News in Brief
Shootings stir fears: Two people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in mass shootings overnight in three states, authorities said Saturday, stoking concerns that a spike in U.S. gun violence could continue into summer as coronavirus restrictions ease and more people are free to socialize.
The attacks took place late Friday or early Saturday in the Texas capital of Austin, Chicago and Savannah, Georgia.
In Austin, authorities said they arrested one of two male suspects and were searching for the other after a shooting early Saturday on a crowded pedestrian-only street packed with bars and restaurants. Fourteen people were wounded, including two critically, in the gunfire, which the city’s interim police chief said is believed to have started as a dispute between two parties. (AP)
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Greens endorse Baerbock:
Germany’s environmentalist Greens formally endorsed Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor Saturday, amid a slip in the party’s poll ratings fueled in large part by its own mistakes.
Baerbock, 40, was officially nominated by a broad majority of the delegates at a party convention in Berlin. Due to the pandemic, the convention took place in a hybrid format, with several hundred party members attending in person while others participated online.
In a speech after her nomination, Baerbock said that Germany should not hesitate to tackle global warming even though it is a worldwide issue. (AP)
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Swiss to vote on taxes:
Swiss voters are casting ballots in a referendum on a proposed “carbon dioxide law” that would hike fees and taxes on fuels that produce greenhouse gases, as their Alpine country experiences an outsized impact from the fallout of climate change.
The proposal would revise and strengthen an existing law that aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030. It’s one of several measures facing voters nationwide on Sunday in the latest referendums in Swiss democracy, which gives the public a direct say in policymaking.
Many in Switzerland, home to melting glaciers and high-altitude towns, sense it needs to act fast: The country has faced a rise in temperatures that is twice as fast as the global average, the government says. Greenhouse gases - notably carbon-dioxide - are seen as the primary culprit. (AP)
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Afghan IS claims attacks:
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for bombing two minivans in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital that killed seven people. Among the dead were two employees of Afghanistan’s state-run film company, a colleague said Sunday.
In a statement issued late Saturday, Afghanistan’s IS affiliate said its operatives blew up two minivans carrying “disbeliever Shiites” using sticky bombs. Sticky bombs slapped onto cars trapped in Kabul’s chaotic traffic are the newest weapons terrorizing Afghans in the increasingly lawless nation. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ French far-left chief floured: A French far-left leader got a face full of flour at the start of a Paris march Saturday against “the ideas of the far right,” days after the French president was slapped while greeting a crowd.
Unions, associations and left-wing political parties in France called for demonstrations around France a week before local elections and ahead of next year’s presidential election, which is widely expected to once again put far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the final round.
Lawmaker Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the far-left France Unbowed party, was taking part in the event in Paris when he got hit with a sack of flour. Melenchon has been at the center of recent controversy for statements against Le Pen’s National Rally and notably raising the specter of violence. (AP)
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Indian police kill 4: A heated gunbattle between militants and Indian police broke out Saturday in the disputed region of Kashmir, killing at least two police and two civilians, officials said.
Anti-India protests later erupted during the civilians’ funerals in Sopore, the northwestern town where the fighting took place, after local residents alleged police had shot and killed one of the civilians after the militants fled the scene. (AP)