Lesotho demo called off after PM flees to South Africa

A demonstration by opponents of Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has been called off after he fled to South Africa on Saturday, saying the military wanted to oust him.

The army has denied staging a coup and says it has returned to barracks.
Mr Thabane told the BBC he would return from South Africa “as soon as I know I am not going to get killed”.
Reports say the capital, Maseru, is now calm after soldiers were involved in an exchange of fire outside two police stations on Saturday morning.
One police officer was killed and four wounded after the military intervened, police say.
Lesotho military spokesman Ntlele Ntoi said the military had received intelligence that the police were going to arm factions involved in Monday’s march by the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD).
The LCD is led by Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, who has been in an uneasy coalition with Mr Thabane’s All Basotho Convention since 2012.
The prime minister has hinted that his deputy might have links to the military’s actions.
Mr Metsing, who was involved in the talks with Mr Thabane and South Africa’s President Zuma on Sunday, has not commented on those allegations but has also denied there was a coup.
He told the AFP news agency that under the constitution, a member of his party, Motloheloa Phooko, was now running the country, because both himself and the prime minister were abroad.
Lesotho, a mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa, has experienced several military takeovers since independence in 1966.
Credit: BBC