QUICK READ
A BOMB targeting a military bus in Damascus killed at least 14 people yesterday, while witnesses said Syrian military shelling in the rebel-held northwest killed 11 civilians. There was no immediate claim for the bombing but moments later, shelling by government forces killed eight people in the Idlib region controlled by groups that have claimed such attack in the past. The violence appeared to mark one of the bloodiest days in months in Syria, where a decade of conflict has fractured the country. The bomb exploded as the bus was crossing a bridge. | Reuters
THE death toll from days of flooding and landslides in India and Nepal crossed 100 yesterday, including several families swept away or crushed in their homes by avalanches of mud and rocks. In Uttarakhand in northern India, officials said 46 people had died with 11 missing. At least 30 were killed in seven separate incidents in Uttarakhand’s Nainital region after cloudbursts triggered landslides. The floods almost swept away an elephant near the Corbett Tiger Reserve. In Nepal, 31 were reported dead after days of heavy rains. In Dhankuta, a landslide buried a house overnight, killing six people. | AFP
RUSSIA reported yesterday a record
1 028 Covid-19 deaths in a single day, with President Vladimir Putin expected to introduce new nationwide restrictions in Europe’s worst affected country. The new figures bring Russia’s official death toll to 226 353 – the highest on the continent even as authorities have been accused of downplaying the severity of Covid-19. The country also recorded 34 074 new virus cases. Infection rates have soared, with only 35% of the country fully innoculated. Putin could announce a national weeklong holiday at the end of the month to curb the spread of the virus. | AFP
Breakthrough
FOR the first time, a pig kidney has been transplanted into a human without triggering immediate rejection by the recipient’s immune system, a potentially major advance that could eventually help alleviate a dire shortage of human organs for transplant. The procedure done at NYU Langone Health in New York City involved use of a pig whose genes had been altered so that its tissues no longer contained a molecule known to trigger immediate rejection. The recipient was a brain-dead patient with signs of kidney dysfunction whose family consented to the experiment before she was due to be taken off of life support. | Reuters