Carla Bruni questioned in Sarkozy campaign probe in France

Carla Bruni questioned in Sarkozy campaign probe in France
French-Italian singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been summoned before a judge for possible indictment. (AFP)
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Updated 09 July 2024
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Carla Bruni questioned in Sarkozy campaign probe in France

Carla Bruni questioned in Sarkozy campaign probe in France
  • Four sources familiar with the case said Bruni was brought before a Paris investigating magistrate for financial crime
  • Her interview was “likely to continue” into Wednesday before she finds out whether she will be charged

PARIS: Singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was being questioned by a French judge Tuesday in connection with an investigation into the alleged Libyan financing of her husband Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign, which could lead to her being charged, sources told AFP.
Four sources familiar with the case said Bruni was brought before a Paris investigating magistrate for financial crime at 10:00 am (0800 GMT).
Her interview was “likely to continue” into Wednesday before she finds out whether she will be charged, one of the sources said.
According to one source close to the case, the 56-year-old singer is suspected of concealment of witness tampering and involvement in an attempt to bribe Lebanese judicial personnel, among other violations.
Her lawyers, Paul Mallet and Benoit Martinez, did not immediately comment when contacted by AFP.
Sarkozy, 69, was charged in October 2023 with illegal witness tampering, as part of a probe into whether he took money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to fund his 2007 election campaign.
Investigators suspect that several people, some close to Sarkozy, were involved in paying a key witness in that case to retract a statement he made incriminating the former president.
Bruni-Sarkozy could be charged or given the status of assisted witness, which under the French legal system falls short of being formally charged.
She has already been questioned twice by investigators, first as a witness in June 2023, then as a suspect in early May.
An investigation showed Bruni-Sarkozy deleted all messages exchanged with French “paparazzi queen” Michele Marchand on the day Marchand was charged with witness tampering in June 2021.
Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine had claimed several times that he helped deliver up to five million euros ($5.4 million at current rates) in cash from Qaddafi to Sarkozy and his chief of staff in 2006 and 2007.
But in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, raising suspicions that Sarkozy and close allies may have paid the witness to change his mind.
Authorities took an interest in Bruni-Sarkozy when Marchand justified her trips to the Sarkozy home as social calls with the singer.
Sarkozy is set to stand trial in 2025 over the allegations that he conspired to take cash from the Libyan leader to illegally fund his subsequently victorious 2007 bid to become French president.
The right-wing politician, who ran France from 2007 to 2012, has faced a litany of legal woes since leaving office.


Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12

Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12
Updated 4 sec ago
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Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12

Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12
KIGALI: Rwandan health authorities will begin a vaccine study against the Marburg hemorrhagic fever, officials said Sunday, as the East African country tries to stop the spread of an outbreak that has killed 12 people.
Rwanda, which received 700 doses of a vaccine under trial from the U.S.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute on Saturday, will target health workers and emergency responders as well as individuals who have been in contact with confirmed cases, according to the Health Ministry.
Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana told reporters Sunday that the Rwanda Biomedical Centre had reviewed the vaccine shipment.
There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets. Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill with the disease.
In a statement, Sabin Vaccine Institute said it had “entered into a clinical trial agreement with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the trial sponsor, to provide investigational doses" for the study.
The Rwandan government said there were 46 confirmed cases, with 29 of them in isolation. Health authorities have identified at least 400 people who came into contact with confirmed cases of the virus.
Rwanda declared an outbreak of Marburg on Sept. 27 and reported six deaths a day later. Authorities said at the time that the first cases had been found among patients in health facilities. There is still no confirmation of the source of the outbreak.
Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.
In Rwanda, most of the sick are health workers in six out of the country's 30 districts. Some patients live in districts bordering Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, according to the World Health Organization.
Rwandans have been urged to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread. Strict measures include the suspension of school and hospital visits as well as a restriction on the number of those who can attend funerals for Marburg victims. Home vigils aren’t allowed in the event a death is linked to Marburg.
The U.S. Embassy in Kigali has urged its staff to work remotely and avoid visiting offices.
Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have in the past been recorded in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to WHO.
The virus was first identified in 1967, after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven people died after being exposed to the virus while conducting research on monkeys.

Philippines to send halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia this month

Philippines to send halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia this month
Updated 54 min 32 sec ago
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Philippines to send halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia this month

Philippines to send halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia this month
  • Philippine businesses participate at 2024 halal expo in Riyadh
  • Halal trade delegation also includes tourism, agriculture officials

MANILA: The Philippines is preparing to send a halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia later this month as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to deepen trade relations with the Kingdom.

