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Promising new gene therapies for sickle cell are out of reach in countries where they’re needed most

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

Gautam Dongre’s two children in India and Pascazia Mazeze’s son in Tanzania live with an inherited blood disorder that turns blood cells into instruments of pain.Now that new gene therapies promise a cure for their sickle cell disease, Dongre says he’s “praying the treatment should come to us.”But experts say the one-time treatment is out of reach in India and Africa — places where the disease is most common. Vast inequities cut much of the world off from gene therapy in general.While access to all sorts of medicine is limited in developing countries, the problem is especially acute with these therapies, which are among the most expensive treatments in the world. Beyond their sky-high prices, these therapies are extremely complex to give patients because they require long hospitalizations, sophisticated medical equipment and specially trained doctors and scientists. So far, the two gene therapies for sickle cell have only been approved in wealthier countries: both of the...

14-year-old charged with attempted murder in stabbing at Don Mills TTC station

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

A teenage boy is facing an attempted murder charge after a stabbing at Don Mills subway station last weekend.Toronto police were called to the TTC station near Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue around 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 9.Police allege a fight broke out between two groups of youths when a 17-year-old boy was stabbed. He was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries where he remains in critical but stable condition.Officers say the suspect attempted to flee on a bus but was tracked down by officers and arrested.A 14-year-old boy is facing four charges including attempted murder and aggravated assault.A second 14-year-old boy was also arrested at the scene. He is facing a charge of possession of a weapon.Both appeared in a Toronto courtroom on Sunday. The suspects cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Men charged with illegal killing of 3,600 birds, including bald and golden eagles to sell

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A federal grand jury in Montana has indicted two men accused of killing about 3,600 birds, including bald eagles and golden eagles, and selling them on the black market.The indictment returned in U.S. District Court last week charges Simon Paul and Travis John Branson with 13 counts of unlawful trafficking of bald and golden eagles and one count each of conspiracy and violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits trafficking of illegally taken wildlife.“The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was enacted in 1940 to protect the bald eagle, recognizing that the bald eagle is not merely a bird of biological interest, but this country’s national symbol which reflects America’s ideals of freedom,” the indictment states. The act was extended in 1962 to include golden eagles.Branson, Paul and others hunted and killed thousands of birds, including eagles, on the Flathead Indian Reservation and elsewhere, then illegally sold them for significant sums of cash across the Uni...

CP NewsAlert: Quebec hikes tuition for McGill, Concordia, imposes French requirement

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

MONTREAL — The Quebec government is hiking tuition to $12,000 a year and imposing a French-language requirement for out-of-province students at McGill and Concordia universities.Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry announced the new measures today, saying the government wants Canadian and foreign graduates to better integrate in Quebec society.Quebec had initially proposed to raise tuition for out-of-province students to around $17,000 from $8,992, but today’s announcement reduces that amount.However, the government has introduced a new requirement — that 80 per cent of out-of-province students in English universities have an intermediate level of spoken French before they can graduate.The new French-language standards will be in effect for the 2025-26 academic year, and the tuition raise starts in the fall.The other English-language university in Quebec, Bishop’s, is spared the tuition hike but will have to meet the language requirements.This report by The Canadian Pr...

5 Toronto teens between ages of 14 and 16 busted in Markham carjacking probe

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

Five Toronto teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 are facing charges in a carjacking investigation after police allege they purposely crashed into another vehicle in an attempt to steal it.Officers were called to 16th Avenue and Markham Road area on Dec. 6, after reports of a vehicle collision.“While on scene, officers learned that a white Audi SUV, operated by the suspects, had intentionally collided with a grey Toyota RAV4 in an attempt to steal the vehicle,” a Peel Regional Police release stated.The teens tried to run but were quickly rounded up and arrested by responding officers.Police further allege the teens were all wearing masks at the time and had an imitation firearm in their possession.They’re all facing charges of robbery with a firearm, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, disguise with intent and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.Three of the youths are also facing additional charges of failure to comply with release ...

