Police with sniffer dogs searched on Friday through the gutted remains of a Johannesburg apartment block as authorities stepped up investigations into the cause of a fire that killed more than 70 people.
Officers cordoned off areas around the run-down five-storey building that was destroyed in a blaze in the early hours of Thursday in one of South Africa's worst such disasters in living memory.
Most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and investigators would have to rely on DNA samples from friends and relatives to identify them, said Thembalethu Mpahlaza from Gauteng province's Forensic Pathology Services.
Only 12 of the 74 bodies they had recovered so far were identifiable by sight, he added.
The apartment block is owned by municipal authorities, but officials have struggled to provide a clear picture of who lived there, saying the block had been "invaded and hijacked" by unknown groups.
A provincial official said on Thursday some of those who died may have been renting from, or were being extorted by, criminal gangs in the so-called "hijacked buildings" syndicates.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday the fire was "great tragedy" and a wake-up call for South Africa to tackle its inner-city housing crisis.
US President Donald Trump met for a second time in two days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Gaza as Trump's Middle East envoy said Israel and Hamas were closing their differences on a ceasefire deal.
The death toll from the July 4th flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.
A fast-moving wildfire reached the outskirts of Marseille, France's second-largest city, on Tuesday, leading its airport to be shut down, with residents told to stay indoors and shut all openings to be safe from the smoke.
Gaps in Gaza ceasefire talks under way in Qatar between Israel and Hamas can be bridged but it may take more than a few days to reach a deal, Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
King Charles welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to Britain on Tuesday for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit, their warm greeting symbolising the return of closer ties between the two countries.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, has announced the launch of an AI-backed system to measure performance in the federal sector.
UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan held a special reception to honour school top scorers from across the country at Qasr Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi.