Deaths would bring the total to 220 since 1 February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar security forces opened fire on demonstrators against a military coup in the central town of Aungban on Friday, killing eight people, according to a local news outlet.
Seven people were killed in the town and one wounded person died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Kalaw, the Myanmar Now news portal said, citing Aungban’s funerary service.
Continue reading...More than 350 clinicians report suspicions of Covid-induced diabetes, both type 1 and type 2
A cohort of scientists from across the world believe that there is a growing body of evidence that Covid-19 can cause diabetes in some patients.
Prof Francesco Rubino, from King’s College London, is leading the call for a full investigation into a possible link between the two diseases. Having seen a rise in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in people who have caught coronavirus, some doctors are even considering the possibility that the virus ‒ by disrupting sugar metabolism ‒ could be inducing an entirely new form of diabetes.
Continue reading...Number of people diagnosed and treated in worst-affected countries has fallen to 2008 levels as resources diverted
Twelve months of Covid-19 has reversed 12 years of global progress against tuberculosis, worse than previously estimated.
The pandemic has resulted in nearly a 25% decrease in diagnosis and treatment around the world, according to research published on Thursday by a coalition working to end TB.
Continue reading...President Paul Kagame – long feted by leaders in the west – is accused of serial human rights abuses in expansive new book
A devastating new book will accuse Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame – long feted by his prominent international supporters as the model of visionary new African leadership – of being a serial human rights abuser, including for his role in a sustained campaign of assassinating his rivals in exile.
Written by Michela Wrong, the author who covered the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when more than 800,000 people – largely ethnic Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus – were killed by Hutu militias over 100 days, Do Not Disturb represents one of the most far-reaching historical revisions of Kagame and his regime.
Continue reading...Attacks on police have become routine as the country fights drug cartels and organised crime
Thirteen Mexican police officers and investigators have been killed in an ambush as they travelled through a rural region – marking the latest attack on law enforcement by brazen criminal groups.
Eight state police officers and five members of the state’s investigative police force died in the ambush in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas, 125km (78 miles) south-west of Mexico City in Mexico state on Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken criticises China over Hong Kong and Xinjiang while his counterpart says US can no longer ‘speak to China from a position of strength’
The United States and China have publicly clashed during their first face-to-face high-level talks since Joe Biden took office, with one senior Chinese official urging the US to address “deep-seated” issues such as racism, and accusing his American counterparts of “condescension”.
Any hopes that the meeting, in Anchorage, would reset bilateral ties after years of tensions over trade, human rights and cybersecurity during Donald Trump’s presidency evaporated when the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, opened their meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and the state councillor Wang Yi.
Continue reading...Academy Awards producers have insisted video-link will ‘not be an option’ for attendees in the wake of ratings slumps for other recent major awards shows
The Oscars ceremony in April will be an intimate, in-person gathering, held without Zoom and limited to nominees, presenters and their guests, the producers said on Thursday.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, events to hand out the highest honours in the film industry will held at both the Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and the traditional home of the Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
Continue reading...Russian president Vladimir Putin shrugged off accusations from Joe Biden that he was a 'killer', saying: 'It takes one to know one.' Putin then said he wished Biden health 'without any irony or joke'. Biden made his comment after an assessment by US intelligence agencies that Moscow was continuing to meddle in American democracy and had tried to help Donald Trump win last year’s US election.
Continue reading...Joe Biden said the US will have successfully administered 100m vaccine doses by 19 March – his 58th day in office. ‘That’s weeks ahead of schedule, and even with the setbacks we faced during the winter storms,’ he said. Upon taking office, Biden set his administration the target of reaching the number in his first 100 days.
Continue reading...Dan Hanks claims he compiled 90-page report about actor early in her relationship with Prince Harry
A private investigator employed by the Sun has said he illegally accessed the Duchess of Sussex’s private information shortly after she met Prince Harry.
Dan Hanks, who lives in Los Angeles, told the website Byline Investigates that he compiled a 90-page report on the future member of the royal family in October 2016, shortly after the tabloid newspaper first became aware of her relationship with the prince.
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Illinois and Maryland recently announced that within the next two months, all adults will be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, joining at least seven other states who said they can open up eligibility in March and April.
Illinois governor JB Pritzker said today that all residents 16 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine starting 12 April. Meanwhile, Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, said on Tuesday that all adults should be eligible by 27 April.
The Senate just confirmed William Burns to be director of the CIA. Burns is the former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and has held multiple roles within the State Department.
While Burns’ nomination received widespread support from Democrats and Republicans, senator Ted Cruz had temporarily blocked what would have been a quick confirmation as Cruz was hoping to send a message to Biden over the Russia-Germany natural gas Nord Stream 2 pipelines, a controversial energy project that critics fear will give more political power to Russia.
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The Georgia sheriff’s captain who said Robert Aaron Long was “having a really bad day” when he allegedly killed eight people has been removed as a spokesperson on the case, according to the WSB-TV news channel.
