Headline
Saudi Arabia Executes Seven People In One Day

Saudi Arabia executed seven people on Wednesday, including five for drug trafficking, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
The deaths brought the total number of executions carried out this year in the Gulf kingdom to 236, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.
Yahya Lutfullah, Ali Azib, Ahmed Ali and Salem Nahari were executed in the southern province of Asir for “smuggling hashish” into the country, the interior ministry said in a statement published by SPA.
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The report said all four were Yemeni citizens.
Also on Wednesday, the same source announced the execution of a Pakistani man for drug trafficking, bringing the number of people executed in the kingdom for that crime this year to 71.
Saudi Arabia has become a major market for captagon, an addictive amphetamine drug flooding in from war-torn Syria and Lebanon.
Saudi authorities launched a high-profile anti-drug campaign last year, leading to a spate of raids and arrests.
Executions of drug traffickers have been increasing since a moratorium on the death penalty for drug cases ended two years ago.
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The interior ministry also announced the execution of two Saudis for murder on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world after China and Iran in 2023, according to Amnesty International, which began recording the annual figures in 1990.
Riyadh’s use of the death penalty has been criticised numerous times, with rights groups saying it is excessive and out of step with the kingdom’s efforts to present a more modern image on the world stage.
Riyadh has previously said that the death penalty is necessary to “maintain public order” and sentences are only carried out if “the defendants have exhausted all levels of litigation”.
AFP
Headline
Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.
“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.
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AFP
Headline
20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.
The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.
He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.
Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.
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Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.
The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”
“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.
It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”
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According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.
The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.
According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.
The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Headline
South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.
The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.
“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.
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Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.
The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.
South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.
AFP
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