- Climate-hit Pacific Islands plot landmark UN court case
- India collapse to 34-6 after opting to bat against New Zealand
- Israel strikes Syrian city, US pounds Huthis in Yemen
- Taiwan's TSMC posts sharp rise in third quarter net profit
- Pakistan's Sajid takes seven as England all out 291, trail by 75
- Kenya Senate to vote on deputy president's impeachment
- Bronski Beat's gay anthem 'Smalltown Boy' strikes chord 40 years on
- NATO to weigh Zelensky plan in US vote's shadow
- Trial into Brazil mining disaster to open in London
- Italy's Di Giannantonio to miss final two MotoGP for surgery
- Hard talk on migration expected at EU summit
- South Korea's Hwang Ui-jo faces four years in jail for sex video
- Israel pounds Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon
- India slams 'cavalier' Trudeau in Sikh separatist murder row
- 'Love match' apps rival traditional matchmaking in Pakistan
- Asian markets rally but China's latest stimulus leaves traders wanting
- UN report says 1.1 billion people in acute poverty
- Vietnam death row tycoon awaits verdict in new trial
- 'Our time has come': the female Indian director hoping to make Oscars history
- Bondi beach 'closed' as Sydney shores hit by 'tar balls'
- Dodgers smash Mets to seize lead in MLB playoff series
- China to almost double support for unfinished housing projects
- King Charles heads to Australia, a nation shrugs
- China to boost credit for property market, renovate 1 mn homes
- New York fight back to take 2-1 lead over Lynx in WNBA Finals
- Family feud reignites over Singapore ex-PM's historic home
- ECB set to cut rates again as inflation cools
- Malinin, Sakamoto headline pre-Winter Olympics figure skating season
- Prospective Paris FC takeover could transform French football landscape
- Asian markets rally, with eyes on China housing briefing
- China's underground lab seeks answer to deep scientific riddle
- China toughens Taiwan stance over president's sovereignty defence
- BTS member J-hope discharged from South Korean military
- How Indigenous guards saved a Colombian lake from overtourism
- Despite threats, Florida abortion advocate fights on
- Garcia Luna: Mexico's 'supercop' turned cartel abettor
- North Korea says constitution now defines South as 'hostile' state
- Vietnam death row tycoon faces verdict in new trial
- Menendez brothers' family call for release as US prosecutors review evidence
- Fiery Harris vows break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Fiery Harris claims break from Biden in testy Fox interview
- Raytheon to pay $950 mn over fraud, bribery schemes: US
- Fiery Harris uses testy Fox interview to claim break from Biden
- Water crisis threatening world food production: report
- Mexico's ex-security chief sentenced to over 38 years in US prison
- One Direction's Liam Payne falls to death at Argentina hotel
- Climate change worsened deadly Nepal floods, scientists say
- Alcaraz will face 'difficult' clash with 'idol' Nadal
- US says India has removed alleged agent in assassination plot
- Barca hit nine in Women's Champions League, Bayern overcome Juve
French rugby players accused of rape granted house arrest for now
Two French international rugby players accused of raping a woman while on tour in Argentina were temporarily granted house arrest Wednesday after a week in detention, the prosecutor's office said.
Hugo Auradou, 20, and Oscar Jegou, 21, were arrested in Buenos Aires two days after their team played Argentina in the city of Mendoza.
Last Friday, they were charged with aggravated rape of a woman they had met in a bar after the match.
The 39-year-old complainant says she was violently and repeatedly raped by the pair, who insist there was a consensual sexual encounter.
On Wednesday, the Argentine public prosecutor's office in Mendoza granted their request for house arrest in the city pending a hearing to determine whether they will await trial in custody or as free men.
They will be equipped with electronic monitoring bracelets, the office said in a statement.
Just minutes later, the men were taken from the detention center where they had been held since last week, AFP witnessed.
"This is a very important step forward for the two rugby players and also for French rugby," the men's lawyer, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, said.
French Rugby Federation president Florian Grill said this week the body had found a house in Mendoza to rent for the purposes of house arrest. All expenses are to be repaid by the men's families.
Natacha Romano, the complainant's lawyer, told AFP on Wednesday that "as long as they remain in our country, in Mendoza, it makes no difference where they are detained."
The pair face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
O.M.Souza--AMWN