South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered women's safety audits in municipalities after the bodies of 11 women were found dumped in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, since mid-July. Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that a national-level emergency response…
British counter-terror police said Tuesday that no improvised explosive devices were found in vans seen acting suspiciously near RAF Fairford, a military airbase in southwest England used by the US military. Police said investigators recovered a quantity of p…
Somali maritime police said Tuesday they had rescued the Palau-flagged MT Honour 25 oil tanker, which was hijacked in April, in the Dharin-Bar area of Bandar Beyla district in Puntland. Puntland police said maritime police force personnel used naval and groun…
One woman was killed and another woman and a child were wounded in an attack at a school in Staskov, northwestern Slovakia, emergency workers said Tuesday. Emergency Medical Services Operations Centre spokeswoman Petra Klimesova said the two injured people we…
Colombian police have arrested the wife and daughter of Ecuadorian drug lord Adolfo Macias, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella said Sunday. Macias, known as “Fito,” leads Los Choneros, an Ecuadorian gang with ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. De la E…
South African police said an 11th woman has been found dead in Ekurhuleni municipality east of Johannesburg, bringing the number of women discovered dead there in 10 weeks to 11. The latest body was found around midday on September 27 in an open veld after a…
A UK-Iranian dual national arrested in a counter-terrorism investigation linked to a major incident near RAF Fairford has been released on bail, British police said Saturday. The man was arrested in central London on Thursday on suspicion of preparation of te…
British police declared a major incident and evacuated properties near RAF Fairford in western England on Sunday after arresting several men on suspicion of explosives offences. Gloucestershire Police said army bomb disposal experts were examining a number of…
The death toll from two weekend mass shootings in South Africa has risen to 28 after one victim of a tavern attack west of Johannesburg died in hospital, police said Monday. Police said eight gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed a bar in the semi-rural to…
A knife attack at a Benedictine abbey in southeastern Poland killed a priest and has raised fears of increased anti-Ukrainian hostility in a country that hosts about 1.5 million Ukrainians. Prosecutors said a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen, identified as Ihor…
South African police found another woman's body in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, bringing to 10 the number of women found dead in the municipality over the past two months. Police said the semi-naked body was found near a cemetery in Tembisa township on S…
About 30 suspected Somali pirates arrested after the rescue of the oil tanker Sibu 1, also known as Seamull, escaped while being transported to jail in Puntland. The sources said police may have helped the getaway. The tanker was intercepted by maritime polic…
Five people, including three tourists, were missing on Friday after an early morning explosion destroyed a two-floor building in Athens' historic Plaka district near the Acropolis, the Greek fire service said. A fire department spokesperson told AFP that resc…
A series of rape cases in India has renewed public anger over women's safety, with students marching in New Delhi after authorities said three men posing as police officers allegedly gang-raped a 17-year-old girl in a public park on Monday. Hundreds of studen…
Communities in central Nigeria said Thursday that 547 people were taken in a mass kidnapping last month, contradicting Niger state Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago's claim that only a few dozen were abducted. A list published Thursday and signed by local youth ac…
US troops and the Drug Enforcement Administration helped Ecuadorian authorities dismantle a local branch of Mexico's Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Ecuadorian Interior Minister John Reimberg said Thursday. Reimberg said more than 30 Ecuadorians were arrested…
Nigeria’s anti-drug agency said Thursday that it had arrested two men accused of operating a methamphetamine laboratory linked to a Mexican cartel member. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said Chukwu Obumneme Christopher, 45, and Chukwu Georginus Mond…
An AFP investigation says Mexican cartels are using industrial-scale methamphetamine labs in southern Africa to supply Australia and New Zealand, where investigators say prices are far higher than in the United States. South African narcotics investigators be…
Santa Marta was calm but tense on Wednesday after drug-gang violence led Colombia to deploy army troops in the Caribbean tourist city. Stores and schools closed and many drivers stayed off the roads a day after members of the Conquering Self-Defense Forces of…
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told an anti-fraud summit Wednesday that Cambodia would never be a safe haven for cyberscams, while international officials praised cooperation but warned that criminal networks remain a major threat. Hun Manet told the Phno…
