CHICAGO (AP) — A shooting outside a pizza shop on Chicago’s South Side has left seven men wounded, authorities said.

The men were standing near the street Sunday afternoon when they were shot, police said. Initial information from police indicated two were in critical condition and the others were in good condition. A car pulled up near the Little Caesars and someone inside the vehicle “almost immediately” opened fire, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said during a press briefing Sunday. It wasn’t immediately known whether there was an argument just before the shooting. “Whether it was a targeted shooting or an altercation, it’s unacceptable,” Brown said. A second vehicle may have been involved, Brown said. It wasn’t known whether more than one person fired shots at the men and Brown asked the public to share any information to help in the ongoing investigation. No arrests were immediately made. The men who were shot ranged in age from their early 30s to their 60s, police said. The shooting came amid an increase in gun violence in the city. Last year, 797 homicides occurred in Chicago — more than any single year in the last quarter century.

 

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PARIS (AFP) – UN biodiversity negotiations began in Geneva on Monday to hammer out a global deal to better protect nature that is due for approval later this year. Almost 200 countries are due to adopt a global framework this year to safeguard nature by mid-century from the destruction wrought by humanity, with a key milestone of 30 percent protected by 2030. “The world is clearly eager for urgent action to protect nature,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in a press release. “And we have no time to spare. Together we must ultimately deliver a truly historic agreement that puts us firmly on the path to living in harmony with nature.” Talks, which run from March 14 to 29, will set the stage for a crucial United Nations COP 15 biodiversity summit, initially due to be held in Kunming, China in 2020 and postponed several times because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Geneva meeting will announce new dates for COP 15, which is currently slated for April to May but is expected to be delayed again.

 

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NAIROBI (AFP) -- Kenyan police said Monday they had arrested the suspected ringleader behind an assault on a female diplomat that sparked outrage and protests in the East African country. The young woman was attacked in daylight by a gang of motorcycle taxi riders -- commonly known as boda-boda -- after a traffic accident in the capital Nairobi earlier this month, police said. Sixteen riders were rounded up last week after a viral video showed men grabbing at the woman’s clothing and groping her as she screamed for help from inside the car, whose door had been forced open. But the alleged ringleader of the attack escaped through a sewer duct and evaded arrest until Monday when he was taken into custody in a town near the Tanzania border, some 430 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Nairobi. The attack sparked a furor in Kenya, with President Uhuru Kenyatta ordering a crackdown on motorcycle taxis.

 

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PARIS (AP) — France lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, abolishing the need to wear face masks in most settings and allowing people who aren’t vaccinated back into restaurants, sports arenas and other venues. The move had been announced earlier this month by the French government based on assessments of the improving situation in hospitals and following weeks of a steady decline in infections. It comes less than a month before the first round of the presidential election scheduled on April 10. But in recent days, the number of new infections has started increasing again, raising concerns from some scientists it may be too soon to lift restrictions. The number of new infections have reached more than 60,000 based on a seven-day average, up from about 50,000 a week before. Starting from Monday, people aren’t required anymore to show proof of vaccination to enter places like restaurants and bars, cinemas, theaters, fairs and to use interregional transport. The so-called vaccine pass had taken effect at the end of January.

 

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BOGOTA (AFP) -- Colombians voted for senator and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as the left’s presidential nominee by a wide margin, making him the front runner in an election that could yield the country’s first-ever leftist leader in May. As predicted, the 61-year-old came out on top in the primaries -- called inter-party “consultations” -- which took place alongside elections for the Senate and House of Representatives, currently in the hands of right-wing parties. But leftist candidates were projected to tie with the Conservatives for the most seats in Colombia’s Senate and contend for second place in the lower house, partial results showed. With the votes counted at 98 percent of polling stations, the left’s Historical Pact coalition is set to win 16 of the 102 seats in the upper house -- the same number as the Conservatives -- ahead of the Liberals on 15, according to electoral authority figures. In the lower house, it looks set to take 25 of the 165 seats in a tie with the Conservatives and behind the Liberals on 32.