Life

Elvis wedding crackdown leaves Las Vegas all shook up

  by Andrew Marszal Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Every year thousands of visitors to Las Vegas can’t help falling in love — at least long enough to get married by an Elvis impersonator. But the company that controls the rights to the King’s likeness has sparked outrage in Sin City by cracking down wedding chapels offering Elvis-themed nuptials. Authentic Brands Group, which bought a controlling stake in Elvis Presley’s estate in […]

Unprecedented water curbs kick in for drought-hit Los Angeles

  by Laurent BANGUET Unprecedented restrictions on water usage went into effect Wednesday in the Los Angeles area, which like most of California is in the grip of severe drought for the third consecutive year. More than six million customers are affected by the new measures, which limit watering gardens to one day a week and only during the coolest hours, under penalty of a fine and reduced water flow. The goal is to reduce […]

Depp wins out in bitter Heard defamation trial

  FAIRFAX, United States (AFP) — A US jury Wednesday found both Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard liable for defamation — but sided more strongly with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star following an intense trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse. The verdict capped a bitterly-fought six-week trial riding on lurid claims and counterclaims of between the Hollywood celebrities. The seven-member jury in Virginia awarded the 58-year-old actor $15 million […]

Key Facebook force Sheryl Sandberg steps down

by Glenn Chapman Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Meta’s second most powerful executive Sheryl Sandberg made the shock announcement Wednesday she will leave after a 14-year tenure that included helping steer scandal-prone Facebook to advertising dominance. Sandberg, 52, has been one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley and her departure comes as the social media juggernaut faces an uncertain future and fierce competition. Her exit from Facebook parent Meta will […]

Estimated 2 million have long Covid in UK: official data

  LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — An estimated two million people in the UK, which represents around three percent of the population, have reported experiencing so-called long Covid, official statistics showed Wednesday. Around 1.4 million of them said they first had Covid-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least 12 weeks previously, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It also found 826,000 of them first had coronavirus at least a year earlier, […]

Turkey black rose producers chase sweet smell of success

by Anne Chaon Agence France-Presse HALFETI, Turkey (AFP) — To the naked eye, the delicate velvet roses in southeastern Turkey appear black and overwhelm the senses with their irresistible sweet smell. The rosebuds are just as dark, and when fully developed, the flower takes on the color of an intensely rich red wine. These black roses, known as “Karagul” in Turkish and thornier than others, can only grow in the town of Halfeti with soil […]

Monkeypox cases could be ‘peak of iceberg’: WHO

  GENEVA, Switzzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization cautioned Friday that some 200 monkeypox cases found in recent weeks outside of countries where the virus usually circulates could be just the beginning. “We don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg,” Sylvie Briand, WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, acknowledged in a briefing to countries on the “unusual” spread of the virus. Since Britain first reported a confirmed […]

More than 200 cases of monkeypox worldwide: EU disease agency

  STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — The number of confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide has reached 219 outside of countries where it is endemic, according to an update released by the European Union’s disease agency. More than a dozen countries where monkeypox is unusual, mostly in Europe, have reported at least one confirmed case, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in an epidemiological note released Wednesday night. “This is the first time […]

The Arctic’s tricky quest for sustainable tourism

  by Pierre-Henry Deshayes © Agence France-Presse  Longyearbyen, NORWAY (AFP) — Home to polar bears, the midnight sun and the northern lights, a Norwegian archipelago perched high in the Arctic is trying to find a way to profit from its pristine wilderness without ruining it. The Svalbard archipelago, located 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the North Pole and reachable by commercial airline flights, offers visitors vast expanses of untouched nature, with majestic mountains, glaciers and […]

Twitter shareholder lawsuit accuses Musk of ‘market manipulation’

San Francisco, UNITED STATES (AFP) — Elon Musk faces a lawsuit accusing him of pushing down Twitter’s stock price in order to either give himself an escape hatch from his $44 billion buyout bid, or room to negotiate a discount. The suit alleges the billionaire Tesla boss tweeted and made statements intended to create doubt about the deal, which has roiled the social media platform for weeks. Filed Wednesday by a shareholder, the claim seeks […]

Australia bidding to host UN climate summit, set new emissions target

Australia will present a more ambitious UN emissions target “very soon” and is bidding to co-host a COP summit with Pacific island neighbours, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Thursday, signalling a ground shift in climate policy. During a first solo overseas visit since her centre-left government was sworn in, Wong admitted that on the climate, “Australia has neglected its responsibility” under past administrations. She told hosts in Fiji’s capital Suva that there would be no […]

Czech Republic registers first monkeypox case

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — The Czech Republic has its first case of monkeypox, Pavel Dlouhy, head of the Czech Society for Infectious Diseases, told AFP on Tuesday. Dlouhy said the disease was detected in a man at Prague’s Military University Hospital but declined to give any details. “It was only a question of time, we have been expecting this for days,” Dlouhy added. Over the past few days, several European and North American countries […]