South African police said on Wednesday they have ended a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine where scores of illegal miners were trapped and believe they rescued all the survivors and retrieved all the bodies of those who died. The announcement was a surprise and came just a day after the police minister said the rescue operation would likely last until at least next week. Police said that 78 bodies had been recovered from the gold mine since the rescue operation began on Monday and more than 240 survivors had been rescued. Police made the announcement at a news conference at the mine. They said rescuers would do a final sweep of the mine on Thursday to ensure no more survivors or bodies were underground. Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine, where they languished for months during a standoff with authorities who demanded they surrender to police because they were mining ...