Azerbaijan's ruling elite ran a secret 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) slush fund to pay off European politicians and launder money, according to an investigation by a group of European newspapers published Tuesday.

The fund operated for two years from 2012 to 2014 through bank accounts of four shell companies registered in Britain, according to the investigation by papers including The Guardian and France's Le Monde and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Nicknamed the "Azerbaijan Laundromat", the origin of the fund is unclear "but there is ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev", the report said.

Published: 05 September 2017

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An Australian woman who fled in fear from the Barcelona attack has told how she was caught up in two other recent terror incidents in Paris and London during her European travels.

"I was in London at the time of the London Bridge attack, and we were also at Notre Dame the day the attack took place there too," Julia Monaco, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She recounted how she and her friends took refuge inside a shop as crowds ran from a vehicle as it ploughed through pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon.

Published: 22 August 2017

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An Australian woman who fled in fear from the Barcelona attack has told how she was caught up in two other recent terror incidents in Paris and London during her European travels.

"I was in London at the time of the London Bridge attack, and we were also at Notre Dame the day the attack took place there too," Julia Monaco, a 26-year-old from Melbourne, told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She recounted how she and her friends took refuge inside a shop as crowds ran from a vehicle as it ploughed through pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon.

Published: 20 August 2017

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President Donald Trump on Friday turned up the heat on North Korea, warning Pyongyang that the US military is "locked and loaded" in the event of a misstep by the totalitarian state, despite mounting international calls for restraint.

Trump launched another salvo at the regime of Kim Jong-Un to keep its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in check, as the North's official news agency accused the US of driving the situation "to the brink" of war.

The latest Twitter threat from the Republican billionaire leader came as concerns swelled worldwide that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict on the Korean peninsula.

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!" Trump wrote from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, where he is spending two weeks.

The official KCNA news service countered in an editorial that "Trump is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," calling the US "the mastermind of nuclear threat, the heinous nuclear war fanatic."

Earlier Friday in Beijing, China -- Pyongyang's main diplomatic ally -- had urged Trump and Kim to tone down the saber-rattling.

Published: 11 August 2017

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A clean-up operation was under way in Hong Kong Monday after a massive palm oil spillage from a ship collision in mainland Chinese waters clogged some of its most popular beaches.

The coast was coated with rancid-smelling sticky white clumps of the oil as it washed in Sunday, with 11 beaches still closed to swimmers Monday in the height of a summer heatwave.

There are still lumps of the solidified oil on the beaches and the sea water in some areas is greasy.

Hong Kong comprises more than 200 islands with glittering bays, but there are increasing concerns about pollution and rubbish blighting its shores.

On Pui O beach, on the island of Lantau, cleaners raked through the famous black sand Monday morning retrieving lumps of palm oil mixed with other trash, from plastic water bottles to children's toys.

Although there is still a red flag up and the beach is officially closed, some people still ventured into the water.

One 61-year-old surfer, who gave his name as Simon and is a regular at the beach, said there was still oil in the water.

"It got under my feet and on my board. It's all slippery," he told AFP.

"Yesterday there was big chunks along the beach and in the water."

He added that there was often rubbish on the beach, often left by visitors.

"I live here now, I have to put up with it. I don't like it," said Simon, who is an airport worker originally from Hawaii.

Beach announcements told determined swimmers at the closed beaches to get out of the water Monday.

But Agnes Mercado, 49, a regular at secluded South Bay on Hong Kong Island, was determined to take her morning dip, although she said she would not submerge her upper bod

"Of course I'm worried about it, but it's even worse than this on some days," she said of the pollution.

Published: 07 August 2017

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Southeast Asian nations feuded Sunday over how to respond to Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, with Vietnam insisting on a tough stance but Cambodia lobbying hard for Beijing, diplomats said.

The debates among foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a security forum in the Philippines were the latest in years of struggles to deal with competing claims to the strategically vital sea.

The ministers failed to release a customary joint statement after meeting on Saturday because of their differences on the sea issue, and follow-up negotiations on Sunday did not end the stand-off, two diplomats involved in the talks told AFP.

Published: 06 August 2017

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Ransomware demands which hit a clutch of multinationals Tuesday are the latest in a wave of international cyberattacks in recent months.

In Europe, Danish sea transport company Maersk, British advertising giant WPP and French industrial group Saint-Gobain all came under attack as did US pharmaceutical group Merck.

The attacking tool is believed to be ransomware of the so-called Petya malware type, which earlier affected firms in Russia including oil giant Rosneft and Ukraine.

The latest wave comes just six weeks after what the EU's law enforcement agency described as an "unprecedented" attack by WannaCry ransomware which hit more than 100 countries -- notably Britain's National Health Service.

The repeated waves of attacks have raised questions on how companies can protect themselves effectively.

- What is ransomware? -

Published: 28 June 2017

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Hungary's populist prime minister said Monday he sees no chance for a single EU-wide migration policy, just days after the bloc launched legal action against Budapest for refusing refugees under a controversial solidarity plan.

"To say that there will be one integrated, single European migration policy, I do have my doubts and I do not see any chance for this," Viktor Orban told the Benelux and Visegrad group premiers meeting in Warsaw ahead of an EU summit in Brussels later this week.

"Hungary is open to any negotiations to this end but we would like to continue to remain realists," the Hungarian PM added.

The EU launched legal action last week against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to participate in relocating 160,000 refugees under a 2015 plan set up when more than one million people landed on Europe's shores, mainly in Italy and Greece.

Brussels had set a June deadline for Warsaw and Budapest to start accepting mainly Syrian, Eritrean and Iraq asylum seekers. Prague has also come under pressure after effectively dropping out of the relocation plan.

Orban argued Monday that his government's rejection of refugees and migrants was intended to preserve the central European country's identity.

Published: 27 June 2017

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Football super-agent Jorge Mendes is due to be questioned by a Spanish judge for the first time Tuesday as part of a probe into striker Radamel Falcao’s alleged tax evasion, just one of his clients to fall foul of the country’s judiciary.

As Spanish authorities tighten the net around footballers — with Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, another Mendes client, the latest to be accused of tax evasion to the tune of 14.7 million euros ($16.5 million) — their advisers and agents are coming under scrutiny too.

Monaco’s Falcao is suspected of failing to correctly declare 5.6 million euros of income earned from image rights between 2012 and 2013 while he was at Atletico Madrid.

The Colombian is accused of using a web of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, Colombia and Panama to avoid taxes on the image rights income.

Mendes is due to appear before a court at Pozuelo de Alarcon, near Madrid, as part of the investigation, but his company Gestifute has already denied any wrongdoing.

Published: 27 June 2017

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An Instagram star and well-known fitness blogger has died in a freak accident after a pressurised cannister used for dispensing whipped cream exploded, hitting her in the chest, her family has said.

Rebecca Burger, who had a large following on the social media site, where she posted regular pictures of herself promoting fitness products, was killed in eastern France in what the family said was a domestic incident.

"It is with great sadness we announce the death of Rebecca who died the June 18th, 2017 in an accident in the home," read a statement on Burger's Instagram account, signed "The grieving family".

Another post included a photograph of a dispenser, which has a small pressurised canister, alongside a warning not to use similar devices.

Published: 22 June 2017

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