NEW YORK (Dispatches) - Myanmar’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Kyaw Moe Tun, who has refused to leave his post despite being fired after a coup in February, revealed a purported massacre by the military regime. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the ambassador said that 40 bodies had been discovered in different villages in the Sagaing area of Northwestern Myanmar with signs of torture by junta soldiers. The junta has denied the allegation, and it has not been possible to independently verify the claim because communication networks have been cut in the Sagaing region.

***
BERLIN (Dispatches) - German prosecutors said on Friday that they had launched an investigation against the head of the Ahrweiler district in Western Germany over the deadly floods that devastated the region in mid-July. The prosecutors said that they had “affirmed the initial suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm” and were instigating a probe against Jürgen Pföhler, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). They said another member of the crisis team in Ahrweiler was also under investigation, DPA reported. The prosecutors said there were indications that residents in the hard-hit Ahr Valley who had not yet been affected by the flooding did not receive a warning early enough or clearly enough. Authorities also failed to take the residents to safety, the prosecutors said.

***
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) - The Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the practices of the Phoenix Police Department, including the use of deadly force by its officers, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday. The probe of Arizona’s capital city and its police department, Garland said, will also look at whether cops there violate the Constitution by engaging in discriminatory policing practices or retaliating against people for actions protected by the First Amendment, such as protesting, CNBC reported. The Justice Department also wants to determine how Phoenix police respond to people who are homeless or have disabilities, Garland said.

***
N’DJAMENA (Dispatches) - At least 26 Chadian soldiers were killed in the early hours of Thursday by Daesh-linked Boko Haram terrorists following an attack on their patrol around the Lake Chad area, army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa said. A further 14 soldiers were wounded in the encounter, which ended with the army repulsing the attackers, Bermandoa said. Chad is a key contributor to a multinational force in the Lake Chad basin fighting jihadist insurgency Boko Haram, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009. It has since killed more than 30,000 people and forced about 2 million to flee their homes.

***
LONDON (Dispatches) - A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ruled that President Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for making unproven claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system is riddled with fraud, adding the far-right leader to an ongoing probe on the spread of fake news by his government. The ruling by Justice Alexandre de Moraes came after Bolsonaro stepped up his longtime attacks on Brazil’s voting system, claiming without evidence that it is marred by widespread fraud, Al-Jazeera reported.