Author: Gulf News Week

Two icons, a glorious farewell and a potentially bitter endingAs Lionel Messi’s international career ends in fond farewell, Cristiano Ronaldo’s is at risk of petering out. BBC Sport takes a look at what could be the end of the international career’s of two football greats.38 mins agoFootball

From brain dead to ‘shock’ recovery – what we know about Christa PikeThe US death row inmate’s legal team said at a press conference that she is now “conscious and speaking” after her failed execution.23 mins agoUS & Canada

Europa Press via Getty ImagesMaricarmen Abascal was evicted from her flat in Madrid two weeks agoAn elderly woman whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections has died, according to Madrid’s tenants union.Maricarmen Abascal, 87, was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years in September after she was unable to afford rent increases. The company that owned the flat later offered to allow her to return at a lower rent rate – but she wasn’t able to sign an agreement as she had been admitted…

Getty Images(Credit: Getty Images)A Russian lab technician has died at a plague research centre in Siberia, but there are many reasons pneumonic plague is usually easily contained.It may seem eerily familiar.On Friday last week, a woman died from pneumonia of “undetermined” origin in Siberia after potentially being exposed to the plague. Russian media have reported that nearly 200 people were placed in isolation. Officials quickly shut down concern, but online speculation and alarm have been spreading. The 28-year-old woman, named Darya Shipilova, worked at the Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region. Unconfirmed reports suggested the woman fell ill with pneumonia-like symptoms…

Bloomberg via Getty ImagesJustice Minister Sean Fraser said the decision to pause the expansion was a difficult oneCanada says it will indefinitely suspend plans to expand its medically assisted dying law to people whose sole condition is mental illness, citing a lack of consensus on who would be eligible. It comes after a parliamentary panel earlier this year recommended that medically assisted dying – known as Maid in Canada – should not be expanded.On Wednesday, Canada’s justice minister, Sean Fraser, said that “while there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at…

Beata Zawrzel/Getty ImagesThe winners are awarded the Nobel Prize medal and a share of 12.0 million Swedish Kroner ($1.25m; £900,000)The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai for providing a solution to the chemical mystery of life’s asymmetry.The researchers discovered how nature exclusively makes the correct version of a molecule – rather than its mirror image. For example, amino acid molecules, the building blocks of proteins, exist as two forms that are each other’s mirror image. But living organisms on Earth only function with one of those forms. The Nobel…

BBCAs US President Donald Trump hits the campaign trail in the final sprint to the midterm elections, he is launching an emphatic defence of America’s economic performance, trying – as he often does – to bend reality to his will.”We have the best economic numbers of any president in the history of our country, and yet people don’t know about it because the press won’t talk about it,” he said last week.While some economic indicators, including roaring stock market indexes and low US poverty rates, are indeed historic, the overall picture is not nearly as rosy.Trump is often dismissive of…

France has suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student protests after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was blown off earlier this week in Lens. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had requested the pause until the facts of the incident had been “clarified”. Rights groups have complained of police using disproportionate force towards teenagers who have been protesting against old buildings, a lack of teachers and overcrowded classrooms all week. Police unions have said they need non-lethal options such as stun grenades to protect officers in these increasingly violent situations.Watch: Riot police clash with school protesters and use tear…

Getty ImagesGuojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang were arrested at their Arcadia mansion on TuesdayA California pair has been charged with multiple counts of abusing at least 14 surrogate-born children – some as young as two months old – and dissuading a witness.”The number of children who were subjected to this alleged horrific abuse is unprecedented,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan J Hochman said in a statement.Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, who US media describe as a couple, were arrested at their Arcadia mansion on Tuesday.The pair pleaded not guilty at a Pasadena courthouse, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.The…

ReutersHundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Tuesday, including in the capital ParisFrance has suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student protests that have swept the country, after a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off earlier this week.Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had requested the pause until the facts of Monday’s incident in Lens had been “clarified”, with conflicting accounts offered by protesters and officials.Several groups have complained of police using disproportionate force towards teenagers.The disruption continued early on Wednesday with more than 500 schools fully or partially shut, and Prime Minister Sébastien…