Violence in Syria kills 11 children

Violence in Syria kills 11 children

BEIRUT

At least 11 children were among 23 people killed Sunday in northern Syria as pro-government forces kept up their campaign against opposition areas in the country’s north, while rebels shelled a government-held district in Aleppo city.

At least eight more people were killed in a suspected airstrike on a crossing point connecting Kurdish-held areas with rebel areas in northern Aleppo province, the Kurdish security force said.

The violence Sunday comes a day after government troops repelled a rebel offensive on western parts of Aleppo city launched in late October. State news agency SANA said the shelling of a western Aleppo district killed four people.

British man aims to swim Atlantic

DAKAR, Senegal

Former British police officer Ben Hooper hopes to make history by swimming every mile of the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to South America. After more than three years of preparation, he set off Sunday.

The 38-year-old walked down a beach in Dakar and into the Atlantic Ocean, launching a swim for 1,635 nautical miles from Senegal to Brazil.

Flanked by two boats and a crew of less than a dozen, Hooper aims to be the first person to swim every mile of the Atlantic Ocean from continent to continent, stepping on land again in March.

Queen leads UK in honoring war dead

LONDON

Queen Elizabeth II has led Britain in honoring the country’s war dead during the annual Remembrance Sunday service.

The monarch joined past and present political leaders, the royal family and hundreds of veterans at a solemn ceremony in central London.

Elizabeth laid the first wreath of red poppies at the foot of the Cenotaph war memorial, after those gathered observed a moment’s silence to remember all those killed in past and present conflicts.

Remembrance events this year are especially poignant because 2016 marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Jutland. The British Army suffered almost 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Somme battle alone.

France marks one year since Paris attacks

PARIS

Less indifferent, more policed – France is a changed place since Islamic State extremists killed 130 people in the country’s deadliest attacks a year ago. Fearing it’s becoming more divided, too, survivors and victims’ families marked Sunday’s anniversary of the violence by pleading for national unity instead.

Tourism is hurting, armed forces roam streets and France is still under a state of emergency that rights groups call abusive and ineffective – and that the prime minister now says may be extended yet again.

“We always have this fear that weighs heavily in our hearts. We always try to be careful. And every time we pass by here, we think of them,” said Sabrina Nedjadi, paying respects Sunday at two cafes in her diverse eastern Paris neighborhood targeted in the attacks.

At midday, hundreds of balloons were released to honor the memories of the victims; at dusk, paper lanterns were released into the Canal Saint Martin, bearing red, white and blue lights representing the French tricolor. Onlookers, including many families with children, lined the canal and surrounding bridges, watching silently as the lanterns drifted.

Associated Press