Woman allegedly kills grandmother, buries body in garden then goes on spending spree with her cards

A woman went on a shopping spree with her alleged victim's Sassa cards.

Gallo Images/Die Burger/Jaco Marais

• A Gauteng woman is accused of killing her grandmother.
• The woman allegedly set the elderly woman's body alight and buried her in the yard. 
• She then used her slain relative's bank and Sassa cards after reporting her missing. 

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A 31-year-old Gauteng woman is accused of single-handedly killing her grandmother, setting her body alight, digging a hole and burying her in the yard in December 2019. The woman then covered the grave with a steel box before using the old woman's bank and South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) cards. This is according to the information contained in an indictment in the case against 31-year-old Rachael Tshabalala, who is currently on trial in the Gauteng High Court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court. Tshabalala was apparently living with her grandmother, Nomalanga Hilda Tshabalala, in Emndeni, Soweto.  They were last seen together on 14 December 2019 - but, five days later, Tshabalala reported her grandmother missing.  READ | Multiple murders: 664 people killed in 284 incidents between April, June In September 2020, Tshabalala was arrested and charged with defrauding Sassa. She was caught using her grandmother's card. During the time that Nomalanga had gone missing, her family rented out the house to tenants.  The truth about what happened to the old woman only came to light in September 2021, a year after Tshabalala was arrested on fraud charges.  How safe is your neighbourhood? Find out by using News24's CrimeCheck While Tshabalala was in prison, a tenant, who was cleaning the yard, found the old woman's remains and contacted the police.   "The remains of the deceased were found, and her identity was established by DNA profiling. The cause of death is unknown at this stage," claims the indictment. Tshabalala is facing charges of murder, theft, fraud, defeating the ends of justice as well as statutory perjury.

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Car Bomb Kills Daughter of Kremlin Hardline Ideologue

The daughter of Alexader Dugin, a hardline Russian ideologue close to President Vladimir Putin, has been killed in a car bombing on Moscow's outskirts, authorities said on Sunday. According to family members quoted by Russian media, Dugin — a vocal supporter of Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine — was the likely target of the blast as his daughter borrowed his car at the last minute. Daria Dugina, born in 1992, was killed when a bomb placed in her Toyota Land Cruiser went off as she drove on a highway near the village of Bolshie Vyzyomy, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside Moscow, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement. Dugina died on the scene and a homicide investigation has been opened, said the committee, which probes major crime cases in Russia. Dugin, sometimes called  "Putin's Rasputin" or "Putin's brain," is an outspoken Russian ultranationalist intellectual. He has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking territories in a vast new Russian empire and wholeheartedly supported Moscow's operation in Ukraine.  He was put on a Western sanctions list after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move he also backed. The head of one of Ukraine's breakaway separatist regions blamed the blast on Kyiv authorities. "The Ukrainian regime terrorists tried to liquidate Alexander Dugin, but blew up his daughter," DNR chief Denis Pushilin wrote on Telegram.           

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Road accident kills at least 16 people in Turkey

A passenger bus has collided with emergency teams handling an earlier road accident in southern Turkey, killing at least 16 people and injuring 22 others.

According to international media, three firefighters, two paramedics and two journalists were among those killed on the highway between Gaziantep and Nizip, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu wrote in a tweet on Saturday. The other eight deaths were on the bus, he added.

 

As per media reports, two journalists were killed after pulling over to help the victims of the initial accident, in which a car came off the highway and slid down an embankment.

Television footage showed an ambulance with severe damage to its rear while the bus lay on its side alongside the highway.

As per international media, Turkey has a poor record of road safety. Some 5,362 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, according to the government.

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Israeli strikes on Syria kills three soldiers: state media

DAMASCUS: Israeli air strikes on Syria killed three soldiers and wounded three others on Friday, state media said, after the latest such incident in the war-torn country.

“The aggression led to the death of three soldiers, the wounding of three others,” Syria’s official news agency SANA said, quoting a military source.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes inside the country.

The latest Israeli strikes targeted sites in the countryside around the capital Damascus and south of coastal Tartus province, SANA said, adding that Syria’s air defence systems intercepted some of the missiles.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor also gave the same toll of killed and wounded from the strikes near an air defence base in Tartus province, where Iranian-backed groups are active.

The targeted site in Tartus is located eight kilometres (five miles) from a Russian base, said the monitor, which has a wide network of sources in Syria.

It said ambulances had rushed to the scene of the strikes in Tartus.