Organized by the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, the activities will cover Riyadh and Jeddah from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5.

Philippine officials have been working to expand their domestic halal industry, while also seeking to boost trade relations with Saudi Arabia.

“This Philippine halal mission to Saudi Arabia aims to effectively promote the burgeoning Philippine halal trade industry and further strengthen trade relations between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia,” Rommel Romato, charge d’affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News on Sunday.

“The Philippine delegation is composed of government agencies and private sector entities or representatives who will take part in the Saudi International Halal Expo 2024 in Riyadh.”

The mission will also include tourism and agriculture officials, as well as members of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, the body governing Muslim affairs in the Southeast Asian nation, Romato added.

The predominantly Catholic Philippines — where Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population — has plans to double the number of its halal-certified products and services, raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate around 120,000 jobs by 2028 by tapping into the global halal market, which is estimated to be worth more than $7 trillion.

Earlier this year, the DTI sent a business-matching mission to Saudi Arabia, comprising food, beverage and personal care exporters.

Manila recorded a rise in Philippine-Saudi trade volume from 2022 to 2023, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Riyadh last October, during which a $4.26 billion investment agreement was signed with Saudi business leaders.


Teenager 'stabbed 50 times', burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors

Teenager 'stabbed 50 times', burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors
Updated 06 October 2024
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Teenager 'stabbed 50 times', burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors

Teenager 'stabbed 50 times', burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors
MARSEILLE: A 15-year-old boy was "stabbed 50 times" and burned alive this week in the southern French city of Marseille in an apparent case of drug-related violence, prosecutors said on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the teenager was murdered on Wednesday, describing the case as one of "unprecedented savagery."
Marseille, France's second-largest city but also one of its poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence.
Bessone said that victims and perpetrators of such violence were getting increasingly younger.
The city has in recent years witnessed a turf war for control of the highly profitable drug market between various clans including DZ Mafia.
The teenager had been hired by a 23-year-old prisoner to intimidate a competitor by setting fire to his door, the prosecutor said, adding he had been promised 2,000 euros.
The teenager had however been spotted by members of a rival gang who repeatedly stabbed him then set him on fire, he added.
The same prisoner then recruited a 14-year-old minor to carry out a revenge attack and kill a member of the Blacks gang, promising to pay him 50,000 euros.
The 14-year-old hired a 36-year-old driver who angered the minor and ended up being killed.
The two latest cases mean that the number of drug-related killings in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year.
By comparison, a total of 49 people were killed in drug related violence in Marseille in 2023.
san-ol-as/rlp

1 dead as Russia strikes Ukraine with drones and missiles

1 dead as Russia strikes Ukraine with drones and missiles
Updated 06 October 2024
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1 dead as Russia strikes Ukraine with drones and missiles

1 dead as Russia strikes Ukraine with drones and missiles

KYIV: One person has died after Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 87 Shahed drones and four different types of missiles, officials said Sunday.
A 49-year-old man was killed in the Kharkiv region after his car was hit by a drone, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. A gas pipeline was also damaged and a warehouse set alight in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials reported.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that air defenses had destroyed 56 of the 87 drones and two missiles over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv.
Another 25 drones disappeared from radar “presumably as a result of anti-aircraft missile defense,” it said.
The barrage comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy presented his plan to U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week. Its contents have not been made public but it is known that the plan includes Ukrainian membership in NATO and the provision of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
In a statement Sunday, the Ukrainian leader paid tribute to the country’s troops, which he also described as “preparing (for) the next Ramstein.”
“They demonstrate what Ukrainians are capable of when they have enough weapons and sufficient range,” he said in a statement on social media. “We will keep convincing our partners that our drones alone are not enough. More decisive steps are needed — and the end of this war will be closer.”


Teenager ‘stabbed 50 times’, burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors

Teenager ‘stabbed 50 times’, burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors
Updated 06 October 2024
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Teenager ‘stabbed 50 times’, burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors

Teenager ‘stabbed 50 times’, burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors

MAREILLE: A 15-year-old boy was “stabbed 50 times” and burned alive this week in the southern French city of Marseille in an apparent case of drug-related violence, prosecutors said on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the teenager was murdered on Wednesday, describing the case as one of “unprecedented savagery.”