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Record-breaking heat wave grips western United States

A record early heat wave striking the western United States on Friday is a one-in-500-year event and almost certainly the result of human-caused climate change, experts say. The heat has been toppling records this week and is set to continue into the weekend across western cities while expanding eastward. Four locations in the desert area near the California-Arizona border registered 44.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, a US national record for March. The readings were recorded near Yuma and Martinez Lake in Arizona, and around Winterhaven and Ogilby in California. Read: Intense heatwave grips US, triggering record-breaking temperatures Already, 65 cities have recorded new March highs, ranging from Arizona and California to Idaho, Weather.com reported. Death Valley reached 40°C on Thursday, while typically cool and foggy San Francisco tied its historic March record at 29°C. In Colorado, skiers were seen hitting the slopes shirtless. The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warni...

Over 200 killed in ethnic attacks by Sudan’s RSF in Darfur, doctors group says

More than 200 people, including women and children, were killed in ethnically motivated attacks carried out by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in parts of Darfur, according to a statement released Saturday by the Sudan Doctors Network. Citing testimonies from survivors who arrived at displacement camps in Tina, near the Sudan-Chad border, the network said civilians were targeted and killed on an ethnic basis in the areas of Ambro and Abu Qamra in North Darfur and Sirba in West Darfur after RSF forces attacked the locations. “The victims included children, women and men who were deliberately targeted and killed on ethnic grounds,” the statement said, describing the assaults as a gross violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Read More: At least 15 dead, 19 injured in Guatemala bus accident There was no immediate comment from the RSF. The reported killings came amid intensified fighting in North Darfur. The Joint Force of Armed Movements, which is allied with the Sudanese army, said Thursday that its fighters repelled RSF attacks on several areas in North Darfur. In a statement, the joint force accused the RSF of escalating criminal attacks against unarmed civilians, particularly in and around Abu Qamra, with the aim of imposing control by force through killing, forced displacement, and terrorizing residents and displaced people who fled El-Fasher. Local sources said RSF forces attacked Abu Qamra and Ambro on Wednesday, while the RSF claimed it had taken control of the two areas. The joint force said that since the start of the assault, RSF fighters have burned entire villages, looted livestock and civilian property, and committed what it described as grave abuses against residents. Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum. The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.

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