From New York to Tokyo, stock markets around the world have rallied in 2023

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been a great year for stock markets around the world.Wall Street’s rally has been front and center, with the U.S. stock market the world’s largest and its clear leader in performance in recent years. The S&P 500 is on track to return more than 20% for the third time in the last five years, and its gangbusters performance has brought it back within 2% of its record set at the start of 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high Wednesday.Even in Japan, which has been home to some of the world’s most disappointing stocks for decades, the market marched upward to touch its highest level since shortly after its bubble burst in 1989. Across developed and emerging economies, stocks have powered ahead in 2023 as inflation has regressed, even with wars raging in hotspots around the world. Globally, inflation is likely to ease to 6.9% this year from 8.7% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. The expectation ...

University of Arizona announces financial recovery plan to address its $240M budget shortfall

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The University of Arizona has unveiled an extensive financial recovery plan to address its $240 million budget shortfall.In a virtual meeting Wednesday night with the Arizona Board of Regents, university President Robert Robbins announced the resignation of the school’s chief financial officer and other steps to address cash flow issues.“We will implement an immediate hiring freeze,” Robbins said. “We will freeze international travel. We will place restrictions on purchasing. We will defer nonessential capital projects and we will pause strategic investments.”Lisa Rulney, the UofA’s chief financial officer since April 2019, resigned Wednesday from the job that paid her nearly $500,000 annually.Rulney and Robbins told the regents last month that the university had just 97 days worth of cash on hand and not the 156 they previously predicted. The school’s senior administrators blamed a failure of their prediction model that caused the multimillion-dollar miscalcula...

With death toll rising, Kenyan military evacuates people from flood-hit areas

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

MANDERA, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s military hastened efforts Thursday to evacuate hundreds of people trapped by raging floods that have hit many parts of the East African country.Floods have killed at least 170 and displaced more than 600,000 since the onset of heavy rains in November, according to the Red Cross, which is helping to coordinate the rescue efforts.Tens of thousands of people in Northern Kenya have lost livestock, farmland and homes due to the floods described by aid groups as the worst in 100 years. An international team of scientists reported last week that human-caused climate change has made the ongoing rains in Eastern Africa up to two times more intense.Kenya’s meteorological department has warned that heavy rains will continue into the new year. It is urging people living in lowlands and flood-prone areas to evacuate.“While I was running away from the rains and the flood waters, I fell down and broke my hand. After the incident my family and I came here to the displa...

Why Argentina’s shock measures may be the best hope for its ailing economy

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The painful economic steps that Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, announced this week sound draconian: Slashing the currency’s value in half. Reducing aid to provincial governments. Suspending public works. Cutting subsidies for gas and electricity. Raising some taxes. Yet the South American country’s economy is such a basket case — and has been for so long — that many analysts believe that only such radical measures offer a realistic opportunity to rescue the economy.“It was a good start,’’ said Ivan Werning, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If the economy were a house, it is already burning.’’Inflation in Argentina has hit 161%. Its economy is shrinking, in part because of a ruinous drought. In the past five years, its currency has lost about 90% of its value against the U.S. dollar. Its debts, including $45 billion that it owes the International Monetary Fund, are suffocating. One in four Argentinians lives in ...

Kyiv protesters demand more spending on the Ukraine’s war effort and less on local projects

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:41:30 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of protesters angered by what they view as wasteful spending by municipal officials gathered outside Kyiv City Hall on Thursday and demanded that the money should go to Ukraine’s war against Russia instead of local projects.The Money for the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) civic group, which organized the protest, was formed in September by people concerned by what they term “unnecessary” and “poorly timed” spending by the Kyiv City Council.The protesters, who appeared to be mostly in their 20s and 30s, gathered despite multiple air alerts and cold, damp weather. They dispersed in the afternoon when air defense systems burst into action to fend off a missile attack.Protestors chanted, “It’s better to buy drones than build a new park” and, “The more money we spend on the army, the faster Ukraine will win this war.”“At a time when our friends, parents and acquaintances are dying at the front, we have more pressing matters than rebuilding roads and beautifyi...