At least two people have been killed and five injured as a result of two shootings in New York City on Christmas Day. In a mass shooting that took place on Sunday morning, a gunman opened fire on people inside the Mansion nightclub in Mount Vernon, killing two and injuring four. Police said O’Neal Bandoo, the club’s owner, was killed during the attack. The name of the second person who died in the shooting was not revealed.

The victims were found in the lobby and on the street outside the club, a sign that the shooter had chased them. The suspect managed to flee the scene, police said, describing him as a Bronx resident with a pending attempted murder case. According to eyewitnesses, around 200 people were inside the club when the shooting broke out.

In another incident on Christmas Day, rapper Roland Collins, aka Troy Ave, survived a shooting in Brooklyn, police said. The 34-year-old performer was sitting in his car at a red light when a gunman approached him and shot him twice. The bullets grazed Collins’ head and injured his arm, police said, adding that the rapper was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Accused of an attempted murder, Collins himself was out on a $500,000 bail following a May shootout at a concert that left a member of his entourage dead. The weekend leading to Christmas has seen similar mass shootings in other major American cities. In Chicago, for example, police said Sunday that 27 people were shot in a 48-hour period, seven of them fatally.

Four more people were killed in Wilson, North Carolina, after a shooting on New Year’s Eve, according to police. Statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that firearms kill more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharges, murders and suicides.

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French and Mali authorities have started search operations for a French aid worker abducted by militants in the West African country. France’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday that Sophie Petronin, a Frenchwoman who runs an organization for malnourished children in Mali, had been kidnapped in Mali’s restive north a day earlier, adding that a joint search operation had been launched to find the aid worker.

The ministry said that French and Malian authorities were working together “to find and free our compatriot as quickly as possible.” It added that the family of Petronin has been contacted by the ministry. Other sources said French military forces were also contributing to the search operation. “French soldiers of the Barkhane force (in Mali) are actively taking part in the search alongside the Malians,” a military source said in France without elaborating.

As the director of a non-governmental organization in the Malian city of Gao, Petronin has been helping children suffering from malnutrition in Mali for a long time. The women, who is believed to be in her sixties, has a specialty in nutrition and tropical diseases. Petronin had escaped a kidnapping by militants in Gao in 2012.

Reports from Mali on Saturday had suggested that a woman with dual French and Swiss nationality had been abducted Gao. The Swiss Foreign Ministry, however, later said that it found no evidence showing that Petronin had Swiss citizenship.

Violence erupted in Mali’s volatile north after groups linked to al-Qaeda seized areas in the territory beginning from March 2012. The government, groups backing it and ethnic Tuareg rebels managed to reach a peace pact last year following some lengthy negotiations but clashes continue unabated.

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US Secretary of State John Kerry has denied American involvement in the assassination of Russia’s envoy to Turkey, voicing concern about Ankara’s rhetoric against Washington. On Tuesday, Turkey blamed US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen for Monday’s assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey and tried to place blame on the United States for allowing Gulen to live in the country. Kerry has raised concerns about “some of the rhetoric coming out of Turkey with respect to American involvement or support, tacit or otherwise, for this unspeakable assassination yesterday because of the presence of Mr. Gulen here in the United States,” US State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

Kirby dismissed the accusation as ridiculous and warned against hasty conclusions. “We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions,” Kirby added. “But any notion that the United States was in any way supportive of this or behind this or even indirectly involved is absolutely ridiculous.” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Kerry during a phone call on Tuesday that both Turkey and Russia “know” that a movement led by Gulen was behind the attack, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was fatally shot on Monday by an off-duty policeman while attending an event at an art gallery in Ankara. The assailant, identified as 22-year-old Mevlut Mert Altintas, was later killed in a shootout with police. After carrying out the murder, which was caught on camera, the assailant went on a rant, blaming Russia for the death of civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The assassination was condemned by the Turkish and Russian leaders as an attempt to derail bilateral ties. It came as the countries are maintaining cooperation over the Syrian crisis.  Moscow and Ankara support the opposing sides of the conflict in Syria and the two have military presence in the Arab country.

