World Today: Police Hunt Killers in South Africa Mass Shooting, Hong Kong Charges Over Deadly Blaze

South African police said they are hunting more than ten suspects following an attack in the Jumpers slum in Cleveland, about six kilometres from downtown Johannesburg. Twelve people were killed. In a statement, police said the motive for the attack was unknown and no arrests have been made. The suspects reportedly arrived in a white Toyota minibus and entered the settlement from two access points around 11.00 pm on Tuesday local time. They opened fire at several locations before fleeing in the same vehicle. Police said the victims comprised nine men and three women. Eleven died at the scene and one victim died in hospital.

In Indonesia, four military intelligence officers have been sentenced to up to three years in prison after being convicted of dousing human rights activist Andrie Yunus with acid. The military court sentences were lighter than the three charges brought against them. Each officer received a separate sentence for their role in the incident: three years, two and a half years, two years, and one and a half years. Two officers convicted of pouring acid on Andrie were dishonourably discharged from the military. Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said the verdict and sentences trivialised the severity and impact of the life-threatening attack on Andrie. He stated the verdict failed to consider the involvement of other actors, or the chain of command, despite a recent independent investigation alleging that at least 14 people were involved.

In Hong Kong, seven individuals and two companies have been charged over the world’s deadliest apartment fire in decades. The blaze at Wang Fuk Court, which killed 168 people in the public housing complex last year, triggered a months-long investigation to determine the cause. The charges include manslaughter, conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, attempting to pervert the course of public justice, and tax evasion.

Bear attacks in Japan are on the rise. The latest incident occurred last week at a Fukushima steel plant, wounding four people and captured on CCTV cameras. This serves as a reminder of last year’s record toll: 13 people killed and over 220 injured in encounters with bears, including on city streets. The Kumamap organisation, which maps bear activity in Japan, has warned this year’s figures could be worse, recording nearly 5,000 encounters between April and June, a 36 per cent increase on the same period last year. Officials are planning to manage the bear population, calling for a systematic mass cull, doubling city-level bear control staff, and doubling the number of bear traps.