Category: Corruption

Omar Asad, 80, was detained at a temporary checkpoint in the occupied West Bank overnight in January 2022. The soldiers left him unresponsive on the ground of a construction site and said they assumed he had fallen asleep. Palestinian leaders say this case shows the near impunity of Israeli soldiers. They have called for those involved to be prosecuted in an international court. Mr Asad had been out drinking coffee and playing cardsbeforedriving to his home in the village of…

  The European Commission has signalled it could be preparing to break up Google’s adtech business. Speaking during a press conference this afternoon, EU EVP Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition chief and head of digital strategy, announced it has sent a formal statement of objections to Google for suspected anti-competitive conduct in its adtech business. If the Commission confirms its suspicions she said it is looking at breaking up Google’s adtech as the only viable solution to resolve what she…

By Chen Qingqing Published: Jun 13, 2023 07:46 PM The Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated on Tuesday that it is crucial to conduct an objective, fair, and professional investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosion and hold those responsible accountable, after some media reported that German investigators are looking into details about the explosion orchestrated by a sabotage group and the US had knowledge of a plan to attack the pipeline three months before the explosion occurred. We have noticed the…

Two senior officials with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), briefed ambassadors on recent developments, including the arrest of a top fugitive from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the final verdict related to atrocities committed in the Balkan wars. Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, Mechanism President, reported that in-court proceedings are all but concluded as only one case related to core crimes committed in Rwanda now remains on the docket. “This represents a watershed moment…

HONG KONG – UBS will impose strict restrictions on bankers from Credit Suisse, including a ban on new clients from high-risk countries, according to a Financial Times report, with the two banks moving to close the historic takeover as soon as Monday. A list consisting of almost two dozen “red lines” will prohibit Credit Suisse staff from a range of activities, a limitation meant to curb risk for UBS, the newspaper reported Sunday. Earlier, UBS chief executive officer (CEO) Sergio…

FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank (ECB) will almost certainly deliver another interest rate hike on Thursday as the eurozone slides into a recession. Analysts predict that ECB policymakers will copy May’s move and again raise borrowing costs by 25 basis points, taking the closely watched deposit rate to 3.5 per cent. It would be the Frankfurt institution’s eighth consecutive hike since July 2022, when it kicked off an unprecedented campaign of monetary tightening after Russia’s war in Ukraine sent food…

  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An elevated section of Interstate 95 collapsed early Sunday in Philadelphia after a vehicle caught fire, closing the main north-south highway on the East Coast and threatening to upend travel in parts of the densely populated Northeast, authorities said. Transportation officials warned of extensive delays and street closures and urged drivers to avoid the area. Early reports indicated that the vehicle may have been a tanker truck, but officials could not immediately confirm that. The fire…

Reality Winner, the first person to be prosecuted in violation of the Espionage Act under the Trump administration, said she was “blown away” by the voluminous detail found in the 49-page indictment against the former president in the sprawling Mar-a-Lago documents scandal. The former intelligence contractor and Air Force linguist made the comments in a new interview with NBC broadcast Friday. In 2018, under the Trump administration, Winner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after leaking a top-secret report on…

Western media is reporting that the CIA told its Belgian counterparts that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September.“Shortly after the attack, our military intelligence agency ADIV received strictly confidential information that pointed to Ukraine’s likely role in sabotage,” a mainstream Belgian newspaper wrote Saturday. The publication said it “learned from well-informed sources that our military intelligence service then ‘got a visit’ from the American intelligence service CIA. ”The story “illustrates how…

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give up his parliamentary seat amid a long-running ethics investigation that is expected to produce a report into his behavior as prime minister next week. In a blistering statement announcing his resignation from the legislature, Johnson described as a “kangaroo court” the parliamentary committee tasked with examining whether he lied to fellow lawmakers about social gatherings inside government buildings that had flouted his own COVID-19 social distancing regulations. The committee had provided him…

In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illegal arms trade that is fuelling conflict and terrorism. In the Sahel, home to 300 million people, it’s a buyer’s market for guns. Insurgency and banditry plague the region, rooted in, among other things, endemic intercommunal tensions, clashes between farmers and herders, a spread of violent religious extremism, and competition over such scarce resources as water and arable land amid…

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Thursday it was suspending food aid to Ethiopia because its donations were being diverted from people in need. A spokesperson said USAID had determined, in coordination with the Ethiopian government, that a “widespread and coordinated campaign is diverting food assistance from the people of Ethiopia”. The statement did not say who was behind the campaign. The United States is by far the largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, where more than 20…

The top US securities regulator sued cryptocurrency platform Coinbase on Tuesday, the second lawsuit in two days against a major crypto exchange, in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry and one that could dramatically transform a market that has largely operated outside regulation. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday took aim at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The SEC accuses Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao of operating a “web of deception”. If…

Hundreds of uncontrolled forest fires blazed across Canada on Wednesday, threatening critical infrastructure, forcing evacuations and sending a blanket of smoky air wafting over U.S. cities. Wildfires are common in Canada’s western provinces, but this year flames have mushroomed rapidly in the country’s east, making it the worst-ever start to the season. About 3.8 million hectares have burned, 15 times the 10-year average, Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said. “Across the country as of today, there are 414…

Fox News on Wednesday notified Mr Tucker Carlson’s legal team that the former prime-time host violated his contract with the network when he launched his own Twitter show on Tuesday, Axios reported, citing a copy of a letter obtained by the news website. Mr Carlson released the first episode of his new show on Twitter on Tuesday, weeks after being taken off the air by Fox following a damaging defamation lawsuit over false claims of election fraud. Fox News general…