Truck bomb kills 60 in northern Mali
BAMAKO, Mali — A suicide truck bomb in northern Mali on Wednesday killed at least 60 people, including army personnel, as the country struggles to implement a peace deal crafted after a near-takeover by factions linked to Alqaida.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but some Islamist extremist groups in the area have opposed a 2015 peace pact between Mali’s government and other militant factions. Among the dead were soldiers, members of pro-government forces and fighters from autonomous armed groups that have signed the peace accord. At least 100 people were injured.
The attack — one of the worst against the nation’s armed forces — took place in the northern city of Gao, at a camp where 600 men from two pro-government militias and the Malian army were based.
Injured remain in camp
LAGOS, Nigeria — At least 46 severely injured people remain in a refugee camp that Nigeria’s military says it mistakenly bombed, the International Committee for the Red Cross said Wednesday, raising the possibility that the death toll could rise.
The U.N. refugee chief called the killings “truly catastrophic.”
The Red Cross statement called for an urgent evacuation, saying that “patients are attended to in an openair space in a precarious environment” in a remote community still threatened by Boko Haram extremists.
More than 100 refugees and aid workers were killed in Tuesday’s bombing in the northeast camp near the border with Cameroon, a government official said.
Nigeria’s military said it had been trying to target Boko Haram fighters.
Shootings shake Mexico
CANCUN, Mexico — Two consecutive days of shooting attacks that left nine dead have put two of the jewels of Mexico’s Caribbean coast on edge and spurred a warning to tourists by the U.S. government.
As investigators worked Tuesday at the scene of a shooting the previous day that caused five deaths in the nearby beach town of Playa del Carmen, the region was stunned when gunmen assaulted the Quintana Roo state prosecutors’ offices in Cancun, and four people were killed.
Authorities attributed both incidents to organized crime, but made no comment on whether they might be linked.
Samsung head arrest
SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court on Thursday blocked a prosecutor’s attempt to arrest Jay Y. Lee, the leader of Samsung, saying there was not enough evidence that he had bribed President Park Geun-hye in a scandal that led to her impeachment.
The decision is shocking for prosecutors, who have accused Mr. Lee of bribery, embezzlement and perjury, although the court decided only that he did not need to be detained, not that the case had no merit.
Also in the world ...
A police operation to demolish about a dozen buildings deemed illegal in the Israeli Bedouin village of Um al Hiran on Wednesday turned violent, leaving a policeman and a village resident dead and inflaming tensions between Israel’s government and the country’s Arab minority. ... Russia and Turkey conducted their first joint air operations Wednesday in Syria, bombing Islamic State positions in and around the northwestern town of Albab, where U.S. jets also struck militant targets this week.