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The Russian ambassador to Turkey has reportedly died of his injuries sustained in a gun attack in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Andrey Karlov was attacked while visiting an art exhibition opening in the Turkish capital on Monday, television reports said. RIA Novosti cited sources as saying that he had died of his injuries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, had earlier said that he was hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Moscow said after the assault in Ankara that it was a “terrorist act.” Several other people were also wounded, NTV and CNN-Turk televisions said. Police fatally shot the assailant. Turkish security sources said he was a police officer working in the Turkish capital. The ambassador was several minutes into a speech at the embassy-sponsored photo exhibition when a man wearing a suit and tie fired at least eight shots, according to an AP photographer in the audience.

The attacker also said some words in Russian and smashed several of the photos hung for the exhibition. Turkish authorities stepped security in the area of the fatal shooting. Melih Gokcek, the mayor of Ankara, said the fatal attack was an attempt to tarnish relations between Turkey and Russia. He made the remarks outside the hospital where the envoy had been taken.

On November 24, 2015, Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria, killing one of the pilots. The incident marred the bilateral ties, with Moscow insisting on Ankara’s apology. Russia had been conducting combat sorties against Takfiri terrorists since late September 2015 upon a request by the Damascus government. On June 30, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Turkey had apologized to Moscow for the shooting down of the jet. Ankara insisted that it had only expressed regret over the incident. Presstv

The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, has secretly met with US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, according to reports. The meeting took place during Yossi’s clandestine visit to the US, where he was accompanied by a delegation of the Tel Aviv regime’s security officials, Israeli media reported Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly put together the delegation, which was headed by Yaakov Nagel, head of the Israeli National Security Council.

Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, was also present at the meetings, where the two sides discussed a range of issues including the Iran nuclear deal, the ongoing conflict in Syria, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Trump’s team was also briefed by the Israeli side on an upcoming regional conference in Egypt as well as a UN initiative put forth by Palestine and New Zealand.

Officials from the Israeli regime have also asked the Republican president-elect to oppose a Palestinian initiative submitted to the UN Security Council, which would be critical of Israel’s illegal settlement activity. Trump has already spoken in favor of the Israeli settlements since his election on November 8. It was revealed on Sunday that he has even donated $10,000 to one of the illegal projects in 2003.

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An autistic boy from Britain has been given a 12-month jail term over an attempt to assassinate GOP nominee Donald Trump in one of his rallies at a Las Vegas casino in June in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The 20-year-old Briton, identified as Michael Steven Sandford, tried to grab a police officer’s gun before he was stopped as the future president was addressing his fans. He later told officers that he meant to kill the now president-elect and pleaded guilty in September.

Judge James Mahan told him: “You have a medical problem. You should not be ashamed or embarrassed about it. You need medication….You’re not a hardened criminal. You’re not evil or a sociopath like a lot of people we have. I don’t think you wanted to kill anybody. This was just some crazy stunt that your mind told you to do.” The young man also voiced regret, saying, “I know saying sorry is not enough. I really do feel awful about what I did. I wish there was some way to make things better. I have cost taxpayers so much money. I feel terrible… I’m really sorry to you and the court for taking up so much time.” Sandford’s family has been trying to make the legal arrangements necessary to bring him back to the UK, where he can receive proper psychiatric help, The Guardian reported. They have also launched a crowdfunding campaign in an effort to raise money of the legal costs. According to his mother, Lynne Sandford, “Michael’s actions were completely out of character. He is an extremely vulnerable young man and we believe that he needs to return to the UK in order to serve his sentence.”

“During my visit to Las Vegas, I learned that Michael had been on suicide watch several times following numerous mental breakdowns,” his mother said. “‘Suicide watch’ in the US involves being kept in isolation 24/7 for up to a week at a time. Other prisoners are allowed books, but these are taken away from Michael while he is in isolation. Michael isn’t even allowed toilet paper while he is in isolation.”

Sandford, who also suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, severe depression, seizures, cardiac issues and Crohn’s disease, had been in the US for 18 months before the incident happened. He drove from California with a plan to kill Trump in Las Vegas, where he even went to a gun range to learn how to fire a gun. According to his British lawyer, Saimo Chahal, he was delusional at the time. Trump finally managed to gain electoral victory on November 8 and become the country’s future president.

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A UN report has warned that the planet’s poorest countries are falling further behind the rest of the world. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on the world’s poorest nations on Tuesday that the Least Developed Countries (LDC) had failed to catch up without more aid and favorable trade deals.

