A court in Sweden has sentenced a French national at the centre of a sex-abuse and financial crimes scandal, that rocked the academy that awards Nobel Literature Prize, to two years in jail for rape.

An influential figure in Stockholm’s cultural scene, 72-year-old Jean-Claude Arnault went on trial last month on two counts of rape relating to incidents dating back to 2011.

In a unanimous ruling, the Stockholm District Court on Monday found Arnault guilty on one of the charges while acquitting him of the other.

“The defendant is found guilty of rape committed during the night between the 5th and 6th of October 2011 and has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years,” a court statement said.

“The injured party has been awarded compensation for damages,” it added.

Prosecutors had called for a minimum sentence of three years in what was one of the first big trials to come out of the #MeToo movement.

Arnault’s conviction came minutes before the academy announced American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo as winners of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

#MeToo scandal

Arnault is married to poet Katarina Frostenson, a member of the Swedish Academy which selects the Nobel Literature Prize winner.

The revelation of the scandal prompted the cancellation of this year’s Nobel Literature award – a first in 70 years – and saw seven members of the academy either being forced to leave or quitting in April, including Frostenson.

The scandal erupted in November 2017, a month after rape and sexual abuse accusations surfaced against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

At the time, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter published the testimonies of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by Arnault.

The Frenchman also ran the Forum club, a meeting place for the cultural elite and popular among aspiring young authors hoping to make contact with publishers and writers.

The two counts of rape involved one woman.

According to the prosecution, Arnault allegedly forced the woman – who was in a state of “intense fear” – to have oral sex and intercourse in a Stockholm apartment on October 5, 2011.

He was also accused of raping her during the night of December 2-3 the same year while she was asleep, but was acquitted on that charge.

The trial was heard behind closed doors to protect the victim, whose identity has not been disclosed.

In Sweden, rape is punishable by a minimum of two years and a maximum of six years in prison.

‘Culture of silence’

Arnault has maintained his innocence from the start. He has been held in preventive custody since the end of his trial on September 24 and will remain in jail until the formal start of his sentence, the court said.

His accusers claim the Swedish Academy was well aware of his behaviour, and blame the institution for helping create a “culture of silence” that pervaded Sweden’s cultural circles.

An internal Academy probe had concluded there were conflicts of interest between Arnault and the Academy, and found that several female Academy members and people close to them had also been harassed or assaulted by the Frenchman.

According to Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, Arnault was born in Marseille in 1946 to Russian refugee parents. He arrived in Sweden in the late 1960s to study photography.

He had bragged about being the “19th member” of the Academy, and according to the internal probe, he leaked the names of Nobel literature laureates on several occasions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents interviewed one of the three women who have accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct as Republicans and Democrats quarreled over whether the bureau would have enough time and freedom to conduct a thorough investigation before a high-stakes vote on his nomination to the nation’s highest court.

The White House insisted it was not “micromanaging” the new one-week review of Kavanaugh’s background but some Democratic lawmakers claimed the White House was keeping investigators from interviewing certain witnesses. President Donald Trump, for his part, tweeted that no matter how much time and discretion the FBI was given, “it will never be enough” for Democrats trying to keep Kavanaugh off the bench.

And even as the FBI explored the past allegations that have surfaced against Kavanaugh, another Yale classmate came forward to accuse the federal appellate judge of being untruthful in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his drinking in college.

In speaking to FBI agents, Deborah Ramirez detailed her allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party in the early 1980s when they were students at Yale University, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of a confidential investigation.

Kavanaugh has denied Ramirez’s allegation.

The person familiar with Ramirez’s questioning, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she also provided investigators with the names of others who she said could corroborate her account.

But Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, has not been contacted by the FBI since Trump on Friday ordered the agency to take another look at the nominee’s background, according to a member of Ford’s team.

Kavanaugh has denied assaulting Ford.

In a statement released Sunday, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s said he is “deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale.” Charles “Chad” Ludington, who now teaches at North Carolina State University, said he was a friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale and that Kavanaugh was “a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker.”

“On many occasions I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive,” Ludington said. While saying that youthful drinking should not condemn a person for life, Ludington said he was concerned about Kavanaugh’s statements under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Speaking to the issue of the scope of the FBI’s investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said White House counsel Don McGahn, who is managing Kavanaugh’s nomination, “has allowed the Senate to dictate what these terms look like, and what the scope of the investigation is.”

“The White House isn’t intervening. We’re not micromanaging this process. It’s a Senate process. It has been from the beginning, and we’re letting the Senate continue to dictate what the terms look like,” Sanders said.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said the investigation will be “limited in scope” and “will not be a fishing expedition. The FBI is not tasked to do that.”

Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., requested an investigation last Friday — after he and other Republicans on the panel voted along strict party lines in favor of Kavanaugh’s confirmation — as a condition for his own subsequent vote to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.

Another committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday that testimony would be taken from Ramirez and Kavanaugh’s high school friend Mark Judge, who has been named by two of three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

“I think that will be the scope of it. And that should be the scope of it,” Graham said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, called on the White House and the FBI to provide the written directive regarding the investigation’s scope. In a letter Sunday, she also asked for updates on any expansion of the original directive.

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday she is confident in the investigation and “that the FBI will follow up on any leads that result from the interviews.” The Maine Republican supports the new FBI investigation and is among a few Republican and Democratic senators who have not announced a position on Kavanaugh.

Republicans control 51 seats in the closely divided 100-member Senate and cannot afford to lose more than one vote on confirmation.

Collins and Flake spoke throughout the weekend.

Senate Republicans discussed the contours of the investigation with the White House late Friday, according to a person familiar with the call who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had gathered Judiciary Committee Republicans in his office earlier. At that time, the scope of the investigation was requested by Flake, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said McConnell’s spokesman Don Stewart.

Murkowski is not on the committee, but also has not announced how she will vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Republicans later called the White House to discuss the scope of the probe, the person said.

McConnell’s office declined to elaborate Sunday on which allegations would be investigated, reiterating only that it would focus on “current credible allegations.” Stewart said the investigation’s scope “was set” by the three GOP senators Friday and “has not changed.”

But Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a Judiciary Committee member, doubted how credible the investigation will be, given the time limit.

“That’s bad enough, but then to limit the FBI as to the scope and who they’re going to question, that – that really – I wanted to use the word farce, but that’s not the kind of investigation that all of us are expecting the FBI to conduct,” she said.

Trump initially opposed such an investigation as allegations began mounting but relented and ordered one on Friday. He later said the FBI has “free rein.”

“They’re going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. They’ll be doing things that we have never even thought of,” Trump said Saturday as he departed the White House for a trip to West Virginia. “And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine.”

He revisited the “scope” question later Saturday on Twitter, writing in part, “I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion.”

Sanders said Trump, who has vigorously defended Kavanaugh but also raised the slight possibility of withdrawing the nomination should damaging information be found, “will listen to the facts.”

At least three women have accused Kavanaugh of years-ago misconduct. He denies all the claims.

The third woman, Julie Swetnick, accused Kavanaugh and Judge of excessive drinking and inappropriate treatment of women in the early 1980s, among other accusations. Kavanaugh has called her accusations a “joke.” Judge has said he “categorically” denies the allegations.

Swetnick’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Saturday that his client had not been contacted by the FBI but was willing to cooperate with investigators.

Ford also has said Judge was in the room when a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Judge has said he will cooperate with any law enforcement agency that will “confidentially investigate” sexual misconduct allegations against him and Kavanaugh. Judge has also denied misconduct allegations.

Sanders spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” Conway appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Graham and Hirono were interviewed on ABC’s “This Week.”

Kanye, sometimes it’s best to step away from the phone. 

You’ve probably seen the tweets on your TL. On Sunday night Kanye — who now goes by “Ye” — posted a photo of himself wearing a MAGA hat on Twitter and Instagram alongside a message expressing support for Donald Trump. In the very same post, he talked about abolishing the 13th Amendment of the United States — the amendment that abolished slavery. 

Lana Del Rey, who performed at Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding, left a scathing comment on his Instagram post. 

“Trump becoming our president was a loss for the country but your support of him is a loss for the culture,” she wrote.

“I can only assume you relate to his personality on some level. Delusions of grandeur, extreme issues with narcissism — none of which would be a talking point if we weren’t speaking about the man leading our country,” she continued. 

Image: mashable / instgram 

“If you think it’s alright to support someone who believes it’s OK to grab a woman by the pussy just because he’s famous then you need an intervention as much as he does — something so many narcissists will never get because there just isn’t enough help for the issue.”

“Message sent with concern that will never be addressed,” she added. 

Point made. 

Yarchen Gar, officially known as Yaqing Orgyan, is a Buddhist monastery that is made up almost entirely of nuns.

Living in rudimentary conditions, they are devoted to following the faith and entering a life of sacrament.

Established in 1985 by Lama Rinpoche, Yarchen Gar is located in Baiyu county in the Garze Tibetian autonomous prefecture. It is 4,000m above sea level, not easy to reach, but home to over 10,000 devotees and one of the largest congregation of Buddhist monks and nuns in the world.

The followers live in tough conditions to prove their devotion to the teachings of Lama Rinpoch,e who stressed the enlightenment of meditation, hardship and atonement.

On a well worn footpath that circles a hill nearby, the nuns and monks kowtow, a form of prayer where the disciple kneels and touches the ground with their forehead every two steps.

