Section: theSun (Malaysia)
Ukraine marks 30 years since Chernobyl disaster
KIEV: Ukraine prepared on Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which permanently poisoned swathes of eastern Europe and highlighted the shortcomings of the secretive Soviet system. In the early hours of April 26, 1986, a botched test at the nuclear plant in then-Soviet Ukraine triggered a meltdown that spewed...
Pilot jailed in Russia may return ‘in weeks’: Ukraine leader
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Sunday he hoped to see a Kiev-born pilot who received a 14-year jail sentence in Russia return home as part of a prisoner swap “in a few weeks”. The case of 34-year-old Nadiya Savchenko has further strained ties between the two neighbours as Ukraine fights a pro-Russian eastern...
Nato-Russia talks end in ‘profound disagreements’
BRUSSELS: Nato and Russia ran up against “profound disagreements” over Ukraine and other issues as their ambassadors met on Wednesday for the first time since 2014, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said. The two sides agreed to keep communicating following the meeting of the Nato-Russia Council, which has been on ice since the alliance...
Panama Paper: US opens criminal probe linked to revelations
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation involving the leaked Panama Papers on offshore shell companies, according to an official letter to the group that brought the records to light. The letter from the office of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, obtained by AFP Wednesday, asks to discuss the investigation...
Russian vote monitor hit with big fine ahead of polls
MOSCOW: Russia’s independent election watchdog Golos said on Tuesday it had been fined a whopping 1.2 million rubles (RM70,464.38) for violating controversial legislation forcing non-governmental organisations to carry a “foreign agent” tag. Supporters and fellow rights activists said the fine — equivalent to US$18,300 or...
Russian jets in repeated ‘aggressive’ passes of US warship
WASHINGTON: A Russian military jet came within nine meters of a US destroyer in international waters in the Baltic Sea, US officials say, but Russia on Thursday defended the maneuver as safe. Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook this week, including an incident Tuesday in which a Russian Su-24 flew nine meters above the ship in...
Global tax authorities probe Panama Papers
PARIS: Tax authorities from the world’s richest nations on Wednesday probed a mass of murky offshore dealings revealed in the huge Panama Papers data leak, just hours after police raided the law firm at the centre of the scandal. The leak of 11.5 million confidential offshore financial documents from Panamanian law office Mossack Fonseca...
G7 Hiroshima Declaration calls for ‘world without nuclear weapons’
HIROSHIMA: US Secretary of State John Kerry and G7 foreign ministers on Monday called for a “world without nuclear weapons”, citing North Korea’s sabre-rattling as a key challenge to achieving that goal. “We reaffirm our commitment to seeking a safer world for all and to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear...
Kerry arrives in Japan for landmark Hiroshima visit
HIROSHIMA, Japan: John Kerry arrived in Japan on Sunday for a Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, marking the first-ever visit to the atomic-bombed city by a US secretary of state. Kerry landed at a US military base west of Hiroshima from Afghanistan for the two-day G7 gathering set to discuss a host of global issues though the symbolism of his...
Hiroshima in focus as top US diplomat, G7 foreign ministers meet
TOKYO: When John Kerry joins his fellow G7 foreign ministers for talks this weekend in Hiroshima, the city’s symbolism as the first ever target of an atomic attack will take centre stage. Kerry will become the first ever US secretary of state to visit Hiroshima, obliterated by an American atomic bomb in 1945, with his trip seen as possibly...
