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Talks to end a crippling strike in South Africa's platinum 1 mines have collapsed 3 after the government abandoned mediation 4 efforts between mine owners and workers. The government intervened in May to try to end months of deadlock 5. Andrew Harding reports from Johannesburg.

This is a serious blow for South Africa's economy and for tens of thousands of families affected 6 by the country's longest strike. The latest talks have been mediated 7 by the new mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi. He's now dissolved those talks, leaving the world's three largest platinum mines still closed for business, and the wider economy slouching towards recession. A new mining union AMCU has been demanding more than double the basic wage. This follows the deaths in 2012 of 34 striking miners shot by police. Trust between unions, employers and government has since evaporated.

The leaders of Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are meeting in Sweden to talk about the future of the European Union. The German Chancellor 8 Angela Merkel has publicly backed Jean-Claude Junker, a diplomat 9 from Luxemburg, to become the next president of the European Commission. The other three countries oppose his candidacy. The British Prime Minister David Cameron said that all four leaders wanted to reform the EU.

We want to see a European Union that's more open, more competitive, more flexible, one that does less poisonous interference, but also is effective and helping 10 to get the growth in jobs. There obviously is a link to that, the agenda, and the people who should be running these institutions. But this meeting today is really about content, about what Europe should be doing in the next few years.

Government inspectors 12 in England has found a number of schools have been infiltrated 13 by radical 14 Muslims who use intimidation 15 to impose their ideology 16 on them. The inspectors found that five state-run schools in the city of Birmingham had failed to safeguard pupils against extremism. The chief inspector 11 Sir Michael Wilshaw said he was shocked by the findings.

We found evidence that some head teachers including those with a proud record of raising standard have been marginalized or forced out of their jobs. This has left a vacuum in which schools previously 17 rated good or outstanding have suffered enormous staff turbulence 18, a collapse 2 in morale 19, and a rapid decline in their overall effectiveness.

Parkview Education Trust which runs three of the schools insists that it doesn't tolerate or promote extremism of any kind.

The Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad has announced a general amnesty for prisoners in the country, but it's not clear if this means that opposition 20 activists 21 or rebels might be among those released. The amnesty appears to be the most wide-ranging that president Assad has issued since the uprising against his rule started in 2011.

World News from the BBC.

Sepp Blatter, the head of international football's governing body FIFA has said that allegations of corruption 22 over the choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup tournament are motivated by racism 23. Addressing a meeting of African football officials in Brazil, Mr. Blatter said this was a kind of behaviour that FIFA needed to combat.

A new report in the United States has revealed widespread failure in healthcare provision for military veterans. Investigation 24 follows reports that some veterans have died because they hadn't seen a doctor in time. Here's Rajini Vaidyanathan.

An internal review has revealed that 64,000 patients never got an appointment after requesting one. And an additional 57,000 waited for more than three months to be seen. The report also showed that staff scheduling visits faked appointment times to meet performance goals, covering up the true scale of the problems. At the end of last month, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki resigned, after reports of problems initially 25 emerged.

The International Criminal Court has confirmed that it's filed charges against the Congolese former rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda. Judges of the court unanimously confirmed 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape 26, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers. General Ntaganda who's been held at the court for more than a year denies the charges.

More than 100 rescuers from Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria are working to bring out an injured man stuck inside one of the most complicated cave systems in Europe. The 52-year-old man was hurt by falling rocks nearly 1,000 meters below ground while exploring the Riescending Cave in the German Alps close to the Austrian border. So difficult were the climbing conditions underground that it took one of his companions 12 hours to reach the surface and raise the alarm.