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West Africa’s main bloc has agreed on a “D-day” for possible military intervention to restore democracy in Niger after generals toppled and detained President Mohamed Bazoum last month.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed on Friday to activate a standby force as a last resort if diplomatic efforts fail, a senior official said without disclosing when that is.

“We are ready to go anytime the order is given,” ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said during the closing ceremony of a two-day meeting of West African army chiefs in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

“The D-day is also decided. We’ve already agreed and fine-tuned what will be required for the intervention,” he said, emphasising that ECOWAS was still seeking to engage peacefully with Niger’s military leaders.

“As we speak, we are still readying [a] mediation mission into the country, so we have not shut any door.”

A Russian court has ordered the closure of the Sakharov Center, one of the country’s oldest human rights groups, Interfax reported Friday.

The center, which was founded to honor the memory of Soviet dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, had been an iconic place for exhibitions and discussions about human rights since its opening in 1996.

According to Interfax, the Justice Ministry filed a court order to shutter the group for alleged “systematic gross and irremediable violations of the law” in connection with its staging of an exhibition dedicated to Sakharov in regions of the country where it did not have a branch.

The organization was also accused of publishing videos without a “foreign agent” stamp, as is required under its status as a “foreign agent” organization.

The Moscow City Court on Friday approved the Justice Ministry’s request, Interfax reported.

The Sakharov Center said it did not acknowledge the violations.

"It's disheartening, yet it mirrors reality. The public commission on Sakharov's legacy and the contemporary Russian Federation cannot coexist...And everything that is happening today is exactly the opposite of what Sakharov fought for,” Sergei Lukashevsky, the director of the Sakharov Center, said in a Facebook post Friday.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in Haiti since the start of 2023 amid rampant gang violence, including hundreds killed in lynchings by vigilante mobs, the UN said Friday.

The toll comes as gang violence in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince this week left 30 residents dead and more than a dozen injured.

"Between January 1 and August 15 of this year, at least 2,439 people have been killed and a further 902 injured," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

In addition, she said, "951 people have been kidnapped" during the same period.

And as anger grows over the gang violence, she warned that a rise in popular justice movements and self-defence groups was spurring further violence.

"Since April 24 up to mid-August, more than 350 people have been lynched by local people and vigilante groups," she said, adding that of those, 310 were alleged gang members and one was a police officer.

The remainder were members of the public.

Houses in Port-au-Prince's Carrefour-Feuilles neighbourhood were set on fire in the attacks and two police officers also died, according to a provisional toll provided to AFP by the National Human Rights Defense Network.

The neighbourhood is a strategic area for the gangs, which control about 80 percent of Haiti's capital.

Violent crimes including kidnappings for ransom, carjackings, rapes and armed thefts are common.

In recent days violence in the neighbourhood has caused some 5,000 residents to flee, authorities said.

"Reports from Haiti this week have underscored the extreme brutality of the violence being inflicted on the population and the impact that it is having on their human rights," Shamdasani said.

She said that her boss, UN rights chief Volker Turk, was calling for urgent action to be taken on an appeal for a non-UN multinational force to be sent in "to support the Haitian police in addressing the grave security situation and restoring the rule of law".

China Evergrande (3333.HK), which is the world's most heavily indebted property developer and became the poster child for China's property crisis, on Thursday filed for protection from creditors in a U.S. bankruptcy court.

The company sought protection under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, which shields non-U.S. companies that are undergoing restructurings from creditors that hope to sue them or tie up assets in the United States.

An affiliate, Tianji Holdings, also sought Chapter 15 protection on Thursday in Manhattan bankruptcy court.

A lawyer for Evergrande did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Evergrande's filing comes amid growing fears that problems in China's property sector could spread to other parts of the country's economy as growth slows.

Since the sector's debt crisis unfolded in mid-2021, companies accounting for 40% of Chinese home sales have defaulted.

Late last week, MSN.com's Microsoft Travel section posted an AI-generated article about the "cannot miss" attractions of Ottawa that includes the Ottawa Food Bank, a real charitable organization that feeds struggling families. In its recommendation text, Microsoft's AI model wrote, "Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

Titled, "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn't miss!," (archive here) the article extols the virtues of the Canadian city and recommends attending the Winterlude festival (which only takes place in February), visiting an Ottawa Senators game, and skating in "The World's Largest Naturallyfrozen Ice Rink" (sic). Ars Trending Video

As the No. 3 destination on the list, Microsoft Travel suggests visiting the Ottawa Food Bank, likely drawn from a summary found online but capped with an unfortunate turn of phrase.

