BBC News with Stewart Macintosh

The first of a large group of South African miners accused of murder after recent protests have been released by a court. Karen Allen reports from Johannesburg.

Celebrations as the protesting mine workers were released from custody, and a sense of

triumphalism

that murder charges which had prompted a public

outcry

have been withdrawn – for the time being, at least. In a move that prompted public outrage, 290 miners from the Marikana mine were initially charged with the murder of their colleagues using an apartheid-era law after a protest during a wage dispute ended with 34 mine workers shot dead. TV footage at the time appeared to show the police fired the fatal shots.

The funeral of one of Italy's most popular and controversial church figures, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, has taken place in Milan. In a

posthumously

published interview, the cardinal had criticized the church for being 200 years behind the time. David Willey reports.

The cardinal, an impressive churchman, died last Friday at the age of 85.Over 200,000 people

filed past

his coffin during the weekend as he lay in state in the cathedral where he'd been archbishop for more than two decades.Among the mourners at the crowded recurring mass, were leaders from all walks of Italian public life, including Prime Minster Mario Monti. Cardinal Martini, a Jesuit, was seen as one of the last progressives in a church increasingly dominated by conservatives headed by Pope Benedict.