Section: United Arab Emirates
Berlusconi rubs shoulders with Putin in Crimea
YALTA: Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi rubbed shoulders with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Crimea, the most prominent Western politician to visit the Black Sea peninsula since Moscow annexed it from Ukraine last year. Western visitors have been rare since the annexation, which drove relations between Moscow and the...
Ukraine truce holding amid Russia threat: Poroshenko
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told an international conference on Friday that Russia remained a threat to the “entire democratic world” but that he held out hope a new truce with pro-Moscow insurgents would hold. The Western-backed leader told an audience of about a hundred global investors and top diplomats that they must press...
Russian court sets tough jail term for flag stunt
MOSCOW: A Russian court on Thursday convicted a man of helping try to paint a Ukrainian flag on a Moscow skyscraper as an act of protest against the Kremlin’s foreign policy and sentenced him to two years and three months in jail. The incident, in August last year, attracted international attention because it was a rare example of protest...
‘Ukraine ceasefire more respected now’
PRAGUE: A ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is being respected more now than in the past, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. “So far it looks like the ceasefire is now more respected than it has been for a long time. I welcome that, at the same time, the situation in Ukraine is still very fragile,” he told reporters during a...
Nearly 8,000 killed since start of Ukraine conflict: UN
UNITED NATIONS: Nearly 8,000 people – including civilians, soldiers and militia members – have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday. “Since the conflict began in eastern Ukraine in mid-April 2014, a total of at least 7,962 people … have been...
Truce holds for first time in eastern Ukraine
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Saturday that the Western-backed truce signed in Minsk in February had been respected this week for the first time, despite pro-Russian rebels claiming a civilian had been killed. “I have some good news. There has been no shooting on the front for a week,” Poroshenko said in televised remarks....
Nuclear ‘Tsar’ bomb put on display in Moscow
MOSCOW // Eight metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, a replica of the so-called Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, has gone on display for the first time in Russia, in the midst of an ongoing standoff with the West over Ukraine.Tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb — also known as the AN602 —...
Two of US Air Force’s fighters planes land in Estonia
TALLINN: Two of the US Air Force’s most advanced planes, F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, made a landmark visit to Estonia on Friday, the first time the state-of-the-art aircraft have visited former Soviet territory. The visit comes as tensions are running high with neighbouring Russia over its role in the conflict in Ukraine. The jets landed...
Renewed truce opportunity for Ukraine peace: Nato
Stoltenberg urges Russia to stop backing the rebels, says alliance was getting ‘mixed’ reports from Ukraine, undrescoring that the situation remained ‘very fragile’ VILNIUS: Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday a renewed ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and Kiev’s decentralisation reforms created a new opportunity for peace...
Ukraine outbreak brings polio back to Europe: WHO
GENEVA: Two children in south-western Ukraine have been paralysed by polio, the first outbreak of the disease in Europe since 2010, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday, in a setback for a global eradication campaign. The outbreak occurred because only half of Ukrainian children are immunised against polio, and the risk of...
