IVORY COAST
Gbagbo charged with theft
Former president Laurent Gbagbo has been charged with economic crimes, including aggravated theft and embezzlement of public funds, public prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi said on Thursday. These are the first charges since his arrest in April by forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat in November plunged the nation into post-election violence that killed thousands. Koffi said former first lady Simone Gbagbo was also charged with economic crimes. Last week Gbagbo’s son and 11 others were charged over post-election activities. No member of Ouattara’s group has been charged.
SPAIN
Pope to meet royalty, PM
Pope Benedict XVI was to meet the royal family and separately with Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero yesterday, the second day of his trip to the country. Later, the pontiff was to travel about 50km northwest of Madrid to El Escorial monastery, where he was to meet with young nuns and members of religious orders and Catholic university professors. His speeches were expected to touch on some of his major themes, such as the role of God in a secular world and the need for young people to be taught to seek truth.
FRANCE
Coco Chanel a Nazi spy: book
A new book alleges that iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel was an anti-Semite and a Nazi spy. Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret Wars, by US historian Hal Vaughan, contends Chanel was an agent of Germany’s Abwehr military intelligence organization that undertook wartime missions to Berlin and Madrid. The book is based in part on documents from archives in Germany, France, Britain and Switzerland. The House of Chanel said the book’s claims about Chanel’s alleged anti-Semitism “cannot go unchallenged.” “More than 57 books have been written about Gabrielle Chanel,” it said. “We would encourage you to consult some of the more serious ones.” The book was released on Tuesday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Oasis feud deepens
The feud between Oasis rockers Noel and Liam Gallagher heated up yesterday after singer Liam issued a libel writ against his brother over claims a show was canceled because of his drinking. Liam, 38, called his older brother a “liar” and said accusations that the band pulled out of an appearance at 2009’s V Festival due to his hangover were a slur on his professionalism. “I have taken action against Noel Gallagher’s statement,” Liam, now frontman of his own band, Beady Eye, said in a statement published in the Sun newspaper. “The truth is I had laryngitis, which Noel was made fully aware of. What Noel has alleged this time went beyond rock-and-roll banter and questioned my professionalism.”
RUSSIA
Shark attack warning issued
Emergency officials are telling residents along a 1,300km stretch of the Pacific coast to stay out of the water after two unprecedented shark attacks on swimmers this week. More than 60 workers of the Emergencies Ministry are patrolling beaches and waters in the Primorsky Krai, the southernmost region of the country’s Pacific coast, to try to locate the sharks, the ministry said in a statement yesterday. In the first attack, on Wednesday, a 25-year-old swimmer lost both his hands and sustained other serious injuries. A 16-year-old boy was severely bitten in the legs the next day.
BRAZIL
Zara accused of ‘slave labor’
The retail fashion chain Zara is under investigation by the Ministry of Labor after a contractor in Sao Paulo was found to be using “slave labor” to make garments for the Spanish company. The government has a list of 52 charges against Inditex, Zara’s parent company, after it “rescued” 15 workers from a factory sub-contracted by AHA, the company responsible for 90 percent of Zara’s local production. Fourteen of the workers were Bolivians and one was from Peru. One was 14. Inditex said in a statement that it could not be held responsible for “unauthorised outsourcing,” but would compensate the workers because AHA had violated Inditex’s code of conduct.
UNITED STATES
State terror sponsors listed
Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba all appeared on an annual State Department list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism on Thursday. “Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010,” the report said. Syria was on the list for supporting Palestinian militant groups and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Sudan, was included on the list even though officials acknowledged it was “a cooperative partner in global counter-terrorism efforts” against al--Qaeda last year. Cuba was kept on the list because the officials said there “was no evidence” it “had severed ties with elements from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.”
UNITED STATES
Bieber street sign stolen
The 11-year-old “mayor for a day” in Forney, Texas, is furious that a thief stole part of her legacy: a sign renaming Main Street after teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. The temporary sign for Justin Bieber Way went up on Tuesday. The Dallas Morning News reported that by Thursday morning it was missing. The street renaming was one of Caroline Gonzalez’s first major acts in office. The preteen became honorary mayor by raising money for orphans. Caroline’s father, Tony Gonzalez, said that after she learned of the theft, he had “never seen her so mad.” City officials have made a new sign and are hoping it lasts at least until Monday, the first day of school.
UNITED STATES
Man fined for brakeless car
A police video camera captured images of a 24-year-old Detroit man who tried using his feet to stop his pickup when its brakes failed and caused multiple collisions, a police official said on Thursday. An in-car police video posted online by The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens showed a patrol car following the truck until it stopped. After the vehicle’s brakes failed on a busy street in Roseville, 3.2km north of Detroit, the man continued driving, sticking his feet outside the vehicle to stop it, exhibiting “moronic decisionmaking,” Roseville Deputy Police Chief James Berlin said.
UNITED STATES
‘Vampire’ arrested
The arrest of an man who broke into a woman’s house and tried to suck her blood over the weekend has sparked discussion about the impact of vampire books and movies on youth culture. Nineteen-year-old Lyle Monroe Bensley awaits a psychiatric evaluation in jail on burglary charges in Galveston, Texas after he was found growling and hissing in a parking lot, wearing only boxer shorts. The pierced and tattooed Bensley claimed he was a 500-year-old vampire who needed to “feed,” Galveston Police Captain Jeff Heyse said. He is now being held in the Galveston County Jail on a US$40,000 bond for home burglary with intent to commit a felony.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
Cook Islands officials yesterday said they had discussed seabed minerals research with China as the small Pacific island mulls deep-sea mining of its waters. The self-governing country of 17,000 people — a former colony of close partner New Zealand — has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government said it would not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
FIREWALLS: ‘Democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right,’ the German defense minister said following the US vice president’s remarks US Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich, Germany, on Friday, nine days before a German election. During his visit he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy and said there is no place for “firewalls.” Vance met with Alice Weidel, the coleader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, his office said. Mainstream German parties say they would not work with the party. That stance is often referred to as a “firewall.” Polls put AfD in second place going into the