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A French senator has been handed preliminary charges for drugging another lawmaker with the aim of rape or sexual assault, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, and has been suspended from his party. Joel Guerriau, a 66-year-old representing the Loire-Atlantique region in western France, was detained for 48 hours and given preliminary charges Friday, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. He is suspected of putting ecstasy in a glass of Champagne he served parliament member Sandrine Josso, who left after she started feeling sick, according to French media reports. The incident occurred Tuesday evening in the senator’s apartment. His lawyer said Guerriau didn’t intend to drug Josso to abuse her and has apologized to her. In a statement, lawyer Remi-Pierre Drai said ‘’it was a handling error’’ that caused the lawmaker to fall ill. He did not elaborate. ‘’Joel Guerriau is not a predator,’’ the lawyer said. “He is an honest, respected and respectable man who will restore his honor and that of his family however long it takes.’’ Guerriau was given preliminary charges of use and possession of drugs, and of secretly administering a discernment-altering substance to commit a rape or sexual assault. He was released under judicial supervision and barred from contact with the victim and witnesses while the investigation continues. Preliminary charges under French law mean investigating magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow more time before determining whether to send a case to trial. After the charges were announced, the center-right Horizons political group on Saturday announced his suspension, saying that it ‘’will never tolerate the slightest complacency toward sexual and sexist violence.'' Horizons is allied in parliament with President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party. Josso, a member of the lower house of parliament representing the Loire-Atlantique region with the centrist Modem party, has not spoken publicly about the investigation. Read More Moldova's first dog nips Austrian president on the hand during official visit Daisaku Ikeda, head of global Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, dies at 95 Gaza communications blackout ends, giving rise to hope for the resumption of critical aid deliveries

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By Natalie Grover and Eva Mathews (Reuters) -European regulators have approved the region's first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),

President Vladimir Putin recruited a former aide of late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to oversee mercenary fighter units in Ukraine. The Russian president met Andrei Troshev, who is known by his nom de guerre "Sedoi" or "grey hair", along with deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Thursday night, the Kremlin said in a statement. Mr Putin reportedly said that they had spoken about how "volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation". "You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year," the president said. "You know what it is, how it is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that the combat work goes in the best and most successful way." The meeting appeared to be the Kremlin's attempt to show that Mr Putin had regained control over the mercenary group since Prigozhin's death in a plane crash in August following a failed mutiny against Moscow. Prigozhin had claimed that the mutiny, which was aborted before reaching Moscow, was not aimed at toppling Mr Putin but at settling scores with defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov. The president in recent months ordered the Wagner mercenaries to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state – a step Prigozhin had opposed. Mr Troshev “betrayed” Prigozhin's short-lived mutiny against Moscow after earning Mr Putin’s favour by transferring inside information to the Russian defence ministry, investigative outlet Gulagu.net claimed in July. It is believed that Wagner will now be overseen by Mr Troshev and M Yrevkurov, who have travelled to several countries in recent months where the mercenaries worked. Mr Troshev was born in Leningrad – the Soviet-era name for Mr Putin's home town St Petersburg – and has earlier been pictured with the president. He fought in Afghanistan during the Soviet Union's decade-long war. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he served in the North Caucasus with the Russian army and then in SOBR, a quick reaction special forces unit of the Russian interior ministry. He was a commander in the unit. For his service in Afghanistan, Mr Troshev was awarded the military decoration Order of the Red Star twice. He was awarded Russia's highest medal – Hero of Russia – in 2016 for the storming of Palmyra in Syria against Islamic State militants. Several hundred fighters of the Wagner group have returned to the battlefield in Ukraine to fight for Russia, Kyiv claimed. “We have recorded the presence of a maximum of several hundred fighters of the former Wagner PMC (private military company),” spokesperson for the eastern military command Serhiy Cherevatyi said. These Wagner fighters were scattered in different places and were not part of a single unit, and had no significant impact, he said. “They do not constitute any integral, systematic, organised force,” the spokesperson said. “As they say – game over. These are pathetic remnants, nothing good awaits them here.” Read More Ukraine war - live: Kyiv ‘strikes power substation in Russia’ as Putin meets ‘Grey Hair’ commander Ukraine says hundreds of Wagner fighters back on battlefield months after failed coup A month after Prigozhin’s suspicious death, the Kremlin is silent on his plane crash and legacy The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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President Joe Biden had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. But while he clearly has problems -- no president with an approval rating hovering around 40% is in good shape -- some of his issues appear to be overblown. Here are three reasons why.

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON U.S. Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville prevented the approval of hundreds of military nominations on

A trial date has been set for two white men in Mississippi who are accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home

WASHINGTON U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attended at least two events for the conservative Koch network of

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Two people were killed at Moldova's main international airport on Friday when a "foreign citizen" who was not allowed to enter the country opened fire, according to the country's Interior Ministry.