Gunmen killed 11 people at a homestead in a township in Durban, South African officials said Wednesday. KwaZulu-Natal premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said the victims, including a pregnant woman, were gathered at a house in KwaMakhutha shortly before 11:00 pm Tuesday…
The Catholic Church in Panama has recorded 37 complaints alleging sexual abuse by clergy members between 2001 and 2025, according to a report released on September 22. The report was prepared by Spain's Villanueva University and the University of Notre Dame i…
A gunman who was shot by Canadian police after firing at officers outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, has died, Ontario's police watchdog said Tuesday. The 29-year-old man was carrying a shotgun when he approached the Sons of Jacob congregation on Sun…
Two men have been arrested over a suspected plot to target the Jewish community in Manchester, counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday. The men, who are in their 30s, were arrested in the northern British city on September 20 on suspicion of offences under t…
A teenager opened fire outside a high school in Turgutlu in western Turkey on Tuesday, wounding 11 pupils, officials said. Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said 10 minors were still being treated, including three in intensive care. One victim had been dischar…
A police officer was in critical but stable condition after a gunfight outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, as Yom Kippur prayers were about to begin. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit said a 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun arrived near the So…
The killing of nine women in two months in Johannesburg's East Rand has led some South African women runners to carry pepper spray or knives, avoid secluded routes or stop running alone. The bodies were found around Kempton Park from mid-July, including that…
UNICEF has estimated that 1.5 million children in Pakistan experienced online sexual abuse in one year, as campaigners warned that shame, stigma and weak enforcement leave many victims without help. The UN children's agency said in a report published this mon…
The Department of Homeland Security said it is leading an investigation with help from the FBI into an ICE agent's shooting of a Venezuelan man in Austin, Texas, after local officials demanded outside scrutiny. The man, identified by his lawyer as 28-year-old…
Masked robbers broke into a family's home in northern France and forced them to transfer 40,000 euros, about $46,000, in cryptocurrency during an overnight ordeal, local prosecutor Etienne Thieffry said Sunday. The couple and their two children, aged 8 and 12…
An 82-year-old man died on Sunday after a dispute over a sun lounger at a beach resort area near Athens, Greek media reported. The argument at Vouliagmeni involved the older man, a 76-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, according to police accounts reported…
Two Germans were arrested on Saturday after they stuck two small paintings to a wall in the Louvre hall where the Mona Lisa is displayed, police sources said. The paintings measured 30 by 40 centimetres and were attached with sticky tape. One showed one of th…
Brazilian police said Friday they had arrested a suspected serial killer linked to at least 16 deaths since May after a 30-hour manhunt in Paraiba state. Police said the man was captured Sunday in a forested area in northeastern Brazil while wearing a dress a…
The Philippine Coast Guard said Friday it had confiscated 12.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 130 cases of dynamite from two trucks aboard a roll-on, roll-off passenger ferry at a port in Palawan province. The Coast Guard said the explosive substances were fo…
A Grade nine student killed two classmates and then himself at Banga National High School in South Cotabato province in the southern Philippines on Friday, officials told AFP. Local rescuers received a call about gunfire on the campus in Mindanao at about 1:3…
Armed gangs killed at least 15 people in raids on villages in Zamfara state, northwestern Nigeria, residents told AFP on Thursday. The gunmen rode motorcycles through eight villages in Dansadau district from Wednesday morning until dawn Thursday, killing resi…
Italian police have arrested 17 people in an investigation into an Italy-based international network that distributed child sexual abuse material online, Rome prosecutors said Thursday. Prosecutors said an undercover Italian officer gained the trust of the ne…
South African police recovered the body of a ninth woman east of Johannesburg on Thursday, as a string of killings over two months continued to raise public concern. Deputy police chief Tebello Mosikili said the latest body was found on the side of the road i…
Ecuador declared a state of emergency Tuesday in eight provinces affected by violence linked to drug trafficking, including areas covering Quito and Guayaquil. President Daniel Noboa imposed the measures in seven coastal provinces, including Guayas, where Gua…
Rail travel in large parts of the Netherlands was halted Tuesday after suspected sabotage involving tubes attached to tracks in multiple locations, rail operator ProRail said. Train transport in much of the central and eastern Netherlands was described as vir…
