MONGO, Chad – More than 100 inmates escaped a Chad prison during a shoot-out that left three people dead, and wounded a state governor visiting the facility, officials told AFP on Saturday.

The break-out occurred late Friday when an uprising happened in the high-security penitentiary five kilometers (three miles) from the town of Mongo, in the center of the country.

“There are around 100 who escaped, three dead and three wounded,” Hassan Souleymane Adam, secretary general of the Guera province in which Mongo is located, said.

A local Mongo official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said prisoners broke into a manager’s office to steal guns.

“A shootout with guards ensued, at the same time the governor arrived. He was wounded,” he said.

The Mongo official confirmed there were three dead, and put the total number of escaped prisoners at 132.

He said the prisoners revolted after complaining about a lack of food.

Chad’s Justice Minister Youssouf Tom told AFP by telephone that he was about to fly to region and would be able to give “precise information once I am at Mongo in the coming hours.”

AN-AFP

Former Croatian national team player Nikola Pokrivač has tragically died in a car accident 😔 pic.twitter.com/lEF8ryu8VX

— 433 (@433) April 19, 2025

ZAGREB – Nikola Pokrivač, a former Croatia national team midfielder who played at the 2008 European Championship, has died in a car accident, his country’s soccer federation said. He was 39.

The federation announced that Pokrivač died Friday night in a car accident in the city of Karlovac.

Pokrivač played for Dinamo Zagreb, Monaco and Salzburg before being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015.

Pokrivač made 15 appearances for Croatia’s national team.

Marijan Kustić, president of the Croatian Football Federation, called Pokrivač a “great football player” who “showed great courage in life by overcoming a terrible disease.” He offered condolences to Pokrivač’s family.

Dinamo said in a statement that Pokrivač was a talented midfielder who played 69 times for the team and participated in four championship titles.

AN-AP

COLOMBO – A gunman fired at a church in Sri Lanka, police said Saturday, with the country on high alert six years since Easter Sunday bombings killed hundreds.

The gunman opened fire Friday at a church in Manampitiya, 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of the capital Colombo, a police statement said.

The shooting damaged windows and no one was hurt, while a suspect has been arrested, police said.

“Initial investigations suggest that the suspect had targeted the church due to a personal enmity with the pastor,” the statement said.

Armed police and troops have been deployed to nearly all churches nationwide during Easter celebrations, with security heightened following the 2019 attack.

Suicide bombers in 2019 killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, at three churches and three hotels.

More than 500 people were wounded in the attack, which officials blamed on a home-grown Islamist group.

The Catholic Church will commemorate the victims on Monday, by declaring them “Heroes of the Faith.”

Sri Lanka’s Catholic minority has maintained a campaign for justice since the bombings, saying that prior investigations failed to answer outstanding questions.

The Church has accused successive governments of protecting those behind the attack and several high-level investigations have identified links between military intelligence units and the bombers.

AN-AFP

LAGOS – At least 17 people were killed when suspected cattle herders attacked communities in central Nigeria’s Benue State on Thursday, police said, amid a resurgence of deadly clashes between farmers and herders.

Years of clashes have disrupted food supplies from north-central Nigeria, a significant agricultural area.

The latest attacks came two days after 11 people were killed in the Otukpo area of Benue and barely a week after gunmen attacked villages and killed more than 50 people in neighbouring Plateau State.

Since 2019, the clashes have claimed more than 500 lives in the region and forced 2.2 million to leave their homes, according to research firm SBM Intelligence.

A separate group of suspected herdsmen shot and killed five farmers around Gbagir in Benue’s Ukum Local Government Area, early on Friday, police said.

The attackers opened fire as police were moving in to confront them, police spokesperson Sewuese Anene said in a statement.

While officers were engaging the attackers at Ukum, another 12 people were killed in another attack in Logo local council area, about 70 km away, police said.

REUTERS

SANAA – The death toll from U.S. airstrikes on Yemen’s fuel port of Ras Isa has risen to 80, with 150 other people wounded, Houthi-run health authorities reported early Saturday.

The strikes took place Thursday night, targeting the port and several concrete tanks used for storing imported fuel.

The victims are workers of the port, including five paramedics.

The port, northwest of Yemen’s Red Sea city of Hodeidah, has been a main lifeline for importing fuel into the areas seized by the Houthi group. The group has controlled vast areas of northern Yemen since it started a civil war against the government in late 2014.