Latrines hang over the banks of the river, downstream the water is collected for personal sanitation, washing clothes and food preparation, making the likelihood of typhoid a real threat.

Modernisation however, does seem to be touching the lives of the nuns in more ways than one, with stores run by monks and nuns dotted around the perimeter, selling all manner of merchandise. Between meditations and kowtows, young and old go shopping for new robes, fashionable sakyas (traditional red hats) or gelugs (traditional yellow hats), shoes and electronic goods to name a few.

Many of the nuns seem to walk with headphones attached and smart phones in their hands. Modernisation has made its way to even the most remote of consecrated grounds. 

Some 77 percent of the inhabitants in Garze Prefecture claim ethnic Tibetan heritage. In Yarchen Gar itself, the true number of inhabitants isn’t clear but the bulk of Sanghas are of Tibetan origin with very few able to speak the standardised national Chinese language of Putonghua.

What is known however, is that numbers are growing due to the evictions from the larger monastery, Larung Gar, to the north.

Even with problems with the government over the last few years, there doesn’t seem to be any decline in the pilgrims voyaging to the holy site.

In 2018, the restrictions have abated and entry for foreigners is now permitted under relatively lax police presents.

Chinese nationals and foreigners alike will have their IDs checked upon arrival, however.

What is going to be intriguing is how the relationship between government and worshippers will develop in the coming years, particularly with the evicted Larung Gar talapoins emigrating to Yarchen Gar, swelling their numbers. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has said it launched ballistic missiles into eastern Syria, targeting fighters it blamed for a recent attack on a military parade in southwestern Iran.

“Our iron fist is prepared to deliver a decisive and crushing response to any wickedness and mischief of the enemies,” the Guards said in a statement on Monday.

The attack took place at 2am local time and targeted the bases of “takfiri terrorists” backed by America and regional powers in eastern Syria, the statement said. Iranian officials often use the word “takfiri” to describe Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL also known as ISIS).

The powerful military force said at least six missiles were fired into Syria. It added that seven drones were also used to bomb rebel targets during the attack, which killed a number of fighters and destroyed supplies and infrastructure used by the group.

Syrian state media did not immediately acknowledge the missile strike – the second such attack on Syria in more than a year.

Footage aired by the Iranian state television showed one of its reporters standing by as one of the missiles was launched, identifying the area as being in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah.

A state TV-aired graphic suggested the missiles flew over central Iraq near the city of Tikrit before landing near the city of Abu Kamal, in the far southeastern region of Syria.

Abu Kamal is held by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but occasionally it has been targeted by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), who have lost almost all the territory they once held in Syria and Iraq.

 

 

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Tehran, said Iran is illustrating it has the “ability and the military might to target any threat it sees to itself”.

“The missile attacks were followed by bombardment … signaling their military capabilities in the region,” he said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said the deadly Iran attack was linked to the United States‘ “allies in the region”.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have denied involvement in the attack.

The Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist movement, and the ISIL have both claimed responsibility for the September 22 attack in which 29 people were killed. Neither group has presented conclusive evidence to back up their claim.

The attack prompted President Hassan Rouhani to warn of a “crushing response”, as those killed included members of the elite Revolutionary Guards and women and children who had come to watch the parade.

Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack in which gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a viewing platform in the southwestern city.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Negotiators from Canada and the United States went down to the wire but were able to reach an agreement on a new free trade pact that will include Mexico, the governments announced late on Sunday night.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) updates and replaces the nearly 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which US President Donald Trump had labeled a disaster and promised to cancel.

The rewrite “will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region,” according to a joint statement from US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

After more than a year of talks, and six weeks of intense discussions, the governments were able to overcome their differences with both sides conceding some ground, but both hailing the agreement as a good deal for their citizens in the region of 500 million residents that conducts about $1 trillion in trade a year.

Canada will open its dairy market further to US producers, and Washington left unchanged the dispute settlement provisions which Ottawa demanded.

This will allow them to sign the agreement before Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto leaves office December 1, the date that was the cause of the last minute flurry of activity.

Under US law, the White House is required to submit the text of the trade deal to Congress 60 days before signing – and officials barely made it by midnight.

A lawsuit filed against Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo alleges he sexually assaulted a woman and obstructed a criminal investigation into what took place inside a Las Vegas hotel room in June 2009.  

Kathryn Mayorga detailed the alleged incident that occurred at a penthouse suite inside the Palms Hotel and Casino  in the Clark County District Court filing Friday. She alleges that Ronaldo entered the bathroom and pulled her into the bedroom where the assault took place. 

“Cristiano Ronaldo turned plaintiff onto her side and while screaming ‘no, no, no’” the civil suit alleges. 

