Maldives' ex-vice president has testified in open court to have been an accomplice to his former president in corrupt dealings and says that he knew that a sum of laundered money was transferred to his former boss' bank account.
Ahmed Adeeb has told a criminal court Thursday that he has done illegal things on the advice of former president Yameen Abdul Gayoom, one of which was to facilitate laundering USD 1 million obtained through a corrupt deal leasing out an island for tourist resort development.
The company later transferred the money to Abdul Gayoom's account, Adeeb has claimed.
Adeeb has said that he has agreed to be a state witness and disclose all information.
Adeeb was a trusted confidante to Abdul Gayoom before being jailed in 2016 for allegedly trying to assassinate him.

Maldives ex-vice president testifies against ex-president

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Harvey Weinstein is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on a new indictment as prosecutors seek to have jurors hear from an actress who has accused him of a 1993 rape.
Court officials say the disgraced movie mogul is due in court the same day an appeals court is expected to rule on his lawyers' motion to move his trial out of New York City.
Prosecutors have said the new indictment won't result in additional charges and shouldn't delay Weinstein's September 9 trial.
Prosecutors say having "The Sopranos" actress Anabella Sciorra testify will solve a problem the judge found in one of the charges.
The judge is allowing other accusers who aren't involved in the criminal case to testify, as prosecutors look to show a pattern of misconduct.
A telephone message was left with Weinstein's lawyer.

Weinstein to be rearraigned as DA seeks actress's testimony

The federal budget deficit is expected to balloon to more than USD 1 trillion in the next fiscal year under the first projections taking into account the big budget deal that President Donald Trump and Congress reached this summer, the Congressional Budget Office reported.
The return of USD 1 trillion annual deficits comes despite Trump's vow when running for office that he would not just balance the budget but pay down the entire national debt.
"The nation's fiscal outlook is challenging," said Phillip Swagel, director of the nonpartisan CBO.
"Federal debt, which is already high by historical standards, is on an unsustainable course."
The office on Wednesday upped this year's deficit projection by USD 63 billion and the cumulative deficit projection for the next decade by USD 809 billion.
The higher deficit projections come even as the CBO reduced its estimate for interest rates, which lowers borrowing costs, and as it raised projections for economic growth in the near term.
The ...

Report shows US deficit to exceed USD 1 trillion next year

A spokeswoman for Poland's air ambulance service says four people have been killed and over 30 injured when lighting struck different locations in the Tatra Mountains.
Kinga Czerwinska told TVN24 that lightning hit Giewont peak, a popular trekking destination, and other locations Thursday in the mountains in southern Poland.
She said some of the injured were brought by helicopter to the hospital in Zakopane, in the Tatras, while others were taken elsewhere.
Witnesses said the thunderstorm came suddenly on a day that began with clear weather.

4 dead, over 30 hurt by lightning strikes in Poland

New rules on gender identity at schools are causing a stir in Portugal, where some parents are expressing alarm that transgender children will be able to choose which bathroom they use.
A directive says transgender children can make choices that correspond with their gender identity, including choosing a bathroom, wearing a girl's or boy's school uniform or using their new gender name.
They can only officially change their gender at 16.
The schools' directive sets out administrative procedures stemming from a law passed by parliament last year that seeks to guard against the discrimination of transgender people.
But an online petition is trying to put the brakes on the school directive and opposition politicians are questioning its wisdom.
Some disproving lawmakers want the Constitutional Court to intervene.

New school transgender rules fire debate in Portugal

A United States envoy and the Taliban have resumed negotiations on ending America's longest war.
A Taliban member familiar with, but not part of, the talks that resumed Thursday in Qatar says US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad also had a one-on-one meeting Wednesday with the Taliban's lead negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The Taliban member spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk with reporters.
Baradar is one of the Taliban's founders and has perhaps the strongest influence on the insurgent group's rank-and-file members.
The US and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks in the past year on issues including a US troop withdrawal, a cease-fire, intra-Afghan negotiations to follow and Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan will not be a launch pad for global terror attacks.

US and Taliban resume talks on ending America's longest war

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday it's wrong that China is detaining two Canadians and the Trump administration is focused on helping them get freed.
Pompeo made the remarks at the start of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa.
"Please do know our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released," Pompeo said to Trudeau, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and members of the media.
"We're working on it diligently. It's wrong that they are being held."
Trudeau said he would bring up plight of the two Canadians and thank the US for its efforts as well as talk about "how we move forward on that."
Beijing detained ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor on December 10 in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng Wanzhou, a top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei.
She was arrested December 1 at the request of US authorities who want her to face fraud charges in the US  Beijing threatened grave ...

Pompeo: US focused on helping detained Canadians in China

About 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's overall job performance, according to a new poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which finds some support for the president's handling of the US economy but gives him weak marks on other major issues.
Just 36 per cent of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president; 62 per cent disapprove.
The numbers may be ugly for a first-term president facing reelection in 14 months, but they are remarkably consistent.
Trump's approval rating has never dipped below 32 per cent or risen above 42 per cent in AP-NORC polls since he took office.
No other president has stayed within so narrow a band.
Since Gallup began measuring presidential approval, Trump is the only president whose rating has never been above 50 per cent.
Still, several  Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush and George W Bush  logged ratings worse than Trump's lowest rating so .