The attack marks the deadliest since Washington resumed its airstrikes on Houthi targets in mid-March.

XINHUA

NEW DELHI – At least four people died and around 10 others were injured when a four-storey building collapsed in the Indian capital in the early hours of Saturday, a local police officer said.

The building collapsed in Mustafabad area of northeast Delhi at around 2:30 a.m. local time.

The injured people were admitted to a local hospital.

Rescue work was underway to bring out those trapped under the debris.

XINHUA

BEIJING – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 jolted Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region on Saturday morning, the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported.

The epicenter, with a depth of 85.5 km, was initially determined to be at 36.13 degrees north latitude and 71.38 degrees east longitude, it added.

XINHUA

MANILA – Two people were killed and nine others injured after a speeding car plowed into people attending a religious procession in Negros Occidental province in central Philippines on Friday evening, police said Saturday.

The police said the crash occurred at around 7:30 p.m. local time in Bacolod City when a Good Friday procession was heading back to a church.

One died at the scene, while another died at a local hospital, the police added.

Good Friday is a solemn day of mourning and reflection for Christians, who often attend special church services and prayer vigils.

An initial investigation showed that the car carrying five Indian nationals, including the driver, hit a tricycle, a police patrol vehicle, and the participating devotees.

The driver was arrested and suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

XINHUA

U.S. strikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa fuel terminal on the Red Sea coast have killed at least 74 people in the deadliest attack since the U.S. started its bombing campaign against the Houthis last year, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of strikes last month in the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since he took office in January. Washington has vowed to keep attacking the Iran-aligned Houthis until the group halts attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Health ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi said 171 people were injured in Thursday’s strikes, according to preliminary figures, with rescue teams continuing efforts to search for victims.

REUTERS

QUITO – At least 11 people were killed and nine others injured in a mass shooting Thursday night at a cockfighting arena in Ecuador’s coastal province of Manabi, local media reported Friday.

The attack occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time in the town of Valencia in El Carmen canton, when a group of armed men dressed in military uniforms arrived in three vehicles and opened fire on attendees, according to broadcaster Ecuavisa. Survivors said the assailants also stole about 20,000 U.S. dollars in prize money.

Authorities believe the massacre was linked to organized crime groups. Victims were transported to nearby hospitals in the province of Santo Domingo, where most of the deaths were confirmed.

Police have launched an investigation and are offering a reward for information about those responsible.

The massacre is considered the deadliest armed attack in Manabi’s history. The province was placed under a 60-day state of emergency on April 12 amid a surge in violence tied to criminal gangs.

Ecuador has been under a state of internal armed conflict since January 2024, declared by President Daniel Noboa in response to escalating violence. The government has designated 22 gangs as terrorist organizations.

XINHUA

GAZA – Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday killed at least 45 Palestinians and injured dozens of others, according to the Civil Defense in Gaza.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, said that in the southern city of Khan Younis, 10 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential home belonging to the Baraka family, while six others, including two children and a woman, died after an airstrike on a barbershop.

“Multiple other strikes in Khan Younis reportedly killed eight more people, while two others were killed in southern Rafah city,” he added.

In the north, at least 13 people were killed and several others wounded when a strike hit the Maqdad family’s home in the Tal al-Zaatar area, Basal said, noting six were killed in airstrikes on two displacement tents in Gaza City.

In a press statement, the Civil Defense warned that its emergency operations may grind to a halt in the coming days due to fuel shortages, which it attributed to the ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid and fuel entry.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday that, with the direction of intelligence, IDF troops are continuing their operational activity against militant organizations in Gaza, dismantling their infrastructure sites, and killing militants.

“The Israeli Air Force struck approximately 40 terror targets throughout Gaza, including terrorists, military structures, and weapons storage facilities,” it said.

XINHUA

Alphabet’s Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech giant and paving the way for U.S. antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its ad products.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.

The decision, opens new tab clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business at another trial that has yet to be scheduled. It is the second court ruling that Google holds an illegal monopoly, following a similar judgment in a case over online search.

Publisher ad servers are platforms used by websites to store and manage their digital ad inventory. Along with ad exchanges, the technology lets news publishers and other online content providers make money by selling ads. Those funds are the “lifeblood” of the internet, Brinkema wrote.

