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Geopolitics

Deadly French Jewish School Shooting Has 'Striking Similarities' To Recent Killings

Southwest France has seen its third deadly shooting in the past week, as a killer rides up on a scooter at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Police are investigating possible links with recent killings of French soldiers in the region.

Police cordon off the area surrounding the Ozar Hatorah school (6MON2PANAME)
Police cordon off the area surrounding the Ozar Hatorah school (6MON2PANAME)

*NEWSBITES

TOULOUSE - A gunman opened fire in front of a Jewish school in the southwest French city of Toulouse, killing four people, including three children.

Witnesses saw the shooter opening fire from his scooter on a group of adults and children outside the Ozar Hatorah school at around 8.15am. The killer then left his black scooter to follow children into the school, before riding away.

The victims are a 30-year-old teacher and his sons, three and six years old, and the school headmaster's daughter, aged 10.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the shootings an "abominable drama" and a "frightening tragedy," while his main opponent for the 2012 presidential election François Hollande said he was going to go to Toulouse "immediately" out of "solidarity" for the Jewish community.

It's the third shooting in the region in the past week carried out from a motorbike.

On Thursday, a driveby gunman opened fire on three uniformed paratroopers at an ATM in Montauban around 50 kilometers from Toulouse, killing two and critically wounding the other, before speeding away. Four days earlier, a gunman on a motorbike shot and killed another paratrooper in Toulouse.

Sarkozy said there were "striking similarities' between Monday's shooting and last week's attacks.

According to police officials, the Ozar Hatorah school killer was armed with two guns, one of them matching the caliber of the shootings in Toulouse and Montauban last week.

Read more from Le Monde in French

Photo - 6MON2PANAME

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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LGBTQ Plus

Why Is Homophobia In Africa So Widespread?

Uganda's new law that calls for life imprisonment for gay sex is part of a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights that is particularly harsh on the African continent.

Photo of LGBTQ Ugandan group

LGBTQ group in Uganda

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

Uganda has just passed a law that allows for life imprisonment for same-sex sexual relations, punishing even the "promotion" of homosexuality. Under the authoritarian regime of Yoweri Museveni for the past 37 years, Uganda has certainly gone above and beyond existing anti-gay legislation inherited from British colonization.

But the country of 46 million is not alone, as a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights continues to spread as part of a wider homophobic climate across Africa.

There is exactly one country on the continent, South Africa, legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, and another southern African state, Botswana, lifted the ban on homosexuality in 2019. But in total, more than half of the 54 African states have more or less repressive laws providing for prison sentences.

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