UNITED STATES
Alzheimer’s drug to be tested
A Chinese drugmaker has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to start clinical trials in the country for a breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug as it seeks global validation for the controversial therapy. Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical got clearance on April 8 for the US part of a global trial that seeks to enroll more than 2,000 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s across North America, Europe and Asia, the company said yesterday. The drug aims to readjust the microbiome in the gut, which Green Valley has said ultimately leads to reduced neuron inflammation in the brain, thus slowing the progression of the disease.
MEXICO
Human rights monitor killed
A human rights monitor and his son were shot to death in the southern Guerrero State, the fourth slaying of a rights advocate in the country this year, authorities said on Saturday. Jesus Memije, who worked for the state’s Human Rights Commission, and his son were on their way to their home in the municipality of Coyoca de Benitez on the Pacific coast when they were killed on Friday, the commission said. State prosecutors did not provide details of the killing, but the commission urged investigators to focus on his work as a rights defender as a possible motive.
NEPAL
Two missing bodies found
Two bodies believed to be of South Koreans missing after being hit by a Himalayan avalanche in January have been found, officials said yesterday, a day after discovering the corpse of their local guide. A wall of snow hit a trekking trail at about 3,230m near the Annapurna base camp on Jan. 17, burying four South Koreans and three locals. Avalanches and more snowfall since then had made it too dangerous to launch a proper hunt. Police returned to the area on Friday after thawing snow revealed a bag. “A team of rescuers in an army helicopter is trying to bring two more bodies from the avalanche site, which we found on Saturday,” Kaski District Police Chief Dan Bahadur Karki told reporters.
SWEDEN
Author dies aged 85
Per Olov Enquist, one of the country’s most acclaimed authors has died aged 85, his family told local media yesterday. The patriarch of 20th century Scandinavian literature, Enquist is known for powerful stories that weave his own melancholic life into the dark side of history. In his novels, plays and essays, he drew heavily on his own experience as an oppressed child in a strictly religious home, an athlete, a journalist and a destructive alcoholic. He won the 2001 August Prize, the country’s literature’s top honor, for The Visit of the Royal Physician, which earned him broad international fame and tells the story of a romance between the physician of the mad Danish King Christian VII and the queen.
YEMEN
Separatists break deal
The country’s southern separatists yesterday broke a peace deal with the country’s internationally recognized government and claimed sole control of the regional capital of Aden, threatening to resume fighting between the two ostensible allies. In a statement, the separatists’ Southern Transitional Council, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, declared a state of emergency and said it would “self-govern” the key port city and other provinces.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
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