“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” Brinkema wrote.

However, antitrust enforcers failed to prove a separate claim that the company had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks, she wrote.

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi called the ruling “a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square.”

“This Department of Justice will continue taking bold legal action to protect the American people from encroachments on free speech and free markets by tech companies,” she said.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs, said Google will appeal the ruling.

“We won half of this case and we will appeal the other half,” she said, adding that the company disagrees with the decision on its publisher tools.

“Publishers have many options and they choose Google because our ad tech tools are simple, affordable and effective.”

Google’s shares dropped 1.4% after Thursday’s ruling. Experts previously told Reuters the financial hit from a loss in the case would be minimal for the tech giant best known for its search engine.

The DOJ has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and ad exchange.

INFLECTION POINT

Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital, called the ruling a “major inflection point” for Google and the tech sector, underscoring U.S. courts’ willingness to entertain “aggressive structural remedies” in antitrust cases.

“This could increase regulatory risk premiums across major tech stocks, especially those like Amazon and Meta that operate similarly integrated ecosystems,” he said.

Meta Platforms is on trial in a separate antitrust case brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accusing the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram of holding an illegal monopoly in personal social networks.
The FTC has accused Amazon.com of unlawfully dominating online retail markets. The DOJ has also sued Apple, claiming it holds a smartphone monopoly.

Those cases have been pursued during both Republican and Democratic administrations, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s first and second term, showing the enduring bipartisan appeal of antitrust enforcement.

Google now faces the possibility of two U.S. courts ordering it to sell assets or change its business practices. A judge in Washington will hold a trial next week on the DOJ’s request to make Google sell its Chrome browser and take other measures to end its dominance in online search.

At a three-week trial last year on Google’s ad business, the DOJ and a coalition of states argued Google used classic monopoly-building tactics.
Those tactics involved eliminating competitors through acquisitions, locking customers in to using its products, and controlling how transactions occurred in the online ad market, prosecutors said at trial.

Google argued the case focused on the past, when the company was still working on making its tools able to connect to competitors’ products, and ignored competition from technology companies including Amazon and Comcast, as digital ad spending shifted to apps and streaming video.

In her ruling on Thursday, Brinkema rejected claims about the acquisitions.
But she said Google unlawfully tied publishers’ use of its exchange product to use of its ad server, and enacted anticompetitive policies that were “not in its publisher customers’ best interests.”

REUTERS

WASHINGTON – U.S. strikes on the Ras Isa fuel port in western Yemen killed at least 38 people on Thursday, Houthi-run media said, one of the deadliest days since the United States began its attacks on the Iran-backed militants.

Al Masirah TV said the strikes, which the U.S. military said aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group, also wounded 102 people.

REUTERS

BELIZE CITY, April 17 – A U.S. citizen hijacked a small Tropic Air plane in Belize on Thursday at knifepoint, injuring three others before being shot and killed, police said.

The assailant pulled a knife while the plane was in air, demanding the domestic flight take him out of the country, Police Commissioner Chester Williams told journalists.

The hijacker was identified as U.S. citizen Akinyela Sawa Taylor, Williams said, adding that it appeared Taylor was a military veteran.

The plane circled the airspace between northern Belize and capital Belize City as the hijacking was underway, and began to run dangerously low on fuel, the police commissioner said.

Taylor stabbed three people on board, according to Williams, including the pilot and a passenger who shot Taylor with a licensed firearm as the plane landed outside Belize City.

That passenger was rushed to the hospital, as was Taylor, who died from the gunshot wound.

Williams said that it was unclear how Taylor boarded the plane with a knife, though he acknowledged that the country’s smaller airstrips lacked security to fully search passengers.

The attacker had been denied entry to the country over the weekend, according to police. The plane had been due to fly the short route from Corozal near the Mexican border to San Pedro, off the coast. Police said it was unclear how Taylor reached Corozal.

Belizean authorities have reached out to the U.S. embassy in the country for aid in investigating the incident. Luke Martin, public affairs officer for the embassy, told journalists that it had no details on Taylor’s background or motivation so far.

According to information released by the airport, Taylor was a teacher in the United States. He was listed online as previously being a football coach at the McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri.

An employee at the school told Reuters that Taylor did not currently work there.

REUTERS