Section: theSun (Malaysia)
US strike wiped out fifth of Assad air force, Mattis says
WASHINGTON: The US strike on a Syrian air base destroyed a fifth of the Damascus regime’s remaining warplanes, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Monday as Washington fired a fresh salvo of warnings at President Bashar al-Assad. The public assessment of Friday’s missile strike and the forceful rhetoric came as G7 ministers met in Italy to...
Poland charges 11 over bizarre Auschwitz stunt
WARSAW: Polish prosecutors on Saturday said they had pressed charges against 11 people who slaughtered a lamb and then stripped naked at the former German Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The unprecedented stunt, carried out on Friday in front of the camp’s “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”) gate, was...
Tillerson to meet allies as Nato races to save talks
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with Nato members next week in Brussels, officials said Friday, as alliance diplomats worked to nail down the date. “We are currently planning to hold the meeting of Nato foreign ministers on 31 March. Consultations on scheduling among Allies are ongoing,” a Nato official in...
Kremlin hopes Kiev’s Eurovision ban ‘will be reconsidered’
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Thursday that it hoped Kiev would reconsider its decision to ban a Russian singer from the Eurovision Song Contest over a past performance in Russia-annexed Crimea. “The decision from our point of view is absolutely unfair, it’s unfortunate. And we hope all the same that it will be reconsidered,” Kremlin...
Ukraine says ‘state terrorism’ by Moscow behind murder of Russian ex-MP
KIEV: A former Russian MP wanted by Moscow for fraud was shot dead in broad daylight in the heart of the Ukrainian capital on Thursday in what Kiev branded “state terrorism.” Kiev police chief Andriy Kryshchenko confirmed in televised comments that “the identity of the dead man has been established” as former Communist...
After Trump tweet, Pentagon chief explains Nato funding
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told lawmakers Wednesday that Nato does not track “past money owed,” days after President Donald Trump claimed Germany has shortchanged the alliance by massive amounts. “I cannot give you an accounting for past money owed, because that’s not the way we do that in Nato,”...
Arms depot explodes in Ukraine, Kiev blames ‘sabotage’
KIEV: A series of explosions hit a munitions depot in eastern Ukraine overnight, the military said Thursday, blaming the incident on an “act of sabotage”. “A fire broke out … as a result of an act of sabotage at a depot in the town of Balakliya where missiles and munitions were kept,” Ukraine’s Chief Military...
Dutch families plant first trees at MH17 memorial park
VIJFHUIZEN (Netherlands): Relatives of those killed when flight MH17 was downed over Ukraine in mid-2014, on Saturday planted the first trees in a Dutch memorial park not far from where the ill-fated plane departed. “Today is a very important day for all the next of kin. We are planting the first trees … to create a monument for MH17...
Russia conflicted on how to mark 100 years since revolutions
MOSCOW: It was the year that ended centuries of royal rule, brought two revolutions, ushered in Soviet domination and changed the course of Russian history irrevocably. A century later, the country seems unsure how to treat the tumultuous events of 1917 that saw it hurtle from the abdication of the last tsar Nicholas II to a Communist...
Tens of thousands march for equality on Women’s Day
NEW YORK: Tens of thousands of women marched around the world Wednesday as protests stretched from Turkey to Spain to the United States demanding equal rights and slamming Donald Trump with an avalanche of criticism. As the world marked International Women’s Day, officials said 40,000 people gathered in Madrid to denounce violence against...
