MALI
Rebels sign peace deal
The nation’s main coalition of Tuareg separatist rebels has signed a peace agreement with the government more than a month after other armed groups did so. The deal took place on Saturday evening in the capital, Bamako, after a delay of several hours to give participants time to arrive. The agreement was signed by the Coordination of Azawad Movements, known by the French acronym CMA. For decades, the Tuareg rebellion in the nation’s far north has been a source of conflict with the government. A 2012 uprising was blamed for prompting mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president of a decade, creating a power vacuum that ultimately lead to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war against the jihadis.
UNITED STATES
Shootings kill one, injure 16
Two children and five adults were injured on Saturday in a shooting at a block party in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when a suspect randomly opened fire on a crowd, according to officials and local media. Philadelphia Police Lieutenant John Walker told NBC affiliate WCAU that a shooter fired down a street where people were gathered for a party. “It appears that everybody was here for the picnic and everybody just ran... It looks like they just randomly fired down the street and just hit whoever was in their way,” Walker said. He said the incident was “just a terrible situation.” The news station said one of the victims was an 18-month-old baby, who was grazed with a bullet in the neck. The other was a 10-year-old boy. The other five victims, aged 15 to 25, were taken to hospitals after the shooting, which occurred at about 10pm. In a similar incident on Saturday in Detroit, Michigan, one person was killed and nine injured when a suspect opened fire at a party on a basketball court.
UNITED STATES
Murder case may be dropped
A district attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the murder charge against an elderly man who shot his paralyzed wife after she reportedly begged to die. The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that 88-year-old William Dresser was arrested in January last year for killing 86-year-old Frances Dresser, his wife of 68 years. She was at Carson Tahoe Hospital after a fall at home caused permanent paralysis. Carson City District Attorney Jason Woodbury said Frances Dresser expressed a desire to no longer live and that her family requested William Dresser not be prosecuted. Woodbury said he does not think there was any component of evil to Dresser’s act, but that the case should not set a precedent allowing assisted suicide in Carson City.
UNITED STATES
Galapagos tortoise dies
One of San Diego’s oldest residents has died. The Los Angeles Times reported that a Galapagos tortoise known as Speed has been euthanized at an estimated age of more than 150 years. Speed had been living at the San Diego Zoo since 1933. He was brought to California as part of an early effort to preserve the endangered species from the Volcan Cerro Azul Island of the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador. The massive tortoise had been in geriatric decline for some time. Keepers treated his arthritis and other maladies with medication, hydrotherapy, physical therapy and acupuncture. Speed was known in his younger years as an alpha male who would butt heads with other males in dominance skirmishes. Thirteen Galapagos tortoises remain at the zoo.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese