LONDON: Prince Andrew is “bewildered” by claims he is stonewalling a US investigation into the alleged sex trafficking of minors by British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, his legal team said Friday.
The daughter of the late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell is believed to have introduced Andrew to Epstein — a convicted paedophile — and US authorities want to speak to the prince about their relationship.
Maxwell was arrested and charged by US authorities on Thursday after spending months living in seclusion. She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
Epstein committed suicide in jail while awaiting trial last year and Queen Elizabeth II’s second son quit his royal duties after he defended his relationship with the late financier.
Andrew has since faced claims from US prosecutors that he is avoiding their requests for a face-to-face interview.
“The duke’s team remains bewildered given that we have twice communicated with the DOJ in the last month and to date we have had no response,” an unnamed source on his legal team was quoted as saying by the Press Association news agency.
Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss told reporters on Thursday she would “welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us.”
“We would like to have the benefit of his statement,” she added.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the British government had not been approached by US authorities with requests to either assist their investigation or to help arrange an interview with the prince.
“No such approach has been made. It’s a matter for the royal family,” he told LBC radio.
“Were it to be made... it would be a matter for the British government,” said Johnson. “Of course, the law must be carried out and the law must be observed.”
The 60-year-old Duke of York has strenuously denied claims he had sex with a 17-year-old girl procured by Epstein.
Pictures of him posing with his arm around the girl’s waist forced Andrew to give a disastrous TV interview to the BBC in November that was quickly followed by his standing down from all royal duties.
A lawyer who represents some of Epstein’s alleged victims told British television on Friday that the prince was “avoiding and evading” the US authorities.
“More excuses, more delays, it really is painful for many of the victims. It’s just not fair,” lawyer Gloria Allred told ITV.
Another lawyer representing the alleged victims said Andrew’s royal connections were helping him avoid facing justice.
“He has been hiding behind not only the royal family but his attorneys,” lawyer Spencer Coogan told BBC radio.
A US attorney for the Southern District of New York said last month that Andrew had “repeatedly declined our request to schedule” an interview.
Prince Andrew ‘bewildered’ after Maxwell arrest
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Prince Andrew ‘bewildered’ after Maxwell arrest
- The daughter of the late newspaper baron Robert Maxwell is believed to have introduced Andrew to Epstein
- Maxwell was arrested and charged by US authorities on Thursday after spending months living in seclusion
Russia using North Korean troops in bid to reclaim Kursk: Zelensky
- “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults,” said Zelensky
- “The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region“
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia had begun deploying North Korean soldiers to storm Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.
He spoke after Russian authorities said their firefighters were battling a blaze in the western Oryol region caused by a drone attack, with Ukraine saying it had hit a major oil terminal.
“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” said Zelensky in his evening address.
“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” he said.
While so far they had only been deployed there, they might also be sent to other parts of the frontline, he said, adding: “There are also already noticeable losses in this category.”
Washington and Seoul have accused Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow, after Russia and North Korea signed a landmark defense pact this summer.
The two US foes have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelensky said last month that 11,000 North Korean troops were in Russia’s western Kursk region and had already sustained losses.
Taken by surprise by the Kursk incursion, Russia has since steadily clawed back territory, halting Ukraine’s advance and rushing reinforcements to the region.
A Ukrainian army source told AFP last month that Kyiv still controlled 800 square kilometers (300 square miles) of the Kursk region, down from previous claims it controlled almost 1,400 square kilometers.
Earlier Saturday, Russian officials said firefighters were battling a blaze caused by a drone attack in the western Oryol region.
Ukraine has been targeting fuel depots in Russia in retaliation for Moscow’s strikes wreaking havoc on its power-generation network.
The Ukrainian military said Saturday morning that its forces had attacked a major oil depot in Stalnoi Kon, about 165 kilometers (100 miles) into Russian territory.
