Section: Independent Online (South Africa)
Ukraine’s ‘Joan of Arc’ accused of plotting coup in Kiev
Kiev – Two years ago, Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian helicopter pilot who had been taken prisoner by pro-Russian forces in the country’s east, returned from captivity to a tumultuous hero’s welcome.Today she is once again behind bars – only this time she’s been put there by Ukrainian authorities.Savchenko was arrested...
Scores of Russian diplomats expelled from US, EU in wake of nerve attack
London/Washington – The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in taking action against the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow. It was the toughest action that U.S. President Donald Trump had taken against Russia...
LOOK: Orange snow blankets parts of Europe in Mars-like glow
Bucharest, Romania – Orange snow has fallen in parts of eastern Europe after a rare meeting of Siberia and the Sahara. Meteorologists say the snow from Siberia collided with dust-filled wind from the Sahara desert in Africa. The orange snow has been spotted on mountains in Russia’s Sochi region, farther east in Georgia’s...
Trump slammed for calling Putin to congratulate him
Moscow — President Donald Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to congratulate him on his re-election to a fourth term, and they discussed arranging a meeting against the backdrop of heightened tensions between their two nations over election meddling. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the meeting could happen soon...
#CambridgeAnalytica’s dirty tricks go beyond data harvesting
Washington — Sitting in a hotel bar, Alexander Nix, who runs the political data firm Cambridge Analytica, had a few ideas for a prospective client looking for help in a foreign election. The firm could send an attractive woman to seduce a rival candidate and secretly videotape the encounter, Nix said, or send someone posing as a wealthy land...
Cambridge Analytica’s dirty tricks go beyond data harvesting
Washington — Sitting in a hotel bar, Alexander Nix, who runs the political data firm Cambridge Analytica, had a few ideas for a prospective client looking for help in a foreign election. The firm could send an attractive woman to seduce a rival candidate and secretly videotape the encounter, Nix said, or send someone posing as a wealthy land...
Putin secures victory in Russia amidst ballot stuffing allegations
Moscow – Vladimir Putin cruised to victory Sunday for another six-year presidential term after an election that was long on spectacle and short on suspense. From the Arctic to the International Space Station, Russia rolled out an elaborate presidential-election-day display designed to show the breadth of Putin’s public support as he...
Putin eyes fourth term as Russians go to polls
Russians voted Sunday in an election set to hand President Vladimir Putin a fourth Kremlin term, as the country is embroiled in a crisis with Britain and its allies over a spy poisoning. With the vast country stretching across 11 time zones, polls opened in the Russian far east at 2000 GMT on Saturday and will close in Kaliningrad, the...
Trial shows risks of nerve agent ‘smuggling’, say experts
Moscow/Amsterdam – The British government says Russia is to blame for poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent, and most chemical weapons specialists agree. But they say an alternative explanation cannot be ruled out: that the nerve agent got into the hands of people not acting for the Russian state. The Soviet Union’s...
UK expels 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning
London — Britain announced Wednesday it will expel 23 Russian diplomats — the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War — and break off high-level contacts with the Kremlin over the nerve-agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in an English town. Prime Minister Theresa May told lawmakers that the 23 diplomats, who have been identified as...
