JOHANNESBURG: Twelve schoolchildren and their driver were killed in South Africa on Wednesday when their minibus overturned and caught fire on a road in Gauteng province, officials said. The accident took place a day after schools reopened after the winter holidays.
Seven other children were injured in the accident, which took place in the town of Merafong, west of the country’s economic hub Johannesburg.
Reports said a that a small truck, known as a bakkie, had slammed into the back of the minibus transporting the children, causing it to overturn and erupt into flames.
Education and transport officials visited the scene of the crash and the injured children at a hospital in the nearby area of Carletonville. Head of the Gauteng provincial government, Panyaza Lesufi, also visited the injured children.
Gauteng education department spokesman Steve Mabona said 11 of the children who died attended Rocklands Primary School while the twelfth child went to Laerskool Blyvooruitsig in Carletonville.
“The pupils’ transport was hit from behind by a bakkie, causing it to overturn and subsequently catch fire,” Mabona said, describing the crash as a “horrific accident.”
Thousands of schoolchildren in Gauteng rely on private minibuses for transport to and from their schools across South Africa’s most populous province. Many others rely on public transport, including municipal buses and taxis.
12 schoolchildren and their driver are killed when their minibus crashes in South Africa
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12 schoolchildren and their driver are killed when their minibus crashes in South Africa
- Seven other children were injured in the accident, which took place in the town of Merafong
- A small truck, known as a bakkie, had slammed into the back of the minibus transporting the children
EU court rules against Italy on Albania migrant camps scheme
- Judgment weakens policies to combat mass illegal immigration and defend national borders, Meloni says
ROME/BRUSSELS: Europe’s top court on Friday questioned the legitimacy of Italy’s “safe countries” list, which is used to send migrants to Albania and fast-track their asylum claims, in a fresh blow to a key plank of the government’s migration policy.
Conservative Giorgia Meloni’s office, in a statement, called the court ruling “surprising” and said it “weakens policies to combat mass illegal immigration and defend national borders.”
Dario Belluccio, a lawyer who represented one of the Bangladeshi asylum-seekers in the specific case brought before the European Court of Justice, said the Albanian migrant camps scheme had effectively been killed off.
BACKGROUND
The detention facilities Italy set up in Albania have been empty for months, due to judicial obstacles.
“It will not be possible to continue with what the Italian government had envisioned before this decision ... Technically, it seems to me that the government’s approach has been completely dismantled,” he told Reuters.
Meloni had presented the offshoring of asylum-seekers to camps built in Albania as a cornerstone of her tough approach to immigration, and other European countries had looked to the idea as a possible model.
However, the scheme stumbled on legal opposition almost as soon as it was launched last year, with Italian courts ordering the return to Italy of migrants picked up at sea and taken to Albania, citing issues with EU law.
In a long-awaited judgment, the Luxembourg-based ECJ ruled that Italy is authorized to fast-track asylum rejections for nationals from countries on a “safe” list — a principle at the heart of the Albania scheme.
It also stated that Italy is free to decide which countries are “safe,” but warned that such a designation should meet strict legal standards and allow applicants and courts to access and challenge the supporting evidence.
In its statement, the ECJ said a Rome court had turned to EU judges, citing the impossibility of accessing such information and thus preventing it from “challenging and reviewing the lawfulness of such a presumption of safety.”
The ECJ also stated that a country may not be classified as “safe” if it fails to provide adequate protection to its entire population, effectively agreeing with Italian judges who had raised this issue last year.
Meloni’s office complained that the EU judgment effectively allows national judges to dictate policy on migration, “further reducing the already limited” capacity of parliament and government to take decisions on the matter.
“This is a development that should concern everybody,” it said.
The case raised before the ECJ involved two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities and taken to Albania, where their asylum claims were rejected based on Italy’s classification of Bangladesh as a “safe” country.
The detention facilities Italy set up in Albania have been empty for months, due to judicial obstacles. Last week, a report found that their construction cost was seven times more than that of an equivalent center in Italy.
Though the Albanian scheme is stuck in legal limbo, Italy’s overall effort to curb undocumented migration by sea has been more successful.
