Section: Cyprus
Civilians killed as fighting flares in eastern Ukraine
Fighting flared between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in two separate parts of eastern Ukraine overnight with several civilians killed by shelling, Ukrainian police and separatist sources said on Monday. The clashes, near Mariupol in the southeast and at Gorlivka, a rebel-held town, formed part of an upsurge in...
Dutch prosecutors: fragments from MH17 site may be from Russian-made missile
Dutch prosecutors from a joint international criminal investigation into the 2014 downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine say some of the debris recovered from the site may belong to a Russian-made missile system. The Netherlands’ national prosecutor’s office said that the fragments, possibly from a BUK surface-to-air missile...
Ukraine reports heaviest shelling by eastern rebels since February
Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of carrying out the heaviest artillery attacks on government positions in six months and warned of signs the conflict was escalating despite a ceasefire deal. The military said 400 rebel fighters supported by tanks had attacked government forces around the village of Starohnativka, 50 km (30 miles)...
Gunmen attack hotel in central Mali, one dead
At least one person was killed in an attack early on Friday by unidentified gunmen on a hotel in central Mali frequented by United Nations peacekeepers in the West African nation, a witness and a military spokesman said. The raid targeted a hotel on the road to the airport in Sevare, which services the larger town of Mopti. The body of one victim...
Russia says no common approach yet with US on fighting Islamic State
By David Brunnstrom and Gabriela Baczynska Russia and the United States have not been able to agree on a common approach to fighting Islamic State, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, after his second meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in recent days. “We all agree that Islamic State is the common threat, common evil. We...
Iran’s President Rouhani to visit Rome
President Hassan Rouhani has accepted an invitation to visit Rome, Italy’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, in what would be his first trip to an EU capital as he tries to mend diplomatic and economic ties with the West. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi invited Rouhani to make the trip “in the coming weeks”, according to a spokesman for...
Ukraine faces ‘hidden crisis’ as displacement soars
By Natalia Ojewska Ukraine is facing a “hidden emergency” because of the government’s failure to plan for nearly 1.4 million people uprooted by the war in the east, which has left many struggling to find shelter, charities say. They accused the government of breaking its promise to provide housing for people displaced by the conflict and...
Leaders, villagers remember victims of downed Malaysian plane
By Maria Tsvetkova The rebel-held east Ukrainian village where a Malaysian airliner was shot down honoured the 298 victims at a simple ceremony on Friday as calls grew for an international tribunal to prosecute those who brought it down. After a church service in the village of Hrabove, residents joined a procession across an open field to a...
Putin says calls for UN tribunal on downing of airliner premature
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday calls for a UN tribunal to be set up to prosecute suspects in the downing of a Malaysian airliner in a rebel-held part of Ukraine were counterproductive and premature. Putin made his comments in a phone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte before Friday’s first anniversary of the...
Russia, US agree fishing ban in Arctic as sea ice melts
By Alister Doyle The United States, Russia and other Arctic nations signed an agreement deal on Thursday to bar their fishing fleets from fast-thawing seas around the North Pole, an agreement delayed more than a year by tensions over Ukraine. The accord, also signed in Oslo by the ambassadors of Canada, Norway and Denmark, is a response to global...
