In brief: Keita president after opponent concedes

BAMAKO, Mali – Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali’s presidency late Monday after his opponent conceded defeat before official results were announced from the election aimed at restoring stability to a country wracked by a rebellion, a coup and an Islamic insurgency.

Soumalia Cisse’s concession allows Mali to avoid a protracted election fight and to move ahead with establishing a democratically elected government, one of the international community’s caveats for unlocking some $4 billion in promised aid.

Keita had been expected to win easily, having pulled nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round.

Dozens killed in blasts across Iraq

BAGHDAD – Three blasts, including a suicide bomb in a café, killed 26 people in central and western Iraq on Monday evening, officials said. They were the latest attacks in a monthslong surge of violence.

In the deadliest of the blasts, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt inside a cafe in Balad, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding another 30, police said. Militants frequently attack Shiite civilian targets to undermine the government.

Meanwhile, Al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq claimed responsibility for attacks that killed 69 people during the Muslim holiday following the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Condors poisoned with insecticide

SANTIAGO, Chile – Twenty condors were apparently poisoned with insecticide that has already killed two of the giant birds in the Chilean Andes cordillera, a veterinarian said Monday.

Chilean officials and volunteers rescued 17 that were foaming from the beak and were too frail to fly. Another sick condor and two dead ones were found Monday. They were all taken to a veterinary clinic in the city of Los Andes, 40 miles east of the capital, Santiago.

The 18 survivors are recovering with an antidote, antibiotics and saline solution, Savard said. They will remain under intensive care for 10 days.

The Andean condor is one of the largest flying birds in the world. Biologists estimate only a few thousand are left in the wild.

Phone-tracking trash cans banned

LONDON – An advertising firm must immediately stop using its network of high-tech trash cans to track people walking through London’s financial district, officials said.

The City of London Corporation said it has demanded Renew pull the plug on the program, which measures the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones to follow commuters as they pass the garbage cans.

In one interview, Renew chief executive Kaveh Memari said he would sell the data to “anyone.”

The company tested the technology in May but received a burst of publicity last week, with some wondering whether the technology was legal.