Fernandez denies charges:
Pakistani students gather as they attend a ceremony at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah to mark the country’s Independence Day in Karachi on Aug 14. Pakistan celebrates its independence on Aug 14, one day
before India’s Independence Day on Aug 15. (AFP)
it along a well-traveled tourist route.
The region is dotted by low jungle, wildlife reserves, pre-Hispanic archaeological sites, wetlands and underground rivers that can suddenly cave in. (AP)
Brazil ex-finmin charged:
Former Brazil finance minister Guido Mantega was indicted Monday on money laundering and other charges as part of the corruption scandal that has rocked the country’s business and political elites.
Mantega, 69, is accused of taking money from construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for helping to advance legislation that favored the company, Judge Sergio Moro wrote.
It is the first time Mantega has been charged in the so-called “Operation Car Wash”, a vast probe of a pay-to-play relationship between Brazilian companies and politicians centered around the state oil company Petrobras.
Mantega was finance minister during the second term of now jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and continued to hold the post under Lula’s successor Dilma Rousseff. (AFP)
Fernandez
Former
Obrador
president Cristina Fernandez on Monday denied any wrongdoing following recent accusations that she was responsible for a corruption scheme involving public works contracts that has ensnared many of Argentina’s former officials and business elite.
Fernandez appeared before a court in Buenos Aires but declined to speak. Instead, she said in a written statement that the accusations by Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio, who summoned her to testify, are false and politically motivated.
So far, 15 people have been arrested in the case. They include business leaders from construction companies and former officials who served in Fernandez’s 20072015 administration.
The case is based on an investigation by the newspaper La Nacion into alleged corruption over more than a decade during the governments of Fernandez and her predecessor and late husband, Nestor Kirchner. (AP)