Section: Dunya TV (Pakistan)
S & P warns Russia of weak growth
MOSCOW (AFP) – Standard and Poors stripped Russia of its investment-grade rating on Monday, cutting it to junk status with a warning of weak growth.The downgrade reflects our view that Russias monetary policy flexibility has become more limited and its economic growth prospects have weakened, the ratings agency said in a statement...
New York: Oil prices fall to new lows of past 6 years
NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil prices fell to fresh six-year lows in New York trade Monday despite a warning from OPEC that prices could surge to $200 owing to a shrinking investment in exploration.But prices were volatile in a market skittish about the election of a new leftist, anti-austerity government in Greece and a rocket attack on the Ukraine...
UN official urges arrest of culprits behind rocket attack on Mariupol
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – A rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that killed 30 people at the weekend targeted civilians and the perpetrators must be brought to justice, a senior UN official said Monday.UN Under Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency Security Council meeting that a crater analysis by...
Russian riot police raid Crimean Tatar TV channel
MOSCOW (AFP) – Masked Russian riot police on Monday raided the office of a television channel serving Crimean Tatars, a minority ethnic group in Crimea that opposed Moscows seizure of the peninsula from Ukraine last year.In a move the Organization for Security and Cooperation slammed as intrusion against the freedom of the media, dozens of...
Putin brands Ukraine army a NATO proxy as fighting flares
MOSCOW (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday ridiculed the Ukrainian army as NATOs foreign legion, ignoring Western pressure on the Kremlin to rein in a pro-Russian insurgency that has gone on the offensive across eastern Ukraine.Putins comments came as an emergency meeting of the Western alliances NATO-Ukraine Commission was called to...
‘Sense of duty’: Litvinenko’s widow hopes for answers
LONDON (AFP) – The memories still bring tears to Marina Litvinenkos eyes, over eight years after the horrific killing of her former secret agent husband by radiation poisoning under the glare of the worlds media.As a public inquiry into Alexander Litvinenkos death is to begin in London on Tuesday, his widow said her campaign for answers...
NATO holds ‘extraordinary’ Ukraine commission meeting
BRUSSELS (AFP) – NATO said it will hold an extraordinary meeting of the alliances Ukraine Commission later Monday, after an upsurge in fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Kiev left dozens of people dead.Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will separately meet with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini Monday as the deepening crisis...
Shelling traps 500 miners in east Ukraine coal shaft
DONETSK (AFP) – Nearly 500 coal miners in Ukraines war-torn east were trapped on Monday after their pit lost power when a shell hit an electricity substation.The accident occurred in rebel-controlled Donetsk citys Zasyadko coal mine — one of eastern Europes largest, where the same type of incident briefly trapped 300 miners on January...
Moscow hosts Syria talks, little hope of breakthrough
MOSCOW (AFP) – Syrian opposition figures met in Moscow on Monday as part of a new Russia-coordinated bid to wind down the war in Syria, but few held out any hope of a breakthrough.Several prominent opposition figures have refused to join the four-day talks and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also cast doubt on the Moscow initiative...
Australia PM in ‘time warp’ as British royal knighted
Sydney (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott marked his countrys national day Monday by honouring Britains Prince Philip with a knighthood, sparking criticism from the opposition of being in a time warp.Abbott said Queen Elizabeth II had accepted his recommendation that her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, be awarded the nations...
