News in brief-(2022-12-10)

Brittney Griner lands in US after prisoner swap with Russia

WASHINGTON, Dec 09: Ten months after she left the US to play basketball in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has landed in her home state of Texas. Griner was jailed for carrying cannabis oil at a Moscow airport in February, and was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Thursday. The pair were seen crossing on the tarmac at Abu Dhabi airport. President Joe Biden said Griner was "in good spirits" and needed "time and space to recover". She was flown to San Antonio, near her hometown of Houston, where she will be offered medical care after her time in a Russian penal colony. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, who attended Mr Biden's announcement at the White House on Thursday, was expected to meet her there. — BBC

Japanese dengue vaccine becomes second approved by EU

TOKYO, Dec 09: Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda said the European Union had given the green light to its dengue fever vaccine, making it the second jab preventing the disease to be approved by the bloc. Mosquito-borne dengue can cause hemorrhagic fever and infects an estimated 100 to 400 million people yearly, although over 80 percent of cases are mild or asymptomatic, the WHO says. — AFP

New York Times workers stage first strike in 40 years

NEW YORK, Dec 09: More than 1,000 New York Times employees went on strike Thursday in the first industrial action of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years. Journalists and other workers at the storied media outlet, often referred to as America's paper of record, walked out at midnight for 24 hours after failing to reach an agreement with the company on a new round of contract negotiations. The NewsGuild of New York, a union representing the striking workers, had said that a key sticking point was the management's refusal to raise wages in line with surging inflation. Health and retirement benefits as well as return-to-work policies following the coronavirus pandemic were also an issue. — AFP