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Germany's defense minister said Friday his country will look into a report that former German air force fighter plane pilots have been training pilots for the Chinese military. News magazine Der Spiegel and public broadcaster ZDF reported Friday that “at least a handful” of former German air force officers are working as trainers in China, and that in several cases they were apparently paid through companies in the Seychelles. They said that such training has been going on for years, that several pilots didn't respond to requests for comment or were unreachable, and that one rejected the allegations.

George Aref Nader, who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, was arrested on child pornography charges Monday in New York, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Nader was arrested upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport for "transporting visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct." He previously pleaded guilty to the same charge in 1991, the Justice Department said. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years.

The giant tortoise, one of nature's vegetarians. Or is it? This video shows the astonishing moment an Aldabra giant tortoise hunts and kills a noddy tern chick.It's the first time this behaviour has ever been documented and changes what scientists thought they knew about the species. A study of the slow-speed hunt has been published in the scientific journal Current Biology."Everybody knows, or everybody thought they knew, that tortoises are vegetarians," he says.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are offering a booster shot of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm vaccine to residents and citizens who have already had two doses, the countries’ medical authorities said... ...The announcements come amid questions over Sinopharm’s efficacy and reports of Covid-19 reinfections among people who have received their two doses of the shot... ...In a national case that’s raised more concerns, the Seychelles — the most highly-vaccinated country in the world, with roughly 60% of those vaccinated having received Sinopharm — is seeing a new surge of Covid cases among vaccinated residents. Its...

Around 71 per cent of people have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, and 62 per cent have been fully vaccinated. Of these, 57 per cent have received the Sinopharm vaccine, and 43 per cent AstraZeneca. Despite this, there has been a recent surge in cases, with 37 per cent of new active cases and 20 per cent of hospital cases being fully vaccinated.

So far two countries have exited the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic using U.S.-made vaccines (Israel and the United States), while two other countries have seen infection rates rising despite heavy use of Chinese-made vaccines (Chile and Seychelles).Success of U.S. vaccinesIsrael achieved herd immunity by vaccinating almost 60% of its population using the U.S.-made Pfizer vaccine. According to a chart published by Worldometer, the COVID death rate has fallen to almost zero in Israel.Similarly, the United States exited the pandemic the week of March 20, when just 25% had been vaccinated, compared to 45% today. That was the week when deaths in...

Victoria, May 5: After witnessing a rise in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases over the past few days, Seychelles, known as the world's most vaccinated nation, has announced fresh restrictions. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Seychelles Health Minister Peggy Vidot said the country will close down all schools, public places, and cancel all sporting events. The restrictions may remain in place till May 24. Seychelles Public Health Commissioner Jude Gedeon said that nearly 65 percent of the active COVID-19 cases were those who have not been vaccinated or have received only one dose. "There are currently 1,068 active cases numbers, among...

The Seychelles, which has fully vaccinated over 60% of its population against Covid-19, is bringing back restrictions amid a rise in cases. The archipelago of nearly 100,000 people recorded close to 500 new cases in the three days to 1 May and has about 1,000 active cases. A third of the active cases involved people who had had two vaccine doses, the country's news agency said. The rest had either had a single dose or were unvaccinated. Schools have been closed and sports activities cancelled for two weeks. Bars, restaurants and shops are to close early and some gatherings have...

Businessman Erik Prince says he has not been contacted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller about a January meeting in the Seychelles between himself and a Russian reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prince added that whoever leaked to the press should be questioned instead. The Washington Post reported in April on what it called a "secret meeting" in the Indian Ocean country, citing "officials, who did not identify the Russian." The Post wrote that the Jan. 11 meeting was "part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to...

Robert Mueller says he was able to pinpoint security company executive Erik Prince’s precise location for several hours in January 2017 by matching his mobile phone signal to a cell site near Trump Tower in New York City. The special counsel’s report discloses the use of this investigative technique, by which police determine a suspect’s location via a cellphone’s GPS signal. The Prince narrative is one instance in unredacted sections of the report in which Mr. Mueller’s team explicitly discloses cellphone tracking. It raises the question of whether the FBI applied the process to other investigative subjects — a phone’s...

