Blog

By Marc Leras and Makini Brice, Reuters Gisele Pelicot insisted on a public trial to expose her husband and the other men accused of raping her. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP Warning: This story discusses sexual assault Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to rape her over nearly a decade, begging for his family's forgiveness, as he told a French court: "I am a rapist." Pelicot's hearing, the centrepiece of one of France's most spectacular criminal trials in recent history, had to be delayed last week due to his bad health. He faces multiple charges including rape, gang rape and privacy breaches by recording and disseminating sexual images. Pelicot appeared in court with a cane on Tuesday morning and spoke to the judge through a microphone....

By Laila Bassam, Reuters An ambulance rushes wounded people to the Beirut Medical Center after pagers used to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: AFP / Anwar Amro Militant group Hezbollah ha s promised to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding thousands of others who included fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut. Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the late afternoon detonation of the pagers - handheld devices that Hezbollah and others in Lebanon use to send messages - as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts. The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah sinc...

By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters Sean "Diddy" Combs is accused of a decades-long scheme of sex trafficking and racketeering. Photo: MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA/AFP Sean "Diddy" Combs used his fame as one of the biggest names in hip-hop to coerce women into engaging in demeaning sex acts as part of a decades-long scheme of sex trafficking and racketeering, according to a three-count federal indictment unsealed on Tuesday. Starting in 2009, Combs used his vast media empire including his record label Bad Boy Entertainment to transport women, as well as male sex workers, across state lines to take part in recorded sexual performances called "Freak Offs" in which the music mogul would watch and masturbate, prosecutors said. Wearing a black T-shirt and grey sweatpants, Combs pleaded ...

Lebanese soldiers stand guard as an ambulance rushes wounded people to a hospital in Beirut after pagers detonated killing at least eight people. Photo: AFP / Anwar Amro At least eight people were killed and nearly 3000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members, including fighters and medics, detonated simultaneously across Lebanon. Here's what we know so far about the pager blasts. When and where did the blasts take place? The detonations started around 3.30pm local time in Lebanon in the country's south, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa valley - all Hezbollah strongholds. They lasted for around an hour, with Reuters witnesses and residents of Dahiyeh saying they could still hear explosions at 4.30pm local time. According to security sources and...

By Laila Bassam, Reuters An ambulance rushes wounded people to the Beirut Medical Center after pagers used to communicate exploded across Lebanon. Photo: AFP / Anwar Amro At least eight people were killed and 2750 others including Hezbollah fighters, medics and Iran's envoy to Beirut were wounded when the pagers they use to communicate exploded across Lebanon, security sources and the Lebanese health minister said. Lebanon's information minister Ziad Makary said the government condemned the detonation of the pagers as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah also blamed Israel for the pager blasts and said it would receive "its fair punishment". The Israeli military declined to comment on Reuters enquiries about the detonations. Read more: A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of an...