JOHANNESBURG -- Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been released from prison on medical parole, the country's Department of Correctional Services (DCS) said Sunday.

"Medical parole placement for Mr. Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires," said DCS spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.

"Medical parole can only be revoked if an offender does not comply with the placement conditions," said Nxumalo, though he did not disclose the conditions which Zuma has to comply with.

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KAMPALA -- The death toll at a construction site where a building collapsed in Uganda's capital here on Sunday has increased to six and seven people so far have been rescued, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

Luke Owoyesigyire, deputy police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan Police, said in a statement that three more bodies have been retrieved from the rubble after the collapse of a four-story building in Kisenyi, in the downtown Kampala area.

"Six people have been confirmed dead after the collapse of the four-story building. Among those confirmed dead are five male and one female," said Owoyesigyire.

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LAGOS -- The Nigerian government on Sunday condemned the takeover of power by force in Guinea.

"The government of Nigeria strongly condemns and rejects any unconstitutional change of government and therefore calls on those behind this coup to restore constitutional order without delay and protect all lives and property," Nigerian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esther Sunsawan said in a statement issued in Abuja.

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CANBERRA -- A top United Nations (UN) official has called for Australia to urgently abandon coal-fired power generation.

Selwin Hart, special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and assistant secretary-general, told a virtual Australian National University (ANU) forum on Monday that the climate crisis would "wreak havoc" on the Australian economy if it remains reliant on the coal industry.

"Market forces alone show coal's days are numbered, as many investors increasingly abandon it in favor of renewables, which are now cheaper in most places," Hart said in a pre-recorded speech to the ANU Crawford Leadership Forum. Enditem

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