153/2018 • 07 JULY, 2018 WEEKEND ISSUE
DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
EU consults citizens on abandoning daylight saving time While the overall health effects are inconclusive, human biorhythms may be more severely impacted than previously thought, the European Commission (EC) announced as itopened the issue of clock changesto the continentʼs citizenry. The EC is assessing two main policy alternatives: keep the current summertime arrangement or discontinue the changes and ban periodic switches, leaving each state to choose between permanent summer, winter or a different time.
Cancer drug scandal: German pharmacist sentenced to 12 years for diluting meds A pharmacist from Bottrop, in the German state of North RhineWestphalia, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a court in Essen on Friday. He was also prohibited from practicing his occupation for life and ordered to forfeit €17 million ($20 million) in property to the state as recompense for damages. The court found Peter S. guilty of 14,500 counts of violating German medicinal product law and 59 counts of fraud. He was accused of having systematically mixed tens of thousands of doses ofcancer drugs with insufficient active ingredientsbetween 2012 and 2016. The court found that at least 3,700 patients were affected. The accused did not testifyduring the duration of the trial, which began in November 2017, nor did he provide his defense attorneys with information during that time. Nevertheless, presiding judge Johannes Hidding concluded, "We are convinced that at least 14,500 underdosed pharmaceutical products were prepared between 2012 and 2016."
Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif sentenced to 10 years in prison A court in Pakistan has handed a jail term to former PM Nawaz Sharif in a Panama Papers corruption c
Some analysts say the verdict will give Pakistanʼs powerful military more behind-the-scenes influence on politics.
German hospitals to blame for low number of organ donations The authors of a report published Friday in the German medical journal Ärzteblatt claim that although more German citizens are willing to donate their organs upon death, fewer organs are actually being transplanted. The authors, Kevin Schulte and Thorsten Feldkamp of the Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital, place blame for the situation on hospitals. The report claims the problem is not a lack ofwilling donorsbut rather hospitals not notifying the German Organ
Transplantation Foundation (DSO), which coordinates organ donation and transplants nationwide, to donors in their institutions . Although 84 percent of Germans have a positive attitude toward organ donation and the number of those carrying donor cards has risen from 17 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2018, the number of actual donors in 2017 was historically low, namely 797. According to the DSO,only 2,594 organs were transplanted in 2017.
Gianluigi Buffon: Paris St-Germain complete signing of Juventus legend Paris St-Germain have signed former Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon on a free transfer. Buffon, 40, left Juventus at the end of last season, ending a 17-year stay at a club where he played 656 times. The nine-time Serie A winner was rumoured to be offered an off-field role at Juve but has signed a one-year deal with the French champions with the option for a further 12 months. "I know what dreams PSG and its fans
have in their hearts," he said. "I am going to bring all my energy, all my experience and all of my thirst to win to help my new club achieve all the great objectives it has set out for the future. "For the first time in my career, I am leaving my country and only a project this ambitious could have encouraged me to make such a decision." Buffon closed out his Juventus career with a seventh consecutive league title.
Ex-Thailand navy SEAL dies while working to save boys from cave The long-running effort to save children in Thailandʼs Tham Luang Nang Non cave claimed its first victim on Friday, when a former Thai Navy SEALs member died of lack of oxygen. The rescuer, identified as a 37-yearold Samarn Poonan, was working as a volunteer, SEAL commander Arpakorn Yookongkaew told a news conference on Friday morning. Samarn died while diving to place oxygen canisters along a potential route forthe upcoming extraction attempt. However, he ran out of oxygen himself and lost consciousness while trying to return.
No more BMWs or Mercs on Fifth Avenue? New York Cityʼs Fifth Avenue is known the world over for luxury brands for the rich and the famous, among them the latest high-end vehicles of BMW and Mercedes.But if President Trump has his way, the popular German cars soon wonʼt be driving down the famous avenue anymore. It all started during Trumpʼs election campaign in 2015 and 2016. Back then, he promised to strengthen the domestic economy by creating jobs and boosting local production.
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