Rescue and recovery efforts will continue until the entire site has been cleared

At least 36 people have been confirmed dead after a powerful explosion triggered a fire at a pharmaceutical factory in the southern Indian state of Telangana. A government panel has been formed to investigate the cause of the disaster.

The factory’s operations have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. The blast, which erupted on Monday afternoon at a facility run by Sigachi Industries, took place in the plant’s spray dryer unit. The section is used to convert raw materials into powder for drug manufacturing. The factory is located roughly 50km from Hyderabad, the state capital.

Over 40 people have been killed after a bus and a minibus collided in Tanzania. The collision sparked off a fire that engulfed both vehicles in Sabasaba, Kilimanjaro region. One of the bus’s tyres was punctured, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Among the 38 people confirmed dead, two are women while 36 bodies are unidentified due to the extent of burns. The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known. Twenty-eight people were injured, six of them still hospitalized.

Twenty-nine children who were taking their school exams in the Central African Republic have been killed in a crash after a nearby explosion caused panic.

The blast, on the second day of the high-school finals on Wednesday, occurred at an electricity transformer, said Abel Assaye from the Bangui community hospital.

"The noise of the explosion, combined with smoke" caused alarm among 6,000 students sitting the baccalaureate at a school in the capital, Bangui.

At least eight people have been killed and 400 injured as thousands took to the streets in a day of protests across Kenya against President William Ruto's government.

Police clashed with protesters in the capital Nairobi and other cities exactly a year on from the wave of deadly anti-government demonstrations that hit the nation in 2024.