000. The ruling reinstates an earlier pardon. Fujimori has been jailed since 2009 over massacres committed by army death squads in 1991 and 1992 in which 25 people, including a child, were killed in supposed anti-terrorist operations. In February, Fujimori was admitted to a hospital due to an irregular heartbeat. He has recurrent respiratory, neurological and hypertension problems and has had tongue cancer.