One of the largest terminals in Russia, it served Russia’s “military industrial complex” supplying the army, the General Staff said.
The governor of Oryol region, Andrei Klychkov, said on Telegram that a fire was blazing at “a fuel infrastructure facility” in Stalnoi Kon after a “massive drone attack.”
By Saturday evening, he said, firefighters appeared to be getting it under control, but local residents were advised to keep windows closed and not go out.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that the attack targeted a facility owned by Transneft-Druzhba, which operates the Druzhba oil pipeline, a key supply route for Russian oil heading to much of central Europe.
Russian media showed images, purportedly of the attack, with clouds of smoke billowing up into the night sky from a fire.
Governor Klychkov said there were no casualties in the attack, during which air defenses had downed 11 drones.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, which also borders Ukraine, a drone attack killed a nine-year-old boy and wounded his mother and baby sister, said the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
He posted photos of the family’s home with a huge hole in the facade and the roof partially torn off.
Ukraine regularly attacks military and energy infrastructure in Russia, sometimes deep into its neighbor’s territory, in response to Russian attacks on its own infrastructure.
Kyiv’s General Staff said Russia had attacked overnight with 132 drones, claiming 130 of them were downed or failed to reach targets.
Russia’s military said Saturday that it had meanwhile downed 60 drones overnight.
Five die after boat carrying Pakistanis, other migrants capsizes off Greek island
- So far 39 men, most of them from Pakistan, have been rescued by cargo vessels
- They have been transferred to the island of Crete, the Greek coast guard said
ATHENS: At least five migrants drowned after their wooden boat capsized off Greece’s southern island of Gavdos, the coast guard said on Saturday, and witnesses said many were still missing as search operations continued.
So far 39 men — most of them from Pakistan — have been rescued by cargo vessels sailing in the area. They have been transferred to the island of Crete, the coast guard said, adding that the number of those missing had not yet been confirmed.
Coast Guard boats, merchant vessels, an Italian frigate and naval aircraft have been searching the area since Greek authorities were alerted about the incident on Friday night.
In separate incidents on Saturday, a Malta-flagged cargo vessel rescued 47 migrants from a boat sailing about 40 nautical miles off Gavdos, while a tanker rescued another 88 migrants some 28 nautical miles off the tiny island in Greece’s south.
According to initial information, coast guard officials believe the boats left together from Libya.
Greece was a favored gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, mostly via inflatable dinghies.
Incidents with migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and its tiny neighbor Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have increased over the past year.
In 2023, hundreds of migrants drowned when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos. It was one of the deadliest boat disasters ever in the Mediterranean Sea.
Habitat loss stokes rabid jackal attacks in Bangladesh
- Urbanisation, logging have led to major human encroachment on habitats where much of Bangladesh's jackal population resides
- According to monitoring group Global Forest Watch, Bangladesh last year lost 17,800 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest cover
DHAKA: Few in the Jahan family's remote Bangladeshi village had seen a jackal up close before the morning one stalked Musqan through the paddy fields, pounced on her, and maimed the four-year-old for life.
Violent and unprovoked attacks by rabid canines are rising around the South Asian nation due to rampant deforestation and habitat loss -- a trend experts say has been worsened by climate change.
Musqan is still recovering from the horrific injuries she sustained in the mauling last month by the rabid jackal. While she is rabies-free thanks to prompt treatment, her face is disfigured by bite wounds and one of her eyes remains swollen shut.
"It happened in broad daylight," her aunt Ishrat Jahan told AFP.
"A jackal pushed her to the ground and blindly bit her. Other villagers later killed it, but they are still traumatised by what happened."
Golden jackals like the one that maimed Musqan are slender, wolf-like creatures found across Bangladesh, about the same size as a greyhound but lighter in weight.
What made the attack on Musqan unusual was its timing -- she was bitten in the daytime, but golden jackals are a nocturnal species.
