Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has described as "devastating" the removal from office of his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki, who is seen as a key ally of the of ageing authoritarian Mugabe in the last eight years.

"It's devastating news that President Thabo Mbeki is no longer the president of South Africa," the Zimbabwe's state-controlled daily Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying Thursday.

"But that is the action of the South African people," he added. "Who are we to judge them? But it is very disturbing."

Mugabe was speaking to journalists from Zimbabwe's state media in New York where he is due to address the United Nations general assembly.

Johannesburg - African National Congress (ANC) deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe was due to be sworn in as South Africa's third president since democracy in 
1994 on Thursday, five days after Thabo Mbeki was forced out of the job by his party.

Mbeki's nine years as president, which followed Nelson Mandela's single five-year term, formally came to an end at midnight on Wednesday. He chaired his last cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress' (ANC) went into damage control mode Tuesday following the shock resignation of 11 cabinet ministers over President Thabo Mbeki's ousting by the party.

"We think that this is under control. There's no crisis," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told a hastily-convened news conference in Johannesburg.

Mantashe said only six of the ministers had refused to return to serve under a yet-to-be-named acting president.

Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress' (ANC) hopes for a smooth transition of power after its ousting of President Thabo Mbeki were quashed Tuesday when 11 cabinet ministers resigned in a shock move.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, credited with keeping the country on a steady course over a decade, was among those who quit in sympathy with Mbeki.

Three deputy ministers also resigned.

However, Manuel and his deputy, Jabu Moleketi, said they were "ready to serve" a new administration, ministerial spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy said in a statement.

Rome - Italy's conservative government approved Tuesday the deployment of 500 troops in a mafia-infested area near the southern city of Naples where six African immigrants were gunned down last week.

On Monday, police arrested a 29-year-old man - a convicted member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the mafia - in connection with last Thursday's killings in Castel Volturno.

The attack shocked Italy and Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, speaking following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said the state had promptly replied to the "massacre."

"First we dispatched an extra 400 police, now we have taken the decision to deploy the troops," he said.

Johannesburg - South Africa's Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was the first member of ousted President Thabo Mbeki's cabinet to confirm her resignation Tuesday.

Mlambo-Ngcuka's spokesman said she had handed in her resignation to Mbeki.

Her resignation comes two days after Mbeki stepped down as president just months before his second and last five-year term was due to run out.