There have been 36,557 such migrant arrivals to date, slightly up from the same period in 2024, but far below the 89,165 recorded over the same time span in 2023.
Militants kill ‘dozens’ of soldiers and civilians in Burkina Faso
- A manager in a road haulage company confirmed the convoy attack
- The attack on the military base was on Tuesday claimed by the JNIM
ABIDJAN: Two militant attacks in northeastern Burkina Faso early this week killed “several dozens” of soldiers and civilians, two security sources and a local source told AFP on Friday.
In a “major” attack carried out on Monday, a military unit in the village of Dargo was targeted by “armed terrorist groups,” leaving “several dozens of deaths on each side,” one of the regional security sources said.
The other security source told AFP that militants waged a second attack on Monday, on a supply convoy going between the towns of Dori and Gorom-Gorom.
“In that ambush, several soldiers were killed, along with civilians, notably truck drivers transporting supplies,” said the source.
A manager in a road haulage company confirmed the convoy attack, and said that “some 20 drivers and their apprentices were killed.”
The attack on the military base was on Tuesday claimed by the JNIM, an armed Islamist militant group affiliated with Al-Qaeda that is active also in Mali and Niger. The group indicated it had killed 40 Burkinabe soldiers.
The JNIM has risen to become the most influential militant threat in the Sahel region, according to the United Nations.
Burkina Faso has been plagued by attacks by the JNIM and the Daesh group since 2015.
Wamaps, a group of West African journalists specializing in Sahel security issues, said the attack on the Dargo base was one of the deadliest attacks against Burkina’s military “in recent weeks.”
In a post on X, the Wamaps group cited local sources as saying that around 50 soldiers were killed.
In the convoy attack, “nearly 200 terrorists” from the Daesh group in the Sahel were believed to have taken part, the group said, adding that “some 15 escort soldiers were killed and more than 10 drivers executed.”
Bangladesh secures 20 percent US tariff for garments, exporters relieved
- The readymade garments sector is the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of total export earnings, employing about 4 million workers, and contributing about 10 percent to gross domestic product
DHAKA, KARACHI, AHMEDABAD: Bangladesh has negotiated a 20 percent tariff on exports to the US, down from the 37 percent initially proposed by US President Donald Trump, bringing relief to exporters in the world’s second-largest garment supplier.
The new rate is in line with those offered to other major apparel-exporting countries such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Pakistan and Indonesia. India, which failed to reach a comprehensive agreement with Washington, will face a steeper 25 percent tariff.
Trump put steep tariffs on exports from dozens of trading partners, including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan, ahead of a Friday trade deal deadline.
HIGHLIGHTS
• India faces higher 25 percent tariff on apparel shipments.
• Pakistani exporters cautious about impact of 19 percent tariff.
The outcome secured by Bangladesh — home to a $40 billion apparel export sector — reflects careful negotiation, said Khalilur Rahman, national security adviser and lead negotiator.
“Protecting our apparel industry was a top priority, but we also focused our purchase commitments on US agricultural products. This supports our food security goals and fosters goodwill with US farming states,” Rahman said. Muhammad Yunus, the head of the country’s interim government, called it a “decisive diplomatic victory.”
The readymade garments sector is the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of total export earnings, employing about 4 million workers, and contributing about 10 percent to gross domestic product.
The prospect of higher US tariffs has rattled Bangladesh’s ready-made garments industry, which fears losing competitiveness in one of its largest markets.
“While the 20 percent tariff will cause some short-term pain, Bangladesh remains better positioned than many of its competitors,” said Mohiuddin Rubel, additional managing director at Denim Expert Ltd, which makes jeans and other items for brands including H&M.
Exporters in neighboring India said the relatively higher tariffs levied would hurt the country’s textile exports, as its competitors like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia got lower tariffs.
“We are hoping that the tariffs will be rationalized. We will have to recalibrate our strategies depending on the final tariff imposed, said Chintan Thakker, chairman of industry body ASSOCHAM in the state of Gujarat, a major apparel exporter.