Trump's approval still weak despite economy

An international conference on endangered species has agreed to protect giraffes for the first time, drawing praise from conservationists and scowls from some sub-Saharan African nations.
Thursday's vote by a key committee at the World Wildlife Conference known as CITES paves the way for likely approval by its plenary next week.
The measure would regulate the trade in giraffe parts, including hides, bone carvings and meat, while stopping short of a full ban. It passed 106-21 with seven abstentions.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, hailed the move, noting that giraffes are a vulnerable species facing habitat loss and population decline.
CITES says the population of wild giraffes is much smaller than that of wild African elephants.

Conference on endangered species moves to protect giraffes

Sexual violence carried out by Myanmar's security forces against the country's Muslim Rohingya minority was so widespread and severe that it demonstrates intent to commit genocide as well as warrants prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a UN report charged Thursday.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said it found the country's soldiers "routinely and systematically employed rape, gang rape and other violent and forced sexual acts against women, girls, boys, men and transgender people in blatant violation of international human rights law."
Its report on sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar covers the Kachin and Shan ethnic minorities in northern Myanmar as well as the Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine.
The report, released in New York, charges that the genocidal intent of Myanmar's military toward the Rohingya was demonstrated "by means of killing female members of the Rohingya community, causing Rohingya women and girls .

UN report condemns sexual violence by Myanmar military

A tiny community near Philadelphia that managed to save the oldest surviving quarantine station in the Western Hemisphere from the wrecking ball is now transforming the 18th-century structure into township offices.
For Tinicum Township, renovating the Lazaretto Quarantine Station was part of a broader plan to draw visitors to the community, to connect it to other historic waterfront sites and create a destination for both locals and tourists.
For historians, saving the Lazaretto offers a chance to tell stories of immigration and public health in America's early days.
Built in 1799, the quarantine station protected the Port of Philadelphia against the introduction of diseases that could lead to epidemics for nearly a century.
"It's part of American history that we never learn about," said David Barnes, a University of Pennsylvania professor who is writing a history of the building.
"It gives us entry to a lost world, and into the hidden story of how our country came to be and grow, how 

Tiny township saves, transforms historic quarantine station

Hong Kong university student leaders said Thursday they'll call for a boycott of the start of classes to pressure the government to respond to the protest movement gripping the city since June.
Student union leaders from 10 universities said they want students to skip the first two weeks of classes in September.
They vowed to escalate their action if the city's Beijing-backed leader, Carrie Lam, fails to respond by Sept. 13.
Young people have been at the forefront of the Chinese city's protest movement, which was sparked by calls for the withdrawal of an unpopular extradition bill.
The bill, which would have allowed suspects to be extradited to mainland China where the judiciary is not independent, was eventually shelved but the crisis has since spiralled and supporters now have four other demands, including full democracy.
"Two weeks should be enough for the government to really think through how to respond to the five demands," said Davin Wong, acting president of the Hong Kong ...

Hong Kong students plan class boycott for protest demands

The Nazis knew everything about the city of Paris that they occupied  almost.
They didn't know about the bunker with a massive door as thick as a bank vault that served as a command post for the chief of the Resistance in the French capital.
They didn't know all the secrets of an underground world defined by codes, assumed names and identities that covered the tracks of saboteurs and fighters.
On Sunday, Paris will celebrate 75 years since its liberation, when French and American tanks rolled into the former jewel of European cities that had epitomized the sweet life, but whose citizens were humiliated, hungry and mistrustful after 50 months under the Nazi boot.
It was the Resistance movement that helped soften the city for the siege and the Nazis' eventual surrender on August 25, 1944.
A parade will retrace the entry into southern Paris, heading to the building that served as headquarters for Henri Tanguy  alias Col. Rol  chief of the French Forces of the Interior of the Paris ...

Invisible army set stage for liberation of Paris from Nazis

The wife of Carlos Ghosn on Thursday urged French President Emmanuel Macron to intercede on behalf of the former chairman of Nissan and Renault when he meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G-7 summit in France.
The appeal is Carole Ghosn's latest effort to pressure Japan into improving what she says is the "unjust treatment" faced by her husband as he awaits trial in Japan on financial misconduct allegations.
Macron's office said the French leader is likely to again raise Ghosn's case with Abe, as he did previously on a visit to Japan.
Macron is hosting the three-day Group of Seven summit from Saturday in the southwestern French resort town of Biarritz.
Ghosn, arrested in November, is out on bail. He denies all wrongdoing.
Carole Ghosn says she has not been allowed any contact with her husband, including phone calls or emails.
"It would be a euphemism to say that my husband's bail conditions are cruel and unusual," she said in her statement appealing for Macron's ...

