Tag: Scandal

PARIS - French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie fought off renewed calls to resign Thursday over her links to Tunisia's deposed regime, amid fears France was losing diplomatic clout over the scandal. The opposition is demanding the minister stand down following the latest revelation that her parents bought a stake in a property company from a Tunisian businessman allegedly close to the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Alliot-Marie, 64, has slammed what she called an attack

Usher is at the centre of legal action from a student songwriter who alleges he was cheated out of ownership rights for the R&B superstar's album track 'Monster.' The 'Yeah!' hitmaker included the song on his 2010 release Raymond vs. Raymond, but Kameron Glasper claims he was conned into signing away half of his interest in the tune, which was part of a ten-track package deal he entered into in 2009 for Legendary Poets Music Publishing.
Glasper, also known as Kam Parker, insists

KARACHI - The government is set to face another corruption scandal involving federal government officials and their relatives in a case involving fraudulently refunding billions of rupees on exports that never happened.
The allegations are carried in a letter sent to top government officials as well as the Prime Minister's House written by a concerned citizen, Muhammad Khalid Usman. He stated that the export companies involved in the case are registered under the name of Atif

LONDON - British prosecutors charged former Pakistani cricket captain Salman Butt and opening bowlers Muhammad Asif and Mohammad Amir on Friday with taking bribes to fix incidents in the fourth cricket test against England at Lord's last year.
The trio is accused of arranging incidents, such as bowling no-balls at pre-agreed times, during the match. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said the trio, along with a fourth man, 35-year-old sports agent Mazhar Majeed of Croydon,

ROME - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced more pressure to resign on Thursday after magistrates issued new documents with fresh details of erotic parties, some with under-age girls, and of his gifts to participants. The centre-left opposition said the new documents made his position "untenable" and said he should resign willingly or that his conservative allies should put pressure on him to step aside for the good of the country.
The 227 pages of new documents were sent by

ROME - Allegations that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hooked up with prostitutes he kept in rent-free luxury apartments have weakened the government and damaged the country's image abroad, experts say.
Italian magistrates on Friday announced an enquiry into the relationship between Berlusconi and an underage girl, known as Ruby, as the prime minister was still reeling from a court ruling partially stripping him of political immunity.
While having sex with prostitutes is

ISLAMABAD - The FIA has cleared former minister for religious affairs Hamid Kazmi from corruption allegations levelled on him regarding the Haj scam. According to an FIA report, former Haj director general Rao Shakil and middleman Ahmad Faiz did not transfer any amount in Kazmi's bank account therefore he was cleared of the charges.
The 21-page report stated that there was no evidence that Shakil and Faiz had transferred any amount in Kazmi's accounts in Muslim Commercial Bank

LAHORE - Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif have submitted different statements over the bowling of no-balls at the ICC tribunal hearing the trio's case in a spot-fixing scandal.
According to BBC, the explanation by each player widely differed from the other two when the tribunal asked them various questions.
Two players reportedly said that they did not know why the no-balls were bowled, while one said he did it by mistake.
"During this

DOHA - The proceedings of the make-or-break anti-corruption tribunal hearing the case of suspended Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer began in Doha Thursday.
The hearing, being held behind closed doors at the Qatar Financial Centre, is scheduled to run until January 11, although lawyers have indicated a verdict may come earlier. "It has started. All three players are here," an International Cricket Council official told AFP.
The three face

NEW DELHI: India's premier Manmohan Singh said Monday he had "nothing to hide" as he offered to be quizzed by a parliamentary panel over a massive telecom scandal that has shaken his government.
Singh, who enjoys a reputation for honesty in India's murky political world, has been battling to protect his image against accusations of failing to act over the government's cut-price sale of mobile telephone licences in 2008.
"I have nothing to hide from the public," Singh, 78,

LAHORE: Former captain Ramiz Raja said on Sunday Pakistan have the talent to ride out a spot-fixing scandal engulfing the national game. "For me credibility and integrity are the main issues and there is a need to draw a line between whether we want suspicious players or we just want talented players," Raja, also a member of the International Cricket Council's Pakistan task team, told AFP.
Pakistan cricket's image took a devastating knock when Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and

PARIS: A French judge questioned former prime minister Dominique de Villepin on Thursday about corruption allegations linked to the deaths of 11 French engineers in a Pakistani bombing in 2002.
Villepin, who was questioned for four hours as a witness by investigating magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke, had said Friday he had "very strong suspicions" that French officials received illegal payments related to arms deals in 1995.
Witnesses have alleged the Pakistan bombing was

NEW DELHI: India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday staunchly defended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against accusations he failed to act over a massive telecom corruption scandal.
Gandhi, the key powerbroker of Indian politics, said Singh was above reproach in the controversy, which the country's audit watchdog estimates deprived the public treasury up to 40 billion dollars in lost revenues. "It is shameful that a person of the integrity of the prime

Historically gold prospects always attracts adventurers, the sites are usually fought over, not only by individual prospectors and/or mining companies but by nations.
Possibly the biggest copper and gold deposit in the world, why should Reko Diq be an exception? On Nov 11 the Supreme Court (SC) issued notices to the Federal Govt and the Govt of Balochistan (GOB) on a petition accusing them of selling Pakistan's assets, and that too without greater transparency, to a foreign

OSLO: Norway's Telenor confirmed its commitment to India on Friday, even as a scandal over the awarding of licences roiled India's government and telecom sector of its presence in the subcontinent.
"We are in India to compete and do business. We're definitely a part of the mobile game in India," Telenor spokesman Esben Tuman said. Shares in Telenor and other operators in India were lower on Friday as the scandal over the allocation of telecoms spectrum deepened, which a

ABU DHABI: Pakistani taxi driver Kamal Shah has been part of the madding crowd addicted to international cricket ever since matches first came to the Gulf three decades ago. Privately he was delighted when Pakistan was forced to host matches in the United Arab Emirates, far from Islamist militants and rampant insecurity at home, because it gave him the chance to watch his idols.
But spot-fixing allegations against Pakistan on their recent tour of England has left Shah with a