Prince Philip, husband of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Monarch of the UK has passed away, Buckingham Palace has announced.

A statement from Buckingham Palace said: “It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The Prince had been married to the queen for well over 70 years, making him the longest-serving consort in British history.

No official details have been released yet about the Duke’s funeral, but it is understood he will be given a royal ceremonial funeral rather than a state funeral, in line with his wishes.

Source: GhanaFeed.Com

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and two former associates have been sentenced to three years in jail – two of them suspended – for corruption.

Sarkozy, 66, was found guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, by offering a prestigious job in Monaco in return for information about a criminal inquiry into his political party.

Sarkozy’s ex-lawyer Thierry Herzog and Azibert got the same sentence.

Sarkozy can serve the term at home.

In the ruling, the judge said Sarkozy could serve house arrest with an electronic tag. The ex-president is expected to appeal.

It is a legal landmark for post-war France. The only precedent was the trial of Sarkozy’s right-wing predecessor Jacques Chirac, who got a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for having arranged bogus jobs at Paris City Hall for political allies when he was Paris mayor. Chirac died in 2019.

Prosecutors sought a four-year jail sentence for Sarkozy, half of which would be suspended.

The case centered on conversations between Azibert and Herzog, which were taped by investigators looking into claims that Sarkozy accepted illicit payments from the L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.

Sarkozy is also due to go on trial in a separate case, from 17 March to 15 April, which relates to the so-called Bygmalion affair. Sarkozy is accused of having fraudulently overspent in his 2012 presidential campaign. He had served as president since 2007 – but his 2012 re-election bid was unsuccessful.

Nonetheless, he remains popular in right-wing circles, a year away from a presidential election.

Source: BBC

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced that American President, Donald Trump will be blocked from making further posts on Facebook and Instagram till at least his transition is over.

This decision comes after President Trump uploaded on his facebook page asking the protesters to go home, yet continue to make false claims the election was rigged in favour of President-elect Joe Biden.

See Zuckerberg’s announcement below:

The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.

Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.

Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.

We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.

Source: GhanaFeed.com