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☆ He Tried to Save a Friend. They Charged Him With Murder.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-25 | by ( Eli Saslow | Erin Schaff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Instead, they arrested and charged only one person, Askins, who had a criminal record of nonviolent drug offenses. His file showed that he had depression, anxiety and PTSD from being raped by a neighbor when he was 9. Mai left private practice and took a 40 percent pay cut to become a public defender in his home state because he wanted to work cases like this. He had imagined himself fighting for the underdog, standing and delivering in front of a jury like his idol, Clarence Darrow, whose trial victories helped advance the civil rights movement. In his almost two years as a public defender, he had never once taken a case to trial.

Persons: Greg Abbott, “, Marco Rubio, Mai, Suge ”, Drake, Askins, he’d, Clarence Darrow Organizations: Gov, Prosecutors, Republican, Oklahoma City Locations: Oklahoma, Texas, ”, Arkansas, Alaska , California, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, dumpsters

[1/5] An eight-year-old male African lion rests on the plains of Kafue National Park, Zambia, September 19, 2020. In the recent assessment, scientists found that more lion cubs were born into Kafue prides from 2018 to 2021. A half-century of intensive poaching has decimated wildlife populations in Africa's third-largest national park, as it has across much of the continent, with Kafue's free-roaming big cats among the victims. Bushmeat poachers have targeted the lions' grass-eating prey, leaving too little behind for the park's 200 or more of these hungry carnivores. "African white-backed vultures will come in really large numbers," said Corinne Kendall, curator of conservation and research at North Carolina Zoo which is leading the program.

Persons: Sebastian Kennerknecht, Kim Young, Overton, Panthera's, Andrew Loveridge, Corinne Kendall, It's, it's, Kendall, Gloria Dickie, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Reuters, Leopards, Africa Parks, Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife, North Carolina Zoo, Thomson Locations: Park, Zambia, Handout, Kafue, Africa, West Africa, London

In the recent assessment, scientists found that more lion cubs were born into Kafue prides from 2018 to 2021. A half-century of intensive poaching has decimated wildlife populations in Africa's third-largest national park, as it has across much of the continent, with Kafue's free-roaming big cats among the victims. [1/5] An eight-year-old male African lion rests on the plains of Kafue National Park, Zambia, September 19, 2020. But the carcasses also attract the critically endangered white-backed vultures, whose population has declined by more than 90% across West Africa in the past 40 years, largely due to poisoning. "African white-backed vultures will come in really large numbers," said Corinne Kendall, curator of conservation and research at North Carolina Zoo which is leading the program.

Persons: Kim Young, Overton, Panthera's, Andrew Loveridge, Sebastian Kennerknecht, Corinne Kendall, It's, it's, Kendall, Gloria Dickie, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Reuters, Leopards, REUTERS, Africa Parks, Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife, North Carolina Zoo, Thomson Locations: Kafue, Park, Zambia, Handout, Africa, West Africa, London

☆ US sanctions Chinese and Mexican firms over fentanyl making equipment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl constitute a leading cause of these deaths, devastating thousands of American families each year,” he said. Officials also accused Chinese company Yason General Machinery of working with a Mexican supplier and contact who previously provided pill equipment to a person linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. That individual used the machines to create superlabs in Mexico with the capacity to produce millions of fentanyl-laced pills weekly, Treasury said. The Chinese Embassy in the United States condemned the US move late Tuesday. “The US sanctions against Chinese companies and citizens will add more obstacles to China-US counter-narcotics cooperation,” it added.

Persons: “, Brian Nelson, ”, Biden Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, United, US Treasury Department, Treasury, Terrorism, Financial, Foreign Assets Control, Youli Technology, Machinery, Solutions, Embassy, US Centers for Disease Control Locations: Hong Kong, United States, China, Mexico, Mexican, Sinaloa

