World News

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese military court gave suspended death sentences Thursday to two former defense ministers who were accused of bribery, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The court said Wei Fenghe was guilty of accepting bribes and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. It said Li Shangfu was guilty of accepting and offering bribes, and handed him the same sentence.

Suspended death sentences are often commuted to life in prison in China.

The sentences are the latest in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s campaign of purging senior officials. Xi started an anti-corruption drive more than a decade ago and his drive has continued unabated, culminating in the removal of China’s highest ranking general and military leadership in January. China’s powerful Central Military Commission, which in years past had 11 members, now has just one member aside from Xi himself.

While the drive targets corruption, Xi has also used anti-corruption as a way to consolidate political loyalty and control among the political elite.

It is unclear whether either men had policy or political disagreements with Xi.

Wei served as defense minister from 2018 until 2023. Li succeeded him but served for just months before disappearing from public view. He was removed from office in October 2023.

Li spent most of his career as a specialist in the missile and procurement branches of China’s People’s Liberation Army, and had faced travel and financial sanctions from the U.S. over the purchase of Russian military hardware.

The Communist Party expelled both men from its ranks in 2024, sealing their fate.

Li’s replacement, Dong Jun, continues to serve as defense minister. However, experts note that he was not appointed to the once powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees the military and is a standard appointment for someone in that role.

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LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) – British counter-terrorism police have arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in north London last month, marking the third arrest in the investigation, the force said on Thursday.

The man was arrested on suspicion of attempted arson and remains in custody, police said. The investigation relates to an incident in the early hours of April 15 at a synagogue in Finchley, north London, in which no damage was caused and no injuries were reported.

A 38-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man were arrested on the day of the attack on suspicion of arson endangering life. Both have since been released on bail until July.

Police said the inquiry is being led by Counter Terrorism Policing London and forms part of a wider set of investigations into recent arson attacks across the capital.

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James)

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MOSCOW, May 7 (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Armenia was being drawn into what it described as the European Union’s “anti‑Russian orbit”.

The comment by the ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, was a sign of increasing tensions between the two countries, formerly close allies, after Armenian officials accused Russia of failing to protect it from neighbour and longtime rival Azerbaijan.

Zakharova told reporters that Armenia, with the approval of its leadership, was becoming aligned with what she described as “aggressive Euro-Atlantic standards”.

“Such a course will inevitably lead to negative political and economic consequences for Armenia,” she said in a briefing.

Armenia has in recent years sought to deepen ties with the EU, including by hosting the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Yerevan on May 4 and a follow‑up EU-Armenia summit, bringing more than 40 European leaders to the capital.

Ties between Russia and Armenia, host to various Russian military bases, have grown increasingly rancorous since Azerbaijan forcibly retook its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023 despite the presence there of Russian peacekeepers.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Anna Peverieri; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)

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May 7 (Reuters) – The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said on Thursday it had arrested 21 Croatians, including an acting and a former public official, in a probe into possible corruption and fraud involving European Union farm subsidies.

The head and a former expert adviser of a payment agency of agricultural funds in one of Croatia’s counties were among those arrested on May 6 in coordination with local police and Croatian tax administration authorities for suspected “abuse of office and authority and receiving bribes”, the EPPO said in a statement.

The EPPO, which began operations in 2021, is the EU’s independent public prosecution office tasked with investigating and bringing to judgment crimes against the bloc’s financial interests. It first announced the investigation into the Croatian affair on Wednesday. 

The acting public official under arrest is suspected of coordinating with farmers to help prepare and submit applications and secure EU farm subsidies under potentially irregular circumstances, in exchange for illicit financial benefits, the EPPO said on Thursday.

It also said a former expert was suspected of having set up a criminal gang with another two suspects to help farmers obtain farm subsidies by inflating pastureland and falsifying documents in return for a financial reward since 2020.

Neither Croatian state police nor a government spokesperson in Zagreb responded immediately to a request for comment.

The arrests followed a scandal in Greece over suspected fraud similarly related to EU farm subsidies that has shaken the centre-right government in recent months.

(Reporting by Angeliki KoutantouEditing by Gareth Jones)

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SARAJEVO, May 7 (Reuters) – Bosnia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on October 4, the election commission said on Thursday.

