Section: Cyprus
Crash investigation begins in Cairo
Egyptian and Russian investigators will begin examining within hours the contents of the two black boxes recovered from the Russian airliner that crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, judicial and ministerial sources said. The sources said the examination would take place at the civil aviation ministry in Cairo. Russian’s...
Women’s acquittal in topless protest at Notre Dame is upheld
The acquittal of eight women from the activist group Femen over a topless protest they held in Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral two years ago was upheld by a French court of appeals on Thursday. The feminist activists mixed with hordes of queuing visitors to enter the 12th century church unspotted in 2013 – one day after Pope Benedict resigned...
Family confirms first Russian military fatality in Syria, disputes ‘suicide’
By Maria Tsvetkova The parents of the first Russian serviceman confirmed dead in four weeks of air strikes in Syria said on Tuesday they did not believe the military’s account that their 19-year-old son had hanged himself. In an interview with Reuters at their home in southern Russia, Alexander and Svetlana Kostenko said their son, Vadim,...
Eurosceptics claim victory in landmark Poland election
By Pawel Sobczak and Wiktor Szary Poland’s eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) claimed victory on Sunday in a watershed election that risks putting the ex-communist state on a collision course with key European Union allies. Run by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech, PiS secured 38 percent of the...
Poland votes, conservative euro-sceptic party looks set to win
Poles vote in an election on Sunday that could end nearly a decade of economic and political stability in the country by bringing to power a conservative, euro-sceptic party whose policies diverge from those of many of Poland’s European allies. If opinion polls are correct, the ruling Civic Platform (PO), a pro-market, centre-eight grouping...
Syria air strikes push Putin’s rating to new high – Russian state pollster
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has hit a record high of almost 90 percent, primarily as a result of his decision to launch air strikes against Islamist militants in Syria, Russia‘s state pollster said on Thursday. VTsIOM, the pollster, said Putin’s rating had reached 89.9 per cent in October, up from a previous...
Assad flies to Moscow in surprise visit to thank Putin for air strikes (Updated)
By Andrew Osborn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow on Tuesday evening to personally thank Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his military support, in a surprise visit that underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East. It was Assad’s first foreign trip since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in 2011, and...
As Russia reasserts itself, NATO opens biggest exercises in years
By Robin Emmott NATO and its allies opened their largest military exercise in more than a decade on Monday, choosing the central Mediterranean to showcase strengths that face threats from Russia’s growing military presence from the Baltics to Syria. As planes flew over a gala ceremony for NATO’s military and political leaders at an...
Iranian official says expects nuclear deal to be implemented this year
Iran’s nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Monday he expected a deal with six world powers on shrinking Tehran’s atomic programme in exchange for sanctions relief to be implemented by year-end. “Hopefully before the end of this year certainly we would have the implementation day,” Araqchi told reporters after meeting senior...
NATO to showcase military force in Mediterranean
By Robin Emmott NATO and its allies will open their biggest military exercise in more than a decade on Monday in a show of strength in the central Mediterranean that takes place as Russia seeks to reassert itself across the water in the Levant. While the exercises were planned long before Russia’s build-up in Syria and are independent of...
