News in Brief

Date: 07 June 2022 - 21:47

News ID: ۱۰۳۴۰۱

MADRID (Reuters) -- Spain’s High Court on Tuesday called the chief executive officer of Israel’s software firm NSO Group to testify as a witness in a case opened on the spying of Spanish politicians with software called Pegasus that was developed by the firm. Judge Jose Luis Calama will travel to Israel (Occupied Palestine) to question the CEO as part of a so-called rogatory commission to investigate the spying of politicians in the country, Spain’s High Court said on Tuesday in a statement. No date was given for the testimony. NSO Group and its CEO Shalev Hulio didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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WELLINGTON (AFP) -- A Fiji court on Tuesday handed a Russian superyacht to U.S.  authorities and said it can be removed from the Pacific nation, ending a contested eight-week stay. The $300 million Amadea, linked by the United States to billionaire Russian politician Suleiman Kerimov, a target of sanctions, was impounded on arrival in Fiji in April at Washington’s request. Supreme Court President and Chief Justice Kamal Kumar on Tuesday dismissed an application lodged last week by the vessel’s registered owners, Millemarin Investments, to delay execution of the court order. Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde said the judge’s ruling meant a U.S. Justice Department warrant to seize the boat had been accepted. “The Amadea has been handed over to U.S. authorities and will now leave Fiji.”

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Elon Musk warned Twitter Inc that he might walk away from his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company if it fails to provide the data on spam and fake accounts that he seeks. This was not the first time Musk had suggested publicly his acquisition of Twitter may not happen. But the warning, delivered in a letter from Musk’s lawyers to Twitter’s chief legal officer, Vijaya Gadde, marked an escalation. It accused Twitter of being in “material breach” of its deal obligations. Musk’s threats to tear up the deal have coincided with a plunge in many technology stocks - including the electric car maker that he leads, Tesla Inc - amid concerns over an economic slowdown and higher interest rates in the face of raging inflation. In the letter to Twitter, Musk’s lawyers reiterated his request for details on bot accounts and said he reserved all rights to terminate the acquisition as the company was in a “clear material breach” of its obligations by not providing him with the information.

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ROME (Reuters) -- Italian police have seized 4.3 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of 240 million euros ($257 million), dealing a heavy blow to the Colombian Clan del Golfo drugs gang, investigators said on Tuesday. Police said it was one of the largest such seizures in Europe and came at the end of an international investigation that resulted in arrest warrants being issued for 38 people in six countries: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Colombia. The investigation lasted more than a year and involved both the Colombian judiciary and U.S. Homeland Security. Besides the cocaine, police also confiscated 1.85 million euros in cash. Colombian authorities said last November they were focused on breaking up the Clan del Golfo gang, whose network extends to 28 countries around the world, after the capture of the group’s leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias “Otoniel”, in October.

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MEXICO CITY (AFP) -- Mexican police have arrested a Dutch citizen accused of being the leader of an international pedophile ring, Mexico City’s attorney general said. The man, identified only as Nelson ‘N’, was caught “in flagrante delicto,” said Attorney General Ernestina Godoy, adding that he is the “possible leader of an international association of pedophiles created in 1982.” The arrest was the result of a “broad investigation” by prosecutors in collaboration with the NGO Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), Godoy said in a video posted on social media. The NGO, dedicated to combating the sexual exploitation of children, reported the Dutchman’s presence in Mexico to the authorities. The group “had information that Nelson ‘N’ was in our country, possibly in order to expand his human trafficking and child pornography network,” Godoy said.

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -- The South African government said on Tuesday it was taken aback by Ryanair’s decision to force UK-bound travelers holding the country’s passport to take a test in Afrikaans language to prove nationality, calling the move a “backward profiling system”. The Irish low-cost airline had from last week started forcing UK-bound travelers with a South African passport to take a test in Afrikaans, a language spoken by just 12% of the country’s population and often associated with the apartheid and white minority rule. Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, which does not operate flights to and from South Africa, had cited that it was doing this to curb high prevalence of fake South African passports.