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India’s drug regulator inspected 90% of cough syrup makers, found lapses, official says

India’s drug regulator has inspected nearly 90% of the country’s cough syrup makers and found compliance lapses, its chief said on Monday, amid heightened scrutiny after India-made syrups were linked to the deaths of children in the country and abroad. The inspections follow the discovery of a brand of cough syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol that was linked to the deaths of 24 children in October last year. The product, named Coldrif, was made by Sresan Pharmaceutical, based in Tamil Nadu. “We took serious actions on serious non-compliances, and our belief is that the rot of cough syrup manufacturing will be removed,” Drugs Controller General of India Rajeev Raghuvanshi said at the IPA 11th Global Pharmaceutical Quality Summit in Mumbai. The regulator is looking to fix issues around cough syrup products, he said, without providing a timeline. Read More: WHO identifies India-made contaminated cough syrup in Western Pacific The agency is under pressure to tighten oversight of the...
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Trump renews attack on US Supreme Court, vows other tariffs, licences

President Donald Trump renewed his condemnation of the United States Supreme Court on Monday after it ruled against his sweeping tariff program last week, vowing to turn to other tariff powers and licenses but giving no details. "The court has also approved all other tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the tariffs as initially used," he wrote in a social media post. https://ift.tt/FWpkQBR Trump said on Saturday he would raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, a day after the court ruled that Trump had exceeded his presidential authority when he imposed an array of higher tariff rates under an economic emergency law. In his post today, Trump also pointed to the potential use of licenses to pressure countries, writing that "incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, [I] can’t charge them a licence fee — but...

Iran warns of 'ferociously' respond to any US attack, even limited strikes

Iran said Monday that a US attack of any scale would spur the Islamic republic to respond "ferociously", after President Donald Trump said he was considering limited strikes against the country. The United States has built up forces in the Middle East to pile pressure on Iran to make a deal at negotiations due to restart on Thursday, with Trump weighing a limited strike if no agreement is reached. On Monday Iran's foreign ministry reiterated that any strike, even limited, would be "would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period". "And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that's what we would do," ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist. The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland on Tuesday under Omani mediation. Further talks, confirmed by Iran and Oman but not by the United States, are sched...

US can access minerals, military bases in Somaliland, minister tells AFP

Somaliland is willing to give the United States access to its minerals and military bases, a minister has told AFP, as the breakaway region of Somalia seeks international recognition. Israel became the only country in the world to recognise Somaliland's independence in December -- something the territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991. The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passports, currency, army and police force. "We are willing to give exclusive (access to our minerals) to the United States. Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States," Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency, told AFP in an interview on Saturday. "We believe that we will agree on something with the United States." Somaliland president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi already suggested in recent weeks granting Israe...

Iran and US views on sanctions relief differ, Iranian official tells Reuters

Iran and the United States have differing views over sanctions relief in talks to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that new talks were planned in early March as fears of a military confrontation grow. Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme as the US builds up its military capability in the Middle East, fuelling fears of a wider war. Iran has threatened to strike US bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by US forces. "The last round of talks showed that US ideas regarding the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief differ from Iran’s demands. Both sides need to reach a logical timetable for lifting sanctions," the official said. "This roadmap must be reasonable and based on mutual interests." Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that he expected to have a draft counterproposal ready within days...

UAE foils cyber-attacks targeting key sectors

The United Arab Emirates has thwarted organised cyber attacks targeting the country's digital infrastructure and vital sectors, the state-run WAM news agency said on Saturday. The attacks "included attempts to infiltrate networks, deploy ransomware and conduct systematic phishing campaigns targeting national platforms," and involved artificial intelligence technologies to develop offensive tools, it added. The report did not say who was to blame for the attacks. According to the local media, the exploitation of artificial intelligence technologies reflected a qualitative shift in the methods employed by terrorist groups and their ability to harness modern technologies”. The statement came days after the council's head, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, said there are between 90,000 to 200,000 breach attempts focused on the UAE “every single day” – many of them “state-sponsored”. In a statement to WAM, Al Kuwaiti revealed that state-sponsored/APT accounted for 71.4 per cent of tr...

India, Brazil sign mining pact as Modi targets $20 billion trade in five years

India moved to deepen trade ties with Brazil on Saturday, signing a pact to expand cooperation in mining and minerals as it seeks to meet rising domestic steel demand and support capacity expansion amid a global race for raw materials. The agreement was signed in the presence of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who arrived in New Delhi earlier this week for a three-day visit. Brazil is among the world's top producers of iron ore and holds large reserves of minerals critical to steelmaking. Closer cooperation is expected to improve India's access to raw materials and technologies needed to sustain long-term growth in its steel sector, an Indian government statement said. The cooperation will focus on attracting investment in exploration, mining and steel sector infrastructure, the statement said. India has a steelmaking capacity of 218 million metric tonnes, and companies are expanding output to meet rising domestic dema...