MOSCOW (AFP) – Several fires have broken out in southern Siberia, affecting about 200 buildings and causing at least five deaths, local authorities said on Saturday, adding they had placed the area under a state of emergency. The fires in the Krasnoyarsk region covered more than 16 zones, spreading to around 200 buildings, several sawmills and a children’s playground, the regional ministry for emergencies said on Telegram. Authorities said some 300 firefighters and 90 vehicles were battling the blazes. “Extinguishing (the fires) is being complicated by meteorological conditions -- violent winds are fanning the flames and preventing them from being put out,” the ministry stated. Siberia has suffered from large scale fires for some years. Last year, they belched 16 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, according to an annual European climate report.

 

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PARIS (Al Jazeera) – Emmanuel Macron has been sworn in for his second term as France’s president at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, followed by the firing of canons at the Invalides Gardens. Macron won 58.5 percent of the votes in the second round in April against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, despite strong opposition to his pro-business policies and a proposal to raise the retirement age. In a short speech on Saturday, he spoke of the need to innovate at a time of unprecedented challenges for the world and for France, and said his second term would be “new” and not merely a continuation of the first. “We need to invent a new method together, far from tired traditions and routines, with which we can build a new productive, social and ecological contract,” he said, promising to act with “respect” and “consideration”. Macron faces a daunting agenda of implementing the reforms he promised when he came to power as France’s youngest-ever president in 2017. He is also indicating a more inclusive and understanding style of ruling after his first term saw critics complain the former investment banker had abrasive and arrogant methods. Macron, 44, is the first president who does not belong to a coalition government to be re-elected since the formation of the Fifth Republic in 1958.

 

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BOGOTA (AFP) – A Colombian drug cartel has set fire to dozens of vehicles, retaliating over the extradition of the group’s leader to the United States on trafficking charges, authorities say. Dairo Antonio Usuga, known as “Otoniel,” led Colombia’s largest narco-trafficking cartel, known as the Gulf Clan. The 50-year-old was the most wanted person in Colombia until his arrest last October, and now faces life in prison if found guilty. Members of the Gulf Clan launched a four-day “armed strike” on Thursday, causing unrest in areas where it is influential, including the northern departments of Antioquia, Cordoba, Sucre and Bolivar. Over the past two days “more than a hundred vehicles (...) were hit”, said Interior Minister Daniel Palacios. Officials have offered a $7,300 reward for information on those responsible. On a tour of Antioquia, journalists witnessed six armed men stopping a vehicle and forcing out its occupants before setting it alight. The United States accuses Usuga and the Gulf Clan of trafficking at least 73 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 2003 and 2012. Usuga, who is due back in court on June 2, has pled not guilty to charges of criminal enterprise and international cocaine manufacturing and distribution.

 

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TORONTO (Dispatches) – Toronto police say the human remains found in a construction dumpster outside a vacant home earlier this week belong to a little girl as young as four years old. The girl is described as Black, of African or mixed-African decent, Detective Sergeant Renee Foley told reporters at a news conference after the autopsy report was published. “We believe she was left in the area sometime between Thursday, April 28 at noon and Monday, May 2 at 4:45 p.m.,” he said. The forensic pathologist believes she may have been deceased as early as last summer or fall, or perhaps earlier, Foley said. Homicide investigators are now working to identify the little girl. “Our first priority now is to establish the identity of this little girl,” Insp. Hank Idsinga from the homicide and missing person’s unit said. According to police officials’ reports, the girl’s body was found wrapped in a crocheted blanket inside a plastic bag, which too was wrapped in a colorful blanket in a dumpster used at a construction site of a vacant home in Rosedale, one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, called the discovery an “unspeakable tragedy”. Investigators are still gathering video from the two-week period in which they believe the girl’s body was placed in the dumpster. Idsinga said there are no cameras that faced the dumpster directly, but police will be looking to piece together video of the surrounding area.

 

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STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) – Sweden should refrain from joining NATO, even if Finland decides to become a member of the alliance, Swedish Green Party spokeswoman Marta Stenevi said on Saturday.  The Green Party, which occupies 16 seats in the 349-member Swedish parliament “has followed closely Finland’s debate” on NATO membership, yet Helsinki’s decision will not force the party to abandon its position on the alliance, Stenevi told the Swedish Radio. “We are considering this (Finland’s position) in our analysis, but from my perspective, it will not affect our negative stance on NATO,” Stenevi, adding that the Green Party stands against Sweden joining the alliance, Sputnik reported. On Wednesday, Secretary General of the ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party Tobias Baudin said that the party might decide as early as May 15 on whether to join NATO or not. Yet, according to reports, the party lacks unanimity on this issue as some prominent members, including Swedish Minister for Climate and the Environment Annika Strandhall, oppose the country’s membership in the military alliance. The Ukraine conflict has spurred an extensive debate in both Finland and Sweden on abandoning decades of neutrality and joining NATO amid a shifting security situation in Europe. In the past two months, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finland’s Sanna Marin initiated high-level discussions, both at home and abroad, about terms and consequences of applying for NATO membership. Their formal decision is expected by the alliance’s June summit in Madrid.