☆ US slaps sanctions on Chinese, Mexican entities in fentanyl action
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Treasury Department said it slapped sanctions on seven entities and six people based in China, as well as one business and three people based in Mexico. "Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl constitute a leading cause of these deaths, devastating thousands of American families each year. We remain committed to using all authorities against enablers of illicit drug production to disrupt this deadly global production and counter the threat posed by these drugs." The Biden administration has been pushing for action as U.S. drug-related overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in 2021, according to government estimates. Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Doina Chiacu and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Biden, Brian Nelson, Liu Pengyu, Washington, brazenly, Liu, Daphne Psaledakis, Doina Chiacu, David Brunnstrom, Sharon Singleton, Jamie Freed Organizations: Treasury Department, Terrorism, Financial, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, Washington, Reuters, Treasury, Thomson Locations: United States, China, Mexico, Beijing

☆ Opinion: A button, a love story, and an Iranian couple who will not be silenced
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Opinion Jeff Kaufman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

We were also moved by the continued defiance represented by the “I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab” button that Nasrin wore on her jacket. Iranian couple Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan, with their friend and fellow activist Farhad Meysami (center) after being released from prison earlier this year following a lengthy hunger strike. Nasrin: When Reza and I first met, we were working at a magazine that presented a dialogue on social issues. Kaufman: Nasrin, you have one of the last “I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab” buttons in Iran (the government destroyed the rest). Reza KhandanFor example, when I was arrested, Reza and Farhad made the ‘I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab’ buttons in the hope that people would wear them.

☆ Jailed Russian opposition figure Kara-Murza faces 'psychological torture', wife says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Evgenia Kara-Murza, wife of jailed Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, addresses the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in Geneva, Switzerland May 17, 2023. Vladimir Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British passports, was a close associate of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition figure assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015. "Had I tried to convince him to give up his fight, I would have betrayed him," Evgenia Kara-Murza said. Despite not being able to speak to him, his children have grown up being acutely aware of the perils of being an opposition figure in Russia. "Their father was first poisoned when our oldest was nine," Evgenia Kara-Murza said.

The World Health Organization said last year the syrups, made by Indian manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) – used in car brake fluid. "If you ask and you don't get informed, it's a dead end," Rutendo Kuwana, the WHO's team lead for incidents with substandard and falsified medicines, told Reuters in an interview on March 31. Drug inspectors found a dozen violations at Maiden last October related to the production of the cough syrups sold to Gambia, a government document showed. Among these, some of the COAs of raw ingredients used in making the syrups, including propylene glycol, were missing batch numbers. Kuwana said the WHO was sure of its own cough syrup test results from two separate independent laboratories, both of which showed contamination.

☆ Opinion: Russia has stifled another Putin opponent. Here’s how the West might help him
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Opinion Casey Michel | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Editor’s Note: Casey Michel is the director of the Human Rights Foundation’s Combating Kleptocracy Program. While the West must continue to call for the release of those two high-profile political prisoners, it should not overlook Kara-Murza. US lawmakers in the US Congress have issued a range of congressional resolutions and individual statements highlighting Kara-Murza’s plight. The disjointed Western response to Kara-Murza’s plight only works to Russia’s advantage. It’s long past time to create a coordinating body to ensure that Western sanctions packages are aligned and airtight.

☆ Iran says there were no school poisonings, blames foreign 'enemies'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 28 (Reuters) - Iran's intelligence ministry on Friday accused foreign "enemies" and dissidents of fomenting fears over suspected poisonings of schoolgirls, saying its investigation found no actual poisoning. The report accused unnamed dissidents of provoking fears to produce propaganda videos and warned of "prosecution of individuals, groups, media who accused the government ... and aligned themselves with enemies". Authorities have accused the Islamic Republic's "enemies" of using the suspected attacks to undermine the clerical establishment. The suspected poisonings began in November in the holy Shi'ite Muslim city of Qom and spread to 28 of Iran's 31 provinces, according to activist HRANA news agency, prompting some parents to take children out of school and protest. For the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, schoolgirls have joined the protests that spiralled after Mahsa Amini's death in morality police custody.

☆ Factbox: Who is Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 17 (Reuters) - Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza was convicted of treason by a Moscow court on Monday and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Kara-Murza, 41, is a historian, journalist and opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports and studied in England at Cambridge University. He was a close associate of Boris Nemtsov, a leading opposition figure who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015, and continued to speak out against President Vladimir Putin despite the mounting risks. Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza suddenly fell ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering. Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022, hours after CNN broadcast an interview in which he said Russia was being run by a "regime of murderers".

