January 6, Friday, 2023 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

1.Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to observe a ceasefire starting Friday to mark Orthodox Christmas. He said soldiers “along the entire line of contact” with Ukraine will hold their fire for 36 hours. He called on Ukrainian forces to follow suit. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the idea.
2.Firefighters in Tokyo have held their annual New Year’s drill. They conducted the drill to prepare for a possible major quake, as this year marks the centennial of the magnitude-7.9 Great Kanto Earthquake.
3.A government survey shows that 27.9 percent of Japanese companies allow their employees to stay on the job until age 70. The figure is up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier. A law that took effect in April 2021 requires companies to do what they can to keep their employees on the payroll until age 70 if they wish to continue working, as Japan’s population is rapidly aging.