List of All Articles with Tag 'world'

A Lebanese judge on Monday questioned auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn in Beirut over possible links to a former French Cabinet minister charged two years ago with “passive corruption" for work she did for him, officials familiar with the case said. The Lebanese officials said Ghosn denied any dealings with France’s former Justice Minister Rachida Dati who is accused of having done consulting work for Ghosn for two years starting in 2010 when she was a member of the European parliament. Dati was accused in 2021 of “passive corruption by a person who at the time was holding an elective mandate" and “benefiting from abuse of power.” She was suspected of lobbying which would have been illegal in her position. The former head of Nissan and Renault denied during the questioning in Beirut that Nissan had paid about $1 million for Dati in lawyer fees, added the officials speaking on condition of anonymity. The officials said Beirut recently received a new Red Notice from Interpol and summoned Ghosn for questioning on Monday where he came with his lawyer to attend the session. It was the third Red Notice that Lebanon has received since Ghosn fled from Japan in late 2019. A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant but a request to law enforcement to provisionally arrest the person of interest. Monday’s questioning was the first for Ghosn since May last year when he was summoned for questioning days after Beirut received a Red Notice from Interpol at the request of the French prosecutor’s office. The notice was for Ghosn and four other people based on an investigation opened in 2019 into money laundering and abuse of company assets. Dati was the toast of Paris and foreign capitals when she served as justice minister under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy from June 2007 to June 2009. With her Algerian and Moroccan parents and humble origins as one of 11 children in a housing project, she was his emblem of diversity in a new France. Her bling-bling style — a penchant for Dior clothes, stiletto heels and expensive jewels — quickly transformed her into Cabinet cover girl. In 2019, Ghosn jumped bail while being questioned in Japan in a daring escape by hiding in a box spirited aboard a private jet. He fled to Lebanon which does not extradite its citizens. Prosecutors in Japan charged three Americans with helping Ghosn escape the country. Renault and Nissan have been distancing themselves from the scandal. Ghosn, who has citizenship in Lebanon, France and Brazil, has repeatedly professed his innocence. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Egyptian family awaits word on son as village mourns dozens feared drowned trying to reach Europe Tunisia says attacker fatally stabbed police officer at Brazilian Embassy; suspect arrested Greek court postpones hearing for smuggling suspects in deadly migrant boat sinking until Tuesday

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Italian lawmakers on Monday began debating a divisive proposal to criminalize surrogacies arranged abroad as Prime Minister Giorgia

Former president Donald Trump will be barred from viewing the evidence the Department of Justice has collected against him except when in the presence of his attorneys, according to a new order by one of the judges overseeing the criminal case against him. In a four-page order signed on Monday, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart granted a prosecution request for a protective order meant to shield the information that must be disclosed to Mr Trump about the case against him from public view. It covers “non-classified discovery produced by the United States to the Defendants in preparation for, or in connection with, any stage” of the case that began when a Florida grand jury indicted the ex-president on 37 separate counts of violating the federal criminal code earlier this month, and requires that those materials can only be used “in connection with the defense of this case, and for no other purpose, and in connection with no other proceeding”. Magistrate Judge Reinhart also ordered that the discovery materials be kept only by Mr Trump’s legal team and stored securely on premises controlled by them. He further specified that Mr Trump (and his co-defendant Walt Nauta) “shall only have access to Discovery Materials under the direct supervision of Defense Counsel or a member of Defense Counsel’s staff,” and prohibited either of them from retaining copies of the materials themselves or taking any notes with them after viewing any of the materials. The protective order and the restrictions it places upon Mr Trump are meant in part to prevent him from directing his followers to harass any witnesses against him or any FBI or DOJ personnel involved in the case. After FBI agents searched his Palm Beach, Florida property on 8 August last year, the former president’s camp leaked an unredacted copy of a property receipt provided to his counsel at the time of the search to right-wing Breitbart News. The document named multiple FBI agents involved in the search of his property, and in subsequent court filings the government disclosed that those agents had been targeted for harassment by Mr Trump’s supporters. Read More Blinken meets Xi in Beijing at climax of high-stakes China visit The 25-year-old party chairwoman who wants to turn North Carolina blue Anger as Fox guest says it’s time for someone to ‘pull a trigger’ over ‘the left’

