News in Short

• Robert Lewandowski was voted the best men’s player in the world, retaining the FIFA award he won last year.
• The Bayern Munich forward overturned the result last month of the Ballon d’Or prize where he placed second behind Lionel Messi, who finally led Argentina to a senior title at the 2021 Copa América.
• Lewandowski broke two Bundesliga records by scoring 41 goals for Bayern in its title-winning 2020-21 season and 43 in the calendar year of 2021.

• Noted ecologist M. K. Prasad, 89, passed away. Prasad, who had served as Pro-Vice Chancellor of Calicut University, was in the forefront of environment protection activities in the State.
• He had played a crucial role in creating public awareness across the State for protecting the verdant forests of the Silent Valley during the early 70s.
• Prasad was a guiding force behind the national movement against the state government’s move to set up a hydropower project in Silent Valley in Palakkad district in the 1970s.

• AlekosFassianos, one of the most important modern Greek painters, died after a long illness. He was 86.
• AlekosFassianos was born in Athens on Dec. 16, 1935. He studied violin at the Athens Conservatory and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1955 to 1960.
• He mostly drew inspiration from Greek popular art and Ancient Greek mythology. He was also inspired by Byzantine themes.

• Two earthquakes rattled Afghanistan’s western Badghis province along the border with Turkmenistan, killing at least 22 people.
• The remote villages struck by the temblors in what is one of Afghanistan’s most impoverished and underdeveloped regions.
• The more powerful of the temblors hit Qadis district in the southern tip of the province, where the majority of the damage and deaths occurred.

• Credit Suisse chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio has resigned following an internal investigation that reportedly turned up that he had violated quarantine rules intended to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The resignation is the latest upheaval at the top-drawer Swiss bank that has faced an array of recent troubles, including bad bets on hedge funds and an internal spying scandal.
• Axel Lehmann, a Swiss national and former executive at rival bank UBS who joined the Credit Suisse board in October, will take over as chairman.