An Indian court awarded a life sentence on Monday to a police volunteer convicted of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the hospital where she worked in the eastern city of Kolkata, rejecting demands for the death penalty and saying it was not a rare crime.

An Indian court has sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year.

The family of the doctor broke into tears, saying they were "shocked" at the sentence and had hoped her murderer would be sentenced to death.

South African police say a suspected illegal gold mining ringleader escaped from custody with help from police officers about a week after resurfacing from a disused mine in South Africa where 246 sur

By Nellie Peyton JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South African police are hunting a gang leader from Lesotho believed to have controlled operations at an illegal gold mine where 78 bodies were recovered last week after months of police siege.

Police were widely condemned for the months-long operation in which they cut off food and water supplies to the miners in an attempt to force them out of the mine to face arrest