2 mins read

Brenda Fricker, the first Irish actress to win an Oscar for ‘My Left Foot,’ dies at 81

LONDON | Brenda Fricker, who won an Academy Award for her role as Bridget Fagan Brown in the 1989 film “My Left Foot,” has died. She was 81. The Irish character actor died Thursday night in Dublin after a period of ill health, her agent, Phil Belfield said in a statement. Fricker became the first […]

5 mins read

Study shows a blood test can help identify healthy people at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease

WASHINGTON | A blood test may predict if apparently healthy older adults are likely to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms in the next five or 10 years, researchers reported Wednesday. That information could be reassuring or terrifying, but for now it’s a potential tool to speed drug development by helping to identify and enroll high-risk people into […]

3 mins read

UK unveils plans for social media curfew for older teens – but it’s voluntary

LONDON | The British government announced plans Wednesday to introduce a six-hour social media curfew from midnight for 16- and 17-year-olds — though they will be able to override the proposed default setting. In its latest attempt to reduce the risks of online harm for children, Britain’s Labour government also said that features that can […]

4 mins read

UK leaders call for calm as protests break out after Belfast street stabbing

LONDON | U.K. leaders called for calm Tuesday after the arrest of a Sudanese man accused of trying to kill a man in a vicious stabbing on a Belfast street sparked fiery anti-immigration protests because the suspect is an asylum seeker. The victim, a man in his 40s, was taken to the hospital with serious […]

4 mins read

Exceptionally early heat wave shatters records and brings deaths in Europe

LONDON | Temperature records toppled as a spring heat wave continued to scorch parts of Western Europe on Tuesday, triggering government warnings about risks to life. Several drownings were reported in Britain and France as people tried to cool down. London recorded a rare “tropical night,” defined as one in which the temperature does not […]

6 mins read

A new Swatch model is introduced, and a case study in overexcited ‘drop culture’ plays out

LONDON | In Paris, police deployed tear gas. In Milan, Italy, a fistfight erupted. In London, Singapore and New York, all-night queues snaked from the doors of Swatch stores — the latest examples of status-symbol “drop culture” to flash across the globe when status symbols and resale value collide. The company at the center of […]