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The family of Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo and President  Emmerson Mnangagwa have confirmed reports that he and his wife Lucy Muteke were involved in a fatal helicopter crash southeast of Harare on Wednesday evening.  Family spokesperson Herbert Chivayo told state broadcaster ZBC that the 43-year-old tycoon and his wife were killed in the crash, saying, "We are at a loss for words after the tragic news."  President Mnangagwa said the sudden and unexpected deaths "left our nation, my family, and me personally numbed and in deep shock and grief."  Chivayo was a prominent supporter of Mnangagwa who had secured a series of lucrative government contracts and was known for his lavish lifestyle and often-ostentatious gifts to allies and associates.  What do we know about the crash?...

Relatives of Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman shot dead in her car in Minneapolis by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on January 7 this year, are suing the US government in a civil lawsuit connected to her death that was filed on Thursday.  Good and her wife had been taking part in daily protests in the city against the deployment of armed and often masked federal agents deployed to Minnesota to arrest and identify undocumented migrants for deportation.  The lawsuit alleges "federal conspiracy with discriminatory design and authorized use of force against observers," saying that this resulted in "extreme and unconstitutional force" being exerted against "people exercising their rights under the [US] constitution's Bill of Rights."  Good's killing, followed two weeks...

The United Arab Emirates' chief prosecutor's office said on Thursday that it had ordered an investigation into the apparent attempt to hijack and possibly crash a flydubai flight to Israel a day earlier.  The state news agency WAM said that "the investigation team has launched its work into the incident already" and that the probe would seek to determine "the degree to which [the incident] was linked to any terrorist activity or intent." The case will also seek to establish whether it was a pre-meditated and planned incident involving other actors or the work of a lone perpetrator. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had called the emergency on the flight to Tel Aviv "an attempted jihadist terror attack" that was thwarted.  Passengers described rushing the cockpit to assist the pilot ...

Security forces in France on Wednesday detained over 600 people as protests at high schools in parts of the country have intensified.    Authorities said violent clashes and arson attacks have also left dozens of security personnel wounded. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez condemned what he called an "escalation of violence" outside certain schools. The violence left 83 police officers and gendarmes wounded on Wednesday, he said, adding that 32 teachers and pupils were also injured. The protests affected 356 schools, the minister noted. He slammed the "targeting of law enforcement officers, the throwing of projectiles, acts of violence, verbal abuse, attempted arson, and what amounts... to urban violence."The student protest movement began in the Ile-de-France region around the capital,...

A new report on conditions in the Gaza Strip says that the roughly 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza, or 86% of the population, living in displacement sites often face inhumane living conditions.  The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) published its findings on Thursday, almost three years after the October 7 terror attacks against Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, and a year after the phased October 10 ceasefire plan that was supposed to usher in the war's end. "The October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza was supposed to end civilians' suffering. Nearly a year on, it exists largely in name only. Displacement in Gaza has not ended; it has changed shape," the report says.  The findings are based on group discussions with 195 people living in internal displacement camps across five governorates in G...

A shark stranded in a canal in the northern port city of Busan has become South Korea's latest celebrity, tourist magnet and ambassador, as authorities' attempts to guide it back out to sea have so far faltered.  What do we know about the stranded shark? The shark was first spotted in a narrow waterway in Busan's North Port on September 18.  Reports on its possible species vary but seem to suggest it's a type of requiem shark, possibly a bull shark or a bronze whaler. It's a fairly large shark, appearing to be roughly 3.5 meters (around 11 feet, 6 inches) long.  It's been nicknamed "Bukangi," derived from the Korean name for the North Port in Busan, Buk Hang.  Attempts to encourage the animal back out to sea earlier this week failedImage: Son Hyung-joo/Yonhap/AP Photo/picture allianc...

A leading AI researcher, together with a woman lawyer from Pakistan and two women-led rights groups, on Wednesday received a Sweden-based rights award that honors work seen as contributing to a more just and peaceful world. The Right Livelihood Award was created by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull in 1980 to celebrate achievements in the fields of environment and international development disregarded by the Nobel Prizes. It is usually awarded a week before the Nobel Prizes. Right Livelihood said this year's winners, selected from 200 nominations from 72 countries, were being honored for "resistance to systems that push people to the margins, and a shared insistence on putting people back at the center."   Who won the Right Livelihood Award in 2026? An AI researcher figh...

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, only in the role for a few months after replacing Keir Starmer, has told the Labour Party conference in his native Liverpool that his government wants to restore hope and end "politics as usual."  But the UK's seventh prime minister in a decade is trying to balance a series of evidently conflicting fiscal goals: bolstering economic growth, reducing cost-of-living pressures, safeguarding pensions and making care costs more affordable, upgrading creaking infrastructure and significantly boosting military spending. That's all while battling a populist challenge from Reform UK and Restore Britain on the right and the Green Party on the left. This led Labour to severe local and regional election defeats in May and ultimately spelt his predecessor Starmer's...