The disgraced politician wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson is undergoing intensive psychiatric treatment as her husband’s future hangs in the balance, he said late on Sunday.
Iris Robinson is being treated after revelations she had an affair with a lover 40 years her junior and secured £50,000 (US$80,000) from two wealthy developers to help him set up a restaurant.
She is quitting her seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Britain’s House of Commons, and pressure is mounting on her husband to resign over allegations about how much he knew about his wife’s financial dealings.
Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), moved to quash speculation about 60-year-old Iris’ whereabouts, saying: “Iris is receiving acute psychiatric treatment from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.”
His wife has been suffering from acute depression.
One of Robinson’s predecessors as leader of the British-run province said on Sunday his position was becoming untenable.
David Trimble, who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 for his efforts to bring stability to Northern Ireland, predicted in a BBC interview that Robinson would quit in the “next few days.”
Trimble, an Ulster Unionist who was Northern Ireland’s inaugural first minister from 1999, said: “If [Peter Robinson] is going to fight to clear his name, then the place to do that is from the back benches.”
“To have a situation where a party leader sees his wife expelled from the party and acquiesces in it, doesn’t even persuade the party to give her a decent way out, shows there has been a complete loss of authority,” he said.
Robinson denies any knowledge of his wife’s financial dealings.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS