The sister of an Orthodox Jewish woman murdered in France in 2017 is to file a legal claim in Israel in the hope of getting a trial against the killer. Kobili Traoré cannot stand trial in France after a court deemed he was not criminally responsible due to his mental state. He killed Sarah Halimi, 65, in what French courts have now accepted was an anti-Semitic attack. He chanted verses from the Quran as he attacked her inside her Paris flat.

He also chanted God is great in Arabic before throwing her over the balcony of the third-floor flat in the city’s eastern Belleville area. Mr Traoré, who was 27 at the time of the attack, is currently in a psychiatric hospital. Israel’s criminal law may apply to anti-Semitic crimes committed abroad that have been denounced by an Israeli citizen, in this case Ms Halimi’s sister Esther Lekover. However, France does not extradite its nationals. Ms Lekover’s two lawyers “deplore being forced to expedite this procedure, but they cannot accept a denial of justice which offends reason and fairness far beyond the Jewish community of France”, they said in a statement.(BBC)…[+]

An instrument on Nasa’s Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet’s carbon dioxide atmosphere. It’s the second successful technology demonstration on the mission, which flew a mini-helicopter on Monday. The oxygen generation was performed by a toaster-sized unit in the rover called Moxie – the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment. It made 5 grams of the gas – equivalent to what an astronaut at Mars would need to breathe for roughly 10 minutes. Nasa’s thinking is that future human missions would take scaled-up versions of Moxie with them to the Red Planet rather than try to carry from Earth all the oxygen needed to sustain them.(BBC)…[+]

US pharmaceutical company Pfizer says it has identified counterfeit versions of its coronavirus vaccine in Mexico and Poland. The doses were seized by authorities in the two countries and confirmed by tests to be fake. In Mexico, they had false labels, while the substance in Poland was believed to be anti-wrinkle treatment, Pfizer said. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that fake vaccines “pose a serious risk to global public health”. It has called for them to be identified and removed from circulation. Poland’s health minister on Wednesday stressed that the risk of counterfeit doses appearing in official circulation was “practically non-existent”.

Suspected criminals in Mexico have used drones to drop explosives on police, injuring two officers.

Officials think the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is behind Tuesday’s attack in the western state of Michoacán. In August, two rigged drones were found in the car of suspected CJNG members. The drones are thought to be the latest weapons in a deadly war between the drugs cartel and the security forces and vigilantes opposed to them. Not much detail has been released about Tuesday’s attack but local media said two drones had been used.

An Indonesian navy submarine has gone missing with 53 people on board, military officials say.

The submarine was conducting a drill north of the island of Bali on Wednesday, but it failed to report back and contact was lost. Indonesia’s military chief said warships had been dispatched to find the KRI Nanggala-402 vessel.

Officials have called on Australia and Singapore to help in the search. The countries have not publicly commented.  The German-made submarine is thought to have disappeared in waters about 60 miles (100km) off the coast of Bali early on Wednesday morning. “[The navy] is currently searching for it. We know the area but it’s quite deep,” First Admiral Julius Widjojono told AFP news agency. Some reports say contact was lost after the submarine had been given clearance to dive into deeper waters.(BBC)…[+]

At least 22 Covid patients have died in a hospital in India after they lost oxygen supply due to a leak.

The incident occurred on Wednesday while an oxygen tanker was refilling a storage tank at the Zakir Hussain hospital in Nashik city. It is unclear how the accident happened and why it interrupted supply to patients.  But officials said there was no oxygen flowing to ventilators for about 30 minutes, leading to the deaths. “We will enquire into the matter and take action,” the city’s municipal commissioner Kailash Jadhav said. The hospital had called in tankers after it had begun to run out of oxygen. Hospitals across the country are struggling to keep oxygen supply going amid soaring demand.(BBC)…[+]

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has reached a deal with the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela to provide food to the country’s schoolchildren. Child malnutrition has been on the rise as Venezuela’s once-prosperous economy has gone into freefall and health services have collapsed.

More than 5.3m Venezuelans have fled their home country amid the crisis. The WFP aims to reach 185,000 school children by the end of this year.A study by the World Food Programme published in 2020 suggested that one in three Venezuelans was not able to put enough food on the table to meet minimum nutrition requirements and was “in need of assistance”.The study says that Venezuelans’ lack of dietary diversity was “of major concern” with many families not getting enough meat, fish, eggs, vegetables and fruits.(BBC)…[+]

The US state department is to advise Americans to avoid 80% of countries worldwide because of the coronavirus pandemic. In a note to the media about its updated travel guidance, it said the pandemic continued to “pose unprecedented risks to travellers”. The current US “Do Not Travel” advisory covers 34 out of 200 countries.

Covid-19 has now claimed more than three million lives worldwide – more than half a million of them in the US.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the world was “approaching the highest rate of infection” so far, despite the global rollout of vaccination programmes. India – currently in the grip of a second wave – is to begin offering vaccinations to all adults over 18 in a bid to control the surge in infections.(BBC)…[+]

The jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis policeman accused of killing George Floyd last year, has retired to consider its verdict. The prosecution told jurors that Mr Chauvin had murdered Mr Floyd, but the defence said their client had correctly followed police training. The court is being protected by barbed wire, high barriers and armed soldiers from the National Guard. Cities across the country are bracing for protests regardless of the verdict. On Monday, the prosecution and defence made their closing statements in a trial that lasted three weeks. The prosecution then had another opportunity to rebut defence arguments before the jury was sent to deliberate.(BBC)…[+]

Spanish police say they have raided and dismantled an illegal workshop that was producing 3D-printed weapons. Two 3D printers along with gun parts, a replica assault rifle, two tasers and a machete were among items found in the search in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Police say they also found manuals on terrorism and urban guerrilla warfare, as well as white supremacist material. It is the first such workshop to be discovered in Spain, officials say. The alleged owner of the workshop has been charged with illegal possession of weapons and explosives. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, the owner is a Spaniard and worked as the administrator of a nursing home on the island. In a statement (in Spanish), police said the operation began when investigators learned of a person who was trying to sell firearms and explosives over the internet.(BBC)…[+]