Category: Corruption

PARIS – France won a record €15 billion (S$21.9 billion) in foreign investment pledges on May 13, allowing President Emmanuel Macron to bask in the limelight with global CEOs, and forget about strained public finances and weak polls for a while. The bumper crop of pledges, in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to pharmaceuticals to energy, stood Mr Macron in…

Video. At least 320 bodies have been discovered buried in a mass grave at the destroyed Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, just weeks after a similar mass grave containing up to 400 bodies was discovered amid the ruins of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Some of the bodies, which include children, medical staff and patients, appear to have been executed or buried alive.

Video. Update from the University of California, Los Angeles, where police in riot gear began dismantling a pro-Palestinian encampment early Thursday, using flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, and arresting dozens of students. The raid came just over a day after pro-Israel counterprotesters armed with sticks, metal rods and fireworks attacked students at the encampment.

A whistleblower who accused a Boeing supplier of ignoring manufacturing defects on the 737 Max died on Tuesday. The former Spirit AeroSystems employee Josh Dean, 45, died after contracting a sudden illness, according to reports by family members on social media, The Seattle Times reported on Wednesday. Josh’s aunt, Carol Parsons, told the outlet that Dean went to the hospital…

MILAN (AP) — A former Italian foreign minister has been convicted and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for his role in the sale of an apartment in Monte Carlo inherited by his right-wing party. Gianfranco Fini is a former leader of the far-right Italian Social Movement, which he moved away from its neo-fascist ideology and transformed…

EU regulators have opened an investigation of 20 airlines over their potentially “misleading greenwashing practices”, including the claimed benefits of offsetting emissions from flying. The European Commission said on Tuesday that it had written to the airlines and to national consumer protection authorities “identifying several types of potentially misleading green claims”. The airlines were not named, but the national regulators…

A police sniper was reportedly photographed and filmed “overlooking” pro-Palestine protests at Indiana University on Thursday. if you criticize the state of israel they send snipers to your schools https://t.co/LyRiGCWhB4 — Mohammad (@MargBarAmerica) April 25, 2024   They won’t even do this for our border, but they’ll do it for Jewish feelings. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/FkrdF8CCHv— Lucas Gage (@Lucas_Gage_) April 26, 2024…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia. Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he…

Columbia University retracted ultimatum for pro-Palestinian demonstrators amidst US tensions. Police used force at universities. Debates on free speech intensified. Student Skyler Sieradsky expressed fear as a Jew in America due to messages of hate and violence. Authorities confirmed that police forces conducted widespread arrests, employing chemical irritants and tasers to disperse protests at several universities. Reports emerged of clashes…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police said Friday they searched the office of the hard-line incoming leader of an association of doctors and confiscated his mobile phone as he faces accusations that he incited the protracted walkouts by thousands of medical interns and residents. The development could further dim prospects for an early end to the strikes. The…

European lawmakers have approved a resolution that calls for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all political prisoners held in Russia, including journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich. The resolution was part of a joint motion in the European Parliament on April 25, condemning Russia’s “undemocratic” presidential election last month and their “illegitimate extension” to territories inside Ukraine that Moscow…

A top Russian military official was arrested on suspicion of accepting a bribe, authorities said Tuesday, a high-profile arrest that comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine is in its third year. Timur Ivanov, 48, one of Russia’s 12 deputy defense ministers, was sanctioned by both the United States and the European Union in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia’s state…

It’s the latest sign of internal turmoil at the tech giant centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. Workers held sit-in protests last week at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The company responded by calling the police,…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk accused Australia of censorship after an Australian judge ruled that his social media platform X must block users worldwide from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded Tuesday by describing Musk as an “arrogant billionaire” who considered himself above the law and was…

A court in Vietnam on Thursday ordered the death penalty for a real estate tycoon found guilty in a financial fraud case totalling more than $12 billion US. Vietnamese state media called it the country’s largest-ever case of financial fraud. The conviction of Truong My Lan came amid a government anti-corruption crackdown by Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong….

Venezuela’s former oil minister Tareck El Aissami, once a powerful confidante of authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro, has been arrested on allegations of corruption, the socialist government announced on Tuesday. Former finance minister Simón Zerpa and Sarmark López, a businessman and associate of El Aissami, were also arrested as part of the probe into alleged corruption at state oil major Petróleos…