SEOUL (Dispatches) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chastised top governing party officials for failures in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic that led to an unspecified “grave incident” and put the safety of the country and people at risk, state media reported on Wednesday. The report by state news agency KCNA did not elaborate on what happened, or how it put people at risk, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. “By neglecting important decisions of the party in its national emergency antivirus fight in preparations for a global health crisis, officials in charge have caused a grave incident that poses a huge crisis to the safety of the nation and its people,” Kim was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

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THE HAGUE (Dispatches) - A United Nations court on Wednesday convicted two former allies of late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic of war crimes for their role in financing and equipping Serb militias during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Judges in The Hague handed the former head of Serbia’s state security service, Jovica Stanisic, and his subordinate Franko “Frenki” Simatovic 12 year sentences for aiding and abetting crimes committed in a Bosnian town in 1992.

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OTTWA (Dispatches) - Canada’s coronavirus death toll may be twice that of the official government tally, the Royal Society of Canada has reported. To date, Canadian health officials have reported over 26,000 coronavirus-related deaths, although that number may be far higher, according to officials, RIA Novosti reported. “Between February 1 and November 28, 2020, our study finds that the COVID-19 deaths of approximately 6,000 people aged 45 and older living in communities across Canada appear to have gone undetected, unreported or unattributed to COVID-19. This suggests that if Canada has continued to miss these fatalities at the same rate since last November, the pandemic mortality burden may be two times higher than reported,” according to the report.

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YANGON (Al- Jazeera) - Myanmar’s military authorities plan to release about 2,000 people from jails across the country, according to reports on Wednesday, as state television said the generals were dropping charges against actors and other celebrities who took part in the anti-coup protests. At least 700 of the prisoners will be released from Yangon’s Insein jail, prison chief Zaw Zaw told the Reuters news agency. The prison chief, however, declined to specify who would be released from the country’s vast prison complex where some of those who have taken part in the mass demonstrations have been taken.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of people losing their lives over gunshots, whether suicide or homicide, is reportedly rising in the U.S. state of Iowa. A record 353 Iowa residents have suffered died from gunshot wounds this, including 263 suicides and 85 homicides. Iowa’s previous high in 2019 was 287, which shows a 23% rise in the figure. Earlier this year, Iowa joined several other Republican states to pass laws allowing carry of guns with no permit. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill in April, which is set to go into effect Thursday.