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Chinese nationals jailed over kidnapping and forced labour in South Africa

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The sentence handed to seven Chinese nationals behind an illegal sweatshop has been welcomed [BBC]

Seven Chinese nationals who smuggled Malawians to South Africa and subjected them to forced labour have been handed 20-year prison terms each.

The four men and three women were found guilty of human trafficking and kidnapping earlier this year by a South African court.

Their sentence comes nearly six years after they were arrested when local authorities raided a factory in Johannesburg and found 91 Malawian nationals, 37 of them children, working in appalling conditions.

Human trafficking is a major concern in South Africa, with the country regarded as a “source, transit and destination”, according to the government.

The group – Kevin Tsao, Chen Hui, Qin Li, Jiaqing Zhou, Ma Biao, Dai Junying, and Zhang Zhilian – were found guilty on 158 of the 160 counts for which they were charged.

These include helping illegal immigrants remain in South Africa and violating the country’s labour laws by failing to register their operations and and keep a record of their earnings among others.

The factory raid came after authorities received a tip-off from a worker who had managed to escape.

It later emerged that employees were forced to work 11-hour shifts, seven days a week, without proper training or safety equipment.

They were also paid far below South Africa’s minimum wage of $1.64 (£1.22) per hour and had their pay docked if they wanted time off.

According to South Africa’s labour laws, employees cannot work more than nine hours a day and are generally entitled to a “weekly rest period of at least 36 consecutive hours” that includes Sunday, unless a different agreement is reached.

One man testified that workers were not allowed to leave the heavily guarded factory premises, even to buy food, which he described as dirty and unsuitable for human beings.

According to authorities, the victims had been smuggled into the country in shipping containers.

Mr Tsao worked as a manager at the factory, named Beautiful City, while his co-accused were supervisors, according to local news site News24. The factory made inner cottons for blankets using recycled material.

South Africa’s prosecuting authority welcomed the sentence, saying it would help “bolstering our fight against human trafficking”.

“Human trafficking has become a scourge in our country, we have become a destination as South Africa for human trafficking [due to] various reasons, including our porous borders,” spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said.

The department of labour, which was part of the raid in 2019, also welcomed the sentence handed down as it urged for greater collaboration between government departments to “root out all these issues”.

[BBC]



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Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

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The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone was one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution (BBC)

A rare pink diamond is going on display in France for the first time since it was stolen almost 100 years ago to the day – the last time it was shown to the public.

The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone known as the “Grand Condé” was pilfered in an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed in a hollowed-out apple.

The diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks later when a hungry maid at the hotel in which the thieves were staying took a bite of the apple.

It will once again be on display in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.

The museum’s director Mathieu Deldicque said that while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was widely covered by newspapers at the time.

Deldicque has faced questions about whether the exhibition may be tempting fate, especially given the string of heists on European cultural institutions in the past 12 months, including the daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre museum in Paris.

While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he noted that extensive academic study into the properties of the diamond had taken place to make it uniquely identifiable.

The results of this analysis, as well as previously unseen archive material about the gem’s history and theft, form part of the exhibition, according to the museum.

Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest price ever fetched for one at auction was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.

The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery.

It was first mentioned in 1740 in an inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up following his death, the Château de Chantilly said.

It then became part of the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.

He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.

(BBC)

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Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned

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Kitchen staff was instructed to use inedible paint to enhance the look of meals to attract more students, the court found (BBC)

A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food.

Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.

In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill.

A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to “enhance the look” of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such.

In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan.

Four other members of staff who worked in the nursery’s kitchen received sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.

The court found the four had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.

Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of China’s national safety limit.

The investigation into the poisoning began after 235 children from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns.

Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both of which far exceed the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.

Lead poisoning is “particularly harmful to young children” and can “severely damage the brain and central nervous system”, according to the World Health Organization.

Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.

China has since published a set of national guidelines for the provision of meals on campuses. Among the measures is the requirement for every new batch of food to be tested, and for flour, rice and cooking oil to be purchased from centralised procurement points only.

(BBC)

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Houthi missile attack on Yemeni presidential palace kills five, minister says

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Verified video footage showed smoke above the presidential palace in Aden (BBC)

Five people have been killed and 16 injured in a Houthi missile attack targeting the presidential palace in the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, which is the seat of the internationally-recognised government, officials say.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that the prime minister and other ministers were unhurt when five ballistic missiles hit al-Maashiq Palace.

The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said they struck “the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden”.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs the government and is providing air support for an offensive by pro-government forces against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Yemeni health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the casualties included “those working to guard the site and civilian employees”.

The country’s Prime Minister Shaya Zindani condemned the Houthis’ attack on Aden, calling it “cowardly” and a “continuation of their criminal behaviour”.

He said the government continued to carry out its duties and vowed that it would not weaken the resolve of its forces to continue operations against the Houthis on Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and other front lines.

Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam’s holiest shrines.

Maps of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, showing Houthi control of territory and recent advances by pro-government forces (11 October 2026)

The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at airports, oil and gas facilities, and military bases in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the strikes on the territory that they control in western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

On Saturday, a Houthi missile strike killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, which was the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis to escalate their conflict with the kingdom.

“Iran continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” Rayed Krimly told reporters, according to AFP news agency.

“We think that the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran,” he added.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. However, it has previously denied supplying weapons to the Houthis and said it only supports them politically.

Iran’s foreign minister has also said it is ready to provide “any assistance necessary to facilitate the start of talks” between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.

A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.

The conflict escalated in September after the Houthis seized part of Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping. Their advance contributed to a rise in oil prices following six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran.

Last week, pro-government forces said they had regained control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a major counter-offensive with the support of Saudi air strikes.

At least 1,282 people have been killed and 5,890 injured in the fighting in Yemen since 6 August, according to the government’s health ministry.

The UN says another 201,000 people have been displaced and that there has been an alarming surge in suspected cholera cases.

(BBC)

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