EAST LONDON (AFP) – At least 20 young people have died at a makeshift nightclub in a township in South Africa’s southern city of East London, but the cause of the deaths is still unclear. Senior officials from the provincial government rushed to the scene, where at least six mortuary vehicles were lined up the residential street waiting to collect the bodies, an AFP correspondent reported. “The number has increased to 20, three have died in hospital. But there are still two who are very critical,” the head of the provincial government safety department Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said on local TV. A visibly shocked head of the Eastern Cape Province Oscar Mabuyane, spoke from outside the scene, a building surrounded by houses in an area called Scenery Park. “It’s absolutely unbelievable, we can’t understand it, losing 20 young lives just like that,” he said, condemning “this unfortunate consumption, unlimited consumption of liquor”. “You can’t just trade in the middle of society like this and think that young people are not going to experiment,” he said. Provincial police spokesman brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana told AFP that police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident. He said the victims at Enyobeni Tavern were aged between 18 and 20 years. The provincial community and safety department official Unathi Binqose, speaking from the scene, ruled out a stampede as the cause of death. 

 

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CHICAGO (NBC News) – A deadly shooting at a WeatherTech facility in the U.S. state of Illinois on Saturday occurred after a temporary employee robbed two other workers and was confronted, police said. Police in the village of Bolingbrook, a Chicago suburb, were called on a report of a shooting at the facility around 6:25 a.m. and found three people shot, police said. One victim died, another was in critical condition, and the third was treated at a hospital and released, Police Chief Mike Rompa said. The suspect fled when police arrived but was arrested later that morning, police said. He was identified as Charles C. McKnight Jr., 27. Police believe the shooting happened after McKnight, a temporary hire at the facility, robbed two co-workers at gunpoint during an overnight shift, and was then confronted about the robbery, Rompa said. “When confronted an argument ensued and the offender pulled out a handgun and shot three co-workers,” he said. “This shooting does not appear to be premeditated.” Police said they found a handgun and the data-x-items that were stolen when McKnight was arrested.

 

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TUNIS (Anadolu/AFP) – Tunisian judges have extended their strike for a fourth week to protest the sacking of their colleagues by President Kais Saied. In a statement, the Coordination of Judicial Structures said the move was taken over refusal of the Presidency and the Justice Ministry to respond to their demands. “The strike will include all courts, administrative, financial and judicial institutions as of Monday,” it added. The statement called on all judges to abide by the strike “in order to ensure the independence of the judiciary.” On June 1, the Tunisian president sacked 57 judges, citing corruption and covering up terrorist cases, accusations that were vehemently rejected by judges. Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that has aggravated the country’s economic conditions since Saied ousted the government, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority last year in July. He later dissolved the suspended parliament. While Saied insists his measures were meant to “save” the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup. Meanwhile, Tunisia’s former prime minister Hamadi Jebali, on hunger strike after being arrested earlier this week on money-laundering allegations, was rushed to intensive care, his lawyer said. “His condition rapidly deteriorated because he is on an intense hunger strike and he didn’t take his medicine” for cardiovascular conditions and diabetes, lawyer Zied Taher told AFP. Jebali is a former senior official in the Ennahdha party that is a key rival of President Kais Saied.

 

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YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar authorities said they torched more than half a billion dollars worth of narcotics on Sunday as part of eradication efforts for World Drug Day, as the UN warns that production of methamphetamine in the region is hitting record levels. Almost two tons of heroin and more than 630 million “yaba” meth pills went up in smoke at ceremonies in Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon, the central city of Mandalay and Shan state in the north, authorities said. But some analysts cautioned that the $642 million bonfires are part of a long-running game of smoke and mirrors played by a junta government not serious about tackling the problem. The televised burnings represent a “decade-long delusion” about Myanmar’s multibillion-dollar drug industry, independent analyst David Mathieson said. “The military pretends to get serious about drug eradication and the West pretends to believe them,” he said. There was “active military complicity in protecting large-scale drug production to ensure stability in conflict zones,” Mathieson added. This includes Shan state — Southeast Asia’s primary source of meth according to the United Nations.

 

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QUITO (AP) – Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has lifted a state of emergency he’d imposed in six provinces amid an Indigenous-led strike, a surprise move that came as lawmakers in the National Assembly heard an opposition petition to remove him from office. The decision to end the state of emergency followed an initial meeting between government officials and Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organization, which began the strike two weeks ago to demand gasoline prices be cut, price controls be imposed on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education. Lasso had accused the Indigenous leader heading the at-times violent strike of seeking to stage a coup. After Saturday’s meeting, National Assembly President Virgilio Saquicela said a commission would be formed to facilitate dialogue to end the strike. “The national government ratifies the willingness to guarantee the creation of spaces for peace, in which Ecuadorians can gradually resume their activities,” said a statement announcing the decree to end the state of emergency.  The meeting was held in the Basilica church in the colonial center of Quito and was attended by the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, Leonidas Iza, other social leaders, Government Minister Francisco Jiménez and Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín, among others. “There has been no commitment, but simply a decision by the (Indigenous confederation) ... to consult its bases on the designation of a commission to start this dialogue,” Saquicela said, adding that “the government has made the corresponding opening.”