He is the man who who has been leading opposition to Russia’s Presdent Vladimir Putin for a decade – organising mass protests and seeking to expose corruption by officials. Alexei Navalny, 47, is now the country’s most prominent prisoner. He is currently serving sentences totalling more than nine years, having been arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. On Monday, he was in court facing the start of his latest trial on charges of extremism. Charges that could keep him behind bars for decades. Mr Navalny, wearing his prison garb, looked gaunt at the session but spoke emphatically about the weakness of the state's case and gestured energetically. Mr Navalny has said the new extremism charges, which he rejected as "absurd," could keep him in prison for another 30 years. He said an investigator told him that he would also face a separate military trial on terrorism charges that could potentially carry a life sentence. The trial came amid a sweeping Russian crackdown on dissent amid the fighting in Ukraine, which Mr Navalny has harshly criticised. Mr Nalvalny's supporters accuse Russian authorities of trying to break him in prison, to silence his criticism of President Putin, something the Kremlin denies. Much of the international community has hit out at Mr Navalny's imprisonment as politically motivated. The Moscow City Court, which opened the hearing at high-security Penal Colony No. 6, didn't allow reporters in the courtroom and they watched the proceedings via video feed from a separate building. Mr Navalny's parents also were denied access to the court and followed the hearing remotely. Mr Navalny and his lawyers urged the judge to hold an open trial, arguing that authorities are eager to suppress details of the proceedings to cover up the weakness of the case. "The investigators, the prosecutors and the authorities in general don't want the public to know about the trial," Navalny said. Prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova asked the judge to conduct the trial behind closed doors, citing security concerns. The feed from the session to media room was then cut, but it wasn't immediately clear if it was because the judge decided to close the trial or if it was for another reason. The new charges relate to the activities of Mr Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalise all the activities of Mr Navalny's foundation since its creation in 2011. One of Mr Navalny's associates, Daniel Kholodny, was relocated from a different prison to face trial alongside him. Mr Navalny has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a "punishment cell," for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time. Mr Navalny's associates and supporters have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his health. As Mr Navalny's trial opened, the Prosecutor General's office declared the Bulgaria-based Agora human rights group to be an "undesirable" organisation. It said the group poses a "threat to the constitutional order and national security" by alleging human rights violations and offering legal assistance to members of the opposition movement. Russian authorities have banned dozens of domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations on similar grounds. In Berlin, the German government criticised the trial of Mr Navalny and reiterated its call for his immediate release. "In case of of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, the Russian authorities keep looking for new excuses to extend his imprisonment," government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said at a briefing. "The German government continues to demand of the Russian authorities that they release Navalny without delay," he added. "Navalny's imprisonment is based on a politically motivated verdict, as the European Court of Human Rights concluded back in 2017." Asked whether Germany could provide any assistance to Navalny or observe the trial, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said German officials were doing what they could "on the few channels that we have," but acknowledged it was "very difficult at the moment" given the current state of relations with Russia. It was not immediately clear which specific actions or incidents the new charges referred to. One relates to "rehabilitation of Nazism" - a possible reference to Navalny's declarations of support for Ukraine, whose government Russia accuses of embodying Nazi ideology. A notion dismissed as ridiculous by Ukraine and its Western allies. In April, Russian investigators formally linked Navalny supporters to the murder of Vladlen Tatarsky, a popular military blogger and supporter of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine who was killed by a bomb in St Petersburg. Russia's National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) claimed Ukrainian intelligence had organised the bombing with help from Mr Navalny's supporters. This appeared to be a reference to the fact that a suspect arrested over the killing once registered to take part in an anti-Kremlin voting scheme promoted by Mr Navalny's movement. Mr Navalny allies denied any connection to the killing. Ukraine attributed it to "domestic terrorism". Associated Press Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Russian court starts trial of opposition leader Navalny that could keep him locked up for decades Navalny associate jailed by Russian court: ‘Another hostage in prison’ Russian court sends an associate of Kremlin foe Navalny to prison for 7 1/2 years

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Drone footage has emerged allegedly showing a car filled with explosives on the Kakhovka dam when it collapsed earlier in the month. Two Ukrainian military officials told the Associated Press that Russian troops were in the same area inside the dam where Ukraine claims that the explosion took place. The Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The Russia-controlled Kakhovka dam collapsed earlier this month, causing flooding that has killed at least 52 people. Ukraine has blamed Russia for the collapse of the dam, with the Ukrainian military claiming it was Russia’s attempt to prevent Ukrainian troops from crossing the Dnipro to attack the occupying forces. Meanwhile, Russia has blamed Kyiv for sabotaging the dam by cutting off water supplies to Crimea and to distract attention from its alleged faltering counteroffensive. Read More Putin shows off what he claims is ‘draft peace agreement’ with Ukraine - that they ‘refused to sign’ Russia had means, motive and opportunity to destroy Ukraine dam, drone photos and information show Ukraine said to have recaptured village in Zaporizhzhia – as fierce fighting continues across frontline

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China’s No. 2 official Li Qiang landed in Germany on Sunday for his first overseas trip since becoming