LOUIS van Schoor, a convicted mass murderer in South Africa known as the “Apartheid Killer”, has died. The 72-year-old had been in hospital with an infection in his leg. His daughter told the BBC he died on Thursday afternoon “due to complications from sepsis”. Van Schoor’s death came less than a week after a BBC investigation into his past, which exposed horrific new details about a series of killings he carried out in the late 1980s during the final years of white-minority rule. The sister of one of his victims has told the BBC she hopes the police will re-open…
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DANGOTE Refinery has reaffirmed that its diesel is of superior quality compared to imported equivalents and meets international standards. This is coming over the recent comment of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, that the quality of the refinery diesel is inferior to the imported products. This newspaper reports the refinery said none of the imported diesel into Nigeria can compete with that of Dangote refinery in terms of quality and this can be confirmed by any expert who intends to test our products and those imported independently. Dangote Group Chief Commercial Officer,…
MORE than 180,000 Palestinians have fled bombardment around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in four days, the United Nations has said. Recent “intensified hostilities” in the Khan Younis area, more than nine months into the Israeli war, have fuelled “new waves of internal displacement across Gaza”, said the UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Friday. It said that “about 182,000 people” have been displaced from central and eastern Khan Younis between Monday and Thursday, while “hundreds of other people remain stranded in eastern Khan Younis”. The Israeli military on Monday issued evacuation orders for parts of the southern city,…
A GERMAN man sentenced to death by a court in Belarus appeared on television Thursday to ask for a pardon. Rico Krieger, 30, was convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code in a secretive trial held at the end of June, the Viasna Human Rights Centre reported. “I really hope that President (Alexander) Lukashenko will forgive me and pardon me,” the German national told Belarusian public television, according to a statement quoted by the Russian news agency TASS. He said that he had been asked by Ukraine to photograph military sites in Belarus in October 2023 and that he…
NINETY-FIVE Libyan nationals have been arrested on suspicion of receiving training at an “illegal” military camp in South Africa, police have said. Officers raided the farm in White River – a small town in the northern province of Mpumalanga – on Friday. They said they found military tents, licenced firearms and other military equipment. Cannabis and cocaine were also found at the camp, the police said. Officers conducted the raid after receiving intelligence on Wednesday. According to national police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe, the Libyans allegedly “misrepresented themselves” on their visa applications by saying they would be training as security guards.…
A UGANDAN activist, one of dozens detained this week for participating in banned demonstrations, was sexually assaulted in custody, his lawyer has said. More than 90 youths were arrested and some were charged with being a public nuisance following anti-corruption protests that hit the capital, Kampala. Some of those released from detention have also reportedly said they had been sexually assaulted while in police cells, sparking widespread criticism. But police denied the allegation. The two days of anti-corruption demonstrations went ahead on Tuesday and Thursday despite a warning from President Yoweri Museveni that the protesters were “playing with fire”. The…
A FEW days after the founder of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, alleged that some officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited have blending plants in Malta, indications have emerged that Nigeria imported fuel worth $2.25bn from the foreign country in nine years. According to information on Trade Map, Nigeria imported petroleum oils obtained from bituminous minerals worth $2.8bn in 2023, jumping by a 342 per cent increase from $47.5m in 2013. Nigeria imported fuel worth $59.98m in 2014; $117.01m in 2015 and $13.32m in 2016. It was observed that from 2017 to 2022, there was no…
GRAND Slam record-breakers Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were placed on an Olympics second-round collision course in the draw for the Paris Games on Thursday. Nadal, a singles gold medallist at the 2008 Olympics, is playing in his final Games having also won doubles gold in Rio in 2016, while Djokovic was a bronze medallist in singles in 2008. Serbia’s Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion and top seed in Paris following the withdrawal of world number one Jannik Sinner, begins his campaign against Australia’s Matthew Ebden. “I am excited for this duel in the second round, and I will…
AT least five people have been arrested and police used pepper spray on protesters on the streets of Washington DC. This came after large numbers of people gathered to protest against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to US lawmakers Wednesday. Netanyahu blasted the demonstrators, calling them “Iran’s useful idiots” Speaking to the US Congress, he said America and Israel “must stand together” and that “our enemies are your enemies” He recalled the Hamas attacks of 7 October – when 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage – calling it a day that “will live in…
NORTH Korean hackers are attempting to steal nuclear and military secrets from governments and private companies around the world, the UK, US and South Korea have warned. They say the group – known by the names Andariel and Onyx Sleet – is targeting defence, aerospace, nuclear and engineering entities to obtain classified information, with the aim of advancing Pyongyang’s military and nuclear programs and ambitions. The group has been seeking information in a wide range of areas – from uranium processing to tanks, submarines and torpedoes – and has targeted the UK, US, South Korea, Japan, India and elsewhere. US…
