US Says Finland, Sweden Ready To Join NATO Alliance

The U.S. State Department on Monday said Finland and Sweden are ready to join the NATO alliance, after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Sweden should not expect Turkey's support for its membership after a protest near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm at the weekend including the burning of a copy of the Koran.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act, adding that "something can be lawful but awful."

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South Africa Hails Friendship With Russia, Amid Ukraine War

South Africa said on Monday it was "friends" with Russia as it hosted Russia's top diplomat for a visit that has sparked criticism against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.

A continental powerhouse, South Africa has refused to condemn Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and last week announced it will host joint maritime drills with Russia and China in February.

Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor defended the move on Monday as she welcomed her counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks in Pretoria.

"All countries conduct military exercises with friends," Ms Pandor told a press conference after the talks.

She thanked Lavrov for the "most wonderful meeting," which she earlier said would have helped "strengthen the already good relations" with what she described as a "valued partner."

South Africa recently assumed the chairmanship of the BRICS, a grouping that also includes Brazil, Russia, India, and China, to challenge the dominant US and European-led global governance structures.

It has resisted taking sides over the war in Ukraine, which has triggered sweeping Western sanctions against Moscow and attempts to leave it diplomatically isolated.

But the links with Moscow have triggered criticism, with some accusing the government of having abandoned its neutral stance.

'Openly siding with Russia'

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the South African government is openly siding with Russia," said Darren Bergman, a lawmaker with the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party.

"Friendly engagement" with Russia was "not appropriate" unless aimed at persuading it to end its involvement in Ukraine, he said.

Lavrov said Moscow appreciated "the independent, well-balanced, and considerate approach" taken by Pretoria.

Russia did not "refuse negotiations" with Ukraine, he added.

"But those who refuse must understand that the longer they refuse, the more difficult it is to find a solution," he said.

Officials in Moscow have blamed the closure of diplomatic channels on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has said he will not negotiate while Russian leader Vladimir Putin is in power.

Despite the public overtures, the Kremlin has so far shown little willingness to soften its approach on the ground.

In Pretoria, members of the Ukrainian community in South Africa held a small protest against the visit, with some waving signs reading "Go home Lavrov," and "Stop the lies! Stop the war."

More than 350 South African army personnel are to take part in the joint naval exercises scheduled for February 17 to 27 off the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay.

Last week, the foundation of the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, called the planned naval exercises "disgraceful" and "tantamount to a declaration that South Africa is joining the war against Ukraine."

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How Long Can A Human Live? Debate Reignited After Oldest Person Dies

The death of the world's oldest person at the age of 118 has reignited a debate that has divided scientists for centuries: is there a limit on how long a healthy human can live?

After French nun Lucile Randon died last week, Spanish great-grandmother Maria Branyas Morera, 115, has assumed the title of the oldest living person, according to Guinness World Records.

Back in the 18th century, French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, known as the Comte de Buffon, theorised that a person who had not suffered an accident or illness could live for a theoretical maximum of 100 years.

Since then, medical advancements and improving living conditions have pushed the limit back by a couple of decades.

A new milestone was reached when Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment celebrated her 120th birthday in 1995.

Calment died two years later at the age of 122. She remains the oldest person ever to have lived -- that has been verified, at least.

According to the United Nations, there were an estimated 593,000 people aged 100 years or older in 2021, up from 353,000 a decade earlier.

The number of centenarians is expected to more than double over the next decade, according to the Statista data agency.

The Comte de Buffon might also have been surprised by the rise of supercentenarians -- people aged 110 or over -- whose numbers have been increasing since the 1980s.

Natural limit at 115?

So how far could we go? Scientists disagree, with some maintaining that the lifespan of our species is limited by strict biological constraints.

In 2016, geneticists writing in the journal Nature said there had been no improvement in human longevity since the late 1990s.

Analysing global demographic data, they found that the maximum human lifespan had declined since Calment's death -- even though there were more elderly people in the world.

"They concluded that human lifespan has a natural limit and that longevity is limited to around 115 years," French demographer Jean-Marie Robine told AFP.

