French anti-fraud police on Thursday searched the residence of former Nissan and Renault chief Carlos Ghosn outside Paris as part of a probe into his sumptious marriage celebrations at the Palace of Versailles in 2016, prosecutors said.
The police went to his home in the town of Etang-la-Ville as part of a preliminary investigation prompted by Renault earlier this year, prosecutors in the district of Nanterre west of Paris said.
Renault has previously signalled to French authorities suspect transactions under Ghosn, who at the peak of his powers was known for his jet-setting and luxury lifestyle.
He is suspected of hiring the entire Palace of Versailles outside Paris in October 2016 to celebrate his marriage, a benefit estimated as being worth 50,000 euros (USD 56,000), in exchange for a philanthropy deal between the state-owned property and Renault.
The search marks a new headache for the former Renault CEO, who was also Nissan chairman in the alliance with the Japanese carmaker, ...

French home of ex-Nissan chief Ghosn searched in Versailles marriage probe: prosecutors

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Sudan's public prosecutor has charged ousted president Omar al-Bashir of corruption, the official SUNA news agency said on Thursday.
The announcement came more than two month after the military ousted Bashir on April 11 following months of nationwide protests against his 30-year ironfisted rule.
"The public prosecutor announces the completion of all investigations in the case brought against the deposed president Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir by anti-corruption prosecutors," SUNA said.
An unnamed official was quoted by the agency as saying that Bashir is facing charges including "possessing foreign funds, acquiring suspected and illegal wealth and ordering (the state of) emergency".
In April, Sudan's army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said that more than 113 million dollars worth of cash in three currencies had been seized from Bashir's residence.
He said a team of police, army and security agents found seven million euros (USD 7.8 million), USD 350,000 and five billion Sudanese .

Sudan charges ousted leader Bashir with corruption: state media

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will pay a visit to the White House next week to discuss trade and ask President Donald Trump to lean on China to release two Canadians he says have been "arbitrarily detained," the government announced Thursday.
The June 20 visit will be his first to Washington since 2017, and will come after once-tense personal relations with Trump appear to have warmed.
"Ahead of the upcoming G20 Osaka Summit, the two leaders will discuss key global challenges, including China's wrongful detention of two Canadian citizens," Trudeau's office said in a statement.
Trump has ramped up his aggressive stance towards China in a bid to pressure Beijing to make a deal with Washington on trade.
Canada was dragged into the fray last December when it arrested a senior executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, during a flight stopover in Vancouver on a US warrant.
In a move widely seen as retaliation and described by observers as "hostage diplomacy," Beijing ...

Trudeau going to Washington to seek support in China row

President Donald Trump on Thursday said it is too early even to consider entering negotiations with Iran, despite soaring tensions between Washington and Iran.
Trump said while he appreciated a mediating mission by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, "I personally feel that it is too soon to even think about making a deal.

Trump says too early 'to even think' about deal with Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being behind attacks on two tanks in the Gulf of Oman Thursday, and said it was taking the case to the UN Security Council.
"It is the assessment of the United States that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks," Pompeo told reporters.
"This is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise need to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication," Pompeo said.

Iran 'responsible' for Gulf of Oman attacks: Pompeo

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera sacked his foreign minister and announced a cabinet reshuffle Thursday as polls showed a dip in his popularity following an economic downturn.
Pinera, a billionaire conservative, said at a ceremony at his La Moneda palace that Teodoro Rivera would replace Roberto Ampuero as foreign minister after pollster CEP showed Pinera's popularity plummeting 12 points.
Pinera also dropped the ministers of health, economy, public works, social development and energy as he sought to bring fresh blood into the cabinet and kickstart the economy.
"I want to share with all my compatriots some changes to the cabinet that I consider necessary," Pinera said, announcing the shake-up.
The reshuffle is the second by Pinera since he won the December 2017 election to succeed leftist Michelle Bachelet.
A spokesman for pollster CEP, Ricardo Gonzalez, said: "There is a deterioration of economic expectations and also a bad perception of the management of President Pinera."
The ...

Chile president Pinera sacks FM in cabinet shakeup

A suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint Thursday in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 13 others, an official said.
The Afghan arm of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which was committed by an assailant on foot, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province.
There was at least one child among the fatalities, while three others were wounded.
The area around Jalalabad is home to fighters from both the Taliban and the IS group's Afghan affiliate.
Last month, three blasts in rapid succession in the center of Jalalabad left three people dead and 20 wounded.
Until then, this city near the border with Pakistan had largely been spared from attacks and fighting, mainly with IS, in far-flung parts of the surrounding province.
However, in March, at least 16 civilians were killed in a suicide bombing followed by gunfire targeting a construction company near the city's airport.
The Taliban .

Suicide bomber kills 11 in eastern Afghanistan

A rocket fired from Gaza on Thursday hit a building in the Israeli border town of Sderot, its municipality said without reporting any casualties.
The Israeli army, which said air raid sirens had been triggered in the south of the country, said a "projectile was fired from the Gaza Strip towards the town of Sderot", without giving further details.

Rocket fired from Gaza hits building in Israel: municipality

The director of the US National Institutes of Health said Thursday he will no longer participate in all-male panel discussions, or "manels."
The NIH is the largest public health research institution in the US with an annual budget of USD 39 billion, directly employing 6,000 scientists and funding the work of hundreds of thousands of others -- and the announcement was expected to have a ripple effect.
"Too often, women and members of other groups underrepresented in science are conspicuously missing in the marquee speaking slots at scientific meetings and other high-level conferences," said Francis Collins, explaining the decision.
"Starting now, when I consider speaking invitations, I will expect a level playing field, where scientists of all backgrounds are evaluated fairly for speaking opportunities.
"If that attention to inclusiveness is not evident in the agenda, I will decline to take part."
Collins said his decision was informed by a recent report on sexual harassment by the ...

Top US health official to boycott all-male panels

Donald Trump on Thursday reignited the political storm that has threatened to engulf his presidency by insisting he has the right to use dirt provided by foreign governments on political opponents without informing the FBI.
In an interview aired late Wednesday by ABC News television, Trump was asked about taking help similar to the research offered by Russian operatives to his 2016 campaign about rival Hillary Clinton.
"There's nothing wrong with listening," Trump said, adding that he'd only "maybe" contact the FBI if he "thought there was something wrong."
When ABC interviewer George Stephanopoulos pointed out that FBI Director Christopher Wray recently said that any foreign meddling in US elections should be reported, Trump responded: "The FBI director is wrong."
A torrent of criticism erupted Thursday, including from vital Republican ally Senator Lindsey Graham, who said the president had made "a mistake."
"I believe that it should be practice for all public officials who are ...

Trump faces storm after says OK to use foreign intel on opponents

A Mexican journalist who was kidnapped at gunpoint as he took his daughter to school has been freed, authorities in the violent eastern state of Veracruz said Thursday.
Marcos Miranda, who had received threats over his work as editor and crime reporter with the news portal Noticias a Tiempo, was abducted Wednesday morning by two armed men in the town of Boca del Rio, Veracruz.
State Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia tweeted early Thursday that "minutes ago, we managed to free the journalist Marcos Miranda." He did not give further details.
A military source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP Miranda had been found walking down the street, beaten and disoriented.
But it was rare good news for the press in Mexico, which as of May has been the deadliest country in the world this year for journalists, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.
The group regularly ranks Mexico alongside war-torn Syria and Afghanistan as the most dangerous in the world for the news media.
The .