A HEATWAVE in Morocco has killed at least 21 people in a 24-hour period in the central city of Beni Mellal, the health ministry announced on Thursday. The meteorology department said soaring temperatures affected much of the North African country from Monday to Wednesday, reaching 48ºC in some areas. In Beni Mellal, “the majority of deaths involved people suffering from chronic illnesses and the elderly, with high temperatures contributing to the deterioration of their health conditions,” the regional health directorate said in a statement. Morocco has suffered a sixth consecutive year of drought and record heat this winter, with the…
INTERNATIONAL rights campaigners called Thursday for the Ugandan government to free dozens of protesters who have been arrested and charged for taking part in anti-corruption rallies this week. Inspired by widespread protests against the government in neighbouring Kenya led largely by Gen-Z activists, Ugandans took to the streets of the capital Kampala on Tuesday to demand action in the wake of several high-profile graft scandals. About 60 people, including a prominent TV and radio presenter and three young protest leaders, have been remanded in custody on charges including being a “common nuisance”, according to their lawyers. President Yoweri Museveni, who…
CHAOS and confusion reigned on Wednesday as Morocco beat Argentina 2-1 in their opening game of the men’s Olympic football tournament, but only after a late equaliser for the South American side was disallowed and the final minutes were played out in an empty stadium following crowd trouble. Argentina thought they had escaped from the Group B match in Saint-Etienne with a 2-2 draw when Cristian Medina scored in the 16th minute of added time. But as their players celebrated, projectiles including bottles and plastic cups rained down from the stands and several spectators entered the pitch, with the referee…
THE Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has broadcast a drone video that it said showed air defence facilities, planes and fuel storage units at Israel’s Ramat David airbase, nearly 50km (30 miles) into Israeli territory. The footage included labels pointing out apparent military infrastructure, including the short-range Iron Dome air defence system which is designed to destroy rockets. The video, more than eight minutes long, was mostly filmed on Tuesday, the Iran-aligned group said. The video also included nighttime shots that Hezbollah said were captured “earlier” and other images the group said were taken earlier in July. The caption said it…
A PASSENGER plane crashed on take-off in Kathmandu on Wednesday, with the pilot rescued from the wreckage but all 18 others aboard killed, police in the Nepali capital told AFP. Nepal has a woeful track record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has seen a spate of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades. The Saurya Airlines flight was carrying two crew and 17 of the company’s staff members, Nepali police spokesman Dan Karki said. “The pilot has been rescued and is being treated,” he said. “Eighteen bodies have been recovered, including one foreigner. We are in…
POLICE in South Africa have arrested five suspects, including three Mexicans, after uncovering a multi-million dollar crystal meth lab on a remote farm. Officers raided the lab, in the northern town of Groblersdal, after getting tipped off about “suspicious activities”, a statement from an elite police unit known as the Hawks said. It added that the lab was operating on an industrial scale, producing the highly addictive drug for both local and international markets. South Africa is one of the largest meth markets in the world and a transit location for illicit drugs, according to the United Nations Office on…
KENYA’s President William Ruto has appointed four members of the main opposition party as part of a new cabinet as protests continue to rock the East African nation. Ruto announced the nominees in an address to the nation on Wednesday. The president had promised to appoint a new “broad-based” cabinet in response to continuing nationwide protests that have threatened his hold on power. The announcement came two weeks after Ruto scrapped the previous cabinet as the protests, prompted by planned tax hikes, swelled. A clampdown by the authorities helped raise the number of people killed to more than 50, with…
PALESTINIAN factions have signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once Israel’s war on the enclave concludes. The deal, finalised on Tuesday in China after three days of intensive talks, lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The agreement was signed by long-term rivals Hamas and Fatah, as well as 12 other Palestinian groups. “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at…
NORTH Korea has floated more trash-carrying balloons across the tense inter-Korean border, with at least one dumping refuse on South Korea’s presidential compound for the first time, South Korean authorities have said. The balloon that landed near President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Tuesday did not contain any dangerous material or cause any injuries, the Presidential Security Service said in a statement. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced earlier on Wednesday that North Korea had launched more balloons towards its territory, and Seoul city authorities asked residents to report the objects and avoid touching them. Pyongyang’s…
USING shovels or their bare hands, local residents on Tuesday searched desperately for survivors after a landslide in a remote area of southern Ethiopia killed at least 229 people, the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa nation. Crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state as some people clawed through mounds of red dirt, according to images posted on social media by the local authority. So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have lost their lives after the disaster struck on Monday in…