Animal researcher Zoheb Mahmud of Independent University in Dhaka told AFP that his studies of golden jackals over eight years showed that the "gradual erosion of habitats" had altered their behaviour.
"I found the once-shy creatures had begun staring at us," he said. "They are supposed to come out in the evening or at night, but we saw them during the day."
Urbanisation and logging have led to major human encroachment on the habitats where much of Bangladesh's jackal population resides.
According to monitoring group Global Forest Watch, Bangladesh last year lost 17,800 hectares (44,000 acres) of forest cover -- an area roughly three times the size of Manhattan.
Mahmud warned that jackal attacks on humans "would not stop" if the habitat loss continued.
Bangladesh is one the countries ranked most vulnerable to climate change, and there are signs that more extreme weather is making attacks more likely.
The country saw widespread flooding in September that displaced millions of people in the worst-hit areas for the second year running, with floodwaters coursing through forests and driving out their canine inhabitants.
"Due to the flood, the jackals lost their dwellings and food," jackal bite victim Obaidul Islam told AFP from Nilphamari in the country's north.
"So they came and bit more than a dozen people in our village."
Rakibul Hasan Mukul, executive director of civil society wildlife group Arannayk, told AFP that climate change was driving more extreme and frequent flooding in Bangladesh.
He said changes to the weather were also eroding farmlands, displacing their human inhabitants and prompting them to cut down more forests.
"The loss of land has also resulted in increased conflicts between humans and wildlife," he added.
"People are cutting bushes around wetlands and their homesteads for farming. As a result, small mammals are in crisis, losing their habitats."
While Bangladesh's health ministry does not maintain specific records on jackal bites, reports from hospitals indicate an alarming and possibly unprecedented frequency of attacks this year.
The Munshiganj District Hospital, south of Dhaka, treated 20 people for bites on just a single day in September.
"I have never seen so many people coming in with jackal bites on a single day before," hospital superintendent Dewan Nizam Uddin Ahmed told AFP.
Another hospital administrator in Dinajpur, on the other side of the country, told AFP there had been 12 cases in one day at his facility.
"We are regularly getting bite patients," Dinajpur Hospital superintendent Mohammad Fazlur Rahman said. "The jackals are roaming freely through the farmland."
Golden jackals are by nature shy and usually avoid human contact unless they contract rabies, a disease that quickly turns them bold and aggressive as its symptoms take hold.
Endemic across Bangladesh, rabies spreads quickly among canine species when infected animals bite and draw blood from other creatures.
The disease is almost guaranteed to lead to a prolonged and painful death in humans once symptoms show. Prompt intervention is needed to stop the disease in its tracks.
After Musqan was bitten last month, she received treatment for three days to prevent a rabies infection, followed by a month in hospital for surgeries related to her wounds, and is still deeply traumatised by the attack.
"We can prevent rabies with vaccines," Ariful Bashar, one of the doctors at the hospital treating Musqan, told AFP.
"But most of the time, jackals rip out flesh, deforming their victims. Almost all of them then need reconstructive surgery."
Brazilian police arrest ex-Bolsonaro cabinet member in alleged coup plot investigation
- Braga Netto was formally accused in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 others, of plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in office following his failed 2022 reelection bid
- Prosecutors have yet to file formal charges against Braga Netto
SAO PAULO: Brazil’s Federal Police on Saturday arrested Gen. Walter Braga Netto, a former member of President Jair Bolsonaro’s Cabinet and his 2022 running mate, in connection with investigations into an alleged coup plot, according to a source close to the process.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
Braga Netto was formally accused in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 others, of plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in office following his failed 2022 reelection bid.
Prosecutors have yet to file formal charges against Braga Netto. The arrest made on Saturday stemmed from allegations of obstructing the collection of evidence, the Federal Police said in a statement.
Local media have reported that Braga Netto sought to discover what a former Bolsonaro aide who was arrested was telling authorities, and whether he had signed a plea bargain.
