Category: 2. Middle East

A French court will rule on September 25 in the trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy on charges he accepted illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, a judge said Tuesday.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied the charges.

He is already serving a one-year sentence with an electronic bracelet in a separate influence-peddling case.

Prosecutors argue that the former conservative leader and his aides devised a pact with Kadhafi in 2005 to illegally…

A Lebanese judge on Tuesday referred former central bank governor Riad Salameh to court for trial over the alleged embezzlement of $44 million of the bank’s funds, a judicial official said.

The move came seven months after Salameh was arrested in Lebanon over the case.

Salameh, who headed the central bank for three decades, faces numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in crisis-hit Lebanon and abroad.

On Tuesday, the judge issued a…

US President Donald Trump appeared to catch Tehran off guard on Monday when he announced “direct talks” between the arch-foes over Iran’s nuclear programme, having previously threatened to bomb the Islamic republic.

Despite previously having expressed major reservations over the talks, Tehran has agreed to participate but through an intermediary.

– What does Iran want? –

The priority for the Islamic republic is the lifting of biting sanctions that have placed a stranglehold on the energy-rich…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that Gaza had become “a killing field,” blaming Israel for blocking aid and failing in its “unequivocal obligations” to meet the needs of the Palestinian territory’s residents.

“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies. As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened,” Guterres said in remarks to journalists.

Pointing to the Geneva…

Israel’s supreme court on Tuesday gave the cabinet and attorney general’s office a deadline to find a solution to the government’s hotly-contested decision to sack domestic security chief Ronen Bar.

Following an hours-long hearing which was briefly interrupted with protests from government supporters and critics, Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit told the two sides to find a compromise.

“Since we saw some sparks of willingness here… we are giving you until after Passover (which ends on…

The Taliban government accused Pakistan on Tuesday of violently expelling Afghans after Islamabad cancelled hundreds of thousands of residence permits, pressuring families across the border.

Islamabad announced at the start of March that 800,000 Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) would be cancelled — the second phase of a deportation programme which has already expelled around 800,000 undocumented Afghans.

“The mistreatment of them (Afghans) by neighbouring countries is unacceptable and intolerable,”…

Israel’s supreme court on Tuesday gave the cabinet and attorney general’s office a deadline to find a solution to the government’s hotly-contested decision to sack domestic security chief Ronen Bar.

Following an hours-long hearing which was briefly interrupted with protests from government supporters and critics, Supreme Court President Yitzhak Amit told the two sides to find a compromise.

“Since we saw some sparks of willingness here… we are giving you until after Passover (after April 19)…