Macron expected to raise Carlos Ghosn case with Japan's Abe

The will that Jeffrey Epstein signed just two days before his jailhouse suicide puts more than USD 577 million in assets into a trust fund that could make it more difficult for his dozens of accusers to collect damages.
Estate lawyers and other experts say prying open the trust and dividing up the financier's riches is not going to be easy and could take years.
"This is the last act of Epstein's manipulation of the system, even in death," said attorney Jennifer Freeman, who represents child sex abuse victims.
Epstein, 66, killed himself August 10 in New York while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The discovery of the will with its newly created 1953 Trust, named after the year of his birth, instantly raised suspicions he did it to hide money from the many women who say he sexually abused them when they were teenagers.
By putting his fortune in a trust, he shrouded from public view the identities of the beneficiaries, whether they be individuals, organisations or ...

Epstein may have gamed the system from beyond the grave

Mali's military says that extremists ambushed an army convoy in central Mali on Wednesday killing at least five soldiers.
Army spokesman Col. Diarran Kone said Thursday that several others were wounded, and the assailants also damaged materials in the attack on the escort mission.
The attack was claimed by the al-Qaida-linked group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam Muslimeen, known as JNIM , which also says it is holding two Malian soldiers hostage.
Kone would not comment on the claims by the extremist group.
Groups linked to al-Qaida are present in northern and central Mali and regularly attack the Malian army and local communities they consider hostile to their presence.
More than 500 people have died in various attacks in Mali since the beginning of the year.

Extremists kill 5 soldiers in central Mali

An Indonesian man is walking more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) backward from his home in eastern Java to the country's capital to raise awareness about deforestation.
Medi Bastoni began his arduous expedition on July 18 from his village on the slope of Mount Wilis, a dormant volcano in East Java province that has been affected by deforestation.
The 43-year-old is expected to arrive in the capital, Jakarta, on Friday and hopes to meet President Joko Widodo and ask him to re-plant trees in Mount Wilis.
This isn't his first backward walk. Bastoni completed a 73 kilometer (45 mile) walk last year from East Java's town of Tulungagung to the peak of Mount Wilis in a similar effort to raise awareness of the issue.

Indonesian walking 700 kilometers backward to save forests

More than 100 West Papuan students in Indonesia's capital staged a protest against racism on Thursday and called for independence for their restive region.
The protesters marched down a main road leading to Indonesia's army headquarters and presidential palace chanting "Freedom Papua" and holding banners reading "We are not monkeys."
Many in the crowd painted their faces with a morning star flag that is a separatist group symbol, or wore headbands adorned with the flag.
There have been a number of protests this week triggered by videos circulated widely on the internet showing police, backed by soldiers, calling Papuan students "monkeys" and "dogs."
"We are not monkeys. We are human beings who want independence," Albert Mungguar, a protest coordinator, told the crowd at the rally, which was organised by the Papua Students Alliance.
"We ask Indonesia's president to hold a referendum for independence. It's the right solution for the people of Papua," Mungguar said.
Some protesters tried 

Papuan students hold independence rally in Indonesia capital

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday that he will run for the US Senate, becoming the immediate front-runner in a crowded Democratic field vying for the right to challenge Republican incumbent Cory Gardner.
He made his announcement via a video message in which he blasted Washington lawmakers over soaring prescription drug prices, the failure to act on climate change and the use of public lands by developers.
"I know changing Washington is hard, but I want to give it a shot," he says.
"I'm not done fighting for the people of Colorado." Hickenlooper last year brushed off entreaties from Washington Democrats to challenge Gardner, widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country.
Instead he mounted a longshot presidential campaign that collapsed before it ended in mid-August.
Many Colorado Democratic and Republican strategists began to view a Hickenlooper entry into the Senate race as inevitable at that point.
Hickenlooper, an oil geologist turned ...

Ex-Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper says he's running for Senate

The G-7 summit has for the first time co-opted the message of its protesters: Capitalism has led to damaging inequalities and environmental degradation that has harmed the global economy and a handful of rich countries can't be the only ones making decisions for the world.
But thousands of people beginning to camp outside the French coastal resort of Biarritz for G-7 protests are quite skeptical of the new messengers. For 20 years, international summits have attracted protesters with a range of tactics and a message against globalization.  France has deployed more than 13,000 police to protect this year's gathering. The interior minister says he doesn't want a repeat of the 1999 protests of the World Trade Organization summit, which became known as the "Battle of Seattle.

Protesters skeptical as G7 claims anti-globalisation mantle

A day after considering cutting taxes to promote economic growth, President Donald Trump changed course and said he would abandon the idea because the nation already had "a strong economy."
Trump's flip-flop on Wednesday came after recent market volatility and economic uncertainty, and amid a debate about whether the United States was heading for a slowdown that would imperil his reelection chances.
Trump earlier this week acknowledged, for the first time, that his China trade policies may mean economic pain for Americans, though he insisted the tariffs are needed for more important long-term benefits.
But his consideration of cutting payroll taxes appeared short-lived.
"I'm not looking at a tax cut now," he told reporters at the White House.
"We don't need it. We have a strong economy."
Trump also knocked down the idea of indexing to the capital gains tax, which applies when investors sell assets, to inflation.
He said he feared "it will be perceived, if I do it, as somewhat ...

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