In early July Syria’s defence ministry said an Israeli strike conducted from the Mediterranean Sea near the town of Al-Hamadiyah, south of Tartus town, had wounded two civilians.

On Friday, Israeli shelling wounded two civilians in southern Syria near the occupied Golan Heights, according to state media.

Last month, an Israeli strike near Damascus killed three Syrian soldiers, state media said at the time.

After the latest incident Israeli authorities told AFP that they “do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”

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Suspected Daesh attack kills dozens of Mali soldiers

Sophisticated weekend attack involving drones, explosives, car bombs and artillery leaves 42 soldiers dead and 22 others wounded, say officials of the troubled African country.

Heavy fighting took place in the troubled "three-border" region where the frontiers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso converge. (Reuters)

Forty-two Malian soldiers have been killed and 22 others wounded in an attack near the town of Tessit, a sophisticated attack blamed on Daesh affiliate in the landlocked West African country.  

"The Malian army units of Tessit... reacted vigorously to a complex and coordinated attack by armed terrorist groups, presumably from Islamic State [Daesh] in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), characterised by the use of drones, explosives, car bombs, and artillery," the government said in a statement on Wednesday.

 The attack took place on Sunday and was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years for the Malian army which has been battling a decade-long insurgency across the Sahel region.

 Soldiers killed 37 militants during several hours of heavy fighting in the troubled "three-border" region where the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso converge.

 The army had previously said that 17 soldiers had been killed in the attack and that nine had gone missing.

 Deadly tri-junction 

Thousands have fled Tessit to the nearest large town of Gao, which is located some 150 kilometres to the north.

 The last time Mali's armed forces sustained heavy losses was in a string of attacks in the same region between late 2019 and early 2020.

During those attacks, hundreds of soldiers were killed in assaults on nearly a dozen bases. These attacks are typically carried out by militants on motorbikes.

The attacks also prompted the Malian, Nigerien and Burkinabe forces to fall back from forward bases and hunker down in better-defended locations.

Mobile phone connections to the area have been frequently cut over the last few years and access to the area is difficult during the mid-year rainy season.

 Mali is ruled by a military junta that overthrew the democratic government in 2020, in part over frustration at its failure to rein in the violence, but attacks have remained common.

Source: AFP

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US kills top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri

Biden said US intelligence officials tracked Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family.

This frame grab shows Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al Zawahiri in a video issued Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006. (AP)

President Joe Biden has announced that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul, an operation he said delivered justice and hopefully “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The president said on Monday's evening address from the White House that US intelligence officials tracked Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family.

Zawahiri and the better-known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of Al Qaeda.

Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, in an operation carried out by US Navy SEALs after a nearly decade-long hunt.

As for Zawahiri, Biden said, “He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens.”

“This terrorist leader is no more,” he added.

The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left the country after a two-decade war.

READ MORE: Al Qaeda leader dispels rumour of his death via video message

“If you are a threat to our people, the US will find you and take you out."

US President Joe Biden announces the killing of top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri pic.twitter.com/xyuyeh8DpR

— TRT World (@trtworld) August 2, 2022

CIA's drone strike

The strike was carried out by the CIA, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither Biden nor the White House detailed the CIA's involvement in the strike.

Biden, however, paid tribute to the US intelligence community in his remarks, noting that “thanks to their extraordinary persistence and skill” the operation was a success.

Zawahiri's death eliminates the figure who more than anyone shaped Al Qaeda, first as bin Laden’s deputy since 1998, then as his successor.

Together, he and bin Laden turned the movement’s guns to target the United States, carrying out the deadliest attack ever on American soil — the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.

The house Zawahiri was in when he was killed was owned by a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior intelligence official. The official also added that a CIA ground team and aerial reconnaissance conducted after the drone strike confirmed Zawahiri’s death.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters on the operation on condition of anonymity said “zero” US personnel were in Kabul.

READ MORE: Why the Taliban will allow Al Qaeda to stay in Afghanistan

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rbtWgHKBWU[/embed]

'Taliban violated Doha agreement'

The Taliban "grossly" violated the Doha Agreement by hosting and sheltering Al Qaeda's top leader Ayman al Zawahiri, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

"In the face of the Taliban’s unwillingness or inability to abide by their commitments, we will continue to support the Afghan people with robust humanitarian assistance and to advocate for the protection of their human rights, especially of women and girls," Blinken said in a statement.