The agency has warned that these 48 countries were caught in “vicious circles.” It has also voiced concern over the ability of the poorest nations to lift themselves up on their own. “Countries can only break out of such vicious circles with international support in finance, trade and technology.”

The UNCTAD report also said nearly half of the poor live in the 48 most impoverished countries. The rate has more than doubled since 1990. Extreme poverty is currently defined as living on less than $1.90 per day. Botswana, Cape Verde, the Maldives and Samoa are the only four countries that have graduated from the LDC list since the United Nations created it 45 years ago.

The current list of the LDC countries includes 34 African nations, nine in Asia, four in the Pacific, and Haiti. Only Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu, the report said, are on track to be excluded from the LDC in the coming years. Angola and Equatorial Guinea have seen a rise in the gross national income (GNI), but the benefits of energy revenues have not been spread among the population.

Mukhisa Kituyi, the UNCTAD chief, has said that graduation from the LDC is not, in itself, a mark of progress. “How a country graduates is just as important as when it graduates.”

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Syrian forces have reclaimed a major district in southeastern Aleppo as they push deeper into the last remaining militant-held parts of the northwestern city. “The army is now in full control of Sheikh Saeed,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the UK-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP early Monday. The army has been in control of Aleppo’s western half. Less than a month ago, it started a wholesale push to drive the militants out of their stronghold in the city’s eastern side, making great strides in the process.

The gain, Abdel Rahman said, has put the army in control of 90 percent of eastern Aleppo. On Friday, however, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the forces had wrested back 93 percent of the eastern sector. Russia has been lending airpower to the counter-terror push in Syria since last September. The militants have been carrying out indiscriminate attacks against western Aleppo amid the government’s drive to restore its control over the city, the monitor has reported.

According to the group, some 10,000 more civilians have fled Aleppo’s militant-held parts to areas controlled by the government during the past 24 hours. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, put the number at over 13,300 in a statement on Monday. Since the start of the Aleppo battle, some 130,000 people have managed to reach government-controlled parts, the Observatory added. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 728 militants have laid down their weapons over the past 24 hours and relocated to western Aleppo.

In recent days, Daesh, the most brutal of the terror groups operating in Syria since 2014, has resurfaced in the ancient city of Palmyra in the west-central province of Homs. The group was driven out of the city back in March after holding it for some 10 months. Recently, it mobilized more than 4,000 terrorists, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency, re-entering the city of Palmyra amid fierce clashes with the army. Homs Governor Talal Barazi has described the Daesh inroad as a “desperate” reaction to the government’s recent victories.

Reports on Sunday morning indicated that Daesh attempts to re-enter Palmyra had been reversed, but various sources said later in the day that they had managed to force their way back into the city. The militants then went door to door, looking for any remaining forces loyal to the Syrian government, opposition activists in the city said. The Observatory claims Daesh has managed to advance in the city’s western and southwestern areas.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says victory in the battle for the city of Aleppo will be “a huge step” in bringing the war in Syria to an end. Assad said the full liberation of Aleppo in northwestern Syria would deal a huge blow to the regional and international supporters of militant groups, al-Mayadeen television station said, citing an interview with al-Watan newspaper expected to be published on Thursday.

“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let’s be realistic, it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria,” Assad said. “But it will be a huge step towards this end.” The Syrian president said in response to a question about the possibility of a ceasefire in Aleppo that such a possibility was “practically non-existent, of course.” “The Americans in particular are insisting on demanding a truce, because their terrorist agents are now in a difficult situation,” Assad said.

Washington would have no more trump cards to show if Aleppo is liberated, the Syrian president stated. Assad said Aleppo was the “last hope” of militants and their supporters, “after their failure in the battles of Damascus and Homs.” The Syrian president said the militants’ defeat in Aleppo would fully change the course of battle in Syria. “The decision to liberate all of Syria is taken and Aleppo is part of it,” al-Mayadeen quoted the president as saying. Assad also stated that Turkey had done its best to protect the militant stronghold in Aleppo, but it has failed.

The Syrian government has been making advances in militant-held areas in eastern Aleppo, with recent reports saying that the military and its allies have managed to retake two-thirds of the territory that used to be under the control of the militants. The conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

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