List of All Articles with Tag 'rl'

Having taken the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a months-long battle, Russia’s Wagner mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Tuesday that he was “not sure” if Wagner would stay in Ukraine. Wagner mercenaries have previously been active in parts of Africa and the Middle East, with a few contracts remaining there. Last month, Prigozhin launched a scathing attack on Vladimir Putin‘s invasion strategy, claiming that Russia could face a revolution similar to 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless changes are made by Kremlin leadership. Meanwhile, Russia launched a “massive” attack overnight on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing at least ten people and wounding 28 others. “As of 1300 (1000 GMT) 10 people have been killed,” city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said in a Telegram post, adding that another person was under the rubble and a further 28 were injured. At least 10 out of 14 cruise missiles and one out of four Iranian-made drones fired by Russia were downed by Ukraine’s air forces, the country’s top military command said. Read More How significant is the reported recapture of the first Ukrainian villages from Russia? Putin uses public holiday to laud patriotic feelings as support for troops in Ukraine Author pulls her own book from publication after backlash from Ukrainian fans

Even as Apple Inc.’s shares have powered their way to a fresh record high, worries over cooling demand

Nigerian lawmakers elected Godswill Akpabio as senate president after the inauguration of the new national assembly by President

The players likely to be in contention for the Golden Boot at this summer's 2023 Women's World Cup, to be staged in Australia and New Zealand.

By Cristiano Corvino MILAN (Reuters) -Supporters of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi gathered outside his villa near Milan on a

AIB Group Plc, once tricked into lending a poker-playing fraudster £740 million ($930 million), is now being accused

The Women’s World Cup is coming around again and this time it is in Australia and New Zealand. Teams that are in this tournament are all looking for one thing, to win it all, but what team has won it the most?Starting back in 1991, teams around the world started to have one thing on their ...

Banco Santander SA has closed down its UK-based equity research team as it shifts analysis of companies to

Hilda Baci caused a sensation last month after cooking non-stop for four days.

Deutsche Bank AG’s investment arm DWS Group promoted several women to senior positions while others announced their departure,

The Bank of England’s newest rate setter Megan Greene said policy makers were right to raise interest rates

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s three-time prime minister, has died in Milan, aged 86. A conservative media impresario, AC Milan owner and sometime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi dominated Italian politics and public life for almost 20 years as the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party and its People of Freedom successor organisation, leading four governments over the course of three spells as PM stretching from 1994 to 2011. An obvious forerunner to Donald Trump, Berlusconi was a populist as well known for his outrageous remarks (often about other world leaders like Angela Merkel and Barack Obama) and his womanising as he was for his political leadership, with scandal never far behind him wherever he went. His final years in office in particular were marred by allegations of corruption and sordid tales of so-called “bunga bunga” sex parties being staged at his lavish Villa San Martino in Arcore on the outskirts of Milan. The parties first came to light in October 2010 when Berlusconi personally telephoned a police station to request that one Karima El Mahroug, a 17-year-old nightclub dancer from Morocco also known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, be released from custody after she was accused of stealing a 3,000 euro bracelet. Berlusconi incorrectly informed the officers he spoke to that the girl was the niece of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in the hope of winning her freedom and preventing any further inquiry into her recent attendance at one of the decadent gatherings then occurring regularly at his home. Ms El Mahroug was duly released into the care of Berlusconi associate Nicole Minetti but, when prosecutors subsequently learned of his intervention on her behalf, an investigation was launched into their relationship given that she was underage. In an interview with prosecutor Antonio Sangermano soon after the police station episode, Ms El Mahroug claimed Berlusconi had sent a limousine to her home to bring her out to the villa for the first time on 14 February that year. “That evening Berlusconi explained to me that bunga bunga consisted of a harem that he copied from his friend [Libyan dictator Muammar] Gaddafi, in which the girls take their clothes off and have to provide physical pleasures,” she said, introducing the wider world to the phrase for the first time. Despite Berlusconi’s insistence that the events were not Roman orgies but simply “elegant dinners”, prosecutors eventually produced a list of 33 young women, primarily aspiring starlets hoping to exploit his influence and break into television via one of his channels, who said they had attended the gatherings and been paid for sex. Detailed accounts were also collected of the parties themselves, which typically consisted of green, white and red foods being served in honour of Italy’s tricolour flag, followed by a floorshow of costumed stripteases – with participants dressing up as nuns, nurses and policewomen or even public figures like Mr Obama or the Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho – after which Berlusconi would pick one of his guests to spend the night with, for which the woman in question would be amply rewarded with expensive gifts, from cash and jewellery to rent-free apartments. Berlusconi would finally be accused of abuse of office and paying for sex in with a minor over his relationship with Ms El Mahroug. The dancer insisted she had never slept with Berlusconi, telling a court: “It’s the first time in my life that a man has not tried to take me to bed. He behaved like a father, I swear.” He was initially found guilty in June 2013 and sentenced to seven years in jail but the verdict was overturned a year later by an appeals court, which ruled there was no proof he had known she was underage at the time of their encounter. Italy’s highest court confirmed his acquittal in 2015. But the disgraced PM was later returned to the dock in Rome, Siena and Milan after being accused of bribing witnesses to lie about the “bunga bunga” scandal, although he was subsequently cleared in each city, most recently in Milan in February 2023. Berlusconi celebrated that verdict earlier this year on Instagram, writing that it had ended years of “suffering, of mud and of incalculable political damage”. The parties would later be recreated in Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s highly entertaining satire Loro (2018) in which Toni Servillo played the ageing Silvio Berlusconi. Read More Silvio Berlusconi: Former Italian PM plagued by tax fraud and ‘bunga bunga’ sex scandals dies aged 86 Silvio Berlusconi obituary: The bunga bunga party loving billionaire who was the king of comebacks Putin pays tribute to ‘dear friend’ Berlusconi Italian news presenter holds back tears as she announces Berlusconi’s death Farewell, Berlusconi – you showed Boris and Trump how it’s done Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement