FILE PHOTO: A Johnson & Johnson building is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
March 14, 2019
(Reuters) – A California jury on Wednesday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $29 million to a woman who alleged that asbestos in the company’s talcum-powder-based products, including Johnson’s Baby Powder, caused her mesothelioma, the latest defeat for the healthcare conglomerate which is facing thousands of similar lawsuits.
J&J denies allegations that its talc causes cancer, saying numerous studies and tests by regulators worldwide have shown that its talc is safe and asbestos-free.
The New Jersey-based company is likely to appeal the verdict, which was made in California Superior Court in Oakland.
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Tens of thousands of Indonesians have flocked to presidential campaign rallies ahead of a final debate between the two candidates.
Supporters of President Joko Widodo filled a stadium in central Jakarta on Saturday, while the campaign of his challenger, Prabowo Subianto, held a rally in a satellite city.
Widodo and Subianto appear in the final of five televised debates between the presidential and vice presidential candidates on Saturday evening.
About 193 million Indonesians are eligible to vote Wednesday in presidential and legislative elections.
Polls show Widodo with a big lead, but some analysts say the race is tighter than it appears.
Subianto supporter Akhirudin Konsi said he wants a "president who will fight for our rights and stand behind people, who will lower prices, especially education, fuel and basic needs."
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DENVER – The Latest on the criminal cases tied to a Colorado woman's death (all times local):
10 a.m.
Police investigating the disappearance of a Colorado woman found blood on a bottle of bleach and a mop during a mid-December search of her fiance's property.
The information is contained in court records unsealed Wednesday in the criminal case against Patrick Frazee.
He is charged with murder and other crimes in 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth's death. He has not yet filed a plea.
According to court records, tests of the blood found on the objects are not complete yet.
Berreth's body has not been located. Investigators testified during a Tuesday hearing that Frazee's girlfriend, Krystal Jean Lee Kenney, told police he fatally beat Berreth with a baseball bat and burned her body.
Kenney has pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and is cooperating with prosecutors.
___
10:37 p.m.
Investigators say a Colorado man beat his fiancee to death with a baseball bat after failing to convince a woman he was having an affair with to commit the killing.
The grim details revealed in a Colorado courtroom Tuesday provided the first public account of what led prosecutors to charge Patrick Frazee with murder and other charges in the death of Kelsey Berreth.
Berreth was a 29-year-old flight instructor who had a 1-year-old daughter with Frazee.
She was last seen on Nov. 22 near her home in a mountain town near Colorado Springs, south of Denver. Her body has not been found.
Frazee has not entered a plea to any of the allegations. A judge ruled Tuesday that the 32-year-old will remain in jail without bond before his trial.
FILE- In this July 7, 2017 file photo Isabel Martinez speaks during her first court appearance in Lawrenceville, Ga. The suburban Atlanta woman has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing her husband and four children and seriously injuring another daughter. Martinez pleaded guilty but mentally ill Tuesday, April 23, 2019 to five counts of murder and other charges. She was sentenced to five life sentences with the possibility of parole plus 21 years. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, file)
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – A suburban Atlanta woman has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing her husband and four children and seriously injuring another daughter.
WSB-TV reports that 35-year-old Isabel Martinez pleaded guilty but mentally ill Tuesday to five counts of murder and other charges. She was sentenced to five life sentences with the possibility of parole plus 21 years.
The Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office had declined to seek the death penalty because of Martinez's mental state.
The July 2017 attack injured then-9-year-old Diana Romero and killed 33-year-old Martin Romero, 2-year-old Axel Romero, 4-year-old Dillan Romero, 7-year-old Dacota Romero and 10-year-old Isabela Martinez.
Friends told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Martinez had been depressed before the killings and had outbursts of anger and sadness.
FILE - This January 2018, file photo provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Marilyn Hartman. Hartman, dubbed a serial stowaway, has been sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to sneaking past Chicago airport security, boarding a plane and flying to London without a ticket. Marilyn Hartman told a Cook County judge Tuesday, March 19, 2019 that she apologizes to the airport and for "causing problems for them." As part of her plea deal, she can't go to Chicago's O'Hare or Midway airports without a ticket. (Chicago Police Department via AP, File)
CHICAGO – A woman who's been dubbed a serial stowaway was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to sneaking past Chicago airport security last year, boarding a plane and flying to London without a ticket.
As part of her plea deal, Marilyn Hartman, 67, can't go to Chicago's O'Hare or Midway airports without a ticket. She entered the plea to a criminal trespassing charge but had originally faced counts of felony theft, burglary and other charges.
"I do apologize for the airport and ... causing problems for them," Hartman told Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas.
The plea is the latest chapter in a story that's played ou t over the past decade in Chicago, Hawaii, San Francisco, Florida and elsewhere. Hartman has been nabbed in and near airports dozens of times and made it onto planes maybe a half-dozen times.
Authorities have said she boarded the flight to London by walking past two British Airlines ticket agents who were checking other passengers. Hartman darted into a small room off to the side and walked quickly past customs and a Border Patrol agent who was looking at passports of people entering the ramp.
Hartman was arrested after her London trip and free on bond in January 2018 when she was again discovered wandering at O'Hare. This time, a judge ordered her held without bond and she was later found unfit for trial. Hartman spent time at a state mental institution and in July she was moved to a halfway-house style mental health center in Chicago called A Safe Haven.
The judge Tuesday praised Hartman for receiving a glowing progress report from the center's staff.
"A Safe Haven has been your safe haven, and I am really proud of the progress you have made," Chiampas told Hartman.
The facility has agreed to help Hartman find permanent housing.
Hundreds of immigrants illegally crossing into the United States were stopped by a small militia called “United Constitutional Patriots” (UCP) Tuesday night near Sundland Park, New Mexico.
The militia, mostly comprised of veterans and former police officers, turned the large group over to Border Patrol as they are not allowed to capture anyone they encounter crossing.
A member of UCP who livestreamed the encounter can be heard saying, “Lots of coughing. Lots of men with little children. We need the wall folks, please share this. Lots and lots of coughing folks. This is what’s coming across our border. How bad does it get before we actually build the wall?”
Another militia member, Jim Benvie, also streamed on Facebook as they waited for Border Patrol to arrive and apprehend the illegal immigrants.
“I literally walked out and I looked, and all I saw was hundreds of people coming at us,” Benvie said.
“We’re just Americans,” Benvie told Daily Mail. “We’re veterans, we’re ex-law enforcement, we’re people that care about our national security. We’re people that care about our strained Border Patrol.”
While Border Patrol allegedly said it does not condone UCP’s actions, group leader John Horton told Newsweek, “We have a good work rapport with them. Our goal was to be here until we’re not needed. And when we’re not needed is when that wall is up.”
This is merely the latest example of the escalating crisis at the southern border, as just today President Trump asked Democrats in Congress to “return from their vacations and change the immigration laws,” and Yuma, Arizona declared a state of emergency over the surge of illegal immigrants.
“Big sections of Wall now being built!” Trump tweeted.
Democrats in Congress must return from their Vacations and change the Immigration Laws, or the Border, despite the great job being done by Border Patrol, will only get worse. Big sections of Wall now being built!
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.
Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.
Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.
School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.
The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.
School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.
LONDON – Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.
South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.
Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.
Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.
He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 26, 2019
By Ryan Woo
LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.
But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.
The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.
LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.
Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.
“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.
In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.
A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.
No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.
The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.
“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.
Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.
That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.
(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)
NEED FOR CASH
LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.
The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.
After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.
Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.
That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.
“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.
FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.
Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.
Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.
But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.
“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.
Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.
Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.
In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.
STATE COMPETITION
China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.
In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.
The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.
In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.
The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.
At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.
Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.
The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.
“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
JOHANNESBURG – At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”
Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.
Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.
Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
April 26, 2019
By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger
BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.
Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.
Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.
A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.
“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.
About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.
Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.
Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.
Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.
“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.
He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.
Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.
Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.
Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.
“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.
This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.
(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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