Briefly

UNITED KINGDOM

'Just let people die,' pandemic inquiry hears

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quoted as saying the government should "just let people die" during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than impose a second national lockdown, the inquiry into how Britain handled the crisis heard on Monday. Patrick Vallance, who was the government's chief scientific adviser during COVID-19, made a note in his diary on Oct 25, 2020, about a meeting involving then prime minister Boris Johnson and Sunak, who was finance minister. The diary entry shown to the inquiry recorded how Dominic Cummings, Johnson's most senior adviser during the pandemic, had relayed to Vallance what he said he had heard at the meeting.

ITALY

Over 200 mobsters given prison terms

An Italian tribunal on Monday convicted 207 people and sentenced them to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in Italy's 'Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, one of the world's most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug trafficking groups. It took over an hour and 40 minutes to read aloud the court's lengthy verdict. The drama unfolded in a bunker-stye courtroom in the southern Calabria region, where the mob organization was originally based. The 'Ndrangheta has quietly amassed power in Italy and abroad and holds almost a monopoly on cocaine importation in Europe.

Agencies Via Xinhua