International

At least 17 dead, including children, after a military bombing against a school in Burma

At least 17 people died, including several children, after a bombing by the Burmese Army against a school in the Sagaing region on Thursday, according to a civil organization told EFE from the field and denounced independent local media and the democratic opposition.

This source told EFE that “it is likely” that the death toll will increase, while local media such as Myanmar Now raise the death toll to about 30 and the Government of National Unity (NUG), which declares itself the legitimate authority of the country after the 2021 coup, points out that “there are children between the dead and the injured.”

According to independent local media, the bombing occurred today around 10 local time (3.30 GMT) in the municipality of Depeyin, in the Sagaing region (north), epicenter of the earthquake with more than 3,700 deaths on March 28, and for which the military junta declared a ceasefire until May 31.

The Committee of Representatives of the Union Assembly (CRPH) of the area, the Parliament of the NUG, said in its X account that these were two bombings against the school that killed “dozens of students and two teachers and injured many.”

The agency “firmly condemned” the “continuous bombings against civilians” of the junta, which has been in power since the asonada, and called for international cooperation to “put an end to the military regime and its brutal acts.”

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Last week the military junta announced a new truce until May 31 in the conflict it has with ethnic and pro-democratic guerrillas with the aim of continuing with reconstruction tasks after the devastating earthquake with epicenter in Sagaing that shook the country at the end of March.

Sagaing is one of the rebel strongholds of Burma (Myanmar), where guerrillas have gained ground from the Army since the military uprising.

The UN, the pro-democracy opposition – which also declared a similar cessation of hostilities after the disaster – and several ethnic minority guerrillas have accused the junta of having perpetrated hundreds of attacks despite the ceasefire.

The coup ended a decade of democratic transition and sharpened the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades. Amnesty International (AI) says the conflict escalated in Burma in the last year and that the Army is undertaking an “indiscriminate, disproportionate and deadly” offensive against the rebels.

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International

Football Fan Killed in Clashes After Colombian League Match

Fans of Cúcuta Deportivo and their traditional rivals Atlético Bucaramanga clashed outside the stadium following their local league match on Tuesday, leaving one supporter dead and several others injured.

The deceased fan was stabbed, according to a senior police official in Cúcuta who confirmed the cause of death in a video statement. Local media reported that the victim was a supporter of the visiting team, Atlético Bucaramanga.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw. Authorities had banned the entry of Atlético Bucaramanga’s organized supporters into the stadium in an effort to prevent disturbances.

Despite the restrictions, violence broke out in the surrounding areas after the game. Among the injured were three police officers, an institutional source told AFP.

The incident adds to a series of recent violent episodes linked to Colombian football. The most recent occurred in December, when supporters of Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellín clashed in the stands and on the pitch, leaving 59 people injured.

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International

Missing Spanish Sailor Rescued After 11 Days Adrift in Mediterranean

The man had departed from the port of Gandía, on Spain’s eastern coast, with the intention of reaching the southern Spanish town of Guardamar del Segura, a journey of about 150 kilometers, a spokesperson for Spain’s maritime rescue service told AFP.

Search boats and aircraft were deployed on January 17, but the operation was called off on January 22 after efforts proved unsuccessful. Alerts were then issued to vessels navigating the area in case they spotted any signs of the missing sailor.

As hopes were fading, a surveillance aircraft from the European Union’s border agency Frontex spotted the sailboat on Tuesday, along with a person signaling for help, approximately 53 nautical miles northeast of Bejaia, Algeria.

A nearby vessel, the Singapore-flagged bulk carrier Thor Confidence, carried out the rescue and is expected to bring the man to an end to his ordeal when it arrives on Thursday in the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras.

Maritime rescue services shared images on social media showing a small white sailboat drifting at sea and secured alongside the much larger ship.

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It remains unclear how the sailboat ended up hundreds of kilometers off its intended route or how the man managed to survive for so long alone in open waters.

International

Rubio Says U.S. Could Participate in Follow-Up Russia-Ukraine Talks

The United States could join a new round of talks this week aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.

Teams from Kyiv and Moscow met last Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi in their first publicly acknowledged direct negotiations to discuss the peace initiative promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“They are going to hold follow-up talks again this week,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “There could be U.S. participation.”

However, Rubio suggested that Washington’s role may be more limited than during last week’s discussions, which included Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

The secretary of state indicated that progress may have already been made on security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Kyiv’s key demands in any agreement with Moscow after nearly four years of Russian invasion.

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“There is one remaining issue that everyone is familiar with, and that is the territorial claim over Donetsk,” Rubio said, referring to the eastern Ukrainian region that Russia wants Ukraine to cede.

“I know that active efforts are underway to see whether the positions of both sides on this issue can be reconciled. It remains a bridge we have not yet crossed,” he added during the hearing.

Rubio acknowledged that the territorial question would be particularly difficult for Ukraine to resolve.