Bolivian miners on Thursday during a clash with the police in the town of Panduro hacked the Deputy Interior Minister to death.
Interior Minister, Carlos Romero, confirmed on Friday that reports by witnesses indicated that 55-year-old Rodolfo Illanes was beaten to death following clashes between police and miners in the town of Panduro, 165 kilometres south-east of La Paz.
Romero said Illanes had been kidnapped by miners after attempting to initiate talks with them at a roadblock.
The minister, who spoke of a “cowardly and brutal” murder, added that his aide was also injured and was taken to hospital.
He said one miner was reportedly also killed in the Thursday’s clashes, bringing the death toll in several days of protests against controversial trade union legislation to three.
“Two miners were killed on Wednesday.
“Around 100 miners were detained after Thursday’s protests,’’ he said.
Miners currently represented by independently organized cooperatives have been using street blockades to protest against a law allowing them to join trade unions.
The national federation of mining cooperatives (Fencomin) representing some 10,000 miners rejects any trade union influence on Bolivia’s mining sector. (dpa/ NAN)
Death toll in Somalia beach restaurant attack rises to 10 Somali police said the death toll from an attack late Thursday by the Islamic militants, on a seaside restaurant in Mogadishu, had risen to 10.
A police officer, Ali Abdullahi, said on Friday in Mogadishu that the attackers set off a car bomb at the Banadir restaurant at the city’s Lido beach before engaging security forces in a fight for several hours.
He said casualties comprised six civilians, two members of the security forces and two of the attackers
Abdullahi said the Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab had claimed the attack, which ended at about 3.a.m. The group has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Somalia to try to topple the Western-backed government. -(Reuters/NAN).
