1 Syria conflict: Air strikes on rebel-held parts of the besieged city of Aleppo killed at least eight people Tuesday, while shelling of a government-held neighborhood in a southern Syrian city hit a school, killing at least six people, among them children, activists and state media said. The northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest and its former commercial center, has witnessed fierce fighting in recent months with government forces and their allies trying to capture neighborhoods in besieged opposition-held parts of the city. The opposition-held part of Aleppo has been battered by an intensive aerial campaign since last month, when a cease-fire collapsed after just a week. Syrian pro-government forces are also conducting a ground offensive into the rebel-held districts, advancing slowly in the north, east and south of the city.

2Safe injection rooms: France will open its first safe-injection room for drug addicts despite years of efforts by conservatives to block the plan. The room, located in northern Paris, is opening for a six-year test period as allowed by a health law passed last year by the Socialist government. Intravenous drug users will be given free access to clean needles under medical supervision and in the presence of drug counselors in an effort to prevent viral infections and overdoses.

3 South Africa protest: South African riot police fought stone-throwing students for a second consecutive day at a university campus on Tuesday amid national calls by demonstrators for free higher education. Clashes broke out when students hurled rocks at a central building at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and police fired rubber bullets to disperse them. The government says that it does not have enough money to provide free higher education and that it will cover fee increases for poor students next year. Protesters, however, say the concession does not go far enough.

4Blogger arrested: Authorities in Vietnam said Tuesday that they had arrested a popular blogger who has criticized the country’s one-party government over politically sensitive topics, including a dump of toxic chemicals that devastated fishing communities and set off protests. The blogger, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, was detained Monday in Khanh Hoa, a south-central province. She was accused on Tuesday of distorting the truth and spreading propaganda against the state, according to the Vietnamese news media. The charges carry a maximum prison term of 12 years. Quynh, who writes under the pen name Mother Mushroom, is a co-founder of the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, one of the few independent writers’ associations in Vietnam.

5 Dramatic rescue: Rescuers pulled out a 3-year-old girl who survived under the remains of collapsed homes in the arms of her dead parents, state media reported Tuesday. The bodies of her mother and father protected Wu Ningxi from being struck by heavy objects. The three were found under the rubble 15 hours after a group of decrepit homes collapsed in eastern China, killing 22 people. Six people survived. The cause of the collapses in an industrial district on the outskirts of the city of Wenzhou is under investigation. Reports said the four buildings were built in the 1970s by their farmer owners and were in a highly degraded state. Extra floors had been added over the years, making them between three and five stories high and further weakening their structures.

Chronicle News Services