Tanzanian president visits mines in north

The Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, has visited mines in the northern, Arusha region where more than one hundred gold diggers are believed to have died last week in landslides caused by heavy rains.

Mr Mkapa said small-scale mining operations would be allowed to continue in the area provided the miners were given modern equipment and complied with safety regulations.

Recovery work following last week's deaths have been hampered by a lack of heavy earth-moving equipment.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service