South Africa on Thursday opened a murder investigation into the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who was filmed being dragged by a police van through the streets, in a case that has sparked widespread outrage.

Video footage taken by a bystander shows 27-year-old Mido Macia tussling with half a dozen police officers before being handcuffed to the back of a police van and dragged to a local police station in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.

As Mozambique struggles to recover from the worst flooding in more than a decade, aid agencies are pioneering the use of mobile phones to distribute aid and, they hope, cut the cost of logistics in disaster zones.

Mozambican flood refugee Rose Makavela's cell phone beeps. A text message confirms she can get a free bottle of chlorine at a roadside stall near her refugee camp to prevent cholera.

The worst flooding in over a decade in Mozambique has killed nearly 70 people as a fresh deluge in the north took its toll, the United Nations said Friday.

"Based on government figures received today, the number of deaths since January 12 is 68," U.N. spokeswoman Patricia Nakell told Agence France Presse.

Intense flooding in southern Mozambique has displaced at least 150,000 people, the United Nations said on Monday, warning that figure could yet rise further.

"The official figure is 150,000 people displaced in Gaza province," United Nations spokeswoman Patricia Nakell told AFP.

The death toll from flooding in Mozambique climbed to around 40 on Sunday after four more bodies were discovered in the worst-hit southern town of Chokwe, while the number of people forced to flee has topped 100,000.

"They found four bodies in the last 24 hours," the town's mayor Jorge Makwakwa told Agence France Presse, adding that Chokwe's flood-ravaged streets were littered with rotting animal carcasses.

Two Lebanese children were killed in a traffic accident in the southeastern African state of Mozambique, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

NNA said that Karim Mohammed Basma and Jana Shalha, who hail from the southern town of Ain Baal, were travelling with their families to South Africa in a mini-van when the vehicle flipped over due to a flat tire.

Italian energy major ENI said on Monday it had uncovered a giant natural gas field off the coast of Mozambique bringing the total estimated reserves in the area to 40 trillion cubic feet (1.1 trillion cubic meters).

ENI said it had made the "giant natural gas discovery" in Area 4 of the offshore Mamba complex, where it is the operator with a 70-percent stake alongside Portugal's Galp Energia, South Korea's KOGAS and Mozambique's ENH.

A 35-year-old woman walked through a field in northern Mozambique, near where a group of teenage boys were undergoing their ritual circumcision into adulthood.

Accusing her of trespassing on sacred ground forbidden to women, the traditional leader meted out his punishment: He ordered 17 of his young initiates to gang rape her.

Eighteen people, including a baby, were killed Thursday when a minibus taxi collided head-on with a truck, causing both vehicles to burst into flames, a local safety official said.

The taxi was traveling to Johannesburg from neighboring Mozambique when it veered out of its lane and slammed into the truck near the eastern South African town of Belfast, Mpumalanga public safety spokesman Joseph Mabuza told the Sapa news agency.

The search for the world's first malaria vaccine received a boost with the release of early results from a major clinical trial showing it cut risk by about half in African children.

The vaccine known as RTS,S is made by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline's lab in Belgium, and is the first of its kind to attempt to block a parasite, rather than bacteria or viruses.