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Myanmar Buddhist monks stage a rally to protest against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims and to support Myanmar President Thein Sein's stance toward the sectarian violence that took place in June between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, in Mandalay, central Myanmar, on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)
Myanmar Buddhist monks stage a rally to protest against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims and to support Myanmar President Thein Sein's stance toward the sectarian violence that took place in June between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, in Mandalay, central Myanmar, on Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)Read moreAP
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Mali group says it killed diplomat

BAMAKO, Mali - Members of a radical Islamic group in northern Mali are claiming to have executed one of the Algerian diplomats they kidnapped five months ago, when their fighters raided the Algerian consulate in the city of Gao.

The information could not be independently verified, and the Algerian Foreign Affairs Ministry said they are investigating the rebels' claim.

Islamist leader Oumar Ould Hamaha told the Associated Press by telephone late Saturday that that the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (known by the French acronym MUJAO), had executed the diplomat in order to teach Algeria a lesson. The group had demanded that Algeria, Mali's northern neighbor, release the members of their group who had recently been arrested. - AP

S. African miners no longer charged

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's top prosecutor announced Sunday that she is withdrawing controversial murder charges against 270 miners for the killings of 34 striking coworkers shot dead by police.

Sunday's announcement follows a barrage of criticism from political parties, trade unions, civil society, and legal experts.

Even the justice minister had challenged the prosecutor's decision to charge the arrested miners under an apartheid-era law that opened President Jacob Zuma's government to accusations that it was acting like the former brutal white rulers.

Nomqcobo Jiba, the acting director of public prosecutions, did not say why she had reversed her decision to shift the blame from the police to the miners.

She said the miners would be released from jail with a warning, providing police could verify their home addresses. She said other charges, ranging from public violence and illegal gathering to illegal possession of firearms, would remain.

Most of the arrests came Aug. 16 after police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 and wounding 78. - AP

U.S. drone kills militant in Yemen

SAN'A, Yemen - A U.S. drone strike Sunday killed a top al-Qaeda militant wanted for allegedly masterminding a 2002 attack on a French oil tanker, Yemeni military officials said.

In a separate incident, Yemeni warplanes killed 14 civilians in an errant air strike, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that Khaled Batis, wanted in connection with the attack on the Limburg off the coast of Yemen that killed one person, was among five militants riding a vehicle struck by a drone Friday in the southern city of Hadramawt. Military officials said the drone was American.

In the other incident, Yemeni fighter planes mistakenly hit vehicles carrying civilians south of the capital, killing 14. - AP

Elsewhere:

 Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Myanmar staged a rally Sunday in support of President Thein Sein and his proposal to send the members of a Muslim minority group to another country. The rally in Mandalay is the latest indication of deep sentiment against the Rohingya minority after June violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that left 80 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

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