15/04/2026

WEDNESDAY | APR 15, 2026

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16 HURT IN TURKIYE SCHOOL SHOOTING

Greenpeace warns of Chernobyl collapse

Sudan drone toll tops 700 civilians GENEVA: Nearly 700 civilians have reportedly been killed in drone strikes in Sudan since January, the UN aid chief said yesterday, decrying that three years of civil war had created the “world’s largest humanitarian crisis”. Now entering a fourth year, the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million, and thrust several areas into famine. “In the first three months of this year, nearly 700 civilians were reportedly killed in drone strikes,” Tom Fletcher said in a statement, a day before the three-year anniversary of the start of the war. In recent months, near-daily drone strikes have disrupted life across Sudan, particularly in the southern Kordofan region, now the war’s main battleground, and in RSF-controlled areas of the west, including Darfur. “Millions have been driven from their homes, with entire communities emptied and families uprooted. The risk of wider regional instability is high,” said Fletcher. The UN aid chief said three years of war had torn apart a country bearing immense promise, with nearly 34 million people, almost two in every three, needing humanitarian support. He said hunger was on the rise as the lean season closes in, while hundreds of thousands of children were malnourished and millions deprived of education. Women and girls are facing systemic and brutal sexual violence, he said. – AFP ISTANBUL: An ex-student opened fire at his former high school yesterday in Turkiye, where school shootings are rare, wounding 16 people including students before killing himself. Special security forces were deployed to the school in southeastern Turkiye’s Sanliurfa province, where students were evacuated, Governor Hasan Sildak said. Television footage showed ambulances standing by outside the school in the Siverek district as students fled the building. Sildak identified the attacker as a former student at the school, born in 2007. “He took his own life when cornered by police. We have evacuated the school and will carry out a thorough investigation into this tragic incident.” Local media reported that most of the wounded were students. – AFP COLOMBIA TO EUTHANISE INVASIVE HIPPOS NEW YORK: Colombia will launch a plan in the second half of this year to control its invasive hippopotamus population, including euthanising an initial 80 animals, Environment Minister Irene Velez said. The South American country is home to some 200 hippos in the central region near the Magdalena River. If control measures are not adopted, the population could increase to as many as 1,000 by 2035, Velez said. “We must act to reduce the hippopotamus population. These actions are essential to protect our ecosystems and our native species.” Colombia’s first four hippos were illegally imported in the 1980s by the late drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, who established a zoo on one of his properties. The population has since grown largely unchecked, despite some efforts by provincial environmental authorities. – Reuters

BR I E F S

o Russia accused of targeting site

“Here we are 40 years on and Russia is still conducting effectively a nuclear war against the people of Ukraine and Europe.” Plant director Sergiy Tarakanov said the situation around the site was “very dangerous”. “If a rocket will drop, not directly into the safe confinement, but just in 200m, it will create an external impact like an earthquake,” increasing the risk of the inner shell collapsing. “And what actually the 1986 accident showed to us ... that the radioactive particles, they do not recognise borders,” Tarakanov said. Last month, France said that the Chernobyl protective dome would require almost €500 million (RM2.3 billion) of repairs after the Russian strike last year. – AFP

“That would be catastrophic because ... there’s four tonnes of dust, highly radioactive dust, fuel pellets, enormous amounts of radioactivity inside the sarcophagus,” said Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist for Greenpeace Ukraine. “And because the New Safe Confinement cannot be repaired at the moment, it cannot function as it was designed, there’s a possibility of radioactive releases,” Burnie said. Greenpeace said deconstruction of unstable elements of the internal shell was necessary to prevent their uncontrolled collapse. But any works at the site were impeded by the war raging on as “there’s missiles from the Russians still being fired across Chernobyl”, Burnie said.

the sarcophagus and built hastily after the disaster – and a modern, high-tech outer shell, called the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure. Kyiv has accused Russia of targeting the site since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, including of a strike last year that pierced the outer shell. In a report released yesterday, days before the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Greenpeace warned that despite some repair works, the confinement function of the NSC “could not be fully restored”. “This increases the risk of radioactivity release in the environment especially in the case of a collapse” of the internal shelter, Greenpeace said.

KYIV: An uncontrolled collapse of the internal radiation shell at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine could increase the risk of radioactivity release in the environment, Greenpeace warned yesterday. In 1986, while Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded, sending clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. The remnants of the plant are covered by an inner steel-and concrete radiation shell – known as

Harry meets a patient at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. – AFPPIC

Muted welcome for Prince Harry, Meghan SYDNEY: Britain’s Prince Harry and wife Meghan landed in Australia yesterday for a four-day visit with engagements covering sport, Their latest visit has captured public attention in Australia, where Britain’s King Charles is the head of state, though a sizeable minority supports becoming a republic.

sparking a protest petition signed by more than 45,000 people. The couple will travel to the capital, Canberra, today to meet military veterans, attend a mental health summit in Melbourne tomorrow and round off the joint leg of their trip with sailing and rugby events in Sydney on Friday. In contrast to their previous visit, the Sussexes will also undertake commercial activities, with Meghan remaining in the country to host a wellness retreat at a luxury hotel in Sydney over the weekend. Tickets for the event, which includes yoga, manifestation and sound healing, start at A$2,699 (RM7,582) per person. – Reuters

calling one of the handmade signs welcoming the couple “beautiful”. Meghan, who wore a matching A$1,250 (RM3,551) navy dress by Sydney-based designer Karen Gee, later helped serve food at a women’s domestic violence shelter in the city. The Sussexes stepped down as working members of the British royal family and moved to the US in 2020, citing a desire to be financially independent and to escape what they characterised as media intrusion into their private lives. They last visited Australia in 2018 while still working royals, announcing Meghan’s first pregnancy hours after arriving in Sydney.

mental health and veterans’ affairs. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex began their trip at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, where they took part in an activity in the hospital’s therapeutic garden spaces. “It was a genuinely meaningful visit for our staff and for the young people receiving care,” said Dr Peter Steer, the hospital’s CEO. Harry, wearing a navy suit and white shirt, spoke to children and posed for photographs with patients in the foyer of the hospital,

But there was little sign of the ecstatic reception that greeted them on the 2018 trip. Television networks aired footage that they said showed the couple arriving in Melbourne on a commercial flight from Los Angeles, before being taken from the tarmac in a vehicle convoy. The couple’s travel is being privately funded, though local media reported some policing costs associated with the visit would be paid by Australian taxpayers,