Foreign
Austria School Shooting: 10 Dead, Nation Stunned
A shooter opened fire at a high school in the Austrian city of Graz on Tuesday, killing 10 people, including teenagers, in one of the worst rampages in the country’s history.
Austrian police and hospital officials confirmed the fatalities, raising the death toll from an earlier figure of nine. The country’s interior ministry told CNN that the victims included children between 14 and 18 years old.
Interior minister Gerhard Karner said at a news conference that six victims were female and three were male. Twelve students were injured in the incident, some of them seriously, Karner added. Graz University Hospital later said one of the seriously injured adults died on Tuesday evening.
The suspect – a 21-year-old Austrian male who had previously attended the school but not graduated – used two weapons, a shotgun and a pistol, to carry out the killing spree, before fatally shooting himself in a bathroom, authorities said at the news conference.
Officials would not give a motive for the gunman, who they say acted alone. Police believe he obtained the weapons he used legally. The weapons were seized at the scene and subject to forensic examinations. Officers are also continuing to conduct interviews as they investigate the circumstances of the incident, police added.
The shooting pitched Austria into a state of shock and disbelief. Chancellor Christian Stocker announced three days of national mourning, writing on X: “There are no words for the pain and grief.”
Officers first responded to the reports of “several” suspected gunshots at the Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium Dreierschützengasse school in the northwest of Graz at around 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET).
Several vehicles and a police helicopter were deployed to the site. The school was evacuated and the area was secured, with no further danger expected, the police said on social media. Police said later in a statement that special forces were also deployed to the scene.
Stocker expressed horror at the shooting, saying: “The rampage at a school in Graz is a national tragedy that has deeply shaken our entire country. This inconceivable act suddenly tore young people from the life they still had ahead of them.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said: “It is difficult to bear when schools become places of death and violence.”
Several vigils for the victims will take place on Tuesday evening in Graz, including one coordinated by local youth organizations.
Gun violence is rare in Austria, along with most central European countries. The country’s rate of firearm homicides was just 0.1 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, compared to 4.5 per 100,000 people in the United States.
But Austria’s gun ownership is higher than most European Union countries; there are 30 civilian firearms owned for every 100 citizens, according to the Small Arms Survey, a research institute based in Switzerland.
A small number of high-profile violent incidents have taken place there in recent years. Last October, the mayor of a northern Austrian town was shot dead, along with another victim.
In February, a 23-year-old man stabbed five passersby in southern Austria in what police said was a random attack.
Edition.cnn.com
No fewer than six people, including popular billionaire businessman, Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, have been killed in a helicopter crash.
Naija News learnt that the family spokesperson, Herbert Chivayo, confirmed the deaths to ZBC News, saying those closest to the couple were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Similarly, the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Nick Mangwana, also confirmed the incident in a statement on 𝕏.
He said the helicopter was carrying the businessman, three other passengers and two pilots when it crashed in Marondera, Mashonaland East on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The government extended its condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The statement read, “The Government wishes to confirm that a helicopter crash has occurred, involving one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots.
“Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash. The Zimbabwe Republic Police will confirm the names of the victims in due course.
“We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the victims, their families, and their friends during this difficult time.”
In other news, the Chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Fiidi Council Ward, Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Igbu Job Terhemen, has reportedly been killed by unknown assailants.
Terhemen was allegedly attacked in the early hours of Wednesday and later found unconscious near his residence along the Makurdi-Otukpo Road.
According to Daily Trust, a friend of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Terhemen left his home on Tuesday evening to watch a local football match in the Kanshio area of Makurdi.
According to the source, he did not return home after the match, prompting relatives and friends to search for him.
The source said Terhemen was eventually found around 2 am in a bush near his residence, close to the NNPC depot.
A court in The Hague sentenced Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci to 25 years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of war crimes committed during the late 1990s conflict in which Kosovo broke away from Serbia
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaci, 58, of murder, torture, cruel treatment, and the illegal detention of civilians
The tribunal determined that he bore criminal responsibility as the top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian separatist force that fought Serbian security forces between 1998 and 1999. Presiding judge Charles Smith said Thaci “actively participated in and encouraged crimes.”
The court established that KLA forces under his command murdered 96 people identified as political opponents or perceived collaborators with Serbian authorities. A further 385 people were arbitrarily detained, 303 were tortured, and around 50 others suffered cruel treatment.
Judge Smith told the court: “The scale and nature of the crimes committed were very serious. The so-called intelligence on which many of these victims were arrested, detained and killed was little more than unverified rumours. Based on that information, victims were called and described as spies and collaborators and violently treated.”
The American judge was careful to clarify that the proceedings were “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or Kosovo’s goal of independence. Thaci, who denied all charges, stood in silence as the sentence was delivered. He retains the right to appeal.
Three other former senior KLA figures were tried alongside Thaci. Jakup Krasniqi also received a 25-year sentence, while Kadri Veseli was jailed for 18 years and Rexhep Selimi for 13 years. All four had denied the charges.
The panel acquitted the four men on six counts of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove those crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
The verdicts drew an immediate public response in Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many ethnic Albanians. Thousands had gathered in the capital Pristina ahead of the ruling, with crowds filling a central square waving red and black Albanian flags and banners calling for the men’s acquittal. When the guilty verdicts were announced on a big screen, many in the crowd booed and wept.
Thaci had resigned from the Kosovo presidency in late 2020 to face the charges, after nearly three years of trial proceedings. In his closing address to the court in February, he said: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted to the verdict by posting an image of barbed wire stretched across a map of Europe, with a single word: “Unbelievable.”
A new investigation by The New York Times claims Sudan’s military ran an organized program in 2024 to develop and produce chlorine-based munitions, escalating long-standing allegations of chemical weapons use in the country’s war.
According to the report, the Times reviewed nearly 150 documents, plus photos, videos, audio recordings and thousands of messages. The materials describe months of work to design, test and manufacture about 300 bombs filled with chlorine.
Brigadier General Tariq Hussein is named as one of the principal supervisors. The documents detail a munition that combined explosives with large quantities of chlorine, and tests carried out before production.
One of the most serious claims involves the source of the chemical. The dossier alleges that some chlorine was taken from a water-treatment facility in Omdurman, at a time when Sudan is facing cholera outbreaks and a collapse of basic services.
The investigation also points to senior leadership. Voice and text messages reportedly implicate army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in knowledge of the program, and in orders to “remove all traces” after U.S. pressure and sanctions.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been alleged in Sudan. Independent.ng reported that the Sudanese Alliance for Rights filed a case at the International Criminal Court against four senior Port Sudan Authority leaders, including al-Burhan, accusing them of using chemical weapons and committing serious violations against civilians. The lawsuit also names Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din al-Kabashi and Major General Taher Mohammed, and calls for an urgent ICC investigation.
The U.S. has already acted on earlier findings.
Independent.ng noted that Washington imposed additional penalties in May 2025 over the alleged use of chemical weapons, further linking Sudan’s war to international politics.
Chlorine is permitted for water purification, but using it as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified. Experts say its civilian availability makes it easier to obtain and harder to monitor than military-grade agents.
With the conflict since April 2023 already causing mass displacement and famine, rights groups are now calling for an independent international investigation with access to sites, documents and the chain of command.
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