Section: The News International (Pakistan)
Tourism shows signs of recovery in Egypt
CAIRO: Tourists are slowly returning to Egypt, easing pressure on a key sector battered by years of turmoil and the 2015 bombing of a plane carrying Russian holidaymakers. “There is an increase in the number of tourists. This situation was much better in January than in previous years,” tourism ministry spokeswoman Omaima al-Husseini...
Allies claim US backing for political solution in Syria
BONN: US allies said they had won assurances on Friday from new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that Washington backed a political solution to the Syria conflict, ahead of UN-led peace talks. Tillerson used a G20 gathering in Germany to hold a series of meetings with his global peers, reviewing crises from North Korea to Ukraine at a time of...
Russia warns US
Nato to boost naval presence in Black Sea MOSCOW: Russia’s defence minister on Thursday warned Washington not to try to negotiate with Moscow “from a position of strength” ahead of the first meeting between their military chiefs since Donald Trump became US president. “We are ready to restore cooperation with the...
Trump rails at intelligence leaks as Russia crisis deepens
President Donald Trump railed at US intelligence agencies on Wednesday as Washington was shaken by new reports of high-level Russian contacts with his aides and associates during the 2016 presidential campaign. Intercepted calls and phone records show Trump aides were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials at least a year before...
Ukraine wants all its prosecutors drug-tested
KIEV: Is your prosecutor on drugs? That is what Ukraine would like to know under a new and unlikely initiative launched on Wednesday by the head of the office instituting legal proceedings. The reform-minded Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko believes there is a strong case to be made for comprehensive drug-testing in his profession. The...
Germany elects ?anti-Trump? Steinmeier as new president
BERLIN: Billed as Germany’s “anti-Trump”, centre-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Sunday as the new ceremonial head of state. The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU’s top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the...
Scorning talk of peace, Ukraine fighters battle on
DONETSK, Ukraine: Rebel fighter Roman smirks when asked about the two-year-old peace deal that was supposed to end what is now a 33-month war between government forces and separatists in Ukraine’s east. The camouflage-clad gunman in Europe’s only armed conflict — the bloodiest since the 1990s Balkans crises — simply warms...
German troops bulk up Nato-led force in Lithuania
RUKLA, Lithuania: Several hundred German soldiers arrived in Lithuania on Tuesday as part of the multinational Nato battalion being deployed in the country, part of the alliance’s effort to beef up its eastern flank. The battalion is one of four Nato is providing on a rotational basis to Lithuania and three other countries in light of a...
Russia says US idea of revising Iranian nuclear deal too risky
MOSCOW: Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday it would be too risky for the United States to try to reopen a nuclear deal with Iran, the Interfax news agency reported. “Don’t try to fix what is not broken,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying in an interview with the agency.Earlier, the Kremlin said it did not agree...
Bloodied Ukrainian town waits for guns to fall silent
KIEV: Workers on Saturday struggled to restore power to a flashpoint Ukrainian town as a deadline loomed for government forces and rebels to pull back their weapons after surging violence killed dozens. Ukrainian officials and Russian-backed insurgents say the fighting that began on Sunday has killed 35 people in the eastern war zone — a...
