AFP, Puebla, Mexico
An explosion at a fireworks warehouse killed 14 people, all but three of them children, in a poor Mexican village as it celebrated a religious festival. The blast struck Monday night in San Isidro, a remote farming village of some 40 houses in central Puebla state, the regional government said. It came just five months after a similar tragedy killed 42 people in explosions at a fireworks market near Mexico City, in a country where fireworks are often used to mark saints’ days.
Villagers in San Isidro were setting off fireworks as part of preliminary festivities ahead of the feast of the village’s patron saint on March 15.
Police carry out anti-IS raids across Germany
Reuters, Berlin
Police carried out anti-terrorism raids in four German states on Wednesday morning, targeting Islamic State sympathizers, prosecutors said in a statement, but said no arrests had been made, contradicting earlier media reports.
The raids targeted the homes of suspects as well as other properties in the states of Bavaria, Berlin, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, prosecutors said. Two of the individuals were suspected of belonging to IS, one of supporting it, and two of firearms offenses.
Trump to meet Russian FM
Reuters, Washington
US President Donald Trump will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday to discuss Syria and a wide range of international issues, a senior U.S. official said.
It will be the highest-level contact between Trump and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on the agenda would be Syria as well as U.S.-Russian relations and other global issues.
Relations deteriorated between the United States and Russia after U.S. air strikes against a Syrian airfield in response to a chemical weapons attack that Washington blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.
Thousands flee Congo conflict
Reuters, Luanda
Thousands of people have fled fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo over the past month and sought refuge in neighboring Angola, a provincial governor said, an exodus that is straining resources in villages along the border.
Ernesto Muangala said officials had counted more than 20,000 refugees in his Lunda Norte province, almost double the number recorded a month ago.
All had fled clashes between Congolese government and militia forces that erupted in Congo’s Kasai-Central province in July, then spread to four other provinces.
The clashes in the DRC pose the most serious threat yet to the rule of President Joseph Kabila, whose failure to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate in December was followed by a wave of killings and lawlessness across the vast Central African nation.
