World News Briefs For Sunday, 15 September 2019
Howdy Australia!! - With the far right out of the way, Italy practices mercy and generosity again - Yemeni rebels cripple Saudi Arabia's oil production - A top doc is accused of stealing from Ebola relief efforts - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Italy has authorized a rescue ship on the Mediterranean Sea to dock at Lampedusa and drop off 82 refugees. It's a marked change in policy towards refugees and asylum seekers, as far-right former interior minister Matteo Salvini frequently blocked access to charity ships carrying people who need help. Meanwhile, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Germany newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung that his country is prepared to help out by taking in 25 percent of migrants who arrive in Italy by boat.
Drones attacks caused heavy damage and major fires at two of Saudi Aramco's critical oil facilities, and sources told the Western news media that the strikes had reduced production by five million barrels a day - nearly half the kingdom's output, and about five percent of the global oil supply. Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said fires broke out Saturday at 4:00 AM local time in Abqaiq and Khurais in the kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, part of an escalation in retaliation for Saudi Arabia backing the Yemeni government against the rebels.
New York state's top prosecutor says the uber-wealthy Sackler family may have tried to hide at least a billion US dollars in wealth as it prepares to settle claims from the opioid epidemic, in which the family-owned Purdue Pharmaceuticals is accused of aggressively marketing its opioid pain-killers to the point that thousands became drug addicts. New York Attorney General Letitia James said a Swiss bank revealed the money had been funneled into those secretive Alpine bank accounts the rich love so dearly. It might bolster claims that the Sacklers have far more than the $13 Billion in assets found in most estimates of their wealth.
DR Congo police arrested former Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga for allegedly embezzling funds from the nation's fight against the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Ilunga was removed as the country's top heath officer earlier this year in a dispute over the use of an experimental Ebola vaccine, which he opposed. Police say they picked him up as he was preparing to leave the country, and he will be referred to prosecutors on Monday. The current outbreak was first noted on 1 August 2018, infecting at least 3,599 people and killing 2,089 of them in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda.
Heavy rain caused flooding which killed at least six people in southeastern Spain. The bad weather in the region forced officials to close airports, trains, roads, and schools.
Singer Eddie Money is dead of stage 4 esophageal cancer at age 70. He had hits in the 1970s and '80s with "Two Tickets to Paradise", "Baby Hold On To Me", "Think I'm In Love", and "Take Me Home Tonight".