
Children among the dead and injured in Myanmar military airstrikes, say activists
CNN
Children were among those killed and injured in airstrikes by Myanmar's military on an ethnic rebel-controlled area in the country's southeast, a humanitarian aid group said Tuesday, as junta forces stepped up their offensive in the region.
Myanmar's military, which seized power in a February 1 coup, has been conducting airstrikes in southeastern Karen state since Saturday night, forcing thousands of residents to flee into the jungles and neighboring Thailand. Many of the villages targeted are controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU), an ethnic armed group that holds large swathes of territory in the borderlands. A 5-year-old boy died in a bombing on Sunday, and a 12-year-old girl was hit in the face by bomb shrapnel, according to relief organization Free Burma Rangers (FBR). The girl had come to Day Bu Noh village to attend school, the group said.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.

Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.

The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.