’Devil will be in the details’
Pakistan, which exported about $4.1 billion worth of apparel to the US in the 2024 fiscal year, secured a tariff rate of 19 percent, but industry figures were cautious about the immediate impact.
“Considering India’s lower production costs and the likelihood of it negotiating reduced tariffs in the near term, Pakistan is unlikely to either gain or lose a meaningful share in the apparel segment,” Musadaq Zulqarnain, founder and chair of Interloop Limited — a leading Pakistani exporter.
“If the current reciprocal tariff structure holds, significant investment is likely to flow into DR-CAFTA countries and Egypt,” he said, referring to a trade agreement between the US and a group of Caribbean and Central American countries.
Elsewhere in South Asia, Sri Lanka also secured a 20 percent tariff rate from the US, which accounted for 40 percent of its apparel exports of $4.8 billion last year.
“The devil will be in the details as there are questions over issues such as trans-shipment, but overall it’s mostly good,” Yohan Lawrence, secretary general of the Joint Apparel Associations Forum, a Sri Lankan industry body, told Reuters.
Colombia ex-president sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows
- Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia
- Uribe will be fined $578,000 in the case, the document showed
BOGOTA: Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will be sentenced on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, according to a document seen by Reuters and a source with knowledge of the matter.
Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness-tampering case that has run for about 13 years. He has always maintained his innocence.
The information, also published by local media, came hours ahead of the hearing where Heredia will read the sentence in court.
Uribe will be fined $578,000 in the case, the document showed.
The conviction made him the country’s first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia’s 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe’s allies and proteges are competing for top office.
It could also have implications for Colombia’s relationship with the US: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Uribe’s conviction is a “weaponization of Colombia’s judicial branch by radical judges” and analysts have said there could be cuts to US aid in response.
Uribe, 73, and his supporters have always said the process is a persecution, while his detractors have celebrated it as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries but never convicted of any crime until now.
Angola unrest death toll rises to 30
- The police did not say what caused the deaths but civil society groups and opposition parties blamed the security forces
- Lourenco said “law enforcement acted within the framework of their obligations and therefore the order was promptly restored“
LUANDA: Angolan President Joao Lourenco praised security forces Friday for quelling unrest that claimed 30 lives over two days but rights groups accused them of killing “defenseless people.”
Dozens of shops and warehouses in Luanda were looted and vehicles attacked on Monday and Tuesday when a strike against a fuel price hike descended into some of the worst violence in the oil-rich country in years.
The unrest spread to several provinces and police said that by late Thursday they had confirmed 30 deaths, including of a police officer, with more than 270 people injured, among them 10 members of the defense and security forces.
The police did not say what caused the deaths but civil society groups and opposition parties blamed the security forces, who are regularly accused of using excessive force against demonstrators.
In his first public comment on the situation, Lourenco said “law enforcement acted within the framework of their obligations and therefore the order was promptly restored.”
“We send our thanks to the law enforcement, the justice authorities, the health professionals...,” he said.
More than 1,500 people were arrested, 118 businesses vandalized and 24 public buses attacked, according to police.
“We strongly condemn such criminal acts, we regret the loss of human lives...,” the president said, announcing the government would help looted businesses to replenish their stocks.
Lourenco, from the MPLA party in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, made no mention of the July 1 hike in heavily subsidised fuel prices that has led to a series of demonstrations in a country with a high level of poverty despite its vast oil wealth.
The state is “doing its best” to address Angola’s social problems, he said, citing investments in health, education, housing and job creation.
Opposition and civic groups also condemned the vandalism but accused security forces of using excessive force.
The looting reflects “the hunger and extreme poverty affecting the majority of Angolans,” said the Human Rights Monitoring Working Group of various NGOs late Thursday.
The “legitimate expressions of the population’s indignation should not be used as justification to kill defenseless people,” it said.
The platform urged Lourenco to order the security forces to “refrain from killing defenseless people” and create an independent commission to investigate the killings as well as compensation for the families of the victims.
Details of some of the people killed in the unrest have circulated on social media, with the case of Silvia Mubiala, a mother of six children allegedly shot and killed by police while trying to protect her son in Luanda, causing particular outrage.
