Six In The Morning Saturday 10 April 2021

 

A muted mourning for Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's longtime consort, as Covid-19 changes funeral plans

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Updated 1422 GMT (2222 HKT) April 10, 2021

Gun salutes took place across the United Kingdom and in Commonwealth countries on Saturday in tribute to Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband for more than seven decades, who died on Friday at the age of 99.

Tributes have flooded in from the UK and abroad for Philip -- known officially as the Duke of Edinburgh -- who was the UK's longest-ever serving consort, a term used for the husband or wife of a reigning monarch.

Saluting batteries fired 41 rounds, at one round per minute, at Windsor Castle where the duke died, as well as by the Tower of London in the capital and at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, among other locations. Australia, a Commonwealth nation, also paid its respects with a gun salute outside Parliament House in the capital, Canberra, on Saturday morning.

Doctors under fire as Myanmar military targets efforts to aid injured protesters

Medics tell of attacks on staff and ambulances to stop treatment of patients and punish those who took part in national strike

Rebecca Ratcliffe and Observer reporter in Myanmar

Sat 10 Apr 2021 15.31 BST

Htet Htet Win and her husband were late returning home on Sunday night. It was past the junta-imposed 8pm curfew when their motorbike passed through the streets of eastern Mandalay. The security forces reportedly shouted for them to stop, and then opened fire when they did not do so. Her husband was hit but managed to get away. She was knocked to the ground.

A grainy photograph, taken by an onlooker, shows her lying face down on the concrete, her arms reaching above her head, her purple top and bottoms marked with dark patches.

Doctors believed she was still alive, but were warned by residents that soldiers were waiting nearby. They feared it was a trap. “I felt like they were ambushing us,” said one of the rescuers. “I think she would have survived if we were able to pick her up as soon as it happened,” he said. They waited for more than an hour before the soldiers eventually retreated. It was too late.

Danish national football team loses sponsor amid Qatar human rights row

The Arbejdernes Landsbank is ending its contract which was due to finish at the end of next year’s World Cup

David Harding

@DM_Harding

A sponsor of Denmark’s national football team has decided to end its contract as debate rages in the country about a potential boycott of next year’s World Cup finals in Qatar, over human rights concerns.

The Arbejdernes Landsbank sponsored the Danish team’s training gear as part of a four-year contract, which was due to expire at the end of 2022.

However that contract is now to set to end within the next few days, say officials, because of a “quick loan law” which says money providers such as the bank cannot advertise side by side with gambling companies.

Iran starts up advanced centrifuges in nuclear deal breach

Iran announced Saturday it has started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges in a breach of its undertakings under a troubled 2015 nuclear deal, days after talks on rescuing it got underway.

President Hassan Rouhani officially inaugurated the cascades of 164 IR-6 centrifuges and 30 IR-5 devices at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant in a ceremony broadcast by state television.

The television aired no images of the cascades but broadcast a link with engineers at the plant who said they had introduced uranium hexafluoride gas to the cascades after receiving the order from Rouhani.

‘Out of control’: Brazil’s COVID surge sparks regional fears

Brazil’s South American neighbours worry a COVID-19 variant will spread quickly and lead to another wave of deaths.

By 

Charlotte Peet

10 Apr 2021

 Almost a year ago to the day, the jungle city of Manaus grabbed international headlines after a flood of COVID-19 deaths forced gravediggers to dig mass burials – catapulting the city into the centre of Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak.

Those scenes are now being repeated throughout Brazil, where authorities are working day and night to bury the dead, with experts warning that the country’s funeral services could be the next to topple.

Since the start of the year, an uncontrollable second wave has pushed Brazil over the 300,000 death mark. As the country continues to hit grim milestones – a record 4,247 deaths on Thursday alone – the entire South American nation is now the global COVID-19 epicentre, with experts warning that 5,000 Brazilians could lose their lives in a single day in April.

Gov't to release Fukushima nuclear plant water into sea despite fishermen's objection

The Japanese government is poised to release treated radioactive water accumulated at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea despite opposition from fishermen, sources familiar with the matter said Friday.

It will hold a meeting of related ministers as early as Tuesday to formally decide on the plan, a major development following over seven years of discussions on how to discharge the water used to cool down melted fuel at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The treated water containing radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors, is said to pose little risk to human health because even if one drinks the water, so long as the tritium concentration is low, the amounts of tritium would not accumulate in the body and would soon be excreted.