Reuters: World

Sex, lies and video cams: Andrew Tate turned women into slaves, prosecutors say The woman from Moldova thought it was love. Internet celebrity Andrew Tate had offered her a new life. They'd even discussed marriage. He asked for only one thing: absolute loyalty. "You must understand that once you are mine, you will be mine forever," Tate told her on Feb. 4 last year in one of dozens of WhatsApp messages cited by Romanian prosecutors who allege he trafficked and sexually exploited several women. Tate, an influencer with millions of online followers, urged the Moldovan woman to join him in Romania. "Nothing bad will happen," he reassured her on Feb. 9. "But you have to be on my side." read more

North Korea says U.S. drills have pushed situation to 'extreme red-line' -KCNA North Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have pushed the situation to an "extreme red-line" and threaten to turn the peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone." The statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington pursues hostile policies. "The military and political situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red-line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces," an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in the statement. read more

Missing radioactive capsule found in Western Australia Australian authorities on Wednesday found a radioactive capsule that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400 km (870-mile) stretch of highway, an emergency services official said. The military was verifying the capsule and it would be taken to a secure facility in the city of Perth on Thursday, Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a news conference. "When you consider the scope of the research area, locating this object was a monumental challenge, the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack," Dawson said. The radioactive capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed from Rio Tinto's (RIO.AX) Gudai-Darri mine in the state's remote Kimberley region. The ore was being taken to a facility in the suburbs of Perth - a distance longer than the length of Great Britain. read more

U.S. readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons -sources The United States is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The aid is expected to be announced as soon as this week, the officials said. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons, they added. One of the officials said a portion of the package, expected to be $1.725 billion, would come from a fund known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows President Joe Biden's administration to get weapons from industry rather than from U.S. weapons stocks. read more

Lebanon to devalue currency by 90% on Feb. 1, central bank chief says Lebanon will adopt a new official exchange rate of 15,000 pounds per U.S. dollar on Feb. 1, central bank governor Riad Salameh said, marking a 90% devaluation from its current official rate that has remained unchanged for 25 years. The shift from the old rate of 1,507 to 15,000 is still far off the parallel market, where the pound was changing hands at around 57,000 per dollar on Tuesday. The change will apply to banks, Salameh said, leading to a decrease in the equity of the institutions at the centre of the country's 2019 financial implosion. read more

Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine - Croatian president Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never again be part of Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday in remarks detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv. In December, Croatian lawmakers rejected a proposal that the country join a European Union mission in support of the Ukrainian military, reflecting deep divisions between Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. A vocal critic of Western policy in Ukraine, Milanovic has said he does not want his country, the EU's newest member state, to face what he has called potentially disastrous consequences over the 11-month-old war in Ukraine. read more

Western allies differ over jets for Ukraine as Russia claims gains Ukraine's defence minister is expected in Paris on Tuesday to meet President Emmanuel Macron amid a debate among Kyiv's allies over whether to provide fighter jets for its war against Russia, after U.S. President Joe Biden ruled out giving F-16s. Ukraine planned to push for Western fourth-generation fighters like F-16s after securing supplies of main battle tanks last week, an adviser to Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday. Asked at the White House on Monday if the United States would provide F-16s, Biden told reporters: "No." read more

NATO's chief urges South Korea to step up military support for Ukraine NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged South Korea on Monday to increase military support to Ukraine, citing other countries that have changed their policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict after Russia's invasion. Stoltenberg is in Seoul, the first stop on a trip that will include Japan and is aimed at strengthening ties with U.S. allies in the face of the war in Ukraine and rising competition with China. Speaking at the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies in Seoul, he thanked South Korea for its non-lethal aid to Ukraine, but urged it to do more, adding there is an "urgent need" for ammunition. Russia calls the invasion a "special operation". read more

Twitter says users will be able to appeal account suspension Twitter users will be able to appeal account suspensions and be evaluated under the social media platform's new criteria for reinstatement, starting Feb. 1, the company said on Friday. Under the new criteria, which follow billionaire Elon Musk's purchase of the company in October, Twitter accounts will only be suspended for severe or ongoing and repeat violations of the platform's policies. Severe policy violations include engaging in illegal content or activity, inciting or threatening violence or harm, and engaging in targeted harassment of other users, among others. read more

India's Adani slammed by $48 bln stock rout, putting share sale at risk Shares of India's Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) plunged on Friday after a scathing report by a U.S. short seller triggered a selloff in the conglomerate's listed firms, casting doubts on the success of the company's record $2.45 billion secondary share sale. Seven listed companies of the Adani conglomerate - controlled by one of the world's richest men Gautam Adani - lost a combined $48 billion in market capitalisation, with U.S. bonds of Adani firms also falling after Hindenburg Research flagged concerns in a Jan. 24 report about debt levels and the use of tax havens. The rout led to a near 20% fall in shares of Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship company, well below the offer price of its secondary sale. As bidding started on Friday, the issue was subscribed around 1%, raising concerns over whether it would be able to proceed. read more

U.S. CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent COVID shot New data from one U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database shows a possible stroke risk link for older adults who received an updated Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 booster shot, but the signal is weaker than what the agency had flagged earlier in January, health officials said on Thursday. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they had not detected a link between the shots and strokes in two other safety monitoring databases. The new data was presented at a meeting of outside experts that advise the FDA on vaccine policy. read more

Turkey says it is "meaningless" to restore NATO dialogue with Sweden, Finland Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday it was "meaningless" to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO bids after protests this month in Stockholm. Speaking at a news conference, Cavusoglu also said there is no offer to evaluate Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership seperately. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Turkey after Ankara indefinitely postponed trilateral talks with Sweden and Finland over their membership.