A US judge has blocked the suspension of a high school girl who was punished for posting a note at school warning of a “rapist” in their midst. In September Aela Mansmann, 15, was accused of bullying by school officials in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, after she posted notes in the girl’s toilets.

But on Thursday a judge issued a temporary stay on the suspension citing concerns over free speech rights. A lawsuit filed by the girl’s family against the school is still pending.

The case began on 16 September after Aela posted notes in two bathrooms at Cape Elizabeth High School reading: “There’s a rapist in the school and you know who it is.” After another student brought the note to school administrators, they investigated and identified Aela through camera footage.(BBC)…[+]

The 45-year-old man who admitted to chopping his wife to death in a 2016 attack at the Bygeval Secondary School was yesterday sentenced to 22 years in prison for manslaughter  and eight years for wounding his wife’s cousin, Brenda Thomas.

Athlone Pitt had been arraigned for murdering his wife Candacy Pitt on June 1st 2016 at the Bygeval Secondary School at Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.

When the matter was called yesterday for sentencing before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, the state’s case which was put forward by Prosecutor Sarah Martin was that the man became angry after an argument with his wife and went to his wife’s place of work on the day in question armed with a knife and cutlass after he had drunk alcohol.(Stabroeknews)…[+]

“It’s like trying to run an ice-cream parlour in the desert.” That is how entrepreneur Lucas Toledo describes the uphill struggle of having a business in Argentina.

With a hugely polarising presidential election only days away, the country is in the middle of another economic crisis. This comes 18 years after Argentina’s debt default in 2001, when the South American country went through five presidents within a fortnight after a run on the banks. It may not have come to that in 2019, but the inflation rate has surged beyond 50% and the currency has plummeted.

Who is to blame for this return to bad form? It depends who you ask. Some say the villain is the current right-wing president, Mauricio Macri, while others point the finger at his predecessor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is running for vice-president in Sunday’s election.(BBC)…[+]

A Portuguese obstetrician has been suspended after a baby was born without a nose, eyes or part of his skull. The parents of baby Rodrigo had not been aware of their son’s severe physical abnormalities until he was born earlier this month.

Medical council officials have voted to suspend Dr Artur Carvalho over allegations of negligence. It has emerged that other complaints, dating back more than a decade, have been made involving other babies. Reports of those cases, detailed by Portuguese media, have provoked widespread outrage. Dr Carvalho has not commented publicly on any of the allegations and the BBC has been unable to reach him directly.

Rodrigo was born on 7 October at São Bernardo Hospital in Setúbal, about 40km (23 miles) south of Lisbon. His parents had been under Dr Carvalho’s care for three ultrasound scans throughout their pregnancy at a private clinic and say he raised no concerns about the foetus’s health.(BBC)…[+]

Israel’s president has tasked the former military chief Benny Gantz with forming a government after Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so following an inconclusive election last month. Neither Gantz’s Blue and White coalition nor the incumbent prime minister’s Likud party came out with a clear win, and few expect the opposition leader to form a coalition through deals with disparate political parties with ease.

“I promised that I would establish a liberal unity government and that is what I intend to do,” said Gantz at a formal ceremony at the president’s official residence on Wednesday evening. “The government that I will establish will serve all citizens of Israel.” Gantz will have 28 days to try, after which parliament can nominate a third candidate, although that appears extremely unlikely given the divided makeup of Israel’s legislature, the Knesset.

If no contender can end the political crisis, the country will face an unprecedented third election in a year. “These are fateful days,” said the president, Reuven Rivlin, after Wednesday’s event. “The urgency of the hour and the challenges that we are facing us obligate us to form a government as soon as possible.” The ceremony marked the first time in more than a decade that anyone but Netanyahu be given a chance to head the Israeli government.(The Guardian)…[+]

Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn has fired six officials for “extremely evil” conduct, just days after removing his royal consort for “misbehaviour and disloyalty against the monarch”. The six include a woman, a senior police official and two royal guards.

They were accused of “exploiting their official positions for their own or other people’s gain”. On Monday, royal consort Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi was stripped of her rank and titles. Police lieutenant general Sakolket Chantra of the Royal Household Bureau was named as one of the six people sacked.

“They have severely breached disciplinary conduct for their evil actions by exploiting their official positions for their own or other people’s gain,” announcements in the Royal Gazette said. “They also didn’t comply with royal regulations, which has brought severe damage to the royal affairs.” The dismissals come after many were stunned by the king’s stripping of his consort’s titles just months after she was granted the honours.(BBC)…[+]

Facebook COE Mark Zuckerberg has tried to reassure sceptical US lawmakers over the safety of the social network’s proposed digital currency Libra. At a fractious hearing in Washington, members of Congress attacked plans for the payment system, warning it could be abused by criminals and terrorists.

Mr Zuckerberg was also challenged over claims that he had lied to US regulators in the past. But he promised Libra would not be launched without government approval. He said Facebook would leave the Libra Association if the consortium behind it tried to launch a cryptocurrency without permission.

Mr Zuckerberg’s appearance before the House Committee on Financial Services comes after a tough month for the Libra project. Eight of the 28 founding members of the Libra Association – set up to independently govern the currency – have pulled out. They included Mastercard, Visa, eBay and PayPal. Meanwhile, regulators around the world continue to express concern about the project. The G7 group of nations has vowed to block it unless Facebook can prove it is safe and secure.

There are concerns the currency could be used for money laundering, disrupt the global financial system, or give Facebook too much control over user data. Mr Zuckerberg told the hearing he understood the reservations about Libra but was determined to persevere.(BBC)…[+]

Despite seven of 19 Jamaican police divisions being under a state of emergency (SOE), murders and shootings are still higher as at October 19 this year than for the corresponding period in 2018. Last week alone, there were 34 murders across the country, at a rate of nearly five per day.

The St Andrew South Police Division continues to be a black eye for law enforcers, with 14 murders committed there between October 13 and 19. While the Government is urging residents to hold strain as the police try to rein in rival gangs during the SOE, which was declared on July 7, violent crime continues to rear its head. There were six killings in a 48-hour period last week, including a triple murder in the White Wing Avenue community.(stabroeknews)…[+]

Two men, who the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) had said were caught with 94 lbs of suspected marijuana at Parika during last week were yesterday remanded to prison after they were charged with possession of narcotics for trafficking.

A US drug company says it has created the first therapy that could slow Alzheimer’s disease, and it is now ready to bring it to market. Currently, there are no drugs that can do this – existing ones only help with symptoms.

Biogen says it will soon seek regulatory approval in the US for the “groundbreaking” drug, called aducanumab. It plans to file the paperwork in early 2020 and has its sights on Europe too. Approval processes could take a year or two. If successful, the company aims to initially offer the drug to patients previously enrolled in clinical studies of the drug.

The announcement is somewhat surprising because the company had discontinued work on the drug in March 2019, after disappointing trial results. But the company says a new analysis of a larger dataset of the same studies shows that higher doses of aducanumab can provide a significant benefit to patients with early Alzheimer’s, slowing their clinical decline so they preserve more of their memory and every day living skills – things that the disease usually robs.(BBC)…[+]