A NEW PROBE of Swiss bank Credit Suisse discovered 890 previously undisclosed accounts with potential Nazi links, a US senator said on Tuesday, amid efforts to shine a light on what he said was the bank’s hidden role in World War Two crimes.

Holders of the wartime accounts included the German Foreign Office, the SS paramilitary organization and a German arms-manufacturing company, US Republican Senator Chuck Grassley told reporters in a briefing.

He gave no details on how much money might have been held in the accounts and their current status.

The organizations were part of the Nazi apparatus under German leader Adolf Hitler that enabled the Holocaust, which killed about 6 million Jewish people.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which Mr. Grassley chairs, heard on Tuesday more details on the investigation by US lawyer Neil Barofsky. Swiss bank UBS, which acquired Credit Suisse in an emergency takeover in 2023, hired him to handle the probe.

Mr. Barofsky led an earlier investigation when Credit Suisse was independent and said the bank sought to obstruct the effort and fired him.

Mr. Barofsky told the hearing on Tuesday that Credit Suisse was willing during the Nazi era to expropriate money from accounts held by Jewish people and transfer it to Nazi clients.

He said his review produced evidence that Credit Suisse’s banking relationships with the SS were more extensive than previously known, and the SS economic arm maintained an account at the bank, according to the testimony.

New details have also emerged on the bank’s connection to a scheme to help Nazis flee to Argentina, Mr. Barofsky said.

Both UBS and Credit Suisse apologized and reached a global settlement in 1999 that finalized all Nazi-era claims, including any future claims, and intended to end the controversy, UBS said, characterizing the investigation as a voluntary initiative.

UBS said it accepts and deeply regrets that the World War Two era was a dark period in the history of Swiss banking.

When taking over Credit Suisse, UBS fully committed to getting the investigation back on track and has since taken extensive steps to facilitate Mr. Barofsky’s review, UBS Americas President Robert Karofsky told the hearing.

“Now, with three years of experience, our priority is to complete this review so that the world can benefit from the findings in the coming final report.”

The investigation is set to conclude by early summer, according to Senate Judiciary Committee aides, and a final report is expected at the end of the year. — Reuters

KARACHI/BENGHAZI — Pakistan is in talks to open a consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the leader of the Libyan National Army met Pakistan’s prime minister in Islamabad.

Islamabad would join a small group of countries with a diplomatic presence in Benghazi, in a move that could boost eastern authorities in their rivalry with Libya’s west.

Libya descended into turmoil after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi and has been divided into eastern and western authorities since a 2014 civil war. The UN-recognized government in Tripoli controls the west, while LNA leader Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s forces based in Benghazi hold the east and south, including major oilfields.

Mr. Haftar discussed the consulate with officials during an ongoing visit to Pakistan, the sources said.

He met Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in Rawalpindi on Monday to discuss “professional cooperation”, the Pakistani military said.

LNA LEADER, PM, DISCUSS COOPERATION
On Tuesday, Mr. Haftar and his son Saddam met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss “ways to enhance bilateral cooperation across various fields, in addition to addressing regional and international issues of mutual interest,” the LNA’s media office said in a statement.

The department previously said Mr. Haftar met senior Pakistani army officials “within the framework of strengthening bilateral relations”. It did not give further details and Reuters could not immediately reach eastern Libyan authorities for comment.

Pakistan’s prime minister’s office and foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Pakistan’s air force said in a statement that Saddam Khalifa Haftar met Air Chief Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu to discuss expanding defense cooperation, including joint training, with Islamabad reaffirming its support for the “capability development” of the Libyan air force.

Pakistan’s army chief visited Benghazi in December, where he signed a multibillion-dollar defense deal with the LNA, previously reported by Reuters.

All three sources, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the decision to open a consulate in Benghazi was linked to the $4 billion defense deal, one of Pakistan’s largest-ever arms sales.

Libya has been under a UN arms embargo since 2011, although UN experts have said it is ineffective. Pakistani officials involved in the December deal said it did not violate UN restrictions.

Mr. Haftar has historically been an ally of the UAE, which supported him with air power and viewed him as a bulwark against Islamists, while Pakistan – the only nuclear-armed Muslim-majority nation – signed a wide-ranging mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia late last year. — Reuters

PARIS — French police raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in a widening investigation, amid growing scrutiny of the platform by authorities across Europe.

