TURKEY
COVID-19 patients die in fire
Eight people were yesterday killed in a fire at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients in the country south, state-run media reported. The Anadolu news agency said the fire started when an oxygen cylinder exploded at the privately run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep. The agency cited a hospital statement identifying the victims as being aged between 56 and 85. The fire was quickly brought under control. The statement said 14 patients undergoing intensive care treatment were transferred to other hospitals.
UNITED STATES
Sewage plant winery busted
Sheriff’s officials in a small town in Alabama said they have busted an illegal winery that was operating at a municipal sewage plant. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it received an anonymous tip about an alcohol operation at a municipal building in the town of Rainsville on Thursday. Investigators then uncovered what was described as a large illegal winery inside the Rainsville Waste Water Treatment Plant. Photographs released by investigators showed glass containers, buckets, a fermenting rack and other equipment often used by people who make wine at home. The agency said officers seized “a lot of” illegal alcohol and arrested Allen Maurice Stiefel, 62, of Fyffe.
CHILE
President Pinera fined
President Sebastian Pinera was on Friday slapped with a US$3,500 fine after posing for a selfie on the beach with a bystander without wearing a mask as required during the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities said. The country has strict rules on mask wearing in all public places and violations are punishable with sanctions that include fines and even jail terms.
MEXICO
Former governor shot
A former governor of Jalisco State was shot to death early on Friday at a restaurant in the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta. State prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solis said that Aristoteles Sandoval was killed in an attack that targeted only him at about 1:40am. Jalisco is home to the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the attack bore the hallmarks of a gang killing. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed condolences and said the killing would be investigated “to find out the cause, the motive” behind the attack. The killer waited until Sandoval got up from a table he was sharing with three other people, before shooting him several times in the back. Solis said that although only one gunman fired at Sandoval, he might have been accompanied by as many as seven to nine accomplices who waited outside.
UNITED KINGDOM
Lawmakers issue warning
The country has not yet installed all the complex IT systems and port infrastructure needed to ensure Brexit runs smoothly, a group of lawmakers said in a report released yesterday. The Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union, a cross-party group of lawmakers, released the report after meeting on Thursday online. The group said it was “concerned about the overall state of readiness” and warned that “some decisions on infrastructure have been taken too late.” The “early months ... are likely to be difficult,” the report said, echoing comments by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said that the switch to new rules “might be difficult at first.”
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
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