Chicago, United States | AFP | The Chicago Sun-Times, the city’s oldest continuously published daily and winner of eight Pulitzer prizes, has been sold to an investor group, reportedly for $1. The newspaper, which traces its history to 1844, reported Thursday it was purchased by an investment group led by …
Read More »US charges 412 including doctors, nurses, for health fraud and opioid scams
Washington, United States | AFP | US authorities announced charges Thursday against more than 400 people, many of them doctors and nurses, over health care scams worth $1.3 billion including the wrongful prescription and distribution of opioids. The Justice Department called it the largest ever enforcement action of its kind …
Read More »China’s Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo dies in custody
Shenyang, China | AFP | China’s Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo died Thursday after a battle with cancer, remaining in custody until the end as officials ignored international pleas to let him spend his final days free and abroad. The prominent democracy advocate died aged 61, more than a month after …
Read More »Australia cautiously enters medical marijuana market
Melbourne, Australia | AFP | At a secret location in Australia’s southeast, Peter Crook delicately tends to a two-month-old cannabis cutting. Barely knee high, it is one of about 50 government-sanctioned “mother plants” to be cloned for future generations of crops for the country’s fledgling medicinal marijuana industry. “I think we’ll …
Read More »Arab states say Qatar-US terror accord ‘insufficient’
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP |An agreement between Qatar and the United States on combating terror funding is “insufficient”, the four Arab states that imposed sanctions on the emirate said in a joint statement Tuesday. The memorandum of understanding announced in Doha during a visit by US Secretary of State …
Read More »One step closer to a gonorrhoea vaccine?
One step closer to a gonorrhoea vaccine? Paris, France | AFP | A discontinued vaccine against a bacteria that causes brain inflammation also shielded people against gonorrhoea, the first drug ever to offer such protection against the sexually transmitted disease, researchers said Tuesday. Using a condom or abstaining from sex …
Read More »MtGox CEO says ‘not guilty’ at missing Bitcoin trial in Japan
Tokyo, Japan | AFP |Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of collapsed Bitcoin exchange MtGox, denied wrongdoing Tuesday as his trial got under way in Tokyo on charges linked to the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency. The French national — once the high-flying head …
Read More »Trump to lawmakers: get health care reform done by August
Washington, United States | AFP |President Donald Trump heaped pressure on US lawmakers Monday to pass a health care reform bill before Congress goes on its August recess, with Republicans teetering on the edge of a potentially major failure. As Senators returned for work in Washington after a week off, …
Read More »Turkey marks failed coup that changed country
Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkey marks one year on July 15 since a coup attempt aiming to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that failed within hours but etched far-reaching consequences into its society and politics. The country is in the throes of the biggest purge in its history against …
Read More »Cardinal Pell back in Australia to face abuse charges
Embed from Getty Images Sydney, Australia | AFP | Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell arrived back in Australia on Monday ahead of a court appearance later this month over historical sex abuse charges. The 76-year-old, a top advisor to Pope Francis, touched down in Sydney and was met …
Read More »