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Geopolitics

French Hostage Sentenced To Death By Somali Islamists

EURONEWS, AFP, LE MONDE (France)

Worldcrunch

MOGADISHU - Somali Islamist militants announced on Wednesday that they had decided to execute a French hostage they have been holding since 2009, reports the AFP.

French DGSE secret-service commandos launched a raid last Saturday in an bid to rescue French intelligence agent Denis Allex, but the attempt failed, resulting in the death of two French soldiers. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that 17 militants were killed in the raid.

The Islamist militant group Al-Shabab has ties to Al-Qaeda.

“With the rescue attempt, France has voluntarily signed Denis Allex’s death warrant,” the Islamist militants announced on Twitter, according to Euronews.

PRESS RELEASE:Dennis Allex: an Agent Betrayed.Bulo-Marer (16/01/2013).In the Name of Allah, the Most (cont) tl.gd/knkqp9

— HSM Press Office (@HSMPress) January 16, 2013

A senior Al-Shabab official told the AFP on Wednesday that Allex "has been sentenced and this judgment will not be changed. As far as we are concerned this man should die."

French authorities believe their agent was most likely killed during the raid. The Al-Shabab did not release any proof that Allex was still alive after the raid.

France’s military chief of staff, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, qualified the Shebab's statement on Twitter as a “a manipulation of the media,” reports Le Monde.

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eyes on the U.S.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

The U.S. legal system cannot simply run its course in a vacuum. Presidential politics, and democracy itself, are at stake in the coming weeks and months.

The Weight Of Trump's Indictment Will Test The Strength Of American Democracy

File photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump in Clyde, Ohio, in 2020.

Emma Shortis*

-Analysis-

Events often seem inevitable in hindsight. The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump on criminal charges has been a possibility since the start of his presidency – arguably, since close to the beginning of his career in New York real estate.

But until now, the potential consequences of such a cataclysmic development in American politics have been purely theoretical.

Today, after much build-up in the media, The New York Times reported that a Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Trump and the Manhattan district attorney will now likely attempt to negotiate Trump’s surrender.

The indictment stems from a criminal investigation by the district attorney’s office into “hush money” payments made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels (through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen), and whether they contravened electoral laws.

Trump also faces a swathe of other criminal investigations and civil suits, some of which may also result in state or federal charges. As he pursues another run for the presidency, Trump could simultaneously be dealing with multiple criminal cases and all the court appearances and frenzied media attention that will come with that.

These investigations and possible charges won’t prevent Trump from running or even serving as president again (though, as with everything in the U.S. legal system, it’s complicated).

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