Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Officials in Myanmar’s major cities destroyed about $300 million worth of confiscated illegal drugs Thursday.The destroyed drugs included opium, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, ketamine and the stimulant known as ice, or crystal meth, Yangon Police Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin said in a speech at a drug-burning ceremony.The drug burnings came nearly a month after U.N. experts warned of unprecedented levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet.The production of opium and heroin historically flourished there, largely because of the lawlessness in border areas where…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Few U.S. adults support allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools, but a majority favors allowing religious chaplains to provide support services for public school students, a new poll finds.The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows the complexity of Americans’ attitudes toward religious expression in schools, which varies depending on the kind of expression and sometimes crosses partisan lines.The findings also highlight tension points in the country’s long-standing debate over the role of religion in public schools, which continues to drive legislation and legal action. Recent examples include a lawsuit…

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — An explosion and the stampede that followed killed at least 29 schoolchildren and injured more than 250 at a high school in Central African Republic’s capital city, authorities said Thursday.The explosion occurred Wednesday at the Barthelemy Boganda High School in Bangui when power was being restored to an electrical transformer within the school premises after it malfunctioned, according to the country’s Ministry of National Education.Most of the victims – including 16 girls – died at the scene after the explosion resulted in a stampede while others were confirmed dead at the hospital, the Ministry…

PARIS (AP) — Three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon failed in her bid Thursday to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes.Kipyegon, the Olympic 1,500-meter gold medalist from Kenya, ran in 4 minutes, 06.42 seconds — the fastest mile in history by a woman — at Stade Charléty in Paris.Her time was better than her world record of 4:07.64 but won’t be recognized by the international federation because the Nike-sponsored event dubbed ” Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile ” was unofficial. She was supported by pacemakers and equipped with Nike’s latest innovations, from her…

Freshmen dominated the first round of the NBA draft. That squeezed out some veteran college big men.St. Joseph’s junior Rasheer Fleming, Stanford senior Maxime Raynaud, and fifth-year seniors in Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Auburn’s Johni Broome are among those waiting to hear their name called entering the second round.Bigs made up eight of the 30 first-round picks, with 18 freshmen and six international prospects taking up most of the slots. Here’s a look at top prospects available when the two-day format resumes with Minnesota on the clock Thursday night:Rasheer Fleming, St. Joseph’sThe 6-foot-8, 232-pound junior is coming off a productive…

CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 7, plays baseball and basketball.The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for the ramifications of tariffs on their rising youth sports budget.“All of their equipment I’m sure comes from China,” said Karli Casamento, a second-grade teacher in suburban Philadelphia. “As they get bigger, they need new equipment. So that is definitely a concern.”For families like the Casamentos…

WASHINGTON (AP) — While completing a master’s degree in data analysis, Palwasha Zahid moved from Dallas to a town near Silicon Valley. The location made it easy to visit the campuses of tech stalwarts such as Google, Apple, and Nvidia. Zahid, 25, completed her studies in December, but so far she hasn’t found a job in the industry that surrounds her. “It stings a little bit,” she said. “I never imagined it would be this difficult just to get a foot in the door.”Young people graduating from college this spring and summer are facing one of the toughest job markets…

Around 1,000 fans were on hand when England played one of the very first matches of the inaugural Women’s European Championship in 1984.How things have changed.More than half a million tickets have already been sold for the 31 matches of this year’s edition of the tournament, which kicks off next week in Switzerland.Organizers expect to break the attendance record of 575,000 set at the previous women’s euros in England in 2022 when 87,000 people packed into Wembley Stadium for the final.The popularity of women’s soccer in Europe — and around the world — has accelerated in leaps and bounds in…

In the fight for top AI talent, Meta just reportedly snagged a win, poaching three OpenAI researchers despite rival Sam Altman’s public mockery of Mark Zuckerberg’s lavish hiring tactics. The latest victory in Zuckerberg’s widely-reported recruiting blitz: Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai – who established OpenAI’s Zurich office – have joined Meta’s superintelligence team, the WSJ reports, suggesting Zuckerberg’s methods can deliver. As Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, first revealed in a recent podcast with his brother Jack, Zuckerberg has been dangling $100+ million compensation packages in an effort to lure top talent from OpenAI. The Journal subsequently…

Climatiq, a startup that’s built an AI-enabled platform for companies to collect and automate their carbon emission data, has secured a $11.6 million Series A led by Alstin Capital.The Berlin startup’s tool analyzes everything from supply chain data to purchase orders to calculate a company’s scope 3 emissions, which measure its indirect carbon footprint.”If you’re building any other kind of software, there are existing APIs — but not for carbon emissions. So we’ve built an infrastructure for carbon tooling,” Climatiq’s cofounder and CEO, Hessam Lavi, told Business Insider in an interview.Scope 3 emissions, which typically represent around 90% of a company’s carbon…