State prosecutors, who had requested the court jail him for 25 years, had accused him of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticised what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. In a CNN interview broadcast hours before he was arrested, Kara-Murza had alleged that Russia was being run by a "regime of murderers." He had also used speeches in the United States and across Europe to accuse Moscow of bombing civilian targets in Ukraine, a charge it has rejected. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate," he had said. Kara-Murza's lawyers say that as a result, he suffers from a serious nerve disorder called polyneuropathy.

☆ EU calls for UN to probe Iran schoolgirl poisonings
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) - European lawmakers called on the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday to conduct an independent investigation into a wave of poisonings that have hit schoolgirls in Iran. 13,000 pupils, mostly girls, have fallen ill after "suspected poisonings" according to state media and officials in Iran, with some politicians blaming religious groups opposed to girls’ education. In a resolution, the European Parliament condemned "in the strongest terms, this atrocious attempt to silence women and girls in Iran". It also urged EU member states to facilitate the issuance of visas, asylum and emergency grants to those who need to leave Iran, "particularly women and girls". Iran has arrested several people it said were linked to the wave of poisonings and accused some of connections to "foreign-based dissident media" .

☆ As African kids died, doctors fought for ban on toxic Indian syrup
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Maiden Managing Director Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters he had "not done anything wrong" and did not respond to further questions. In December, India’s health regulator said it did its own tests and found no toxins in the syrups. Yet even as the doctors’ evidence of toxins mounted, Gambian government officials told Reuters they wanted more proof. “We took their histories and asked them if they took the drugs, and we just knew” that the syrup was the culprit. If tests for toxins had been done in late July or early August, a sales ban could have saved dozens of children, she said.

☆ Iran’s schoolgirl poisonings and the challenge for the clerics: podcast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Follow on Apple, Google or Spotify. Listen on the Reuters app. Read the episode transcript. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Iran's Khamenei calls girls' poisoning 'unforgivable' after public anger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Over 1,000 girls have suffered poisoning since November, according to state media and officials, with some politicians blaming religious groups opposed to girls' education. The poisonings have come at a critical time for Iran's clerical rulers after months of protests since the death of a young woman held by police for flouting hijab rules. "Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students' poisoning," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by state TV. "If it is proven deliberate, those perpetrators of this unforgivable crime should be sentenced to capital punishment." At least one boys' school has also been targeted in the city of Boroujerd, state media reported.

☆ A wave of suspected mass poisonings of schoolgirls in Iran remains shrouded in mystery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Up to 900 Iranian school girls have been victims of suspected mass poisoning in recent months. Iran's president blamed the unexplained bouts of respiratory distress on the Islamic state's "enemies." Dozens more girls have been admitted to hospital with respiratory distress in the last few days, according to The Guardian. On Friday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi blamed the unexplained suspected school poisonings, which have happened in multiple locations, on the Islamic state's "enemies" but did not clarify who that was. The health minister has previously said that the culprits could be religious groups opposed to girls receiving an education, according to Reuters.

☆ Iran president blames foreign enemies for wave of schoolgirl poisonings
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday blamed a wave of poisonings of hundreds of schoolgirls around the country on Tehran's enemies. Raisi, speaking to a crowd in southern Iran on Friday in a speech carried live on state television, blamed the poisoning on Iran's enemies. He did not say who those enemies were although Iranian leaders habitually accuse the United States and Israel, among others, of acting against it. He is the first government official to report an arrest in connection with the wave of poisonings. "Guards at a parking lot where the fuel tanker was parked also suffered from poisoning," Saleh said, referring to the Pardis site.

☆ US sanctions three people for abuse of Russian opposition politician
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Katharine Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on three Russians it accused of serious human rights abuses against Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was arrested last year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury Department said the sanctions target Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, Andrei Andreevich Zadachin and Danila Yurievich Mikheev for abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act. Kara-Murza, who holds both British and Russian citizenship and was a pallbearer at the 2018 funeral of U.S. Senator John McCain, was a close aide to opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in central Moscow in 2015. Kara-Murza has pushed for the U.S., Canada, European Union and Britain to use Magnitsky-style sanctions to target human rights abusers and corrupt actors in Russia, the Treasury Department said.

