WORLD

Twenty children have been killed in a minibus crash near the South African capital Pretoria, emergency services have said. The children died after the vehicle burst into flames following a collision with a truck just north of the capital. There were understood to be both primary and secondary school-aged children on board. Panyaza Lesufi, the official responsible for education in ...

Russia’s Supreme Court has accepted the government’s request to designate Jehovah’s Witnesses as an outlawed religious group, deeming it to be an extremist organisation. The justice ministry argued that the group had distributed pamphlets which incited hatred against other groups. Lawyers representing the group reject the claims and say they will appeal. The denomination says it has 175,000 members in ...

The Queen of the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, turns 91 today, Friday 21 April.She has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February, 1952.She is Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, ...

DNA tests on the carcass of a crocodile shot in Zimbabwe have confirmed that it contains the remains of a missing South African hunter, an investigator has told the BBC. Scott Van Zyl was killed last week on the banks of the Limpopo river, said Sakkie Louwrens, director of a South-African crime-fighting NGO. He said Mr Van Zyl disappeared during ...

Nigeria’s foreign spy chief Ayo Oke has been suspended after anti-corruption officers found more than $43m (£34m) in a flat in the main city, Lagos, the president’s office has said. Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into how the spy agency headed by Mr Oke came into possession of the money, his office added. Mr Oke has not yet commented. ...

The evacuation and transfer of thousands of Syrians from four besieged areas resumed on Wednesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The reciprocal evacuations from two pro-government villages and two opposition-held towns was disrupted by a bombing on Saturday that killed more than 120 people. A large convoy of buses from the government-held towns of Foua ...

Benedict XVI, who resigned as pontiff in 2013, has celebrated his 90th birthday with a mug of beer and the company of visitors from his native Bavaria in Germany. Photos by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano of the celebration showed Benedict sipping a beer. His brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, also joined the party and enjoyed a beer. Looking happy, the ...

A US aircraft carrier and other warships did not sail towards North Korea – but went in the opposite direction, it has emerged. The US Navy said on 8 April that the Carl Vinson strike group was travelling to the Korean peninsula amid tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Last week President Trump said an “armada” was being sent. But the ...

Three white men were killed and another wounded when a black gunman opened fire in Fresno, California, in a suspected race attack, police have said. Kori Ali Muhammad shot 16 rounds in 90 seconds in the shooting spree on Tuesday, said police chief Jerry Dyer. He shouted “God is greatest” in Arabic when arrested but this was a hate crime ...

News Correspondent Harare – What was there to be glad about on Independence Day in Zimbabwe? On Thursday President Robert Mugabe, 93, said Zimbabweans should be happy that there haven’t been any power cuts for the last 15 months. “We all should be pleased that since January 2016 the country achieved a 15-month period without load shedding,” said the long-time ...