Author: admin@primenews

An Australian woman has been arrested over the suspected mushroom poisoning deaths of three people. The trio had fallen ill after attending a family lunch in the Victorian town of Leongatha in July. A fourth person was taken to hospital in a critical condition. The woman who served the lunch, Erin Patterson, was taken into custody on Thursday. She has not been charged. Ms Patterson, 49, has strongly maintained she is innocent. Victoria Police said the woman would be interviewed by detectives and a search warrant had been executed at her house. Homicide squad Inspector Dean Thomas stressed the complexity…

The troubled office-sharing firm WeWork is to start closing some of its buildings around the world, the BBC understands. The company, once valued at $47bn (£38.6bn), has seen its shares tumble following reports it could file for bankruptcy as early as next week. WeWork would not confirm exactly how many sites in the UK would close. It did, however, say that it will shut one of its central London buildings close to Blackfriars station. The move would be part of what the company called “our previously-announced strategy to improve liquidity and strengthen our balance sheet.” WeWork members at the building on…

Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister and leader of the governing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is set to be questioned by India’s financial crimes agency. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating an alleged fraud case related to a now-scrapped liquor sale policy in the state. AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have been arrested in the case. AAP has denied the allegations against its leaders and accused the federal government of political vendetta. But India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the AAP of indulging in corrupt practices for political gains. Questions of corruption are a sensitive matter for the Aam…

The boss and three other officials of an Indonesian firm whose cough syrup was linked to the deaths of over 200 children have been sentenced to jail. They were handed two-year prison sentences and fined 1bn Indonesian rupiah ($63,029; £51,7130) each. The firm, Afi Farma, was accused of producing cough syrups containing excess amounts of toxic substances. The company’s lawyer said they denied negligence and the firm was considering whether to appeal. Prosecutors had been seeking a prison sentence of seven to nine years for Afi Farma’s chief executive, Prasetya Harahap, and seven years each for the other defendants. The…

In the garden of his home in central Israel, amid the palm trees dappled in the morning sun, Yoni Asher shows me a video on his phone. It’s of his two small girls, sitting on a bed. They’re singing Happy Birthday. Raz, the eldest, with long fair hair, is just four years old. Her sister Aviv, darker and more like her dad, is only two. “They made this for my birthday in July,” Yoni tells me. But four months on, the 37-year-old father and husband is home alone. Along with their mother Doron, they were captured on 7 October in…

The Rolling Stones have become the first act to reach the top 10 in the United States with new albums in every decade since the 1960s. The veteran band’s latest studio album, Hackney Diamonds, has entered the Billboard chart at number three. They also extended their record as the act with the most US top 10 albums of all time, with 38 in total – ahead of second-placed Barbra Streisand on 34. In the UK, the release has taken the group to number one for the 14th time. Hackney Diamonds is the band’s first collection of original songs since 2005, and features…

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce Wednesday at the conclusion of its monetary policy meeting that it will hold interest rates steady, at their highest level in 22 years. That would be the second consecutive meeting the Fed keeps rates unchanged. But that doesn’t mean the Fed is done hiking rates. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has made it clear that the US central bank wants to retain the option of another hike in case data show inflation’s descent has stalled. “Given the uncertainties and risks, and how far we have come, the committee is proceeding carefully,” Powell said last month in…

WeWork’s shares plunged 37% in pre-market trading Wednesday, following news reports that the company plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week. The flexible workspace provider is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. A WeWork spokesperson told CNN the company would not comment on “speculation.” Earlier on Tuesday, WeWork (WE) said it had agreed with creditors to extend a 30-day grace period to make interest payments on some of its debt that was due to expire this week. The new “forbearance agreement”…

A top news media trade group is calling out A.I. technology companies for scraping news material to train their chatbots. The News Media Alliance, which represents nearly 2,000 outlets in the U.S., published research Tuesday that found developers of generative artificial intelligence systems, such as OpenAI and Google, “have copied and used news, magazine, and digital media content to train” their bots. Importantly, the research indicated that A.I.companies have trained their bots to give far more credence to information published by those credible publishers versus material elsewhere across the web. “The research and analysis we’ve conducted shows that AI companies and developers…

Matthew Perry was happy and chipper when Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman spoke to him two weeks ago, she says. Tributes have been paid to Perry, who played Chandler in the TV sitcom, since his death, on Saturday, aged 54. Kauffman told the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) Today programme their last chat had been “great”. “He didn’t seem weighed down by anything,” she said. “He was in a really good place, which is why this seems so unfair.” Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. A post-mortem examination was inconclusive and officials are awaiting the results…