"But this hypothesis is partly disputed by many demographers," said Mr Robine, a specialist in centenarians at the INSERM medical research institute.

Research in 2018 found that while the rate of death increases with age, it slows down after 85.

Around the age of 107, the rate of death peaks at 50-60 percent every year, the research said.

"Under this theory, if there are 12 people aged 110, six will survive to be 111, three to be 112, and so on," Mr Robine said.

A numbers game

But the more supercentenarians, the higher chance a few have to live to make it to record ages.

If there are 100 supercentenarians, "50 will live to be 111 years old, 25 to 112," Mr Robine said.

"Thanks to a 'volume effect', there are no longer fixed limits to longevity."

However, Mr Robine and his team are publishing research this year which will show that the rate of death continues to increase beyond the age of 105, further narrowing the window.

Does this mean there is a hard ceiling on how long we can live? Mr Robine will not go that far.

"We will continue to make discoveries, as we always have, and little by little the health of the oldest people will improve," he said.

Other experts are also cautious about choosing a side.

"There is no definitive answer for the moment," said France Mesle, a demographer at the French institute of demographic studies (INED).

"Even if they are increasing, the number of people reaching very old age is still quite small and we still cannot make any significant statistical estimate," she told AFP.

So it might be a matter of waiting for rising numbers of supercentenarians to test the "volume effect".

And of course some future medical breakthroughs could soon upend everything we know about death.

Eric Boulanger, a French doctor specialising in the elderly, said that "genetic manipulation" could allow some people to live for 140 or even 150 years.

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Emergency In Brazil After Children Die Of Malnutrition, Other Diseases

Brazil's ministry of health has declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory, the country's largest indigenous reservation bordering Venezuela, following reports of children dying of malnutrition and other diseases caused by illegal gold mining.

A decree published on Friday by the incoming government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the aim of the declaration was to restore health services to the Yanomami people that had been dismantled by his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

In four years of Bolsonaro's presidency, 570 Yanomami children died of curable diseases, mainly malnutrition but also malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners, the Amazon journalism platform Sumauma reported, citing data obtained by a FOIA.

Lula visited a Yanomami health center in Boa Vista in Roraima state on Saturday following the publication of photos showing children and elderly men and women so thin their ribs were visible.

"More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering," Lula said on Twitter.

The government announced food packages that will be flown to the reservation where some 26,000 Yanomamis live in a region of rainforest and tropical savanna the size of Portugal.

The reservation has been invaded by illegal gold miners for decades, but the incursions multiplied since Bolsonaro won office in 2018 promising to allow mining on previously protected lands and offering to legalize wildcat mining.

There are also signs that organized crime has become involved. In recent violent incidents, men on speed boats on the rivers have shot with automatic weapons at indigenous villages whose communities oppose the entry of gold miners.

Some gold miners have begun to leave, fearing enforcement operations by the Lula government, and appear to be heading across the border into neighboring Guyana and Suriname, said Estevao Senra, a researcher at Instituto Socioambiental, an NGO that defends indigenous rights.

Lula said the new government will put an end to illegal gold mining as it moves to crack down on illegal deforestation in the Amazon, which surged to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro.

"We must hold the previous government accountable for allowing this situation to get worse to the point where we find adults weighing like children, and children reduced to skin and bones," said Sonia Guajajara, the first indigenous woman to be a cabinet minister, heading a new Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.

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Five Women, Five Men Among Those Killed In California Mass Shooting: Cops

Police were involved in a stand-off Sunday with a person they believe could be responsible for a mass shooting that killed 10 people at a dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations in California.

At least 10 other people were wounded in the mass shooting with the gunman -- described by police as Asian -- firing indiscriminately at the club in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles, witnesses said.

"We are utilizing every resource to apprehend this suspect in what we believe to be one of the county's most heinous cases," Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

Luna said police responded to emergency calls just after 10pm Saturday (0600 GMT Sunday) and found people pouring out of the premises.

