Saturday, March 12, 2022

Six In The Morning Saturday 12 March 2022

 

Ukraine war: Evacuations 'extremely difficult' amid shelling

Fresh attempts to evacuate civilians from cities under siege in Ukraine are being complicated by constant Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials say.

Humanitarian corridors are being set up from Mariupol, Sumy and towns and villages outside the capital Kyiv.

The situation in Mariupol is particularly desperate after two weeks of bombardment, the UN says, with little access to food, water and power.


Saudi Arabia executes 81 men in 24 hours



Officials say those executed were convicted of charges including terrorism and holding ‘deviant beliefs’

Reuters

Saudi Arabia has executed 81 men over the past 24 hours, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, on charges including terrorism and holding “deviant beliefs“, state news agency SPA said on Saturday.

The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported in the kingdom in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020.

“These individuals … were convicted of various crimes including murdering innocent men, women and children,” SPA said, citing a statement from the interior ministry.


Moldova: A fractured, fragile former Soviet republic struggling to avoid being sucked into Putin’s Ukraine war

The divided country could be the next state most at risk from Russia’s invasion


Borzou Daragahi

in Moldova and Transnistria

Along the bridge, the Russian soldier gripped his assault rifle tightly and aimed when a passing vehicle did not stop fast enough to his liking. Since Russia’s war against Ukraine, next door there have been rare outbreaks of political unrest in Transnistria, the Kremlin-controlled breakaway region of Moldova

One woman  said pro-Ukrainian “saboteurs” had attempted to stage an anti-Russian protest that was quickly suppressed, followed by a larger pro-Russian demonstration. Then came a public plea from nervous authorities: no more political displays.

More African migrants eye the Canary Islands

Thousands of migrants from West Africa are taking the risky journey to Europe via the Spanish Canary Islands. As a result, aid organizations have said that 2021 saw more fatalities in the Atlantic than ever before.

Madala Tounkara, of Mali, was still a minor when he boarded a small wooden fishing boat seven years ago and set off on a perilous sea voyage from the coast of Mauritania in West Africa.

Like many African migrants, his longed-for destination was the Canary Islands — a Spanish archipelago off Africa's northwest coast.

To reach Gran Canaria, the boat carrying Tounkara had to contend with the raging waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

High court awards damages over forced sterilization in 2nd case


A Japanese court ordered the central government Friday to compensate a man over his forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, the second such ruling among similar suits filed nationwide, potentially affecting the outcome of future cases.

Overturning a lower court decision, the Tokyo High Court found the 1948 law unconstitutional and awarded 15 million yen ($128,000) in damages to the 78-year-old plaintiff, who uses the pseudonym Saburo Kita. The Tokyo resident had demanded 30 million yen.

Kita had been sterilized without informed consent in 1957 when he was around 14 years old and placed in a child welfare facility for alleged delinquencies in the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi. He sued the government in May 2018 at the Tokyo District Court.

War has brought the world to the brink of a food crisis

Updated 0832 GMT (1632 HKT) March 12, 2022


Svein Tore Holsether says the world is careening toward a food crisis that could affect millions of people.

Record high natural gas prices have forced the company he runs, fertilizer producer Yara International, to curtail its production of ammonia and urea in Europe to 45% of capacity. With less of those two essential agricultural ingredients, he expects knock-on effects for global food supplies.
"It's not whether we are going to have a food crisis. It's how large that crisis will be," Holsether told CNN Business.




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