France’s Environment Minister François de Rugy has announced his resignation after being accused of extravagant spending, including on private dinners. He lashed out at what he described as a “media lynching”, saying the energy he had spent defending himself had hampered his work as minister. An investigative website said he had spent large sums of taxpayers’ money on gala dinners and refurbishing his apartment when speaker of parliament. He denies any wrongdoing.

“The attacks and media lynching targeting my family force me to take the necessary step back… I presented my resignation to the prime minister this morning,” said Mr de Rugy.  The Mediapart website accused him of hosting friends to luxury dinners, featuring lobster and vintage wines, while he was speaker of parliament, and spending public money to refurbish his government-provided apartment.

Mr de Rugy acknowledges hosting the meals, saying it was normal for the National Assembly’s speaker, but has pointed out that he does not like lobster. “I don’t like it, I don’t eat it, I have an intolerance for shellfish,” he previously told BFMTV. “I don’t like oysters… I hate caviar, and champagne gives me a headache.”

The claims came in the context of the “yellow vests” protests over inequality, and accusations against French President Emmanuel Macron that he was a “president of the rich” because of his pro-business policies.(BBC)…[+]

At least four people have been killed and more than 30 are trapped after a four-storey building collapsed in the Indian city of Mumbai, officials say. The cause of the collapse in the Dongri area of southern Mumbai is not clear. Reports say the building was up to 100 years old. Recent monsoon flooding may also have been a factor.

It’s estimated disasters such as this kill about 2,000 people a year in India. Poor construction standards and dilapidated buildings are often blamed. Rescue teams from the fire department and the national disaster response force are looking for those trapped by debris, officials told the BBC’s Marathi language service. Local news reports show images of people forming a human chain to remove debris with their bare hands. It’s reported that at least five people, including a child, have been rescued.

“We heard a loud noise. Everybody shouted, ‘building is falling, building is falling’. I ran. It felt like a big earthquake,” a witness to the collapse told the NDTV news channel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered his condolences to the families of the dead.(BBC)…[+]

A Trinidad & To­ba­go na­tion­al, An­dre Sted­man, has been sen­tenced to eight years in prison for rap­ing a mi­nor girl. The for­mer se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer who is in his late 50s was al­so slapped with a 12-month prison sen­tence for in­de­cent as­sault, a re­port by BVI News said. His sen­tences are to run con­cur­rent­ly.

In hand­ing down the sen­tence on Fri­day, Jus­tice Ann-Marie Smith said his con­tin­u­ous de­nial of the of­fences, the ap­par­ent abuse of trust, the fact that the of­fences took place in the com­plainant’s bed­room, the threats that Sted­man al­leged­ly made, cou­pled with the neg­a­tive im­pact on the mi­nor were con­sid­ered as ag­gra­vat­ing.

The court al­so heard that the mi­nor, who was 13-years-old at the time of the rape, has con­sid­ered harm­ing her­self since the in­ci­dent. This is ac­cord­ing to the vic­tim’s hand­writ­ten wit­ness im­pact state­ment which was read in court. The court heard that the mi­nor had dif­fi­cul­ties fo­cus­ing on her school work, of­ten felt ‘weak’, and be­came un­com­fort­able among her peers.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

Anti-terrorism police in northern Italy have seized an air-to-air missile and other sophisticated weapons during raids on far-right extremist groups. Three people were arrested, two of them near Forli airport. Neo-Nazi propaganda was also seized, in the raids.

The raids were part of an investigation into Italian far-right help for Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, local media said. The missile was one of those used by the Qatari army, Italian police said. The Turin special police force, called Digos, led the operations, assisted by police in Milan, Varese, Forli and Novara.

Italian media named those arrested as Fabio Del Bergiolo, 50, an Italian ex-customs officer and far-right Forza Nuova party activist; Alessandro Monti, 42, a Swiss national; and Fabio Bernardi, 51, also Italian. The missile appears to be a French-made Matra Super 530 F.

“During the operation, an air-to-air missile in perfect working order and used by the Qatari army was seized,” police said in a statement. On 3 July a court in Genoa jailed three men who were found guilty of fighting alongside the Russian-backed separatists who control a large swathe of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.(BBC)…[+]

MEXICO CITY – Guatemala said yesterday it would postpone President Jimmy Morales’ visit to Washington to discuss Guatemala’s potential designation as a ‘safe third country’ for asylum seekers, stressing it had no plans to sign such an agreement.

In a statement, Guatemala said the planned meeting between Morales and U.S. President Donald Trump this week had been postponed until the Guatemalan Constitutional Court had ruled on legal challenges. Last week, five former senior officials appealed to the court to block any agreement with the United States that would declare Guatemala a ‘safe third country.’