An Australian man killed his two young children in a bungalow on Indonesia's resort island of Bali and then died by suicide, Indonesian police said Tuesday. Denpasar police chief Leonardo David Simatupang said investigators suspected the man murdered the chil…
A knife attack in Guangzhou wounded several people outside a hot pot restaurant, and police said they arrested a 35-year-old suspect. Police in the southern Chinese city said they received reports that a man surnamed Li had carried out the attack in Panyu dis…
South Africa extortion gangs are targeting foreign-owned spaza shops, or small convenience stores, around Cape Town, with a recent court case accusing a man, his two sons and a Somali co-defendant of taking money from about 50 Ethiopian- and Somali-run stores…
Thousands of people marched in Culiacan, Mexico, on Sunday to protest deaths linked to a war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The demonstrators, many dressed in white, released white balloons and walked to the cathedral in the Sinaloa state capit…
Sweden recorded eight deaths and 15 injuries in 39 shootings in the first half of this year, down from 34 deaths and 49 injuries in 205 shootings in the same period in 2022, according to police data. Police also recorded 75 bombings from January to June this…
Somali pirates have released the MV Sward, a vessel hijacked in April with 17 crew members, near Garacad in Puntland, security sources in the Somali state told AFP. The sources said a ransom was paid but did not give a figure. One Puntland security source sai…
Mexico national soccer team captain Edson Alvarez denied allegations that he was involved in a kidnapping two years ago after entertainment magazine TV Notas printed accusations against him. Businessman and television producer Juan Ordonez told TV Notas that…
A Lebanese security source said that Lebanon's army arrested a relative of ousted Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and the son of Lebanese drug lord Nouh Zaiter in the eastern Bekaa region on Friday. The security source said the military arrested three people whi…
Police will ban face masks at a planned anti-immigration rally and counter-demonstration in Portsmouth this weekend, saying the measure is aimed at reducing the risk of violence and intimidation. Hampshire Police said the ban will apply in a designated area o…
Thai police said they arrested a senior Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling $2.8 million intended for his monastery, in a case that also involves an alleged sexual relationship with a female accomplice. Phra Wachirayan Wi, 66, abbot of the 14th-century W…
Tokyo police arrested two 25-year-old American women on suspicion of smuggling cannabis into Japan after they arrived at Haneda airport from New York, a police spokesman told AFP. The women arrived on September 5 with two suitcases in which “cannabis-like dri…
Mexican authorities said Thursday they rescued eight people who had been forced to work for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel from a clandestine clinic in Jalisco state. Jalisco prosecutor Salvador Gonzalez said the farm holding the clinic was a CJNG strongho…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Mexico was doing “not nearly enough” to tackle drug cartels, while praising Mexican efforts and saying much more had to be done. “There are territories, vast territories in Mexico that are not governed by…
Nigerian social media influencer Ibrahim Khalil Dan Shagamu has been found killed at his home in Kano, his family and Amnesty International said on Wednesday, as election campaigning intensifies ahead of the January 16 presidential vote. Friends and neighbour…
US judicial authorities said on September 9, 2026, that they helped shut down 13 online scam centers in Madagascar run by Chinese citizens, leading to 500 arrests. Jeanne Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said US investigators had travelled…
Belgian customs officers seized about 4.5 million cigarettes during a raid on an illicit factory in a warehouse near Ninove on Wednesday, arresting 11 people at the site. Officials said the cigarettes were stacked on pallets and waiting to be shipped for blac…
Turkish media outlets DHA and IHA said police detained a 58-year-old British tourist in Alanya and that he was formally arrested on charges of insulting or deg…
A police officer shot dead his teacher wife at the kindergarten where she worked in Thailand's Chonburi province on Wednesday, officials said, while all 44 children at the school were reported safe. Sayan Klomaon, chairman of Nong Pla Lai sub-district council…
Australian footballer Cristian Volpato has been fined after a roadside cocaine test in Sydney, local media reported, after New South Wales Police said a 22-year-old man had a second sample test positive. Police said the man was fined Aus$722, or US$522. His d…
Illicit cigarettes cost the European Union about 13 billion euros a year in lost revenue, EU auditors said Tuesday, warning that poor coordination between memb…
Thai authorities arrested 12 South Koreans and a Chinese national accused of running a scam call centre from a high-end rented house south of Bangkok, police s…
A violent incident at a new gold mining site in Ethiopia's Oromia region left multiple people dead and led Kefi Gold and Copper to suspend operations, the company said. Work at the Tulu Kapi site began in March and production had been due to start in 2028. Ke…
