A court in the central German town Kassel has sentenced three men to jail for fraud because in 2000-1 they sold and administered a food supplement, which they claimed was a cure for cancer, to more than 150 terminally ill cancer patients. All the patients subsequently died. The verdict was given this week after a 16 month trial.

A doctor, a businessman, and a journalist had persuaded dying people that a Russian food supplement, Galavit, was able to stop their cancer. Patients had to pay about €8500 (£6800; $13 500) for the treatment course, which …