Under such a deal, Guatemala would be obliged to offer asylum to migrants who entered its territory en route to the United States. Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador heading to the U.S.-Mexican border overland usually cross into Mexico via Guatemala. Over the past week, opposition has mounted to such a designation for Guatemala, which would reshape migration in the region. “The government of the republic reiterates that at no point it considers signing an agreement to convert Guatemala into a safe third country,” the Guatemalan government said: A senior U.S. official said: “The meeting is being rescheduled.” (Reuters)…[+]

Thirty-six-year-old amputee, David Daley, is determined to support his family and himself despite having to live with one leg. “Cause, I tell myself, I don’t want to sit and beg,” he told The Jamaica Observer Central. Daley who was born in Newell, St Elizabeth, came under scrutiny when family members saw from early that one foot was longer than the other. Another abnormality was that his right foot had four toes.

Alarm further set in, when doctors informed Daley’s family that if he continued to walk using both feet, he would eventually suffer adverse effects on his spine. He spent time receiving treatment at the Mona Rehabilitation Centre in Kingston from he was nine years old and then the heart-breaking decision was taken to remove his right foot. Daley was then given a prosthesis (artificial leg) but in time he found the artificial limb unbearably uncomfortable, so he stopped using it.The way Daley tells it, one day he became inspired to ride a bicycle when he saw a one-legged man selling newspapers while riding.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]

A Palermo judge has acquitted an Eritrean man of being a human trafficking kingpin, confirming he was the victim of mistaken identity when he was arrested more than three years ago in a joint operation between Italian and British authorities. The arrest of Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe in 2016 was presented to the press as a brilliant coup by Italian and British authorities, who mistook him for one of the world’s most-wanted human traffickers, Medhanie Yehdego Mered, aka the General.

But Judge Alfredo Montalto of the criminal court of Palermo on 12 July rejected prosecutors’ claims and ordered the immediate release of Berhe, who was arrested in Khartoum, Sudan, on 24 May 2016 with help of the British National Crime Agency and the Sudanese police. “It was a case of mistaken identity,” the judge said. “The man in prison was wrongly arrested.” Berhe was found guilty instead of a much lesser charge of aiding illegal immigration for having helped his cousin to reach Libya, but because he had already served three years in prison, the judge ordered his immediate release.(theguardian)…[+]

President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in Louisiana as a growing tropical storm nears landfall. Storm Barry has been gathering speed over the Gulf of Mexico in recent days. Officials say sustained wind speeds have grown to 50mph (80km/h) and may still reach hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall.

It is expected to bring a storm surge and heavy rainfall to the city of New Orleans – which has already seen thunderstorms and flash floods. The National Weather Service warns that flooding from the slow-moving storm poses the greatest risk. Between 10-20in (25-50cm) rain is forecast to hit the state, where the Mississippi River is already nearing flood levels. The president’s declaration frees up wide-ranging federal resources which can be used to help in the emergency situation.The National Weather Service (NWS) say the storm is continuing to crawl at speeds of 5mph towards Louisiana.(BBC)…[+]

Cab­i­net will ini­ti­ate a com­mis­sion of en­quiry to ex­am­ine the cir­cum­stances in which over $500 mil­lion was paid to home­own­ers to ac­quire land for the ex­ten­sion of the high­way from San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin. The an­nounce­ment was made by Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Stu­art Young at yester­day’s post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence.

The com­mis­sion will be asked to de­ter­mine whether crim­i­nal or civ­il pro­ceed­ings should be brought against those in­volved, in­clud­ing a Cab­i­net com­mit­tee head­ed by for­mer prime min­is­ter Ka­mla Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Young told the me­dia that a re­port was re­quest­ed by the Min­istry of Works fol­low­ing a study it con­duct­ed in­to com­pen­sa­tion for the high­way ex­ten­sion project and found that while $800 mil­lion was al­lo­cat­ed for land ac­qui­si­tion, over $500 mil­lion had al­ready been spent.

Yet, he said, the process of land ac­qui­si­tion is not near com­ple­tion. Over 520 prop­er­ties were ac­quired and paid for by state and there are still 459 prop­er­ties to be ac­quired.(Trinidad Guardian)…[+]

France has approved a digital services tax despite threats of retaliation by the US, which argues that it unfairly targets American tech giants. The 3% tax will be levied on sales generated in France by multinational firms like Google and Facebook. The French government has argued that such firms headquartered outside the country pay little or no tax.

The US administration has ordered an inquiry into the move – which could result in retaliatory tariffs. The new tax was approved by the French senate on Thursday, a week after it was passed by the lower house, the National Assembly. Any digital company with revenue of more than €750m ($850m; £670m) – of which at least €25m is generated in France – would be subject to the levy. It will be retroactively applied from early 2019, and is expected to raise about €400m this year.

The European Commission estimates that on average traditional businesses face a 23% tax rate on their profits within the EU, while internet companies typically pay 8% or 9%. France has long argued that taxes should be based on digital, not just physical presence. It announced its own tax on big technology firms last year after EU-wide efforts stalled. An EU levy would require consensus among members, but Ireland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland raised objections.

France’s new 3% tax will be based on sales made in the country, rather than on profits. About 30 companies will pay it – mostly US groups such as Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Chinese, German, Spanish and British firms are also affected, as well as the French online advertising firm Criteo.(BBC)…[+]