Section: Kuwait
Ukrainian rebels have ‘army of mid-sized European state’
KIEV: Ukraine’s defense minister yesterday accused pro-Russian rebels backed up by Moscow’s forces of assembling a 40,000-strong army sufficient for a “mid-sized European state”. Stepan Poltorak’s estimates fly in the face of Russia’s denials that it either backs the separatist fighters or covertly sneaks troops across its...
G7 summit opens with tough line on Ukraine – Greek drama also looms over meeting
(From left) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US President Barack Obama, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pose for a family photo on their way to their first working...
Young nurses swap studies for Ukraine frontline
PISKY: Dressed in camouflage shorts and with her short hair dyed bright red, Nika looks more like a rock fan than a nurse at a makeshift Ukrainian hospital. But the 21-year-old medical student has seen many people killed in recent months, despite an internationally-brokered truce declared in February. At the half-destroyed house serving as a...
Brides for sale! – Europeans lured for sham marriages – Latest crime seen as an ‘emerging phenomenon’
Klara Balogova is silhouetted against a window at a Roma settlement near Kralovsky Chlmec, Slovakia LONDON: Klara Balogova was 18, penniless and heavily pregnant when she rode thousands of miles from Slovakia to England to marry a man she had never met. She knew he did not want her, or her child. He wanted her European identity card. The marriage...
Sweden pips Russia in Eurovision nail-biter
Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow holds the throphy after winning the Eurovision Song Contest final Sweden narrowly beat Russia yesterday in a nail-biting 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, winning its sixth crown in Europe’s annual anything-goes music extravaganza. Forty-one years after Swedish superstars ABBA took the title,...
EU re-imposes sanctions on Iran
The European Union yesterday re-imposed sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 Iranian shipping companies using new legal justifications after a European court overturned the sanctions. The decision comes days after Iran and six world powers reached a framework agreement to end a dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities, which caused the...
Thousands brave rain for Easter in St Peter’s Square – Pope urges the world to end ‘absurd violence’
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis appealed yesterday for an end to “absurd violence” in hotspots around the world and said the international community must not stand by in the face of the “immense humanitarian tragedy” in Syria and Iraq. In his traditional Easter message, the 78-year-old pontiff said he was praying for those killed in armed conflict,...
At least 56 die as Russian trawler sinks in icy seas – Rescuers search for missing crew, survivors
Trawler the same type as The Dalny Vostok trawler MOSCOW: A fishing trawler sank in freezing waters off Russia’s Far East yesterday, killing at least 56 people and setting off a frantic search for survivors that led to dozens being rescued alive. In the worst such accident in recent Russian history, some 132 people were on board the trawler...
The UK Foreign Office is flying blind
You might, very reasonably, expect the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to speak the language of the countries their policy affects. Or that when they brief politicians on crucial issues, that they have “immersed” themselves deep within foreign populations to understand fully the impact any new measures might have....
In Ukraine, Russians take up arms against the insurgency – Defending their land, family and future
ODESSA: When Andrei Krasilnikov hugged his wife good-bye last week and climbed onto a bus to take him back to the frontline in eastern Ukraine, his motive was typical of those fighting for Kiev — to defend his family and future from what he perceives as Russian aggression. What sets him apart from his brothers-inarms is his Russian citizenship....
