Section: The Manila Times (Philippines)
Social media groups encouraging teen suicides prompt panic in Russia
SAINT PETERSBURG: Chilling online “death groups” on popular social media that egg on teenagers to kill themselves are causing panic in Russia after a string of teen suicides. Hidden groups on social networking site VK, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, are reportedly controlled by “mentors” who incite their members to take their own lives. The...
Tillerson to push NATO allies to pay up
BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson headed to Brussels on Friday to push President Donald Trump’s demand for NATO allies to boost defense spending. Tillerson is meeting fellow NATO foreign ministers for the first time, ahead of a May 25 leaders summit with Trump in Brussels. Seeking to draw a line under the funding row, NATO chief...
US top diplomat Tillerson to push NATO pay up in first talks
BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will push his NATO allies to boost defence spending, at their first talks on Friday, by warning them that the disproportionate US share is “unsustainable,” officials said. Tillerson will be the latest top US administration official to deliver that message when he meets fellow NATO foreign ministers in...
Russia’s central bank cuts key rate to 9.75%
MOSCOW: Russia’s central bank on Friday cut its key rate for the first time since September and raised the possibility of further cuts as the economy recovers. The central bank announced the cut to 9.75 percent from 10 percent after a regular meeting on monetary policy. Econo-mists had been divided on whether to expect a rate cut. The...
Ex-Russian MP’s murder ‘act of state terrorism by Russia’
KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko blamed Russia for the murder of a former Russian lawmaker in Kiev on Thursday, saying it was an “act of state terrorism.” Poroshenko said the “cunning murder” of former Russian MP Denis Voronenkov—who said he had received threats from Moscow’s security services—was an “act of terrorism on the part...
Economic woes fuel rare public challenge to Belarus strongman
MINSK: As some three thousand demonstrators marched through the centre of the Belarusian capital Minsk their anger turned to the man who has dominated their lives for 23 years: strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko. “Leave!” they began chanting. “Leave!” The rally last week was part of the biggest wave of protests to rock isolated Belarus in...
China’s first stealth fighter enters service
China’s new stealth fighter jet, the J-20, the country’s first radar-evading combat aircraft, during one of many test runs at the military airbase in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province. AFP PHOTO / HO / KANWA NEWS TO BEIJING: China has put its first stealth fighter into military service, state-run media reported on...
Ukraine to accuse Russia of ‘terrorism’ in UN
THE HAGUE: Kiev will seek to convince the UN’s top court Monday that Moscow is “sponsoring terrorism” in a bloody conflict involving separatist pro-Russian rebels, as tensions escalate in war-torn eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s representatives will also ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take emergency measures ordering...
EU’s big four meet to seek impetus in face of Brexit
VERSAILLES: The heads of continental Europe’s biggest economies meet in the gilded splendour of the Palace of Versailles on Monday, seeking ways of strengthening an EU facing Britain’s exit and mounting populism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande — whose two countries are often described as the...
Russia, NATO hold first high-level military talks since freeze
MOSCOW: Senior Russian and NATO military chiefs on Friday held their first phone talks since ties between the two sides collapsed over the crisis in Ukraine, the defense ministry in Moscow said. The chairman of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel called Russia’s chief of staff Valery Gerasimov to discuss the possible restarting of...
