Geneva, Switzerland - Generative artificial intelligence could transform healthcare through things like drug development and more rapid diagnoses, but the World Health Organization stressed on Thursday more attention should be paid to the risks. The WHO has been examining the potential dangers and benefits posed by AI large multi-modal models (LMMs),...

Vlissingen, Netherlands - Cocaine seizures at the Belgian port of Antwerp, the top gateway into Europe for mainly South American drug cartels, hit a fresh record high last year, authorities said on Wednesday. Some 116 tons of cocaine were seized in Antwerp alone, Belgian Finance Minister Vincent van Peteghem told reporters,...

The detained people were wanted in the United States, Germany, India, and several former Soviet republics as well as other parts of Asia and the Middle East.

Pfizer announced in March its deal with Seagen.

The US firm will pay US$4.8bn to acquire cancer drugmaker.

Authorities in Iraq -- a key conduit for the amphetamine-type drug -- regularly announce such operations in which large hauls of captagon are seized, often coming from Syria with which it shares 600-kilometre (370 miles) porous border.

Iraq has long been transit country for captagon, but officials say it is increasingly becoming a consumer market for the illicit drug. In March, the authorities announced the seizure of three million captagon pills at the Al-Qaim border crossing with Syria.

Continuing with its crackdown against drug traffickers in the country, Iraq security forces on Tuesday said they had taken into custody a smuggler and seized some 44,000 captagon tablets meant for sale. Iraq has seen a surge in the consumption of the amphetamine-like drug in recent years as it grapples...

Speaking at the opening of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said his government had sent a "clear message" to Egypt: "We expect that the joint investigation will be exhaustive and thorough."

Three Israeli soldiers and a member of Egypt's security forces were killed in a rare exchange of fire near the border between the two countries, official sources from both sides said. The Israeli army said an Egyptian assailant shot dead two soldiers " while they secured a military post at...

BEIRUT, LEBANON -  An air strike killed a major drug smuggler and his family in southern Syria on Monday, a war monitor said, attributing the strike to Jordan though Amman did not immediately confirm. Drug dealer "Marai al-Ramthan, his wife and six children were killed in a Jordanian air force strike"...

Profit fell on declining COVID-19 vaccine revenues.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA  -  Coca cultivation hit a record high by soaring 35 percent from 2020 to 2021, a UN report showed Thursday, amid new cocaine trafficking hubs emerging in southeastern Europe and Africa. Bolivia, Colombia and Peru - which have historically dominated the production of coca leaves - altogether cultivated an...

Cairo, Egypt - A Cairo court has sentenced to life in prison a Ukrainian woman arrested at the Egyptian capital's airport with a bag of cocaine, a judicial source said Sunday. Liudmyla Balakina, who lives in the Netherlands, had been convicted of drug smuggling following her arrest in April upon arrival...

Saudi Arabian authorities said Wednesday that they thwarted an attempt to smuggle 403, 000 amphetamine tablets into the kingdom. An official statement said the "security follow-up of drug smuggling and promotion networks targeting the security of the kingdom and its youth resulted in thwarting of the smuggling attempt" The tablets...

Iraqi security forces said Saturday they had broken up a drug trafficking ring and seized more than six million pills of the amphetamine-type stimulant captagon, making several arrests. Iraq's northwestern neighbor Syria is the Middle East's main captagon producer, and its southern neighbor Saudi Arabia the main consumer. Iraqi forces...

Child vaccination rates in Lebanon have dropped by more than 30 percent, compounding a health crisis marked by drug shortages and an exodus of trained professionals, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The Dubai Police have arrested a man they say had smuggled 500 kg of pure cocaine, which has a street value of AED500 million ($136 million), into the country. They said they surveilled him for some time and then caught him red-handed.

With a long-term forward-looking vision, the UAE continues its efforts to combat the spread of the COVID-19 variant, with the Ministry of Health and Prevention announcing the adoption of one of the most important modern pharmaceutical drugs that have proven its efficacy in treating the virus so that the country...