French police were hunting two thieves on Tuesday after two Renoir paintings were stolen from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, southern France, in a break-…
A maple tree planted in Berlin's Tiergarten park to remember victims of a fatal attack on the city's July Pride march was uprooted, German police said on Sunday. The tree had been planted in August alongside a rainbow bench as a place of remembrance for victi…
Authorities in Germany said 12 improvised explosive devices were found near high-voltage lines close to two electricity substations, as police investigated a possible link with similar incidents earlier this week. Regional authorities said the devices were di…
The United States said Friday it had shot down more than 300 drones operated by cartels along the Mexican border since the start of 2026, including 100 in Augu…
Mexican federal lawmaker Zenyazen Escobar was found dead with a gunshot wound on a highway in Veracruz state, local authorities said Friday. Veracruz Secretar…
Authorities in Cameroon found several minors in a residence in the capital, Yaounde, after an anonymous tip-off, and the social affairs ministry said the children were believed to have been held captive. The ministry said the children were found on Wednesday…
Mexican authorities said Friday they seized 16.8 tons of amphetamines from clandestine drug labs in northwestern Sinaloa state, home to one of the country's bi…
The US military sank another vessel it said was linked to Ecuador's Los Choneros gang, bringing to three the number of such boats it has destroyed in the Easte…
Singapore said Friday that 52 of its citizens had been arrested in China's southern Guangxi province on suspicion of involvement in pyramid schemes and related offences. Singapore's foreign ministry and police said the arrests happened during a Chinese law-en…
Two US sailors were sent back to their ship after a drunken altercation near Pattaya's Walking Street, Thai police said Friday. Pattaya city police chief Colonel Anek Srathongyoo said police were called to a “small scuffle” involving the sailors in the early…
South African police said Thursday they uncovered a crystal methamphetamine laboratory hidden on a remote farm about 200 kilometres north of Johannesburg, the…
Belgian police arrested a man at Bruxelles Midi station on Thursday, and a person close to the investigation told AFP he had a Kalashnikov automatic rifle in a…
Serbian prosecutors said Thursday that four people had been detained in an investigation into an “organised group” suspected of moving explosives and drones in…
The United States military intercepted and sank a vessel allegedly used to support at-sea drug trafficking by Ecuadorian criminal organization Los Choneros, of…
Japan will make driving tests harder for some motorists over 75 with traffic violations, as police try to reduce accidents caused by older drivers mistaking the accelerator for the brake. The National Police Agency said Thursday it would take “necessary measu…
Two people died and several others were injured, including three police officers, after police said a gunman opened fire in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Garrett…
Iranian state television said authorities arrested 11 foreign nationals on suspicion of trying to smuggle fuel out of the country. State television reported o…
US and Sri Lankan anti-narcotics agents seized 463 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from a shipping container in Colombo after a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said Wednesday. Police deputy inspector-general Ashoka Dharmasena s…
German police arrested a 48-year-old suspect near the Weisweiler power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday in a sabotage case linked to attacks on the p…
Mexican soldiers killed Luis Enrique Barragan, an accused drug cartel leader who had a $3 million US bounty on his head, Mexico's government announced Tuesday. Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch said Barragan, 39, and an associate opened fire on soldiers a…
A rainbow-coloured bench installed in Berlin’s Tiergarten park to remember victims of a deadly July attack on Pride march revellers has been severely damaged, police said Tuesday. Police said they were called to the park after wooden slats were torn from the…
Australia will pledge Au$600 million, or $429 million, on Wednesday to help small Pacific island states track and interdict “narco subs” and other drug-smuggling vessels at sea. Australian authorities said illicit drug seizures in the South Pacific have more…
Dutch authorities said Tuesday they had arrested 34 people after a pre-dawn shootout in Overasselt killed a 51-year-old and injured two police officers. Polic…
Improvised explosive devices damaged electricity lines on Tuesday near Germany’s Jaenschwalde coal-fired power plant, briefly interrupting service but causing…
Police in Japan said Tuesday they had arrested a 36-year-old high school staffer in Iwate over the alleged killing of about 30 hamsters at a hotel, weeks after he was detained in a separate case involving around 20 hamsters. Hiroyuki Nasu, a senior police off…
Illegal mining is damaging roads, power equipment, homes and buildings across Johannesburg and nearby areas, while residents and officials say armed mining gangs have brought new danger to communities. Parts of Wemmer Pan Road in Johannesburg have collapsed,…