Tag: US

US will not resume Brazil beef imports until food safety addressed

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States will not resume imports of beef from Brazil until food safety issues have been addressed, US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday. Purdue met with his Brazilian counterpart, Blairo Maggi, to discuss the issue after Washington late last month halted all beef imports from the country following a rash of bad shipments discovered in US ports. “Though Brazil pressed for a timeline for restoration of beef imports… […]

Two Iranians charged in US over hacking defense materials

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two Iranians were indicted Monday in the United States with hacking a defense contractor and stealing sensitive software used to design bullets and warheads, according to the Justice Department. According to the newly unsealed indictment businessman Mohammed Saeed Ajily, 35, recruited Mohammed Reza Rezakhah, 39, to break into companies’ computers to steal their software for resale to Iranian universities, the military and the government. The two men — and a […]

VP Pence walks high wire over Trump scandals

by Michael Mathes Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON DC, United States (AFP) – Mike Pence is the loyal wingman, the ever-discreet figure who rises above the Washington fray. But as the Russia scandal encroaches ever further on Donald Trump’s White House, the vice president is also walking a political tightrope. The 58-year-old former governor of Indiana is currently the man closest to the United States presidency — either as Trump’s immediate successor should his term end prematurely, […]

Raul Castro warns of “a setback” in US-Cuba relations

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuban President Raul Castro on Friday said that Donald Trump’s hardline stance towards the country marks “a setback” in relations with the United States after ties were gradually restored in 2015. “The announcements made by the current president… mean a setback in bilateral relations,” Castro said in remarks, broadcast on state television, at the closing of the first session of Cuba’s Parliament. Castro criticized Trump’s partial rollback of his predecessor Barack […]

On your marks, get set… who goes? The NY baby race

by Catherine TRIOMPHE Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — It’s a race of laughter, false starts and wild bottle waving: New York’s Diaper Derby sees 30 infants battle it out for glory in a three-meter crawling contest. There is only one real rule: trying to stumble to your feet is not allowed. From the sidelines parents will on their progeny with bottles of milk, television remote controls or key jangling. There is […]

Microbes could have evolved to feed on plastic

HAWAII, United States (Reuters) — Surveys of ocean areas where floating plastic accumulates, such as the North Atlantic gyre, have found far less plastic than expected, perhaps less than a tenth as much. A mathematical formula developed by Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona researchers Blai Vidiella and Nuria Conde could not explain the trend, but the pair believes a population boom in microbes that evolved to biodegrade plastic is the explanation. Conde told Reuters: “What […]

Small improvements to eating habits may prolong life: study

MIAMI, United States (AFP) — It’s hard to eat right all the time, but making small improvements by choosing healthier foods now and then may significantly boost one’s chances of living longer, said a United States study Wednesday. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine is the first to show that improving diet quality over at least a dozen years is associated with lower total and cardiovascular mortality. Researchers at Harvard University tracked […]

Trump says he gets along ‘very, very well’ with Putin

WASHINGTON DC, United States (AFP) – United States President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that he has a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the two met for more than two hours in Hamburg last week. “People said, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t get along.’ Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well,” Trump told evangelical leader Pat Robertson on the Christian Broadcasting Network. […]

Opioid maker fined $35M over shipments that fed addiction crisis

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Drug manufacturer Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals was fined $35 million Tuesday for supplying and not reporting suspicious massive orders of its highly addictive oxycodone, helping to fuel the United States addiction crisis. The Justice Department said the company agreed to pay the amount to settle allegations that it did not meet obligations to report to the Drug Enforcement Administration suspect orders from pharmacies in Florida and elsewhere. Mallinckrodt, which manufactures drugs in […]

US would ‘welcome’ ailing Chinese dissident for medical treatment

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Washington on Tuesday invited cancer-stricken Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo to come to the United States for medical treatment, renewing its call for Beijing to free him. “We continue to call on the Chinese authorities for his full parole, and also for the release of his wife,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “We continue to call on China to release him so that he can receive medical treatment wherever […]

Warmer Arctic harms crops in US, Canada: study

by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Exceptionally warm years in the Arctic have provoked extra-cold winters and springs further to the south, decreasing crop yields across central Canada and the United States, researchers said Monday. “Our study demonstrates for the first time an apparent linkage between Arctic temperature variations and agricultural productivity in mid-latitudes,” they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience. Overall, global warming during the last half-century has boosted plant […]

Kuwait, US, Britain urge quick solution to Gulf crisis

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) – Kuwait, the United States and Britain Monday called on all sides in the Gulf crisis to resolve their dispute through dialogue and expressed “deep concern” over the continued rift. Their call was issued in a joint statement following talks between United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his Kuwaiti counterpart and Britain’s national security adviser at the start of a Gulf tour in a bid to defuse the crisis. The […]