Section: Independent Online (South Africa)
Former Ukrainian president convicted of treason
Minsk — A court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday found former President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason and helping Russia annex the Crimean peninsula. The Kiev court began reading out the verdict in Yanukovych’s case, a process that is expected to take at least the whole day. The judge already declared Yanukovych guilty of...
20 feared dead after fire engulfs two cargo ships near Crimea
Moscow – Twenty people were feared dead on Tuesday after a fire engulfed two cargo ships near the Crimean Peninsula. The death toll stood at 10, with another 10 missing, as rescue workers suspended their search until Wednesday, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. Twelve people survived the incident, the agency reported. The blaze on...
Model claiming Trump secrets ‘dragged’ into Russian detention: lawyer
Moscow – A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign was in custody Friday after police “dragged” her from a transit zone in Moscow’s airport, her lawyer told AFP. Anastasia Vashukevich, known as Nastya Rybka, was in jail in southern Moscow after being detained with...
‘Sex expert’ in Trump-Russia scandal pleads guilty in Thai ‘sex seminar’ case
Moscow – A model whose alleged affair with a Russian oligarch made her an unexpected player in probes over Moscow’s influence pleaded guilty Tuesday in Thailand to charges linked to a “sex training” seminar, setting the stage for her deportation. The model and self-described sex expert from Belarus, Anastasia Vashukevich,...
Model claiming to have damning Trump secrets to be released
Pattaya, Thailand – A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win office was ordered released on Tuesday, nearly a year after she was arrested in Thailand for participating in a “sex training course”. Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen name Nastya Rybka, has been held with several...
Why the FBI might have thought Trump could be working for Russia
Washington – The theory that President Donald Trump is or has been a Russian asset is a popular one among his detractors. But for the first time, we’re learning that it’s something the FBI suspected strongly enough to dig into. The Washington Post has confirmed that the FBI launched a counterintelligence inquiry into whether...
Officials claim Trump concealed details of face-to-face encounters with Putin
Washington – President Donald Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials,...
Nazi guard dies months after being booted from his US home
New York – A Nazi war criminal who was recently booted from his home in Queens and deported to Germany has died. Jakiw Palij, 95, worked as a guard at the Nazi German Trawniki SS camp in occupied Poland. When he arrived in the United States in 1949 he claimed he worked on his father’s farm in Poland and at a factory in Germany during...
In New Year letter to Trump, Putin says Moscow is open for dialogue
Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a New Year letter to his US. counterpart Donald Trump said on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said. At the end of November, Trump abruptly cancelled a planned meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, citing...
Entries open soon for Andrei Stenin contest for young photographers
Moscow – The International Press Photo Contest named after Andrei Stenin, a Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist who died in the line of duty in southeastern Ukraine, will on Saturday begin accepting submissions for its fifth year. The start date always falls on Stenin’s birthday, December 22. Entries from young photographers aged 18 to...
