Outrage over German carmakers' tests
FRANKFURT • German carmakers came under fire yesterday following revelations they helped finance experiments that saw humans and monkeys exposed to toxic diesel fumes that have been linked to asthma, lung diseases and heart attacks.
The Sueddeutsche and Stuttgarter Zeitung dailies reported that a research group funded by Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW had measured the effects of inhaling nitrogen oxide gases on 25 healthy human beings at a German university hospital. The reports came days after the New York Times wrote that the same organisation carried out tests on monkeys in the United States in 2014.
The disclosures sparked widespread outrage, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel who strongly condemned the latest controversy to engulf the nation's powerful but scandal-tainted auto industry.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
French ministers defend colleague
PARIS • Members of the French government have rallied around Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin, a rising star in President Emmanuel Macron's team who has been accused of rape in a case dating back nearly a decade.
Last Saturday, the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed it had reopened an investigation into allegations that Mr Darmanin, 35, pressured a woman into sex in return for promising to help clear her name in a legal dispute.
On Sunday, Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet rejected suggestions that he should resign, noting that he had not been charged with any crime.
Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert also took up Mr Darmanin's defence, saying the principle of innocent until proven guilty should apply to his Cabinet colleague, "like any other citizen".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ancient Syria temple damaged in raids
BEIRUT • Syria's antiquities department and a war monitor said a 3,000-year-old temple has been damaged in Turkish air strikes on a Kurdish militia in the country's north.
The Iron Age neo-Hittite temple of Ain Dara dates back to the Aramean era, from around 1,300 to 700 BC, and is named after a village located in the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the temple was struck by air strikes last Friday, with Syria's antiquities department confirming the attack.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