Authorities also executed two search and seizure warrants.
Braga Netto served as Bolsonaro’s chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 and as defense minister from 2021 to 2022.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, his legal team said they would wait to review police documents before making any statements.
India marks 100 years of Raj Kapoor, the ‘first showman of Bollywood’
- Retrospective of Kapoor’s films held in 40 Indian cities on Dec. 13-15
- He starred in more than 60 films, directing more than a dozen of them
NEW DELHI: India marked on Saturday the 100th birth anniversary of Raj Kapoor, remembering the legendary actor and director, whose enduring legacy continues to shape and inspire Indian cinema.
Considered one of India’s greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers, Kapoor is fondly known as the “first showman of Bollywood” and the “greatest showman of Indian cinema.”
He was born on Dec. 14, 1924, in Peshawar, now Pakistan, from where his family later moved to Mumbai.
The son of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, he debuted alongside his father at the age of 10 in “Inquilab,” a Hindi film about an earthquake in Bihar. He went on to star in more than 60 films, directing more than a dozen of them.
Nearly four decades after his death in 1988, Kapoor remains one of India’s most-loved icons. His birthday anniversary is celebrated with a retrospective of 10 of his iconic films screened in 40 cities across India this weekend.
Marking Kapoor’s birthday on Saturday morning, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the “visionary filmmaker, actor and the eternal showman” in a series of social media posts, saying he “was not just a filmmaker but a cultural ambassador who took Indian cinema to the global stage.”
One of Kapoor’s most famous films, “Awara” (1951), was the first Indian movie to reach the global stage. Known overseas as “The Vagabond,” it became an overnight sensation in South Asia, and soon found box-office success also in East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
“Even today Awara is a film that is etched in my mind,” fellow film star Amitabh Bachchan wrote on X in celebration of Kapoor’s birthday. “You are amazed by his fantastical imagination.”
The film blends social themes with the genres of crime, romantic comedy and musical melodrama, featuring a character based on “the Little Tramp,” a role Kapoor also explored in other films, earning him another nickname: the “Charlie Chaplin of Indian cinema.”
For many Indians, the characters in his films were ones they could relate to.
“What strikes you is how poor people are portrayed there. They are shown as someone who is trying to survive in a world dominated by rich people and industrialists and businessmen. The main character is an outsider in the world of rich people and still manages to make inroads in their lives through his character and innocence. This appeals to me,” said Ghanshyam Datt Varma, a teacher in Chittorgarh who runs a Raj Kapoor fan page on Facebook.
“I started my life as a commoner, someone at the margin of society, and through my hard work I became a schoolteacher, despite all the hurdles. I feel the character in Raj Kapoor’s films, like ‘Sangam,’ ‘Mera Naam Joker,’ and so ... He was really a showman, a film personality who portrayed people of India and their struggle so beautifully.”
The film’s theme song, “Awara Hoon,” is still celebrated globally and has been rated among the greatest Bollywood songs of all time many times.
“I grew up watching his films and singing the songs of his films,” said Rahul Prakash, a lawyer from Patna.
Kapoor is for him a “legend-like hero who taught not one but many generations the ultimate meaning of love. A visionary director who gave birth to characters that were imaginary but also realistic,” he said.
“The way he portrayed the character of a common man on the silver screen — in such a simple and natural way — is immortal.”
Kapoor’s films were commercial successes not only in South Asia but also in the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa and in the Soviet bloc.
“Raj Kapoor was not only a Bollywood personality but an international personality. He promoted India’s soft power through his films. His films were very popular in Russia because of the theme he chose and the pomp and gaiety he showed,” Rana Siddiqui Zaman, film critic, told Arab News.
“He is also one of the first directors to give roles to Pakistani artists. In the film ‘Heena,’ the main female character is from Pakistan. There is no other filmmaker in the industry who drove international filmmakers to call the Mumbai film industry ‘Bollywood.’”
