Six In The Morning Wednesday 8 December 2021

 

Germany records highest number of daily Covid-19 deaths since February

By Laura Smith-Spark and Stephanie Halasz, CNN

Updated 1512 GMT (2312 HKT) December 8, 2021

Germany recorded its highest number of daily deaths from Covid-19 since February on Wednesday, as it struggles to bring a fourth wave of the pandemic under control.

A total of 69,601 new infections were reported and an additional 527 people died in the past 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the national disease and control center. That marked the highest Covid-19 daily death toll since February 18, when there were 534 fatalities.

Germany's seven-day incidence rate dropped slightly, but remains high at 427 per 100,000 inhabitants. The c

Home treatment feared to increase virus spread

Experts say daily infections could reach 10,000 in a few weeks

By Bahk Eun-ji

The government's COVID-19 quarantine measure of home treatment for non-critical patients is feared to have increased infections among family members as well as the number of serious cases, health experts said Wednesday.

This concern was raised as the country's daily new number of coronavirus cases soared to a record high of 7,175 for Tuesday, a sharp rise of 2,221 from the previous day, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Health experts are now saying the number of daily infections could reach 10,000 in a few weeks.

The number of critically ill patients also hit an all-time high of 840.

The code of evil

A German computer scientist got sucked into  world politics searching for a subject for his dissertation. Then he uncovered one of the world‘s most wanted cyber criminals: a Russian hacker who might also be a spy.

After weeks of research, one gloomy November afternoon, Christian Rossow found himself in the middle of world politics completely by accident. Sitting in an office just big enough for two desks and a cabinet he was working his way through the mass of numbers blinking on his computer screen when he found something unusual.

The numbers came from the basement one level below, from a room without windows. Only four people besides him had a key. The room is the maximum-security lab of the university he worked for at the time. Whenever Rossow had to go down there he tried to be quick. 

Will the Tatmadaw control the future?

Myanmar’s military coup

Despite army violence, the protests against Myanmar’s new junta continue. They aim to end military interference in politics and mobilise society, reaching beyond figureheads such as Aung San Suu Kyi.

by Christine Chaumeau

Burmese filmmaker Lamin Oo tweeted on 14 February, ‘Evil creeps [in] at night but hope shines bright in the morning.’ He posted video clips of people demonstrating against the military coup of 1 February, and men with sticks in Yangon, Myanmar’s economic capital, trying to scare off protestors. A few days earlier, the junta had freed more than 20,000 common-law prisoners, which reminded some Burmese of the August 1988 uprising when released criminals terrorised the public, providing the armed forces, the Tatmadaw, with a pretext for intervention.

23 women have died after intimate-partner violence since the 1970s in this rural Ontario community

Isolation, lack of transportation, poverty, lack of affordable housing and access to guns may all be at play

Julie Ireton · CBC News · Posted: Dec 08, 2021

As people gathered in Renfrew, Ont., for a Dec. 6 vigil commemorating 14 women killed at Montreal's École Polytechnique in 1989, another woman was on the minds of many: a local mother who was the recent victim of a violent death.

Candles flickered and roses wilted in the bitter cold as dozens of people gathered for the vigil about 100 kilometres from Ottawa.

"We felt if we were present here, that we could share resources if folks wanted to reach out," said JoAnne Brooks, co-ordinator for the Ending Violence Against Women Committee of Renfrew County.

Ethiopia’s Abiy announces return to Addis Ababa from war front

By AFP

08 December 2021 

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Wednesday that he was returning to Addis Ababa from the battlefront after pro-government forces claimed major advances in their fight against Tigrayan rebels.

The government on Monday said pro-Abiy forces had retaken the strategic towns of Dessie and Kombolcha, the latest turn in the 13-month-old war.

After the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group reported significant territorial gains as part of a march towards Addis Ababa, Abiy announced last month that he would head to the battlefront, handing over his regular duties to his deputy.