Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Six In The Morning Tuesday 28 December 2021

 

Myanmar massacre: two Save the Children staff among dead


Charity says the two men, both new fathers, were killed in massacre of more than 30 people blamed on junta troops

Agence France-Presse in Yangon

Save the Children has confirmed that two of its staff were killed in a Christmas Eve massacre blamed on junta troops that left the charred remains of dozens of people on a highway in eastern Myanmar.

Anti-junta fighters said they found more than 30 bodies, including women and children, on a highway in Kayah state where pro-democracy rebels have been fighting the military.

Save the Children later said two of its staff members had been caught up in the incident and were missing.


Russian court orders closure of top human rights group Memorial

Russia has targeted journalists, media outlets and rights groups under its controversial ‘foreign agent’ law



Russia’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s oldest and best-known human rights group, Memorial, must be shut down for breaking a controversial “foreign agent” law – capping a year of crackdowns on Kremlin critics unseen since the Soviet days.

The shuttering of the group closes a year in which the top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed, his political movement banned and many of his allies forced to flee the country.

Moscow says it is simply enforcing laws to thwart extremism and shield the country from foreign influence.


The risk of dementia in football: A ticking time bomb?

For a long time, links to dementia were widely ignored in professional football. This has now started to change, at least in the English game, where the issue is addressed much more than in Germany.


'Is there a time bomb ticking in my head?' It's certainly not just Andreas Luthe, goalkeeper for Bundesliga side Union Berlin, who is asking himself this question.

"[Scientific findings that] there is a higher risk of dementia if you have a lot of concussions to the head — whether from a header or a collision — don't leave me cold, because I've been playing football all my life," the 34-year-old said in an interview with DW. "And who can tell me that I won't have disadvantages in 30 or 40 years?"

Luthe has already been involved in high impact clashes with his head twice this year. The first time, he suffered a concussion and was taken off the pitch; the second time, he continued playing after an eight-minute stoppage.


A fourth shot of Covid vaccine? Israel tests second booster





Somalia’s allies fear instability as political crisis deepens


Intensifying row between president and prime minister sparks concerns as the country struggles to hold long-delayed elections.

Somalia’s allies and international observers have expressed alarm over the escalating power struggle between the country’s president and prime minister, as heavily armed factions patrolled parts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Soldiers loyal to Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble on Tuesday took up positions near the presidential palace, reports citing witnesses said, while others paraded the streets.

“They are not far away from the main security checkpoints of the presidential palace, they are armed with heavy machine guns and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]”, Saido Mumin, a Mogadishu resident, told the AFP news agency.

Temple bells part of scrap metal used to fuel Japan’s war effort


THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

December 28, 2021 at 07:00 JST




In 1941, when the Japanese government was salvaging metal from wherever it could for the looming Pacific War, the nation’s largest Buddhist group readily handed over its temple bells for the slaughter to come.

The response from the Hongwanji school of the True Pure Land sect to the metal collection order promulgated that August resulted in nearly 90 percent of its facilities donating often centuries-old artifacts to be melted down for weapons, ammunition and so forth.

This little-known episode would probably have remained just that were it not for the fact that the Hongwanji school last year asked its branches nationwide how they responded to the imperial ordinance that amounted to a rallying call to arms.




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