Over the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the US targeted and splintered Al Qaeda, sending leaders into hiding. But America’s exit from Afghanistan last September gave the group the opportunity to rebuild.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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US kills top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri — sources

Fast News

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity say that CIA carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan's capital Kabul against a “significant Al Qaeda target.”

This frame grab from video shows Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al Zawahiri in a video issued Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006. (AP)

A US air strike has killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri in Afghanistan, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Current and former officials began hearing on Sunday afternoon that Zawahiri had been killed in a drone strike, but the administration delayed releasing the information until his death could be confirmed, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

White House officials declined to confirm that Zawahiri was killed but noted in a statement that “the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation against a significant Al Qaeda target in Afghanistan. The operation was successful and there were no civilian casualties.”

Drone strike

The Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, two US officials told Reuters on Monday.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strike took place in Kabul on Sunday.

They did not give details on the target or whether there were any casualties.

The CIA declined to comment.

Biden to speak

Separately President Joe Biden was set to address the nation on Monday following what the White House says was a “successful” counterterrorism operation against a “significant Al Qaeda target” in Afghanistan over the weekend.

The White House said there were no civilian casualties.

Biden planned to speak from the balcony of the White House Blue Room as he remains in isolation in the residence while he continues to test positive for Covid-19.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Kentucky flooding kills 28, as more rain and storms batter the region

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The death toll from severe flooding in eastern Kentucky has risen to 28 people, including several children, and the governor said more fatalities are expected as search-and-rescue teams go door-to-door in the Appalachian foothills to assess the damage.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced the latest death toll in a news release Sunday evening.

“We are still focused on meeting the immediate needs of providing food, water and shelter for thousands of our fellow Kentuckians who have been displaced by this catastrophic flood,” he said in the release. “At the same time, we have started on the long road to eventual recovery.”

Earlier Sunday, Beshear said that rescue crews were continuing to search for survivors as the rain resumed and that authorities had unconfirmed reports of additional deaths.

Because of hazardous conditions such as downed power lines, as well as spotty cellphone service, he said some affected areas are inaccessible and the state doesn’t have a “firm grasp” on the number of missing.

“With the level of water, we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of yards, maybe a quarter-mile-plus from where they were lost,” Beshear told NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”

The Lexington Herald-Leader put the death toll at 33 on Sunday night, based on reports of additional deaths from two county coroners’ offices.

In some families, everyone in their household perished, the governor said. The state was doubling the National Guard to search for victims, he said.

Among the most tragic stories has been the death of four siblings who had clambered onto their roof to escape rising floodwaters. After the roof collapsed, the family clung to tree branches, according to an account in the Herald-Leader. A swell of water swept the children away.

The disaster has led to flash flooding, landslides and mudslides. The storms displaced hundreds of residents and caused “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damage, the governor said in a YouTube video posted Sunday. He has said it could take years to rebuild in the region. Kentucky Power reported on Twitter that as of midday Sunday, power had been restored to about 50 percent of customers who had lost it.

According to the news release Sunday evening, 359 survivors are being temporarily sheltered at 15 shelters and at two state parks and campgrounds.

The Kentucky floods were caused by 1-in-1,000-year rainstorms that scientists say are emblematic of the type of extreme weather that will become more common as the Earth warms.

Explainer: How two 1-in-1,000 year rain events hit the U.S. in two days

On “Meet the Press,” Beshear addressed the extreme weather — including an unusual spate of tornadoes in December that devastated parts of Kentucky and other states — and said officials must ensure that the state’s “roads, our bridges, our culverts, our flood walls can withstand greater intensity.”

Rural water and wastewater systems are easily overwhelmed, he said, and upgrading their infrastructure is “so expensive.” He said the American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed last year were a “good start” and allowed the state to afford improvements “that we haven’t been able to do before.”

“But if we truly want to be more resilient, it is going to take a major federal investment as well as here in the state,” Beshear said.

The National Weather Service is predicting several rounds of showers and storms for the area from Sunday through Tuesday, with flash flooding possible. A “brief dry period” is expected Wednesday, but Thursday could bring more rain.

Beshear urged residents to take precautions.

“Next couple days are going to be hard,” he said in the YouTube video. “We’ve got rain and maybe even a lot of rain that’s going to hit the same areas. Please pray for the people in these areas, and if you are in the areas that are going to get hit by rain, make sure you stay safe. Make sure you have a place that is higher ground. Go to a shelter.”

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