☆ US CDC concludes cough syrups likely to blame for children's deaths in Gambia -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jennifer Rigby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The links between the children's deaths and contaminated medicines first came to light in October, when the World Health Organization sent out an alert saying four cough syrups made by India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd contained toxic levels of diethylene and ethylene glycol and should be withdrawn. The new investigation "strongly suggests" that medicines contaminated with the toxins, imported into Gambia, led to the cluster of acute kidney injury among 78 children. Maiden has denied its drugs were at fault for the deaths in Gambia, and the Indian government has said the syrups showed no contamination when it tested them. "This likely poisoning event highlights the potential public health risks posed by the inadequate quality management of pharmaceutical exports," the report said. Since the deaths in Gambia, 201 children have also died in Indonesia, and 19 in Uzbekistan, linked to different manufacturers' contaminated cough syrups.

☆ Dealer Convicted in Fentanyl Overdose Deaths of Three New Yorkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Margot Patrick | Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Deaths involving cocaine in New York City surged to 1,261 in 2021 from a few hundred annually a few years ago as fentanyl spread into supplies. A New Jersey man was convicted of causing the deaths of three New Yorkers to whom he sold cocaine laced with fentanyl, a spate of poisonings that The Wall Street Journal reported on last year. Billy Ortega was found guilty on Monday of all charges by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York of supplying the cocaine with fentanyl that killed three professionals in Manhattan in March 2021. At a sentencing scheduled for June 2, he could face 25 years to life in prison on five convictions related to selling and distributing drugs that led to the deaths and using firearms to protect the operation. A lawyer representing Mr. Ortega said he plans to appeal the verdict.

☆ Truffle hunters in Italy are poisoning their competitors' dogs with snail bait in a war for the 'black gold' that goes for up to $5,000 per pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Truffle foragers in Italy have long sought to get rid of competition in search of "black gold." "It's all about getting rid of the competition," The Wall Street Journal reported Saverio Dogliani, a 57-year-old truffle hunter whose dog, Floki, has been poisoned twice, said. PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty ImagesThe poisoned treats claim the lives of multiple dogs and wildlife such as deer and foxes, each year. A group of truffle hunters wearing camouflage searched the area where Brando was poisoned, hoping to rid the brush of leftover poison. "It's getting worse," Agent Emanuele Gallo told The Wall Street Journal.

More young children are getting sick from inadvertently eating marijuana edibles, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics. Eating too much can lead to serious health problems in young children, including confusion, hallucinations, fast heart rate and vomiting, experts said. Nearly a quarter of the children were admitted to the hospital, 8.1% of whom who needed intensive care, the study found. Wang called for regulation of how marijuana manufacturers can advertise their products, including regulations that ensure the advertising doesn't appeal to children. Osterhoudt went a step further: "The safest thing for a parent of young children to do would be not to bring edible THC products into their homes."

☆ Europe has kicked out over 400 suspected Russian spies this year alone, British intelligence chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Europe booted over 400 Russian officials suspected of being spies this year, the MI5 chief said. Ken McCallum said this gave a "most significant strategic blow" to Russia's intelligence agencies. "Alongside the wave of expulsions, the other part of that template is staying the course and preventing Russian intelligence restocking," McCallum said. "In the UK's case, since our removal of 23 Russian spies posing as diplomats, we have refused on national security grounds over 100 Russian diplomatic visa applications." Russian spies and operatives have been suspected of carrying out attacks like bombings, poisonings, sabotage, and assassination attempts for years, and Europe has tried to combat Moscow's increasingly hostile activities in other countries.

Poison control centers in the U.S. have seen an increase in reports of children ingesting a type of prescription cough medicine, a study published Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration found. From 2010 through 2018, reports of pediatric poisonings involving the drug, benzonatate, increased each year, the study found. The reports included children who were unintentionally exposed to the drug, as well as children who abused or misused it intentionally. As non-narcotic drugs become more common in homes, "the likelihood of errors is going to increase," Creech said. Still, the study reminds doctors to provide good counsel about when and how to use the medication, Creech said.

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