Briefly

EAST AFRICA

38 migrants drown off Djibouti coast

The bodies of 38 migrants, including children, have been recovered after a shipwreck off the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, the UN said on Tuesday, the latest disaster on the so-called Eastern migration route. The UN's International Organization for Migration told Agence France-Presse that the boat was carrying 66 people when it sank in the early hours of Monday. The tragedy took place just 200 meters off the coast of Godoria in the northeast of Djibouti, the agency said in an email to AFP. In a post on X accompanied by a picture of white body bags lined up on a beach, the IOM said at least six other people were missing and presumed dead after the "tragic shipwreck".

UNITED KINGDOM

'God particle' physicist Higgs dies at age 94

British physicist Peter Higgs, whose theory of a mass-giving particle — the so-called Higgs boson — jointly earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics, has died aged 94, the University of Edinburgh announced on Tuesday. "He passed away peacefully at home on Monday 8 April following a short illness," the Scottish university, where he had been a professor for nearly five decades, said in a statement. His 1964 theory of a mass-giving particle, which became known as the Higgs boson or the "God particle", won him and Belgian physicist Francois Englert the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics.

SOUTH KOREA

Opposition leads exit polls in election

South Korea's main liberal opposition Democratic Party overwhelmingly led exit polls in parliamentary elections, a survey from three local broadcasters showed on Wednesday. The Democratic Party and its satellite party were projected to secure 178-197 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, the joint exit polls from KBS, MBC and SBS showed. The ruling conservative People Power Party and its satellite party were estimated to win 85-110 parliamentary seats.

ICELAND

Bjarni Benediktsson to return as PM

Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of Iceland's Independence Party, said on Tuesday that he will become the country's new prime minister, according to an Icelandic radio RUV report. The position became vacant following former PM Katrin Jakobsdottir's resignation last week after she announced that she would run for president in the June election. Jakobsdottir's government, which represents the Left Green Movement, the Independence Party, and the Progressive Party, took office in November 2021. Benediktsson, 54, was briefly prime minister in 2017.

Agencies - Xinhua