Abducted Mexican journalist freed

The European Parliament's nationalist group will double in strength to 73 deputies in the new 751-seat assembly after last month's elections, MEPs said Thursday.
The Identity and Democracy Party, formerly known as the Europe of Nations and Freedom Party, becomes the assembly's fifth biggest bloc, immediately after the Greens.
"This group is from now on the first nationalist force in the European Parliament," Marine Le Pen, head of the French National Rally (RN), told a news conference in Brussels.
The surge in seats comes after populists and eurosceptics made inroads at last month's European elections, but without the breakthrough feared by the political establishment.
Thierry Marini, an RN member elected last month, tweeted that the newly named ID now numbers 73 deputies, up from 36 in the outgoing assembly, from nine countries.
The bloc -- which also includes Italy's anti-immigrant League, Belgium's Vlaams Belang and Austria's FPOe -- will join the new parliament that takes up work .

Far-right group in EU parliament doubles in strength

US and African Union diplomats stepped up efforts Thursday to find a peaceful solution to a standoff between Sudan's protesters and generals following a deadly crackdown on demonstrators.
The diplomatic push comes after protesters demanding civilian rule called off a nationwide civil disobedience campaign and agreed to resume talks with the generals who ousted veteran leader Omar al-Bashir in April.
Traffic jams returned to downtown Khartoum and some shops in the capital's famous gold market began to reopen Thursday as more residents and office employees ventured out.
Fewer troops and members of the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who protesters and rights groups accuse of leading the June 3 crackdown on protestors, were on the streets in downtown Khartoum, according to an AFP correspondent who toured parts of the capital.
But they were deployed in force in the northern district of Bahari, a bastion of protests against the ruling military council.
Several parts of the city ..

US and African envoys push for Sudan solution

The Catholic Church in the United States, which has been rocked in recent years by child sex abuse scandals and investigations, on Thursday approved a papal document that requires clergy to report suspicions of sexual assault.
At a meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, participants approved by a large majority the changes to the US catechism, which also reinforces systems in place for victims to signal alleged abuse.
The "motu proprio" -- a legal document issued under Pope Francis's personal authority -- declares that anyone who has knowledge of abuse, or suspects it, is "obliged to report (it) promptly" to the Church, using "easily accessible systems."
The law only applies within the Church and has no force to oblige individuals to report abuse to civil authorities.
Under the new measure, every diocese around the world is obliged by June 2020 to create a system for the reporting of sexual abuse by clerics, the use of child pornography and cover-ups of ...

US bishops approve changes to Church law on sex abuse reporting

Juan Cobo has been found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation and could be stripped of his 2011 Vuelta a Espana victory, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said Thursday, a decision which would see the stricken Chris Froome crowned champion.
Froome, who came second in the race in 2011, stands to be declared the winner should Spaniard Cobo lose the title.
Cobo, now retired, was retrospectively found guilty of using a banned substance because of anomalies found in his blood biopassport between 2009-2011, the UCI said.
Froome is currently in hospital in Saint-Etienne, France, recovering from serious injuries suffered in an accident in training for Wednesday's Criterium du Dauphine fourth stage.
Cobo, who is now 38, made his professional debut on the Saunier-Duval team, alongside David de la Fuente, and in 2005 participated in his first Grand Tour, the Giro.
In 2011, he achieved his greatest success when with the Geox-TMC team, he took victory on the Vuelta, which was assured thanks 

2011 Vuelta winner Cobo caught doping, paves way for Froome to take title

Suspected attacks left two tankers ablaze in the waters of the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, sparking fears of a broader conflict and sending world oil prices soaring.
The mysterious incident came amid spiralling tensions between Iran and the US, which pointed the finger at the Islamic republic last month over similar attacks in the strategic sea lane.
The UN Security Council is to hold a closed-door meeting later on Thursday at the request of the United States to discuss the suspected attacks.
The Norwegian Maritime Authority said three explosions were reported on board the Norwegian-owned tanker Front Altair after it was "attacked" along with the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous.
Iran said its navy rescued 44 crew members after the two vessels, which were carrying highly inflammable material, caught fire.
Footage aired on television showed thick, black plumes of smoke and flames billowing from one of the tankers as it lay out to sea.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said ...