About 3.3 million registered voters will choose the Serb, Croat and Bosniak members of the tripartite presidency and deputies in the national parliament. They will also vote for parliaments in Bosnia’s two regions, the Bosniak-Croat federation and the Serb Republic, in the neutral Brcko district and in the federation’s 10 cantons.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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By Nolan D. McCaskill

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told members of a congressional committee in private testimony on Wednesday that he couldn’t recall why he and his family had lunch on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, members said.

Lutnick, the former chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, had lunch with the convicted sex offender for two hours on the island in 2012, contradicting a past public statement about cutting ties with Epstein years earlier.

In a podcast last year, Lutnick said he vowed to “never be in a room” with Epstein after the financier invited Lutnick and his wife around 2005 to tour his townhome where Epstein made a sexually suggestive comment about a massage table he had set up. Lutnick and Epstein were next-door neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“We asked him over and over again, ‘Why did you go to the island?’” said Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat. “He says he doesn’t remember, that it’s inexplicable and he simply didn’t know how to answer the question.”

Representative James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Lutnick was transparent in his voluntary testimony. Comer said Lutnick told the panel Epstein found out his family and friends were vacationing in the Virgin Islands and invited them all to lunch.

“The only thing that I’d seen that Lutnick did wrong was [he] wasn’t 100% truthful on the brief visit to the island with his family. He corrected that in his opening statement,” Comer told reporters. “If we find that there were any misstatements by Lutnick, it’s a felony to lie to Congress and he’ll be held accountable.”

A massive batch of files released by the Justice Department in January included emails showing Lutnick had apparently visited Epstein’s private island for lunch in 2012. The emails also showed Lutnick invited Epstein to a November 2015 fundraiser at his financial firm for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Lutnick told lawmakers at a February 10 hearing that he and Epstein had only exchanged about 10 emails and met three times over 14 years. His family had lunch with Epstein on the island, Lutnick said, because they were on a boat nearby. 

“I did not have any relationship with him,” Lutnick said of Epstein at the time. “I barely had anything to do with that person.”

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl. He was sentenced to 13 months in jail and arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His death that year in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.

(Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Sanjeev Miglani)

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SEOUL, May 7 (Reuters) – North Korea is not bound to any treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.

Kim Song, permanent representative of North Korea to the United Nations, said in a statement the U.S. and some countries are “tarnishing the atmosphere” at the 11th NPT review conference held at UN headquarters, bringing up the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, KCNA said.

The position of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state “does not change in accordance with rhetorical assertion or unilateral desire of outsiders,” Kim said.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Chris Reese)

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By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON, May 6(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. Justice Department can keep possession of 2020 election ballots seized during an FBI search in January, a victory for President Donald Trump’s administration as it pursues the president’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.

Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee rejected Fulton County’s request for the return of original copies of the seized material. Lawyers for the county had argued that the FBI’s search of the county’s election hub relied on faulty and discredited evidence and violated protections under the U.S. Constitution.

A spokesperson for Fulton County didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling is a rare court victory for Trump’s Justice Department in investigations that Trump has demanded. It will allow the FBI to keep possession of more than 600 boxes of 2020 ballots as it pursues a criminal investigation into whether election records were not properly retained or whether residents in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, were defrauded out of a fair election.

But the investigation still faces significant obstacles. DOJ lawyers have not identified any individual targets of the probe and have not disputed claims that the statute of limitations appears to have expired on both crimes prosecutors have said they are investigating.

The dispute was closely watched by election officials and experts across the country as Trump continues to threaten a potential federal government takeover of some local elections and sows doubts about voting ahead of the November elections.

Trump has continued to falsely claim that his defeat in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has deployed U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to re-investigate claims about the collection and tallying of votes.

Justice Department lawyers argued that Fulton County had not met the stringent legal standard necessary to secure the return of material seized during a court-approved search.

During the search, which was approved by a federal magistrate judge, FBI agents seized original 2020 ballots and other records from the county’s election center in Union City, Georgia. Authorities cited alleged “deficiencies or ​defects” with the 2020 vote, including ​claims that some digital images of ⁠ballots were missing and some absentee ballots did not appear to have been folded as required.

The investigation began with a referral from Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and has since been tasked ​by the White House with re-examining the vote. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, attended the search in an unusual move for an official whose focus is on foreign threats to the United States.

Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold in a state that has become hotly ​contested in presidential elections, became the center of conspiracy theories and fraud claims spread by Trump and his allies following the 2020 election.

Biden’s wide margin in Fulton County was key to flipping ​Georgia in Democrats’ favor. The state swung back to Trump in 2024.

