Monday, October 19, 2020

Six In The Morning Monday 19 October 2020

 

Coronavirus: Belgium facing 'tsunami' of new infections

Belgium could soon be overwhelmed by new coronavirus infections, the health minister has warned, amid soaring case numbers across the country.

Frank Vandenbroucke said new cases were close to a "tsunami" where authorities "no longer control what is happening".

New measures to try to halt the spread came into force on Monday. All bars and restaurants are closed for four weeks.


North Korea detainees subjected to ritual torture and sexual assault – rights group

Prisoners considered ‘less than an animal’ by regime, according to interviews with 15 former detainees by Human Rights Watch

 in Tokyo

Suspects in North Korea are subjected to ritual torture, humiliation and sexual assault by a criminal justice system that considers them “less than an animal”, according to the first-ever report detailing the brutality of the country’s pretrial detention conditions.

The US-based Human Rights Watch [HRW] said people who are arrested and sent to pretrial detention are placed in cramped, unhygienic cells, forced to confess and denied proper food and clothing.

“Prisoners literally waste away from lack of food unless they can bribe guards to have their families send food,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s Asia deputy director, told reporters on Monday.


Coronavirus digest: Total number of cases hits 40 million

Australia's second-largest city has lifted most of its restrictions on the same day as several European states reintroduced stricter regimes. Meanwhile, the known global caseload has hit 40 million. Follow DW for more.

The total number of recorded cases worldwide ticked over to 40 million early on Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The milestone coincides with accelerating numbers of cases across much of Europe.

The true number of people to have contracted the virus is not known for a number of reasons: testing capacity was scant early in the pandemic; some carriers can exhibit few or even no symptoms; and some countries are suspected of underplaying their numbers or of failing to enthusiastically track down potential carriers.

Police conduct raids after beheading of French teacher

French police on Monday raided Islamic associations and foreigners suspected of extremist religious beliefs, police sources said, three days after a suspected Islamist beheaded a school teacher.

History teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was murdered on Friday in broad daylight outside his school in a middle-class Paris suburb by an 18-year-old of Chechen origin. Police shot the attacker dead.

The teenage assassin sought to avenge his victim's use of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression to 13-year-olds. Muslims believe that any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.

This 14-year-old girl won a $25K prize for a discovery that could lead to a cure for Covid-19


Updated 1402 GMT (2202 HKT) October 19, 2020



As scientists around the world race to find a treatment for the coronavirus, a young girl among them stands out.

Anika Chebrolu, a 14-year-old from Frisco, Texas, has just won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge -- and a $25,000 prize -- for a discovery that could provide a potential therapy to Covid-19.
Anika's winning invention uses in-silico methodology to discover a lead molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

What role is Russia playing in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

Moscow sells weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan but has also led attempts for the battling sides to put down their arms.


Two centuries ago, Russian czars proudly proclaimed that they “liberated” Armenians from the rule of Ottoman Turkey and Iran.

Right after World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin planned to invade and annex eastern Turkey to “expand” Soviet Armenia and get access to the Mediterranean.

Post-Communist Russia seems to be following the same pattern of “protecting” Armenians from their neighbours – Turkic-speaking ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and its closest ally, Turkey.





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