The raid by the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit and Mr. Musk’s summoning – which could further increase tensions between Europe and the US over Big Tech and free speech – are linked to a year-long investigation into suspected abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction by X or its executives.

Britain’s privacy watchdog, meanwhile, also kicked off a formal investigation into Mr. Musk’s artificial-intelligence chatbot Grok over the processing of personal data and its potential to produce harmful sexualized images and video content.

“The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office is plainly attempting to exert pressure on X’s senior management in the United States by targeting our French entity and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation,” X said in a statement.

“The Prosecutor’s Office has ignored the established procedural mechanisms to obtain evidence in compliance with international treaties and X’s rights to defend itself.”

Referring to the raids, Mr. Musk said in a post on X, “This is a political attack.”

INVESTIGATION INCLUDES SEXUALLY EXPLICIT DEEPFAKES
In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office said it had broadened the scope of its investigation following complaints over the functioning of Grok.

The French probe will now also investigate alleged complicity in the “detention and diffusion” of images of a child‑pornographic nature and the violation of a person’s image rights with sexually explicit deepfakes, among other potential crimes.

Mr. Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino were summoned to a hearing on April 20. Other X staff were also summoned as witnesses.

In July, Mr. Musk denied the initial accusations and said French prosecutors were launching a “politically-motivated criminal investigation”.

“At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on national territory,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Such summons are mandatory, though they are harder to enforce on people who do not live in France.

After such a hearing, authorities can decide to either shelve or continue the probe, and potentially place suspects in custody.

WIDENING PROBES INTO X
Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office, meanwhile, said it was investigating the xAI chatbot, following reports that Grok had been used to generate non‑consensual sexual imagery of individuals, including children.

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said separately it was setting out the next steps in its investigation into X launched last month, though it provided few details.

Ofcom is seeking to assess if the company has done enough to mitigate the risk of sexual deepfakes spreading on its social media platform. But it has said it was not investigating xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot, as it falls beyond the scope of current law.

The European Union launched an investigation last week into X too, seeking to assess whether it disseminated illegal content, following a public outcry over the spreading of manipulated sexualized images by Grok.

The chatbot continues to generate sexualized images of people even when users explicitly warn that the subjects do not consent, Reuters has found.

xAI put some restrictions on Grok’s image-generation function in response to the backlash last month.

PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE QUITTING X
The Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit is conducting the investigation in France, together with the French police’s own cybercrime unit and Europol. The unit previously arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov in 2024 over charges including complicity in organized crime carried out on the messaging app, charges his lawyer has described as “absurd”.

The prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms in X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system.

“Glad to see that my complaint from January 2025 is yielding results!” that lawmaker, Eric Bothorel, said on X. “In Europe, and particularly in France, the Rule of Law means that no one is above the law.”

The prosecutor’s office also said it was leaving the X social media platform and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on. LinkedIn belongs to Microsoft and Instagram to Meta. — Reuters

ATHENS — Fourteen migrants died in the Aegean Sea off Greece on Tuesday after their boat collided with a coast guard vessel off the island of Chios, the coast guard said.

A coastguard official said they spotted a dingy transporting migrants towards Chios, which lies a few miles off the coast of Turkey, and ordered them to turn back.

“The smugglers maneuvered toward the coast guard vessel causing a collision ,” the official told Reuters.

Reuters was unable to independently verify how exactly the collision occurred. The nationality of the migrants was not clear.

Two coast guard officers were injured and transferred to hospital and 24 migrants have been rescued, a second official told Reuters. Witnesses reported that about 30-35 people were on board, a government official said.

The coast guard said that a search and rescue was underway with coast guard vessels, private boats, and divers assisting the operation.

Greece, in the southeast corner of the European Union, has long been a favored gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

In 2015-2016, Greece was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis and nearly one million people landed on its islands, including Chios, from Turkey.

In recent years, arrivals have dropped and Greece has toughened its stance on migrants. Since 2019, the center-right government has reinforced border controls with fences and sea patrols.

Greece has come under scrutiny for its treatment of migrants and refugees approaching by sea, including one shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants died after what witnesses said was the coastguard’s attempt to tow their trawler.

The EU border agency said last year that it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations migrants seeking asylum were pushed back from Greece’s frontiers.

Greece denies that it violates human rights or that it forcefully returns asylum seekers from its shores. — Reuters