UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The head of the UN body investigating the most serious crimes in Myanmar said that preliminary evidence collected since the military seized power on Feb. 1 shows a widespread and systematic attack on civilians “amounting to crimes against humanity.” Nicholas Koumjian told UN reporters Friday that the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which he heads, has received over 200,000 communications since the army takeover and has collected over 1.5 million data-x-items of evidence that are being analyzed “so that one day those most responsible for the serious international crimes in Myanmar will be brought to account.” In determining that the crimes against civilians appear to be widespread and systematic, he said investigators saw patterns of violence -- a measured response by security forces to demonstrations in the first six weeks or so after the military takeover followed by “an uptick in violence and much more violent methods used to suppress the demonstrators.” “This was happening in different places at the same time, indicating to us it would be logical to conclude this was from a central policy,” Koumjian said. “And, also, we saw that particular groups were targeted, especially for arrests and detentions that appear to be without due process of law. And this includes, of course, journalists, medical workers and political opponents.”

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – People of color have seen a dramatic jump in gun ownership, with many being first-time gun owners, according to a recently published report. From 2019 to 2020 Black Americans saw a 58.2% jump in gun purchases while Latino and Asian-Americans saw a 49% and 43% spike respectively, the National Shooting Sports Foundation told ABC News. It estimated that about 40% of the sales were to first-time gun buyers. Several factors have fed in to the increase, including safety and campaigns from pro-gun groups, ABC News reported. The increase comes as the FBI reported that 2020 saw the highest level of hate crimes in a decade with by far the largest share of all attacks -- 62% -- being motivated by the victims’ race or ethnicity. Hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans saw an alarming 77% increase amid a spike in anti-Asian sentiment fueled by fearmongering over the coronavirus pandemic. Hate crimes targeting Black Americans jumped by 48% from 2019 to 2020. Latinos saw a modest decrease in official statistics, but both 2019 and 2020 saw over 510 attacks targeting the ethnic group. The actual number of hate crimes is likely higher than the FBI’s official records, which only count those submitted to the bureau by local law enforcement agencies.

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BERLIN (AFP) – Several people were wounded on Saturday in a knife attack on a high-speed train in southern Germany, local police said, adding the alleged perpetrator had been arrested. The motive for the attack on the passenger train, making its way from the Bavarian city of Regensburg to Hamburg, was not yet clear.
“According to preliminary information, several people were injured,” police in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz said in a statement, saying there was “no more danger”. The Bild newspaper said at least three people had been hurt, two of them seriously. A police spokeswoman said none of them had suffered life-threatening injuries. A man has been arrested, police said, without giving any more details.

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NEW DELHI (AP) – Ten patients died Saturday after a fire broke out in a hospital’s COVID-19 ward in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, officials said. An official told New Delhi Television that around 17 patients were in the ward when the fire broke out. The remaining patients have been moved to a COVID-19 ward in another hospital, district collector Rajendra Bhosle said. While the fire has since been brought under control, the cause was not immediately clear, he added, saying officials will carry out an investigation. The former chief minister of the state, Devendra Fadnavis, took to Twitter to express his condolences and called for “strict action” against those responsible. Such incidents are not uncommon in India. In May, when the country was battling a devastating surge in coronavirus cases, a fire in a COVID-19 ward in western India killed at least 18 patients. Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment often cause deaths in India.

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NIAMEY (Al Jazeera) – Unidentified gunmen have killed 11 soldiers defending a village in a remote part of southwest Niger where armed group fighters operate, the defense ministry said. The heavily armed attackers approached in a convoy of cars and motorbikes, clashing with soldiers stationed outside the village of Dagne near the border with Mali, the ministry said in a statement. The attack by “a column of heavily armed terrorists in several vehicles and dozens of motorcycles” killed 11 soldiers, and left one injured and nine missing, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence read out on public television. “After fierce fighting, the enemy column was forced to retreat with its dead and wounded,” added the statement, which said “air and ground reinforcements dispatched to the area continue to sweep” the locality. No group has claimed responsibility for the assault. A local affiliate of Daesh has killed hundreds of civilians in a series of attacks in the same area this year despite government efforts to regain control.

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MOSCOW (Anadolu) – Russia on Saturday registered a new record number of coronavirus cases with 41,335 people testing positive over the past day, raising the country’s tally to 8.75 million and active cases to 975,123. Over the same period, 29,201 people recovered, bringing the overall count to 7.53 million, while 1,188 died, pushing the death toll to 245,635, Russia’s coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report. Authorities blame the low level of vaccination for the spike in cases. Currently, the vaccination rate stands at 33.58% despite the wide availability of doses. On Oct. 28, Russia launched a national 10-day non-working period, aiming to stem the virus spread. Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 5.04 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 249.2 million cases reported worldwide, according to the U.S. Johns Hopkins University.