"Unfortunately," he added, paramedics "did pronounce 10 of the victims deceased at the scene."

Five of the dead were women and five men, officials said, without providing ages or names.

At least 10 people were wounded, Luna said, some of them critically.

Incident Nearby

Luna also described a second incident in nearby Alhambra some 20 minutes later, in which an Asian man carrying a gun walked into a dance studio but was tackled and disarmed. The man fled and no injuries were reported.

Alhambra is about two miles north of Monterey Park. Luna said investigators were probing whether the incidents were related.

By late Sunday morning police were involved in a stand-off, surrounding a vehicle in Torrance, south of Los Angeles.

Aerial footage showed a white box van hemmed in by armored police vehicles, while a large number of police cars stood nearby, inside a broad police cordon.

The Los Angeles Times reported, citing a law enforcement source, that shots had been fired at the scene.

Luna said a "tactical incident" was under way.

"We believe there is a person inside of that vehicle. We don't know their condition, but we're going to handle that in the safest manner that we possibly can to try and identify that person.

"Could it be our suspect? Possibly."

The development came as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department released photographs of the man they are looking for.

Images, apparently from surveillance cameras, show an Asian man wearing a beanie hat and glasses.

'Year of the rabbit'

Monterey Park, only a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, is home to around 60,000 people, the majority of them Asian or Asian American.

"We don't know if this is specifically a hate crime defined by law," Luna said, "but who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?"

Although the gunman remained at large, the sheriff said it was safe for people to attend area Lunar New Year events.

Sheriff's deputies in Monterey Park remained at the scene, an AFP reporter said, with decorations erected for the Lunar New Year hanging incongruously by the police tape.

A banner above the street read "Happy Year of the Rabbit."

US President Joe Biden tweeted that he and his wife Jill were "praying for those killed and injured in last night's deadly mass shooting in Monterey Park," adding, "I'm monitoring this situation closely."

The shooting was the deadliest in the US since a shooter in Uvalde, Texas killed 22 people at an elementary school last May.

Monterey Park resident Wong Wei told the Los Angeles Times his friend had been in the dance club's bathroom when the shooting erupted.

When she emerged, she saw a man carrying a long gun and firing indiscriminately. The bodies of two women and a man lay on the floor.

The paper reported that Seung Won Choi, who owns a nearby restaurant, said three people had run into the establishment and told him to lock the door.

The three told Choi there was a man with a semiautomatic gun who had multiple rounds of ammunition and repeatedly reloaded.

Tens of thousands of people had gathered earlier for the two-day Lunar New Year festival, one of the area's largest. Events planned for Sunday were canceled after the attack.

"My heart is broken for the victims, their families, and the people of my hometown," Representative Judy Chu, a former mayor of Monterey Park, said on Twitter.

Chu had been at the scene, joining the festivities hours before the shooting, when the crowd was still large. "This could have been so much worse," she said.

Hate Crime?

Officials said detectives were reviewing surveillance video and did not yet know whether the suspect was targeting a particular group.

The US Department of Justice said there were over 7,000 reported hate crimes in the United States in 2021, two-thirds of them race-related.

Gun violence is a huge problem in the United States, which last year saw 647 mass shootings, with at least four people shot or killed by a shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

In addition to the California shooting, 12 more people were injured in a shooting at a nightclub overnight in Louisiana, local media reported.

More than 44,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2022 across the United States, more than half of which were suicides.

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Lisa Marie Presley: Daughter's emotional tribute read out at memorial

On her behalf, Priscilla Presley read the tribute at a memorial service for her daughter Lisa Marie Presley.

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Police Surround Suspect In California Mass Shooting: Reports

Police were involved in a stand-off with the man they believe was responsible for killing 10 people in a mass shooting during Lunar New Year celebrations in California, media reports said Sunday.

Aerial footage showed a white transit van hemmed in by two armored police vehicles, while a large number of police cars stood nearby in Torrance, south of Los Angeles.

The development came as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department released images of the man they are looking for.

Images, apparently from surveillance cameras, show an Asian man wearing a beanie hat and glasses.

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