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Strong winds force cancellation of some Mardi Gras parades

(NYT) — Extreme winds and possible storms that are expected on Tuesday have forced the cancellation of Mardi Gras parades in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, as officials in neighboring New Orleans were closely watching the forecast.

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The National Weather Service is warning that strong winds, with gusts reaching up to 60 mph, will begin early in the morning, creating potentially hazardous conditions for parade floats and spectators.

“I’m going to cut to the chase with very disappointing news,” the Jefferson Parish president, Cynthia Lee Sheng, said at a news conference Monday. “Tomorrow’s weather, especially the gusty winds, is severe enough that we have no other choice other than to cancel our scheduled parades for tomorrow.”

There are two parades in Jefferson Parish on Mardi Gras. The Krewe of Argus was scheduled to roll with 20 floats through Metairie, Louisiana, followed by the Krewe of Elks Jeffersonians with 43 floats.

At least one killed after car drives into crowd in Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) — One person was killed and several others injured when a man drove a car into a lunch-hour crowd in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, police said Monday.

Police said the driver had been arrested, adding that they were investigating whether other perpetrators had been involved.

Authorities asked people to avoid the city center Monday.

There have been several recent attacks with vehicles in Germany. Two weeks ago, a 24-year-old Afghan man who was seeking asylum purposefully drove into a union demonstration in Munich, killing a 2-year-old and her mother and wounding several dozen others.

And in December, a Saudi doctor who had been living in Germany for more than a decade is suspected of having driven his car into a Christmas market in the central city of Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring hundreds of others.

31 or more die in Bolivia after truck rams into bus

LA PAZ (Reuters) — A truck traveling on a highway in southern Bolivia collided with a bus early on Monday morning, forcing the bus off the road and killing at least 31 people, police said.

Speaking to reporters, police spokesperson Limbert Choque confirmed the death toll, which he said included both men and women, as ambulances and emergency vehicles arrived at the scene of the accident. Another 22 people suffered injuries.

President Luis Arce expressed condolences for the victims on social media.

“This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook. “We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”

Police said the bus rolled some 500 meters (1,640 feet) down a ravine after the collision, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.

The driver of the truck has been arrested, police added, while the cause of the accident is under investigation.

The crash comes just days after more than three dozen people were killed in the same region after two buses collided.