Nairobi/Ouagadougou - A mudslide at an illegal gold mine in Burkina Faso has claimed the lives of at least 31 miners, reports said Sunday.

Beijing - More than 300,000 Chinese couples registered marriages Friday as the opening of the Olympics added to the auspicious triple eight in the 8.8.2008 date, state media said on Saturday.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs recorded 314,224 marriages nationwide, the highest number since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Olympic host city Beijing recorded 15,646 marriages on Friday, 23 times the daily average, the agency said.

Ramallah  - Palestinian Authority (PA) employees in Gaza will receive complete salaries this month after Israel agreed to send 72 million shekels (20 million dollars) in cash to the besieged territory, Palestinian official said on Saturday.

Jehad al-Wazeer, head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), expected that Israel will allow the entry of the cash to Gaza very soon "so the banks will be able to pay full salaries to the employees."

Berlin  - German federal police (BKA) have warned in a secret report that the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement has the capacity to undertake damaging attacks in Germany, the news magazine Focus reported Saturday.

The militia had the logistics "to carry out widescale attacks on physical and human targets," the weekly said in a report released ahead of publication.

The BKA is reported to number Hezbollah supporters in Germany at around 900.

Focus pointed to the case of a 29-year-old medical student at Germany's Goettingen University, who was detained in Israel last month.

Gaza - The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas should rule in the West Bank in addition to the Gaza Strip which it currently controls, a senior Hamas leader said Saturday.

"Hamas movement must rule in Gaza and the occupied West Bank according to the results of the elections," said Mahmoud Zahar, former Hamas foreign minister in Gaza.

His remarks were made in response to Western support for the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces currently control the West Bank.

London, Aug. 9 : Burma''s military junta have arrested 48 activists during a protest march marking 20 years since the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising, killing
3,000 people.

According to the police and the militia, a show of force was staged in Burma on the eve of the 20th anniversary of a major uprising that left 3,000 civilians dead.

The demonstrators, mainly young men in T-shirts bearing the numbers 8-8-88 - a reference to the August 8, 1988 nationwide revolt - staged a silent walk through the northwest town of Taunggok before being stopped by a police barricade.