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.

New York - Not a single country in Africa is on track to meet the United Nations' poverty goals by 2015, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday while issuing a plea for more foreign aid.

Ban, opening a one-day conference on African development at UN headquarters, said about 72 billion dollars per year was needed for Africa to reach the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of poverty-reduction targets first set up eight years ago.

Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma on Monday tipped ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe to become acting president after Thabo Mbeki tendered his resignation on Sunday.

"I am convinced, if given that responsibility, he would be equal to the task," Zuma told a press conference in Johannesburg, with Motlanthe at his side.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the ANC's top decision- making body pressured Mbeki into resignation at the weekend, Zuma said the party would only name its candidate for caretaker president "at an appropriate moment" in parliament, which elects the president.