UPDATE 1-Lonmin fears sackings could re-ignite S. Africa violence

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Platinum producer Lonmin fears that sacking 3,000 striking South African mine workers, who face a Tuesday deadline to report back to their posts, could lead to more violence after police last week shot dead 34 miners in scenes reminiscent of apartheid bloodshed.
Most of the strikers stayed off the job, saying they had sacrificed too much to return. Police helicopters hovered over Lonmin's Marikana mine, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, while heavily armed officers patrolled the property.
The world's third-biggest platinum producer Lonmin said about a third of its 28,000 workers at the Marikana mine had returned to work - not enough to extract ore.
Thousands of workers remained off the job due in part to lingering safety concerns and uncertainty if there would anything for them to do since the 3,000 strikers were mostly rock drill operators who are at the front line of breaking up the masses of underground stone
Crowds of workers, watched closely by police, gathered near the site of the shooting, ignoring the company's threat of punishments that could ultimately lead to job losses.

Obama warns Syria of ‘enormous consequences’ over use of chemical, biological weapons

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Monday the U.S. would reconsider its opposition to military involvement in the Syrian civil war if President Bashar Assad’s beleaguered regime deploys or uses chemical or biological weapons. He called such action a “red line” for the United States.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Obama said the use of such weapons of mass destruction would considerably widen a conflict that has already dragged on for a year-and-a-half and killed some 20,000 people, according to activists. Syria possesses extensive chemical and biological weapons stockpiles and has threatened to use them if the country comes under foreign attack.
“That’s an issue that doesn’t just concern Syria. It concerns our close allies in the region, including Israel. It concerns us,” Obama said, also acknowledging the possibility that militant groups might acquire some of those weapons. “We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people.”
The president noted that he has not ordered any armed U.S. intervention yet, but said: “We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region, that that’s a red line for us, and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front, or the use of chemical weapons. That would change my calculations significantly.”
The remarks outlined for the first time the point at which the administration could feel forced to intervene militarily in Syria’s increasingly messy war, even if Obama stopped short of saying WMD use would necessarily prompt an American military response.
His administration has been reluctant to get too involved in Syria’s spiraling violence out of fear that it would further militarize the conflict and worsen chances of a political solution. Continued deadlock at the United Nations means there is no clear mandate for the U.S. to help patrol Syrian airspace to stop airstrikes on rebel outposts, as Sen. John McCain and others have urged. And administration officials insist they know too little about much of Syria’s opposition to start providing them weapons.
In issuing its threat last month, Syria acknowledged for the first time that it has what is believed to be among the biggest chemical and biological weapons programs in the world. Assad’s military regime is believed to have mustard gas like the type used by Saddam Hussein against Iran and Iraq’s Kurdish minority in the 1980s, as well as nerve agents such as tabun, sarin and VX that can be delivered in missiles, bombs, rockets, artillery shells or other large munitions.
Obama said U.S. officials were monitoring the situation “very carefully,” and have assembled a range of contingency plans.

Nigeria: Fun Seekers Besiege Bar Beach Despite Ocean Surge - Four More Bodies Recovered

Lagos — Large numbers of fun seekers besieged the Bar beach in Lagos yesterday despite the state government's warning to residents of the state to move away from the beach as a result of the wave from the ocean which has already claimed over 15 lives.

Meanwhile, four more bodies have been recovered, bringing the number of the dead recovered from last Saturday's ocean surge disaster to eight.

When Daily Trust visited the Bar beach, an adjoining beach from the Kuramo beach yesterday , the bodies were lying on the sand-filled shore of the beach.

They were covered up, and awaiting evacuation by officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA).

Three men were identified by residents as security officials working with the management of the ocean while the fourth body, a kid was yet to be identified at the time Daily Trust left the scene.

The state government has demolished all the structures and shanties at the Kuramo beach while work is in progress to sand-fill and reclaim it. The state's Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Prince Segun Oniru, told Daily Trust that divers would continue to search for bodies of the missing people. He said government has warned people living in the area several times to move away, but they refused.

He said the Eko Atlantic project has nothing to do with the strong wave.

"Lagos coast line is about 182-183 kilometres of 852 coastlines in Nigeria. The project has nothing to do whatsoever with the project. On the contrary, if you look at the Ahmadu Bello way today, there is no problem there because of the permanent solution the state government put in place," he said.