UNITED STATES
FDA approves saliva test
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday granted emergency use authorization to the Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test to detect COVID-19, after a trial on NBA players and staff. SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test approved by the agency for the disease, requires no swab or collection device and uses spit from people suspected of having the coronavirus, it said. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn called the test “groundbreaking” in its efficiency and in being unaffected by crucial component shortages. SalivaDirect is seen as a cheap, simpler and less invasive testing method that requires no extraction of nucleic acid and can use several readily available reagents.
CANADA
Government accounts hacked
Tens of thousands of user accounts for online government services were recently hacked during cyberattacks, authorities said on Saturday. The attacks targeted the GCKey service, used by about 30 federal departments and Canada Revenue Agency accounts, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat said in a news release. The passwords and user names of 9,041 GCKey account holders “were acquired fraudulently and used to try and access government services,” the authorities said. All affected accounts have been canceled. About 5,500 Canada Revenue Agency accounts were targeted in this and another attack, the authorities said.
AUSTRALIA
Man punches shark
A man has been hailed a “hero” after repeatedly punching a shark until it released his wife’s leg. The couple were surfing at a beach near Port Macquarie, about 310km north of Sydney, on Saturday morning when she was bitten twice and injured on her right leg, police said in a statement. “Her companion was forced to punch the fish until it let go,” police said. Paramedics treated the 35-year-old at the beach before she was airlifted to a hospital for surgery. One witness who was surfing nearby when the attack occurred called the man a “hero” for taking on what appeared to be a great white shark up to 3m long. “He started laying into the shark because it wouldn’t let go,” Jed Toohey told the Daily Telegraph.
MEXICO
Drug lord’s son killed
Prosecutors in the country’s north on Friday said that gunmen have killed a son of legendary drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes. The father, better known by his nickname, “The Lord of the Skies,” for his habit of transporting shipments of drugs on jet airliners, died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997. Prosecutors in Sinaloa State said that his son, Julio Cesar Carrillo, was found shot to death at a house in the city of Novolato. The killing apparently happened on Thursday, they said.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s brother dies
President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert, died on Saturday after being hospitalized for an undisclosed illness, the president said in a statement mourning his loss. “It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Trump said in a White House statement. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
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
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
RSS