News in Brief

Date: 26 January 2018 - 20:38

News ID: ۴۹۳۱۶

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin says modernized strategic bombers will boost the nation's military power.
Speaking on a visit to an aircraft-making plant in Kazan Thursday, Putin said the revamped version of the Soviet-designed Tu-160 bomber features new engines and avionics that would significantly enhance its capability.
The Russian leader attended the signing of a 160-billion-ruble (about $2.9-billion) contract that will see the delivery of 10 such planes to the Russian air force.
He said the upgraded bomber is a "serious step in the development of high-tech industries and strengthening the nation's defense capabilities."
The four-engine supersonic bomber developed in the 1980s is the largest combat plane in the world. During Russia's campaign in Syria, the military used the Tu-160s to launch log-range cruise missiles at militant targets.

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PARIS (AP) -- France's Interior Ministry says it has seen a sharp rise of the number of lawsuits filed for sexual crimes at the end of last year, in the wake of the scandal surrounding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Statistics released Thursday show the number of lawsuits for rape rose by 17.9% in the last quarter of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016. Lawsuits filed for other sexual crimes, including sexual harassment, rose by 31.5%. Over 80% of the victims were women.
Interior minister Gerard Collomb made the link with Weinstein case on Europe 1 radio Thursday, saying it had the effect of "freeing speech" and that victims are "hesitating less to file lawsuits."

France has seen an active "MeToo" movement, encouraging women to go to the police.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Russian embassy to North Korea denied reports that Russia has re-exported North Korean coal despite UN sanctions, Interfax news agency reported Friday.
"This information is false," Interfax quoted an embassy official as saying.
"Russia does not buy coal from North Korea and is not a transit point for coal deliveries to third countries," he said, according to the agency.
Reuters reported earlier that North Korea had shipped coal to Russia last year which was then delivered to South Korea and Japan in a likely violation of UN sanctions.

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MADRID (Reuters) -- Spain's government has decided to appeal before the constitutional court a decision by Catalonia's parliament speaker to nominate former leader Carles Puigdemont as candidate to lead the region, the government's spokesman said Friday.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium shortly after declaring Catalonia independent from Spain in October, a move considered illegal under Spanish law. He faces legal charges including rebellion and sedition if he returns to Spain.

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed as "fake news" a New York Times report that he ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller last June, but backed down after White House lawyer Don McGahn threatened to resign.
The newspaper reported Thursday that Trump demanded Mueller's firing just weeks after the special counsel was first appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Trump pushed back against the report, without addressing the specific allegation, as he arrived Friday at the site of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Fake news, folks. Fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories," Trump told reporters.
McGahn said he would not deliver the order to the Justice Department, according to The Times, which cites four people familiar with the request by the president.

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BRUSSELS (AFP) -- Belgium Friday handed Mohamed Bakkali, a key suspect in the deadly 2015 attacks in Paris, over to French authorities, the federal prosecutor's office in Brussels said.
"Mohamed B. was handed over to the French judicial authorities today," a statement said.
Bakkali is suspected of helping to organize the coordinated gun and suicide bomb attacks in the French capital, which left 130 people dead on November 13, 2015.
The 30-year-old was arrested in Brussels barely two weeks after the bloodbath and charged over his role in the terror attacks.
He is accused of notably renting a BMW seen near three safe houses where the Paris attacks were prepared.
A Belgian court agreed in June 2016 to transfer Bakkali to France for trial, on the condition that he would have to serve any eventual sentence in Belgium.
In November, Bakkali was also charged over an August 2015 attack on a Paris-bound Thalys train that left two passengers injured.