At least 40 Afrikaners who have been granted refugee status by the United States have arrived at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and are currently being checked in for their private charter flight to the States later this evening.

The mystery of an 18th-century Austrian mummy might finally be solved, according to a new study unravelling the “little-known” methods that have preserved his remains for more than 200 years.

Published at the beginning of May in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, the joint project by scientists in Austria, Germany and Poland took on the case of the “Air-Dried Chaplain,” a mummified cadaver that has attracted tourists and researchers alike to a small village in the country’s north for many decades.

Shrouded in ancient rumours of “healing miracles,” the state of the body has long drawn speculation. Everything from acids seeping into the body from its coffin, to radiation, to simple good luck and favourable conditions have been pitched to explain its status, described by one scientist as “unusually well-preserved.”

The 2025 study launched the most detailed analysis of the chaplain yet, including an autopsy, CT scan and myriad other forensic experiments. Its results, researchers say, provide “certainty” of the chaplain’s identity and produce a number of clues about how he lived, died and remained in one piece for so many years.

A body of evidence

Based on the exhaustive review of his remains, scientists have concluded the chaplain was most likely Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, an aristocrat and vicar believed to have died in 1746, who was interred in the years since at the church crypt of St. Thomas am Blasenstein, west of Vienna.

Born in 1709, Sidler joined the clergy at a young age, and was later assigned to St. Thomas to serve as a parish vicar. Researchers say this basic biography is consistent with the chaplain’s remains, which displayed a high-quality diet and no signs of hard manual labour.

Records of correspondence with another monastery places his death at 37 years old, and while this matches the chaplain’s estimated age at death of between 35 and 45, the documents fail to explain how Sidler died so young, leaving further mysteries to solve.

While an X-ray of the body in the year 2000 showed a small capsule inside his body that some theorized could be poisonous, further examination of the mummy’s remains revealed a likely culprit in one of history’s most prolific killers: tuberculosis.

Sidler’s lungs appear to have been inflamed and calcified in places, both signs of the disease, the study says, and marks seemingly left by a belt around his waist suggest he may have lost a significant amount of weight late in life, which could be expected in the case of a disease like chronic tuberculosis.

Based in part on small particles of coal found in his airway, as well as how his teeth retracted in one area of his bite, it’s also likely he smoked a pipe, scientists say.

“In total, we have good evidence that he died of acute severe pulmonary hemorrhage due to destruction of lung vessels by an ongoing infection,” the study reads.

Posthumous popularity

While researchers say little more is known about Sidler’s life, his story took on new significance after he died, in large part because of how well his body has survived the centuries.

Rumours have it that he was initially buried in a local cemetery, but that he was exhumed and transferred to the church crypt years later, where talk spread of “several healing miracles” associated with his burial.

By the mid-1800s, he had become a local attraction, prominent enough to feature in a guidebook for tourists to the region, and while experts in mummification later visited Sidler to photograph and examine his remains, no clear scientific explanation emerged.

It wasn’t until the 2025 study that scientists were surprised to discover Sidler’s abdomen was “filled with considerable amounts of a mixed foreign material” that did not appear in prior X-rays, including “wood chips, fragmented twigs, large amounts of fabric of various types including elaborate embroidered linen, and even pieces of silk,” as well as high concentrations of zinc.

The researchers say zinc chloride has antimicrobial and disinfecting properties, and could have helped Sidler’s body rapidly dry from the inside out. The mass of objects in his abdomen could also have prevented his torso from collapsing over time, and the fabrics and wood may have absorbed fluids as he decomposed.

“The evidence suggests that the preservation was performed to avoid the spread of infection by miasma,” the study reads. “Possible later opening of the coffin or relocation of the human remains would have found a remarkably intact corpse and could easily result in miraculous beliefs by the local population.”

Scientists say this specific form of embalming, which appears to have involved inserting the packing rectally instead of by cutting open the body, does not appear elsewhere in the historical record, to their knowledge.

“Needless-to-say,” it concludes, “future investigations of crypt burials should take note of this unusual type of embalming when undertaking planned analyses of human remains.”

#Ugandan opposition member held by president's son shows signs of torture

Sudan's military on Sunday said the eastern, coastal city of Port #Sudan, the government's temporary seat of power since the war broke out in 2023, had been attacked by paramilitaries in a drone strike.

President Ruto grants clemency to 57 people, declares General Amnesty for petty offenders

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/04/public-schedule-april-25-2025/

More than 1,800 migrants expelled from Algeria into Niger, rights group says.

ALGIERS, ALGERIA — Algerian authorities rounded up more than 1,800 migrants and left them at the Nigerien border in a record expulsion earlier this month, a Niger-based migrant rights group said Thursday.

Alarmphone Sahara, which monitors migration across the region, said the migrants were bused to a remote desert area known as “Point Zero” after being apprehended in Algerian cities.

Abdou Aziz Chehou, the group’s national coordinator, told The Associated Press on Thursday that 1,845 migrants without legal status in Algeria had been counted, arriving in Niger’s border town of Assamaka after the April 19 mass expulsion.

That pushed the total number of expelled migrants arriving in Assamaka this month beyond 4,000, he said.

The figure does not include those who may attempt to return north into Algeria, Chehou added.

The mass deportations come amid rising tensions between Algeria and its southern neighbors, all now led by military juntas that ousted elected governments previously aligned with Algiers. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria earlier this month over border security disputes.

For migrants fleeing poverty, conflict or climate change, Algeria serves as a transit point en route to Europe. Many cross vast stretches of the Sahara en route before attempting dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean. But reinforced maritime patrols have stranded increasing numbers in transit countries with checkered human rights records and limited humanitarian aid.

In 2024, Alarmphone Sahara recorded more than 30,000 migrants expelled from Algeria. Similar pushbacks have also been reported in neighboring Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.

Neither Algerian nor Nigerien officials have commented on the latest expulsions, which are rarely reported in Algerian press. In the past, Nigerien authorities have said such actions appear to violate a 2014 agreement that allows only Nigerien nationals to be deported across the border.

Dozens are reported killed in east Congo as the government and Rwanda-backed rebels trade blame.

#GOMA, Congo — At least 50 people were killed in weekend attacks in Congo’s conflict-battered east, authorities said Saturday. The government traded blame with Rwanda-backed rebels over who was responsible for the violence that quickly escalated the conflict in the region.

The renewed violence that residents reported in and around the region’s largest city of Goma — which the M23 rebels control — was the biggest threat yet to ongoing peace efforts by both the Gulf Arab state of Qatar and African nations in the conflict that has raised fears of regional warfare.

Goma resident Amboma Safari recounted how his family of four spent the night under their bed as they heard gunfire and bomb blasts through Friday night. “We saw corpses of soldiers, but we don’t know which group they are from,” Safari said.

The decades-long conflict between Congo and the M23 rebels escalated in January, when the rebels made an unprecedented advance and seized the strategic eastern Congolese city of Goma, followed by the town of Bukavu in February. The latest fighting has killed some 3,000 people and worsened what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with around seven million people displaced.

At least 52 people were killed between Friday and Saturday, including a person shot dead at Goma’s Kyeshero Hospital, Congo’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that blamed the attack on M23.

M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka issued a statement blaming Congolese forces and their allies for the attacks. Kanyuka said Congo’s joint operations with local militias and southern African troops “directly threaten the stability and security of civilians” in the region.

The group said it has been compelled to “reconsider its position to prioritize the security” of the people in the area, suggesting the crisis could worsen.

Christian Kalamo, a civil society leader in the North Kivu province that includes Goma, said at least one body was seen on the streets on Saturday.

“It is difficult to know if it is the Wazalendo, the FARDC (Congolese forces) or the M23″ that carried out the attacks, Kalamo said. “Now, we don’t know what will happen, and we live with fear in our stomachs, thinking that the war will resume.”

More than 30 people killed, 84 injured in Russian missile attack on Ukrainian city of Sumy.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.

The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.

The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 117 people were wounded, including 15 children, it said.

“Only filthy scum can act like this -- taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. In a statement on social media, he said the first strike hit buildings belonging to a city university, while the second exploded above street level.

The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said the strike also used cluster munitions in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim.

The attack on Sumy followed a deadly April 4 missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.

Zelenskyy called for a global response to the attack. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. What’s needed is an attitude toward Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said.

Other world leaders also condemned the attack, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying that it undermined Washington-led peace talks between the two sides.

“Everyone knows: This war was initiated by Russia alone. And today, it is clear that Russia alone chooses to continue it -- with blatant disregard for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts” of U.S. President Trump, he wrote in a statement.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two women, ages 62 and 68, and a 48-year-old man were killed in Russian attacks on the Kherson region, local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Another person was killed during Russian shelling on Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.

The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said a Russian strike hit one of the city’s kindergartens, shattering windows and damaging the building’s facade. No casualties were reported.
Spring offensive fears despite peace talks

The strikes come a day after Russia and Ukraine’s senior diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the three-year war.

The two countries’ foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum a day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace prospects.

“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Moscow would provide the U.S., Turkey and international bodies with a list of Kyiv’s attacks during the past three weeks.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, contested that claim, saying Saturday that Russia had launched almost 70 missiles, over 2,200 exploding drones and more than 6,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, “mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.

Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, and Kyiv has warned that Moscow is planning a fresh spring offensive to ramp up pressure on its foe and improve its negotiating position.

Ukraine has endorsed a broader U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said the Sumy attack crossed “any line of decency” and that the White House remained committed to ending the conflict.

“There are scores of civilian dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting, and this is wrong,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack “horrifying” and said it offered “a tragic reminder” of why the administration was trying to end the war in favor of “a just and durable peace.”