Syria’s chief known as for unity
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, appealed yesterday for calm and unity after violence erupted final week between fighters affiliated along with his authorities and people loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Greater than 1,000 individuals have been killed, together with about 700 civilians, principally by authorities forces, in accordance with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The data couldn’t be independently verified.
“We name on Syrians to be reassured as a result of the nation has the basics for survival,” al-Shara stated. His remarks got here as new preventing was reported within the Latakia and Tartus Provinces. Later within the day, he stated a fact-finding committee had been shaped to research the violence and produce these accountable to justice. It was unclear whether or not al-Shara was acknowledging doable killings by the hands of his forces or laying the blame fully on al-Assad loyalists.
Context: The preventing broke out on Thursday when armed males loyal to al-Assad ambushed authorities safety forces in Latakia Province, setting off days of clashes. The violence has been the worst for the reason that Assad authorities was ousted in early December.
Response: Hundreds protested within the streets within the first wide-scale demonstrations in opposition to the brand new authorities. Residents had been ordered to remain indoors as safety forces scrambled to comprise the turmoil. Right here’s what else we all know.
Elsewhere within the area: Israel’s power minister stated that he was instantly slicing off electrical energy to the Gaza Strip.
Canada’s Liberals headed to the polls
Canadian elections had been going down yesterday, with two centrist policymakers vying to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as chief of each the Liberal Get together and the nation. The winner should name a common election, which have to be held by October, however may happen sooner. Outcomes had been anticipated round 6:30 p.m. Japanese time.
The race is successfully between Mark Carney, the previous governor of the Financial institution of Canada and the Financial institution of England, and Chrystia Freeland, the previous finance minister. Surveys have proven Carney because the front-runner.
Our Canada bureau chief, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, informed me that the U.S. is front-and-center on the poll field.
“Voters are on the lookout for somebody to deal with negotiations with President Trump, whom they view as the most important risk to Canada’s economic system and sovereignty,” Matina stated. She added that polling steered voters want Carney and Freeland to barter with Trump over the Conservative chief, Pierre Poilievre.
“Trump’s persistent threats to Canada have labored in opposition to Poilievre who, regardless of being a mainstream Conservative politician, is seen as too ideologically near Trump for consolation,” Matina stated.
Get to know the candidates: Carney has pitched himself because the fix-it man who can set Canada again on observe. Freeland’s probabilities may hinge on whether or not voters contemplate Trump’s dislike of her an asset.
China hit again at Canada with tariffs, and a warning
China introduced this weekend tariffs of as much as one hundred pc on canola, pork and different meals from Canada. The transfer was retaliation for Canada’s resolution final August to gather steep taxes on imports of Chinese language electrical automobiles, metal and aluminum.
The tariffs, which take impact on March 20, had been additionally a transparent warning to Canada — and, not directly, Mexico — to not cooperate with the U.S. on commerce.
Extra on Trump
The value of a beef Bourguignon, the signature dish at Le Bouillon Chartier in Paris, has remained low at this working-class eatery — somebody on a residing wage can benefit from the meal for lower than what they earn in an hour.
As inflation has hammered Europe, the restaurant’s proprietor has lower into margins to maintain the menu inexpensive, however making beef Bourguignon now prices practically double what it used to. Companies throughout the continent are feeling the same squeeze.
Lives lived: Uri Shulevitz, a kids’s ebook creator who turned childhood reminiscences of fleeing the Nazis in Poland into magical tales, died at 89.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
E book festivals are the most popular golf equipment on the town
Literature occasions in India are blooming, pushed by younger people who find themselves studying books within the nation’s dozens of native tongues. The gatherings give attendees the possibility to discover new subjects, meet favourite authors or just take a look at the scene.
Readers and writers collect in rural cities or inside storied palaces for an intimate affair or, within the case of an occasion in Jaipur, they mingle amongst tens of hundreds of individuals. A way of mental “cred” has helped the festivals give Bollywood and cricket a run for his or her cash.
For these readers, books open worlds that India’s greater training system, with its deal with make-or-break examinations, typically doesn’t. Learn concerning the festivals right here.