Mayorga alleges she was sodomized by Ronaldo and that resulted in “severe emotional and bodily injuries including but not limited to anal contusions, post-traumatic stress disorder, and major depression.”

The lawsuit follows a report last week by German magazine Der Spiegel that first reported on the allegations before the lawsuit was filed. A spokesperson for Ronaldo called the article “nothing but a piece of journalistic fiction.”

Mayorga reported the alleged sexual assault the same day to police and underwent a sexual abuse examination at a local hospital, according to the lawsuit. 

Mayorga claims that both hospital medical staff and a police detective told her she would be “subject of public humiliation as a victim of a sexual assault, and that Cristiano Ronaldo, and individuals associated with him, would further humiliate her by publicly characterizing her as a woman who consented to sexual intercourse and because of his wealth and fame was now attempting to extort money from Cristiano Ronaldo by falsely accusing him of sexual assault.”

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Mayorga’s current lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, claims in the lawsuit that Ronaldo “hired a team of ‘fixers, known as ‘personal reputation protection specialists.’”  Those fixers negotiated a $375,000 settlement with Mayorga and “asserted that the settlement and non-disclosure agreement was intended to and did prevent plaintiff, her family, friends and lawyer from speaking to anyone, including the police about the sexual assault.”

A message left with the Las Vegas police late Sunday night by USA TODAY Sports was not immediately returned. 

As part of the lawsuit, Stovall is seeking the invalidate the non-disclosure agreement that was part of the settlement. Beyond Ronaldo, the lawsuit also lists the team of fixers as co-defendants. 

Ronaldo, considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time, has won the Ballon d’Or award (presented annually to the world’s best male player) a record-tying five times.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ A.J. Perez on Twitter @byajperez.

 

 

WASHINGTON — The sex crimes prosecutor hired last week by Senate Republicans to question witnesses about a sexual assault claim against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said Sunday night that his accuser has a very weak case.

Rachel Mitchell issued a five-page report in which she said Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a small, suburban house party in 1982 normally would be “incredibly difficult to prove.”

But “this case is even weaker than that,” Mitchell wrote to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them.

“I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.”

Mitchell said Ford, a California college professor, has not offered a consistent account of when the assault happened, struggled until recently to identify Kavanaugh by name as the attacker, changed her description of the incident and has forgotten key details that could help corroborate her story.

The prosecutor said Ford has offered inconsistent accounts and has “struggled to recall important recent events relating to her allegations,” which “raises further questions about her memory.”

The report was not unexpected, given that Mitchell was hired by the committee’s Republican majority. Still, it confirmed that Ford lacks corroboration for her claim, credibly presented last Thursday at an open hearing, that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothes, and stifled her attempted screams with his hand when they were both teenagers in 1982.

The FBI is investigating the accusation at the behest of senators who sent Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate on Friday. The bureau has up to a week to interview witnesses and report to the White House, which will forward the findings to the Senate before a confirmation vote.

Kavanaugh, 53, a conservative federal appeals court judge, was nominated July 9 by President Donald Trump to be the 114th justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. He would succeed Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court’s swing vote, who retired in July.

More: Brett Kavanaugh sexual misconduct allegations: What we know now

More: Brett Kavanaugh: A timeline of allegations against the Supreme Court nominee

More: Everything we wrote on today’s Kavanaugh hearing, all in one place

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Nassser Karimi, Associated Press
Published 12:42 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018 | Updated 1:12 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Monday it launched ballistic missiles into eastern Syria targeting militants it blamed for a recent attack on a military parade.

State television and the state-run IRNA news agency said the attacks “killed and wounded” militants in Syria “east of the Euphrates River,” without elaborating. Syrian state media did not immediately acknowledge the strike.

The Guard published images on its website showing what it described as the missile launch near a rocky outcropping in an undisclosed location. Previously, the Guard has launched missiles from Iran’s western provinces for such attacks.

The attack adds to confusion over who carried out the assault on the military parade in Ahvaz on Sept. 22 that killed at least 24 people and wounded over 60.

Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack in which gunmen disguised as soldiers open fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a riser in the southwestern city. Arab separatists also immediately claimed the attack and offered details about one of the attackers that ultimately turned out to be true.

The extremist Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the assault, but initially made factual incorrect claims about it. Later, IS released footage of several men that Iran ultimately identified as attackers, though the men in the footage never pledged allegiance to the extremist group.

This is the third time in recent months that Iran has fired its ballistic missiles in anger.

Last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles into Syria over a bloody IS attack on Tehran targeting parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In September, Iran fired missiles into Iraq targeting a base of an Iranian Kurdish separatist group. The separatists say that strike killed at least 11 people and wounded 50.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

More: USA Today reporter gets rare glimpse of life in Iran

 

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