BBC News with Neil Nunes

Officials in South Korea say the founder of the controversial Unification Church, Sun Myung Moon, has died at the age of 92. Rev Moon's church gained hundreds of thousands of followers known as 'Moonies'. Lucy Williamson reports from Seoul.

Rev Moon had been in a critical condition for two weeks since being

hospitalized

with pneumonia in his home in South Korea. His children who have been carrying out most of the church duties for a while now decided keeping visual at his bedside. Rev Moon was a controversial figure. Born in 1920 in what is now North Korea, he said Jesus Christ had appealed to him as a teenager, and asked him to continue his work. Famous for holding mass weddings involving thousands of people, he also created an international business empire.

Prosecutors in South Africa have

provisionally

dropped murder charges against 270 striking mine workers over the deaths of 34 of their colleagues shot dead by police during protest last month. The announcement was made by the acting director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba.

"The decision and pronouncement on final charges will only be made once all investigations have been completed. The murder charge(s) against the current 270 suspects will be formally withdrawn on their next court appearance."

The prosecutors say those whose name, whose home addresses have been

verified

by police will be released on Monday, the others later. There was public outrage over the original decision to use an