BREAKING NEWS

Palestinian officials support Abbas aide in sex scandal

RAMALLAH — Palestinian officials are rallying around a top aide to Palestinian Authorit President Mahmoud Abbas after a video surfaced showing him in the nude in an alleged sex-for-influence swap.
The video of Rafiq Husseini has raised an uproar among Palestinians and calls for his resignation.
But another Abbas aide, Nimr Hamad, said Friday that Husseini would remain in his post for now.
In the video, broadcast by Israeli tlevision, Husseini is shown undressing in a bedroom and calling out to an unseen woman, heard off camera, to join him.
A former Palestinian intelligence official who says he secretly took the footage in collusion with the unidentified woman says Husseini demanded sex with her in return for using his influence to solve a family problem.