Nicole Carr, a journalist at WSB-TV, reported that Capt Jay Baker “will no longer be spokesperson” on the shootings case. According to Carr, the Cherokee County Sheriff department is also “evaluating what [Baker’s] future at the Sheriff’s Office looks like”.
NEW:Confirmed w Cherokee Sheriff that Cpt.Baker will no longer be spokesperson on spa shootings case,they’re evaluating what his future at the Sheriff’s Office looks like and consulting the D.A.’s office to see if they should hand their portion of case to GBI See you at 6 @wsbtv https://t.co/cI1sQHcrRV
Charles Hampton, deputy chief of Atlanta police, said officers are “working diligently to ascertain all the facts” in the spa shootings.
“We had four Asian females that were killed, and so we are looking at everything to make sure we discover and determine what the motive of our homicides were,” Hampton said during a press conference.
Continue reading...EMA says benefits outweigh risks but it is continuing to study possible link with very rare blood clotting disorder
Italy, France and several other countries will resume administering AstraZeneca jabs from Friday after Europe’s medicines regulator said the vaccine was “safe and effective” and its benefits outweighed its risks.
Germany and Portugal will resume on Monday, Spain and the Netherlands next week, while Sweden’s public health agency said it would take “a few days” to decide.
Continue reading...Officials in Moscow go on offensive after Biden says Russian president will pay price for election meddling
Russian relations with the US have entered a new post-Trump period of smouldering hostility after Vladimir Putin shrugged off accusations from Joe Biden that he was a “killer”, saying: “It takes one to know one.”
The Russian president responded in characteristically icy fashion to Biden’s remark, which followed an assessment by US intelligence agencies that Moscow was continuing to meddle in American democracy and had tried to help Donald Trump win last year’s US election.
Continue reading...Manizha’s song Russian Woman incites hatred towards men and should be banned from the contest, say critics
Russian investigators said they will examine the lyrics of the country’s entry to this year’s Eurovision song contest after it angered conservative groups who accused its Tajikistan-born singer of inciting hatred towards men.
Manizha Sangin, known as Manizha, is set to perform the song Russian Woman at Eurovision in the Netherlands in May. The song praises the strength of Russian women, urging them to be more independent and to resist sexist views on beauty, age and bearing children.
Continue reading...The value of British cultural capital in China makes the souring of relations all the more painful
When it is fully open later this year, the Londoner Macao hotel will be a kitsch recreation of tourist Britain, with a facade modelled on the Houses of Parliament, actors in bearskin hats performing the changing of the guard, and an English fried breakfast served at a restaurant called Churchill’s Table.
The new casino resort in China is one of the more tacky examples of the country’s fondness for British culture. Alongside the US and the Gulf, China is a crucial overseas market for English Premier League football broadcast rights. Britain’s heritage attractions, private schools and designer brands are immensely popular with China’s elite. The UK is also a favoured destination for higher education: numbers of Chinese students at UK universities soared by 56% from 2015 to 2019.
Continue reading...Democrat Holly McCormack is ready to take on the Trump devotee in 2022 – but it’s no easy task in a deep-red Georgia district
“I’m taking on the queen of Qanon: Marjorie Taylor Greene,” reads one tweet from Holly McCormack. “Retweet if you think Marjorie Taylor Greene is an embarrassment to our country,” says another.
America’s midterm elections may be 20 months in the future, but a campaign is already under way to unseat the extremist Republican congresswoman and Donald Trump devotee. In a rural district of Georgia that Taylor Greene won last November with three-quarters of the vote, effectively unopposed after her Democratic opponent quit the race, no one thinks it is going to be easy.
Continue reading...Biden administration has come under pressure to share vaccine, which has been authorized in other countries but not yet in US
The United States plans to send roughly 4m doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries.
Mexico will receive 2.5m doses of the vaccine and Canada will receive 1.5m doses, the official said.
Continue reading...Life-saving techniques fall out of favour on maternity wards in developing countries over Covid fears
Small and sick babies are at increased risk of dying due to disruptions in care caused by coronavirus, a survey of health workers across 62 mainly developing countries has found.
Every year, 2.5 million babies die within 28 days of birth, and more than 80% of them have low birth weight. A technique for premature and small babies known as kangaroo mother care (KMC), involving early prolonged skin-to-skin contact with their mothers and breastfeeding, can help reduce mortality.
Continue reading...Health authority in Lombardy withdraws questionnaire for patients after sexism complaints
A health authority in Italy’s Lombardy region has come under fire after distributing a questionnaire to recovering Covid-19 patients that included questions about cooking and housekeeping aimed solely at women.
The questionnaire, issued by the ASST Rhodense health authority in Milan and intended to capture the lingering symptoms of coronavirus, was being given to patients invited back to hospitals for check-ups.
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