Section: Egypt Independent (Egypt)
No special status for east Ukraine without ceasefire: president
Ukraine will not give its eastern regions greater autonomy until a lasting ceasefire with pro-Russian separatist rebels is in place, President Petro Poroshenko said on Sunday, in comments that could antagonize the rebels and the Kremlin. Ukraine’s parliament had been due to vote this week on legislation to devolve more power to its regions,...
South Sudan needs arms embargo; leaders killing civilians: UN panel
The United Nations Security Council should place an arms embargo on South Sudan, while the oil-rich country’s President Salva Kiir and a rebel leader qualify to be sanctioned over atrocities in a two-year civil war, UN sanctions monitors said in an annual report. The confidential report by a UN panel that monitors the conflict in South...
The unorthodox path of a Ukrainian Jew in the ‘new’ Ukraine
Asher Cherkasskiy lived a modest life in peaceful southern Ukraine, observing Orthodox Jewish custom and putting his three children through religious school. But when war against pro-Russian insurgents broke out in 2014, everything changed. Cherkasskiy became one of the few religious Jews to join a pro-Kiev militia and his bearded, bespectacled...
Putin probably approved London murder of Litvinenko: British inquiry
President Vladimir Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KBG agent Alexander Litvinenko, a judge led-British inquiry into the 2006 killing in London concluded. Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Putin who fled Russia, died after drinking green tea laced with the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210 at...
Burkina Faso and Mali to coordinate forces after deadly attacks
Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region. Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after Al-Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in...
After Russian embargo, stormy seas for Iceland’s fisheries
In Iceland’s small harbors, a Russian embargo on European fish imports isn’t just a headache for fishermen — it’s a headache for everyone. “Of course we’re worried,” says Astvaldur Sigurdsson, a grocer in Neskaupstadur, a town of 1,500 people nestled in a cove in eastern Iceland. “This is bound to...
Putin says he wants global cooperation against terrorism: Bild
Russia wants to fight terrorism jointly with the rest of the world, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Monday, while again accusing the West of exacerbating international crises that had contributed to it. “We are faced with common threats, and we still want all countries, both in Europe and the whole world, to join...
‘No reason’ for Russia to view US as threat: Pentagon
Russia has no reason to consider the United States a threat to its national security, the Pentagon said Monday after Moscow published a report highlighting Washington and NATO for the first time. Russia’s new national security document, signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve, names as threats both the United States and...
Abe says summit with Putin needed to resolve territorial row
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that summit talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin must take place in order for the countries to forge a peace treaty. Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty after World War II because of conflicting claims over islands north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, which Japan calls its...
Putin names United States among threats in new Russian security strategy
A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia’s national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years.The document, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation”, was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve. It...
