North America

NEW YORK (AP) — A prosecutor opened a criminal fraud trial Wednesday by telling jurors that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was on top of the world a year ago, hobnobbing with people like football star Tom Brady and ex-President Bill Clinton, before his historic fraud was exposed, leaving customers and investors without at least $10 billion they thought was secure.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Rehn pointed at Bankman-Fried, sitting with his lawyers in a suit, and accused him of “committing a massive fraud.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Warned to mind his out-of-court comments, former President Donald Trump returned to his New York civil fraud trial Wednesday as lawyers on both sides closely questioned an accountant who prepared financial statements at the heart of the case.

Outside the courtroom, Trump’s lawyers appealed a key pretrial ruling.

The civil case, filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accuses Trump and his business of exaggerating his wealth in financial statements that went to banks, insurers and others.

BALTIMORE (AP) — A shooting interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Baltimore’s Morgan State University on Tuesday, wounding five people and prompting an hourslong lockdown of the historically Black college.

Students hunkered down for several hours, as police went room to room looking for suspects. No arrests were made.

Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four men and one woman, are between the ages of 18 and 22. Their injuries were not life-threatening, he told reporters at a news conference early Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For much of the world, China’s Xinjiang region is notorious, a place where ethnic Uyghurs face forced labor and arbitrary detention. But a group of visiting foreign journalists was left with a decidedly different impression.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers walked off the job Wednesday in multiple states, kicking off a major health care strike amid an extraordinary year for U.S. labor organizing and work stoppages.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the country’s larger insurers and health care system operators, with 39 hospitals nationwide. The nonprofit company, based in Oakland, California, provides health coverage for nearly 13 million people, sending customers to clinics and hospitals it runs or contracts with to provide care.

Houston, Oct 4 (PTI) Two men of Indian origin in the US have pleaded guilty to their participation in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme by obtaining loans under an economic assistance plan following the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the justice department said.

Washington, Oct 4 (PTI) The Canadian allegations regarding India’s involvement in the killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist are "serious" and need to be investigated fully, the White House has said.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was killed in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

New York, Oct 4 (PTI) A speciality pharmacy company in the US and its Indian-origin chief executive officer have agreed collectively to pay USD 20 million to resolve allegations that they paid kickbacks to patients and physicians to protect its revenue stream, the justice department said.

“BioTek allegedly provided improper physician inducements and covered up kickbacks for patient referrals by waiving co-pays,” said US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

GREENWICH, Connecticut, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said on Tuesday that the relationship between China and the United States is "on the brink of red lines," although he does not see a war on the way.

Speaking at the Greenwich Economic Forum, Dalio said that there are irreconcilable differences between the world's two biggest economies, citing as examples the independence of Taiwan, the battle for chips and geopolitics.

MEXICO CITY, Oct 2 (Reuters) - A powerful faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of ex-Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has banned fentanyl production and sales in Sinaloa, according to roadside banners, though analysts doubted the group would leave such a profitable business.

The banners that appeared in the northern Sinaloa state on Monday, known as "narcomantas", were signed by Los Chapitos, a grouping of brothers who took over their father's criminal empire when Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2017.