Briefly

AUSTRALIA

New soldiers told to rebuild public trust

Australian Governor-General David Hurley has told new members of the military forces that it is their duty to rebuild public trust following the Afghan war crimes inquiry. Hurley, who served as chief of the Australian Defense Force, or ADF, between 2011 and 2014 and has been governor-general since 2019, told graduates of the ADF Academy on Sunday that they will need to "reassure and reaffirm" the relationship with the Australian public. Hurley's speech followed the findings of Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton's war crimes inquiry, which uncovered "credible evidence" that Australian soldiers committed 39 murders in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

INDIA

250 people stricken by mystery illness

More than 250 people, including women and children, have fallen ill in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh over the past few days, a local government official said on Sunday. The victims come from the town of Eluru in the state's West Godavari district. They have been admitted to various hospitals, and the cause of their condition is still being investigated. Initial evidence points to contaminated water, but this is yet to be confirmed by local authorities. The victims complained of headache, vomiting, giddiness and other epilepsy-like symptoms. Local media reports quoted doctors as saying that the patients were stable.

UNITED STATES

Launch sees two Dragons in orbit

SpaceX launched a newer, bigger version of its Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station on Sunday, marking the first time the company has two capsules in orbit at the same time. The Dragon－packed with Christmas treats and presents－was expected to reach the space station on Monday, joining the Dragon that delivered four astronauts last month. The 2,900-kilogram shipment includes billions of microbes and crushed asteroid samples for a bio-mining study, a new medical device to provide rapid blood test results for astronauts in space, and a privately owned and operated chamber to move experiments as big as refrigerators outside the orbiting lab.

GERMANY

WWII-era bomb defused in Frankfurt

Explosives experts defused and disposed of a 500-kilogram, war-era bomb on Sunday in the country's financial capital Frankfurt. The bomb was dropped during World War II and discovered during recent construction. About 13,000 residents were evacuated from the city's Gallus district and trains were stopped from running through the area as Hesse state experts went to work on the bomb. The bomb was found during construction on Thursday and experts had estimated they would need at least six hours to defuse it, but they were able to complete their work in under two hours, the dpa news agency reported.

Agencies - Xinhua