SOUTH AFRICA: Police in South Africa were trying to bring a gang of thieves to book on Friday after they stole two mobile libraries in the eastern city of Durban.

The two buses, part of a fleet of 11 donated by the Japanese government several few months ago, were stolen when four suspects entered the headquarters of the local education department by pretending to be employees. They then hot-wired the vehicles and drove off in them.

"It is very sad," Christi Naude, a spokeswoman in KwaZulu-Natal province's education department, told AFP. "These people do not realise what damage they have done to our children."

The buses were to have been used to take books to rural areas of the province where literacy levels are particularly low among youngsters.