Corruption Ledger

Nicaragua, a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause, is broadening the legal battle over the Gaza conflict at the International Court of Justice by bringing a case against Germany, a major supplier of arms to Israel. In hearings that opened on Monday in The Hague, Nicaragua argued that Germany is facilitating the commission of genocide in Gaza and violating the Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial aid. Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to The Netherlands, told…

A unit of defunct lender Credit Suisse will seek to overturn an order to pay US$743 million (S$1 billion) to a billionaire client over the actions of a notorious rogue banker at Singapore’s top court on April 8. The sum was awarded after a lower court earlier ruled that the bank’s trust had failed to safeguard the assets of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the former prime minister of Georgia. It was revised down from an initial US$926 million in a sprawling case…

JERUSALEM: A top Iranian military adviser on Sunday warned Israel that none of its embassies were safe following last week’s strike in Damascus blamed on Israel that killed two elite Iranian generals. Regional tensions threaten to draw West Asia into a wider conflict as Israel’s war against Hamas marks six months. The remarks by General Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, signalled that the attack on a diplomatic mission could be met with a…

Israeli MK Nissim Vaturi, a representative in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, issued a not-so-veiled threat on Saturday suggesting that if America doesn’t supply Israel with weapons aid then Israel will use nuclear weapons. “In the event of a conflict with Iran, if we do not receive American ammunition – we will have to use everything we have…” Vaturi ominously said. Israel assassinated a high-ranking Iranian Brigadier General and 15 others in an airstrike on an Iranian embassy…

The US is warning allies that China has stepped up its support for Russia, including by providing geospatial intelligence, to help Moscow in its war against Ukraine. Amid signs of continued military integration between the two nations, China has provided Russia with satellite imagery for military purposes, as well as microelectronics and machine tools for tanks, according to people familiar with the matter. China’s support also includes optics, propellants to be used in missiles and increased space cooperation, one of…

CAIRO (AP) — Two basic mistakes, according to the Israeli military. First, an officer overlooked a message detailing the vehicles in the convoy. Second, a spotter saw something in one car – possibly a bag – that he thought was a weapon. Officials say the result was the series of Israeli drone strikes that killed seven aid workers on a dark Gaza road. The Israeli military has described the deadly strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy as a tragic…

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi issued an apology early Wednesday for a devastating Israeli strike on an aid convoy in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of seven humanitarian workers, labeling the event as a consequence of “misidentification.” According to Halevi, the IDF has already conducted a preliminary examination of the strike. “I want to be very clear—the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers,” he said. “It was a mistake that followed…

NEW YORK – An executive at a Swiss holding company did not get prison time for participating in a scheme to help US taxpayers hide more than US$60 million (S$81 million) in assets in a fraudulent arrangement known as the “Singapore Solution”. Daniel Walchli, 56, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in setting up a structure for American clients of Privatbank Ihag to evade scrutiny by tax authorities….

NEW YORK – Citigroup implemented a fresh round of job cuts in its US investment bank last week, according to people familiar with the matter, as the financial giant completed a planned restructuring. Technology, media and telecom were among the coverage areas hit hardest at the Wall Street lender, with several senior bankers as well as those in more junior roles affected, the people said. Managing directors Yaseen Choudhury and Abhi Singhal, who both belonged to the financial technology team,…

Chemical manufacturer 3M will begin payments starting in the third quarter to many U.S. public drinking water systems as part of a multi-billion-dollar settlement over contamination with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and several consumer products, the company said. St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M announced Monday that last year’s lawsuit settlement received final approval from the U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina. The agreement called for payouts through 2036. Depending on what additional contamination is found, the amount…

LONDON: British PM Rishi Sunak faces a potential revolt from within his party ranks over new legislation that is set to criminalise homelessness. According to a ‘Times’ report on Monday, several Conservative Party MPs have warned that they will vote against the measures in the ‘Criminal Justice Bill’ in House of Commons. The proposals, which had been unveiled by former Indian-origin home secretary Suella Braverman, would mean rough sleepers in England and Wales could be fined as much as 2,500…

Israeli air strikes destroyed a building belonging to the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing a senior commander in the Quds Force, the external military and intelligence service of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iranian state media reported on Monday. General Mohamad Reza Zahedi, 65, oversaw Iran’s covert military operations in Syria and Lebanon, Iranian officials said.He is among the senior most Iranian commanders believed to have been killed by Israel in a yearslong shadow war that has included assassinations of…

The Israeli parliament on Monday approved a bill granting top ministers the power to prohibit the broadcasting of Al Jazeera news channel in Israel—a move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to pursue. The law, passed by a vote of 70 to 10, enables the ban of foreign channel broadcasts and permits the closure of their offices within Israel. The law empowers the prime minister and the minister of communications to declare international networks functioning in Israel to be in…

KAZAN: A Russian court on Monday extended until June 5 the pre-trial detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who faces 15 years in prison on charges of spreading “false information,” according to her employer. In court in the central city of Kazan on Monday, Kurmasheva smiled but complained about the poor conditions in which she was being held. “This cell is five square metres for two people. There is no hot water. Instead of a toilet there is a hole…

Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed 38 people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources said, the deadliest attacks so far in an intensified Israeli campaign against Iran’s allies in Syria. Israel has ramped up its airstrikes on both Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria since the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel led by Iran-backed Palestinian faction Hamas. Tehran and its proxies have entrenched themselves across…

LONDON – Just as they first ventured to do over a century ago, the world’s largest oil companies are staking claims far from home – this time to swallow, rather than spew, planet-warming industrial emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) storage is emerging as a potential multi-billion-dollar revenue stream for companies like ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, which are under global pressure to rein in the unfettered burning of fossil fuels. In Asia, which will generate the majority of this century’s carbon emissions,…