Archaeologists have made hundreds of new finds on the wreck of HMS Erebus, the ship commanded by Sir John Franklin on his doomed Arctic trip 180 years ago.

The team’s discoveries include pistols, sealed bottles of ­medicines, seamen’s chests and navigation equipment. These are now being studied for clues to explain the loss of the Erebus and its sister ship Terror, and the deaths of the 129 men who sailed on them.

The work is considered to be particularly urgent because the wreck of the Erebus – discovered 10 years ago in shallow water in Wilmot and Crampton Bay in Arctic Canada – is now being battered by increasingly severe storms as climate change takes its grip on the region.

Mali to start peace talks after ending deal with separatists

Mali’s junta decided to launch a new national peace process just one day after it ended a key 2015 peace deal. Tuareg rebels are skeptical of the initiative.

Mali‘s ruling junta issued a decree to establish a new committee that will oversee a national peace dialogue.

The move comes a day after the junta scrapped a key 2015 peace deal with northern separatist groups, accusing mediator Algeria of interfering in its affairs.

Algeria previously mediated between the government and mainly Tuareg armed groups.

“There will be no negotiations outside Bamako. We will no longer… go to a foreign country to speak about our problems,” the military-appointed head of government, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, said in a video posted on social media on Friday.

French farmers vowed Saturday to continue protesting, maintaining traffic barricades on some of the country’s major roads a day after the government announced a series of measures that they do not fully address their demands.

The farmers’ movement, seeking better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports has spread in recent days across the country, with protesters using their tractors to shut down long stretches of road and slow traffic. They’ve also dumped stinky agricultural waste at the gates of government offices.

While some of the barricades were gradually being lifted on Saturday, highway operator Vinci Autoroutes said the A7, a major highway heading through southern France and into Spain, was still closed. Some other roads were also partially closed, mostly in southern France.

Vinci Autoroutes noted that the blockades on two highways leading to Paris have been removed. The highway from Lyon, in eastern France, to Bordeaux, in the southwest, also been reopened on Saturday, the company said in a statement.

Chiropractor who took up art at 71 finds fame here and abroad

By MASAKAZU HIGASHINO/ Staff Writer

January 27, 2024 at 07:00 JST

Noriko Sugiyama doesn’t quite get why others make a fuss of her art when she simply uses bits of old kimono fabric and obi sashes instead of paint to bring her works to life.

Be that as it may, the 76-year-old chiropractor is an award-winning upcycling artist in Japan and oversees. It is quite an achievement seeing as she is self-taught and only took up painting five years ago after finding a packet of marker pens discarded on the street.

In 2006, with her three children all grown up, she moved from Saitama Prefecture to the Iwate prefectural capital where she has relatives.