Tankers ablaze in suspected attacks near Gulf oil chokepoint

Uganda on Thursday recorded its second Ebola fatality since the virus spread from neighbouring DR Congo, where officials said a 10-month-old epidemic had now killed more than 1,400 people.
The new toll came as Uganda's health ministry announced that five people, including one with Ebola, had been repatriated to the Democratic Republic of Congo after coming into close contact with the two deceased victims.
The lethal virus crossed into Uganda when a family with small children and their nanny travelled to the DRC to take care of a relative, who later died of Ebola.
The six people "escaped" an isolation ward in the DRC and returned to Uganda via an unofficial crossing on the porous border on Sunday, according to the UN's World Health Organization (WHO).
The next day a five-year-old boy was checked into hospital in western Bwera vomiting blood.
Both he and his grandmother have since died from Ebola, and his three-year-old brother is fighting the virus.
"Both victims had attended the ...

Second patient dies of Ebola in Uganda, as death toll climbs in DRC

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sacked two senior police officers over the arrest of investigative reporter Ivan Golunov on trumped up drugs charges.
The journalist's arrest last week was widely seen as punishment for his investigative work and sparked an unprecedented campaign of solidarity in Russian society.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said he had requested Putin dismiss the officers after lifting the charges against Golunov on the basis of a lack of evidence.
On Thursday, Putin signed a decree to dismiss the police chief for western Moscow, Major General Andrei Puchkov, and the head of the Moscow police department for narcotics control, Major General Yury Devyatkin.
Golunov is a reporter for Meduza news site, which is based in EU member Latvia. He walked free from a Moscow police building on Tuesday evening after his house arrest was lifted.
Moscow police had charged him with attempted drug dealing, saying that officers found him in possession of drugs .

Putin sacks two senior police over reporter's drugs arrest

Hong Kong's tech-savvy protesters are going digitally dark as they try to avoid surveillance and potential future prosecutions, disabling location tracking on their phones, buying train tickets with cash and purging their social media conversations.
Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up crowds opposed to a China extradition law on Wednesday, in the worst unrest the city has witnessed in decades.
Many of those on the streets are predominantly young and have grown up in a digital world, but they are all too aware of the dangers of surveillance and leaving online footprints.
Ben, a masked office worker at the protests, said he feared the extradition law would have a devastating impact on freedoms.
"Even if we're not doing anything drastic -- as simple as saying something online about China -- because of such surveillance they might catch us," the 25-year-old said.
This week groups of demonstrators donned masks, goggles, helmets and caps -- both to protect themselves against 

Surveillance-savvy Hong Kong protesters go digitally dark

French President Emmanuel Macron's champion in last month's European elections on Thursday abandoned her bid to seize the leadership of parliament's liberal group.
Nathalie Loiseau, France's former minister for Europe, was chosen by Macron to lead his new centrist party in the European parliament and push his reform agenda.
But her performance in the campaign was judged lacklustre -- Macron himself stepped in as figurehead -- and her arrival in Brussels was seen as a disaster.
An off the record briefing with French reporters was leaked and widely reported, revealing Loiseau making indiscreet personal attacks on rival centrists.
The French still make up the largest national contingent in the liberal caucus, formerly known as ALDE but now renamed "Renew Europe" for the new parliament.
But Loiseau's office told AFP that rather than pushing to head the group -- the parliament's third largest -- she would seek to secure influential posts for her group.

Macron ally drops bid to lead EU liberal group

There he blows again.
President Donald Trump's erratic spelling habits on Twitter spouted again Thursday when he wrote about having recently met with the "Prince of Whales."
That would be Charles, prince of Wales, whom he met last week at World War II commemorations in Britain.
The error prompted a wave of hilarity online, with one Twitter critic asking if the president had made the mistake "on porpoise."
Trump, who is an enthusiastic user of social media and has some 61 million Twitter followers, quickly corrected the original tweet. But his new version did not change another inaccurate reference, this time to the "Queen of England."
Elizabeth II, who hosted Trump at a state dinner in London, is actually queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of which England is only one part.

AFP

AFP

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