The world in brief

Signing legalizes medical pot in Mexico

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto signed a decree this week legalizing medical marijuana. The measure also classified the psychoactive ingredient in the drug as “therapeutic.”

The new policy isn’t exactly opening the door for medical marijuana dispensaries on every corner.

Instead it calls on the Ministry of Health to draft and implement regulations and public policies regulating “the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of cannabis sativa, indica and Americana or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol.” It also puts the ministry in charge of developing a research program to study the drug’s impact before creating broader policies.

The measure had broad support from Mexico’s Senate and Lower House of Congress, where it passed 347-7 in April.

Ukrainians, separatists agree to truce

MOSCOW — The Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists have agreed on a new cease-fire in the country’s war-torn east, a spokesman for the Ukrainian government said Wednesday.

Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed rebels in Ukraine’s industrial heartland has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than a million since it began in 2014. A cease-fire between the warring parties was first negotiated in 2015, but the truce has been repeatedly violated.

Darka Olifer, spokesman for Ukrainian government envoy Leonid Kuchma at talks with separatist rebels, said they agreed to a cease-fire in the east starting Saturday to allow residents to begin harvesting crops.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has recently seen an uptick, with troops and civilians killed and injured in indiscriminate shelling.

On Tuesday, the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said rebel fighters shot at its patrol of two armored vehicles outside the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Separatists’ mouthpiece Donetsk News Agency reported Wednesday that separatist authorities denied any role in the incident and said they have detained the individuals who attacked the patrol.

French president shakes up Cabinet

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron incorporated several little-known figures into his government Wednesday as part of a reshuffle after corruption scandals started tarnishing his new Cabinet.

Macron had planned to rearrange the government after his centrist party won a majority in parliamentary elections Sunday. He was forced to make more changes than expected because four ministers facing investigations announced this week that they would step down.

Macron’s office announced Wednesday that Florence Parly, a former executive and budget official, would become the new defense minister after the previous defense chief, Sylvie Goulard, the highest ranking woman in the 5-week-old government, stepped down.

Macron also named Nicole Belloubet, a legal expert and member of France’s Constitutional Court, as justice minister after her predecessor, Francois Bayrou, was forced to quit earlier in the day. Bayrou, who was leading Macron’s crusade to purify politics, was forced to quit over corruption allegations.

African nation’s cease-fire slips bloodily

BANGUI, Central African Republic — Clashes between armed groups in the Central African Republic town of Bria have left at least 100 people dead in the wake of a peace agreement signed this week in Rome that called for an immediate cease-fire, officials said Wednesday.

Security remained so precarious that Red Cross teams could not venture into the streets to collect bodies for burial.

“For the moment, no one dares to go out as everything suggests that fighting can resume at any time,” said the Rev. Gildas Gbeni of the St. Louis Catholic mission in Bria. “Witnesses coming from different neighborhoods say they have had to climb over dozens of bodies that now litter the ground.”

Mayor Maurice Balekouzou and others put the preliminary death toll at about 100, while several dozen wounded were seeking treatment at the local hospital run by aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Witnesses said the fighting started early Tuesday between the anti-Balaka militia and rebels from the group known as FPRC who were once part of the Seleka movement.

The peace deal signed Monday in Rome among nearly all of the country’s armed groups had called for an immediate ceasefire.

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