"The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984. We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis, and how it may be a barrier to achievement. People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

Late last week, MSN.com's Microsoft Travel section posted an AI-generated article about the "cannot miss" attractions of Ottawa that includes the Ottawa Food Bank, a real charitable organization that feeds struggling families. In its recommendation text, Microsoft's AI model wrote, "Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

Titled, "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn't miss!," (archive here) the article extols the virtues of the Canadian city and recommends attending the Winterlude festival (which only takes place in February), visiting an Ottawa Senators game, and skating in "The World's Largest Naturallyfrozen Ice Rink" (sic). Ars Trending Video

As the No. 3 destination on the list, Microsoft Travel suggests visiting the Ottawa Food Bank, likely drawn from a summary found online but capped with an unfortunate turn of phrase.

"The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984. We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis, and how it may be a barrier to achievement. People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

When French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympics in 1894, he imagined the Games as an occasion for world peace as countries came together in amicable sporting events. But the Games were soon caught up in nations' rivalries and political agendas. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) struggled – and failed – to distance itself from the 20th century's global crises and conflicts, from holding the Berlin Olympics in 1936 during Nazi rule to rival boycotts of the Games during the Cold War.

A member of staff at the British Museum has been sacked after jewellery and gems from its collection were found to be "missing, stolen or damaged".

In a statement, the museum said the items included "gold jewellery and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th Century BC to the 19th Century AD".

The majority were "small pieces kept in a storeroom belonging to one of the museum's collections", officials said.

They were kept primarily for academic and research purposes and none had recently been on public display.

The museum will be "taking legal action against the individual" and the Metropolitan Police's economic and crime command is investigating, the museum said.

"This is a highly unusual incident," said director Hartwig Fischer.

Security has already been tightened, he added, and the museum is "working alongside outside experts to complete a definitive account of what is missing, damaged and stolen".

Mt. Fluchthorn's tallest peak, on the Swiss-Austrian border, collapsed in June.

Experts say peaks in the European Alps and Southern Alps of New Zealand are at risk of collapse, too.

The damage and dangers from mountain collapse disproportionately impact indigenous communities.

On June 11, the main peak of Mt. Fluchthorn, on the border of Austria and Switzerland, collapsed without warning.

Roughly 3.5 million cubic feet of earth tumbled down, filling the valley below with 40 Olympic swimming pools' worth of rocks, mud, and dirt, LiveScience reported. While no people got hurt, a religious cross marking the summit was destroyed.

Fluchthorn had three peaks, and the main, southern one used to be the tallest. With the south peak collapsed, the middle peak is the new summit at 11,145 feet — the second-highest summit in the Silvretta Alps.

Overall, Mt. Fluchthorn is 60 feet shorter than it was earlier this year, per LiveScience.

Why did the peak collapse? Well, like many mountains in the far north, Fluchthorn had a lot of permafrost — a permanent layer of ice and dirt under the mountain's surface.

"Permafrost is important because frozen water within the ground holds the ground surface together and prevents it from moving. But when that ice melts, the liquid water can flow away. The ground surface becomes less stable and can move, often very quickly," said Jasper Knight, a geoscientist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

When a big chunk of mountain moves quickly, like with the mudslide at Fluchthorn, that's called a mass movement.

"Global warming is causing the permafrost to melt, which is the trigger for these mass movement events to take place," Knight said.

Social networks in Iran have been flooded with compromising footage featuring several known ultra-conservative officials engaging in homosexual activities. While homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, the Iranian regime has attempted to deny the videos and cover up the scandals. We spoke to a former religious authority who says authorities are trying to “save face” by refuting the wave of videos.

The Ministry of Culture in Lebanon may decide to ban the film "Barbie" after it accused the film of "promoting homosexuality" on Wednesday. Lebanon, normally perceived as relatively open and free in the Middle East, has seen its ruling elites gather around hardcore conservative values.

Torrential rain brought by two successive typhoons has added to concerns over China’s food security, which is already under pressure as export bans from the likes of India have pushed up global prices, pushing officials and researchers to warn of a “severe impact” on agricultural production. Typhoon Doksuri made landfall in China on Friday, and its remnants, along with the arrival of Typhoon Khanun this week, have flooded fields and damaged crops in northern China, with agricultural authorities worried about the potential effect on the northeast grain production base. A number of countries, including major supplier India, have also recently announced rice export bans, raising concerns over price surges and panic buying despite sufficient domestic supply.