Lawyers for Fulton County argued that the FBI affidavit used to justify the search omitted crucial context showing that many of its claims had previously been investigated and found to be either unfounded or mistakes that were not the result of intentional misconduct.

During a March court hearing in Atlanta, an election expert who advised the county on the 2020 election testified that much of the evidence cited in the affidavit appears to show a misunderstanding of how elections are conducted.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward. Editing by Michael Learmonth)

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‘Deeply Shocking’: Arrest of Pakistani Journalist Spurs Dispute Over Al-Qaida Allegations 

Supporters of Muhammad Saad bin Riaz say the accusations do not match his work as a researcher and journalist focused on regional conflicts and information warfare 

[ISLAMABAD] Pakistani journalist and YouTuber Muhammad Saad bin Riaz has been sent to jail on judicial remand in Lahore after counterterrorism authorities accused him of promoting al-Qaida and possessing banned material, allegations his family, colleagues, and some analysts strongly dispute. 

The case has opened a wider debate in Pakistan over whether authorities are confronting a genuine extremist threat or using broad counterterrorism powers in a way that risks undermining public trust, press freedom, and the credibility of intelligence-led policing. 

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By Mikhail Flores and Karen Lema

CEBU, Philippines, May 7 (Reuters) – Conflicts far beyond Southeast Asia are expected to dominate discussions of leaders of the regional ASEAN bloc meeting in the Philippines, with the Middle East crisis posing significant challenges for its fuel import-dependent economies.

The meetings on the island of Cebu on Thursday and Friday will include leaders and foreign and economic ministers of the 11-member grouping, with energy and food supply security top priorities for the region of nearly 700 million people, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said.

The energy crisis, diplomats and analysts say, will test the Philippines’ chairmanship, forcing it to coordinate a regional response while preventing ASEAN’s own conflicts, including Myanmar’s civil war and last year’s deadly and still unresolved border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, from slipping down the agenda.   

“Planning to cushion the economic fallout could eventually outweigh other immediate regional issues,” said Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at Manila’s De La Salle University.

While Myanmar’s crisis and troubles in the South China Sea would still be discussed, significant breakthroughs were unlikely, he added. 

SCRAMBLE FOR SUPPLIES

The Philippines, however, has insisted the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran will not hijack ASEAN’s talks. 

“Nothing will be sacrificed because our commitment as chair remains,” said Dominic Xavier Imperial, its foreign ministry spokesperson for ASEAN. 

The Middle East conflict has left many Asian countries scrambling for alternative oil supplies, with ASEAN ministers convening special meetings ahead of the summit, and the Philippines hopeful of ratification of an oil-sharing framework agreement. 

Former Philippine diplomat Laura del Rosario said the scale of the energy supply shock was an issue no ASEAN country could escape and would likely push it beyond rhetoric.

The conflict has also sharpened the wider U.S.–China rivalry in Southeast Asia, analysts say, with Washington preoccupied by wars elsewhere and Beijing positioning itself as a more dependable partner. 

“The U.S. will be contrasted as a destabilising power, while China will be seen as a stabilising one,” said Collin Koh, of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

As a supplier of energy‑related inputs and raw materials, China “holds some of the most important cards right now”, he added.

MYANMAR SEEKS RE-ENGAGEMENT

Also set to be addressed is the crisis in Myanmar, an issue that has divided ASEAN, with its new nominally civilian government keen to re-engage with the bloc. The election was swept by a party backed by the military, which had ruled for five years since a 2021 coup.

ASEAN has not recognised the election or indicated when the leadership of Myanmar, with its former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing now president, can return to its summits after five years on the sidelines.

The military-backed government may need to convince ASEAN countries it is sincere about halting fighting and seeking dialogue with rebel groups, after recent steps towards reconciliation that include two amnesties and a reduced sentence and transfer to house arrest of ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. 

ASEAN leaders will likely renew calls for completion of a protracted code of conduct between ASEAN and Beijing for the South China Sea, with the 2026 target date a challenge amid competing interests and lingering concerns about their vital economic ties with China. 

Some analysts doubt Beijing, which claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea including parts of the exclusive economic zones of several ASEAN states, will make any meaningful concessions.

China is not included in the meeting, but it is a major external partner for the bloc.

“I do not think China would allow itself to be bound by an agreement that would limit its illegal and expansionist interests in the greater South China Sea,” Gill said.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores in Cebu, Philippines and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Martin Petty and Alison Williams)

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