Born in India to Irish parents, he led campaigns in the Congo in the 1960s that earned him fame at the time, and a controversial legacy years later. His career reached an embarrassing end in 1981, when he was jailed for leading a failed coup in the Seychelles. Mr Hoare's son, Chris Hoare, said in a statement that his father died in a care facility in Durban, South Africa. "Mike Hoare lived by the philosophy that you get more out of life by living dangerously, so it is all the more remarkable that he lived more than 100 years," he...

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 3, 2019 California CEO and Seven Others Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Conduit Campaign Contribution Case Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed against the CEO of an online payment processing company, and seven others, charging them with conspiring to make and conceal conduit and excessive campaign contributions, and related offenses, during the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and thereafter.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Director in Charge Timothy R. Slater of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.A federal...

A key witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election has been indicted with seven others on charges of conspiring to funnel more than $3 million in illegal foreign campaign contributions for that year’s elections, the Justice Department announced. George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who acted as an intermediary for members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign seeking to forge contacts in the Middle East, was charged with conspiring to make conduit campaign contributions and related offenses in a 53-count indictment unsealed Tuesday in Washington, prosecutors said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Indian Ocean islanders expelled by Britain to make way for a U.S. military base on Diego Garcia won the right on Thursday to go home after almost 40 years in exile. Two judges ruled in favour of the Chagos islanders who had fought a protracted legal battle with the British government, which blocked their return to the idyllic archipelago where they had eked out a living fishing and coconut farming. The 2,000 Chagossians were expelled by Britain and dumped hundreds of miles (km) away on the shores of Mauritius and Seychelles. For years they have lived as...

A Lebanese-American businessman and key “witness” in the special counsel’s investigation of Russian election interference was arrested and charged Monday with transporting a dozen images of child pornography and bestiality. George Nader, 60, was arrested Monday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia. Nader was involved in several key meetings at the center of the special counsel’s Trump/Russia investigation and his name shows up more than 100 times in the Mueller report. Throughout the investigation, Nader was represented by Kathryn Ruemmler, Obama’s long-term White House Counsel/fixer. The...

A major witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was arrested Monday on child-pornography charges, after flying into the U.S. for the first time since his cooperation with Mr. Mueller’s team. George Nader, a dual U.S. and Lebanese citizen, was charged in a criminal complaint more than a year ago, in April 2018, after he had spent hours with Mr. Mueller’s investigators detailing his contacts with Trump allies and efforts to set up meetings between Trump campaign associates and a Russian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin. Nobody connected to the Trump campaign was charged as a result of Mr....

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has spoken with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, two sources familiar with the matter tell The Daily Beast. It was not immediately clear what questions Mueller’s team had or what information Prince shared with the special counsel. Prince attended a now-controversial meeting with the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in the Seychelles on Jan. 11, 2017—just over a week before Inauguration Day. The Washington Post reported that Mueller is interested in potential efforts at the Seychelles meeting to set up a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin. A spokesman for the special counsel...

{at secret Seychelles meeting } EXCLUSIVE – Erik Prince tells Fox News that there was no perjury, no collusion and no attempt to set up a back channel to the Kremlin when he met with a Russian oligarch weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Prince, who is the founder of the Blackwater private security firm and brother to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, says accusations that he lied to the House Intelligence Committee simply aren’t true. {snip} ... Prince, who testified without an attorney present, says his comments about meetings with the UAE government, its advisers and delegations in the Seychelles...

Oh, desperation, thy name is Robert Mueller! Or something like that. Going against all precedent to see a crime where there never was one, the special counsel is now pursuing the potential back channels Trump administration officials set up with the Russians in Seychelles shortly before he took office. According to a Washington Post

<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin - apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter.</p>