Section: Cyprus
Russia building major military base near Ukrainian border
By Anton Zverev Russia has started to build a huge military base housing ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a project that suggests the Kremlin is digging in for a prolonged stand-off with Kiev. The base, when completed, will even have its own swimming pool, skating rink and barber shop,...
Russian troops join combat in Syria ahead of UN meeting in New York (Updated)
By Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly By refusing to clarify the scale of its military presence in Syria, Russia keeps the West fearing a considerable build-up to win a stronger bargaining position when world powers sit down to talks on the conflict, Western diplomats in Moscow said. Those discussions could take place as soon as this month, when...
Juncker says EU to aid refugees, tighten border controls (Updated)
By Alastair Macdonald European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, urging Europeans to show humanity and dignity, said on Wednesday the EU executive would offer better protection for refugees but also improve its frontier defences and deport more illegal migrants. In his first State of the Union address to the European Parliament, Juncker...
Hit by new wave of refugees, Germany warns EU partners
Struggling to cope with record numbers of asylum seekers, Germany told its European partners on Monday they too must take in more refugees, as police in Hungary used pepper spray on desperate migrants who broke out of a reception centre at the border. Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking after a weekend in which 20,000 migrants entered Germany from...
Ukraine outbreak brings polio back to Europe, WHO says
By Tom Miles Two children in southwestern Ukraine have been paralysed by polio, the first outbreak of the disease in Europe since 2010, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, in a setback for a global eradication campaign. The WHO said Ukraine had been at particular risk of an outbreak because of inadequate vaccination coverage. In...
Big guns in east Ukraine fall silent, two more die from wounds in Kiev protests
A fragile truce between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists appeared to be holding on Tuesday as both sides made a renewed effort to silence their guns and make the much-abused ceasfire work. Sporadic shelling and shooting, which each side has blamed on the other, had ensured a steadily mounting death toll despite the...
Two police wounded by grenade outside Ukraine parliament
Several police and members of the Ukrainian national guard were injured on Monday when a grenade was thrown from a crowd of nationalist protesters demonstrating outside parliament in Kiev against a draft law to give special status to separatist regions, police said. A Reuters TV cameraman at the scene said several police were knocked off their...
Hungary wants more, less humiliating, EU funds to cope with migrants
By Gergely Szakacs Hungary wants more European Union funds to cope with the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff was quoted as saying on Tuesday. He said what was currently doled out was done in a humiliating way. Hungary is part of the European Union’s Schengen zone of passport-free...
Estonian officer abducted by Russia sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour
By Jack Stubbs An Estonian police officer, allegedly abducted by Russia in a cross-border raid, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, further stoking tensions between Moscow and the former Soviet republic. Russia arrested Eston Kohver on espionage charges in September last year, saying the Estonian was caught on Russian territory, but...
Weak lira adds nearly $4 bln to Turkish natural gas bill -minister
By Gulsen Solaker The weakness in the Turkish lira has added nearly $4 billion to Turkey’s natural gas bill since the beginning of the year, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday. Turkey is reliant on imports for around 90 per cent for its energy needs, meaning the lira’s 19 per cent fall against the dollar on political...
