Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
Ukraine marks 29 years since Chernobyl disaster
SLAVUTYCH, Ukraine – Ukrainians on Sunday marked 29 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, laying wreaths and candles near the plant where work to lay a new seal over the reactor site has been delayed.The explosion of reactor number four on April 26, 1986, spewed poisonous radiation over large parts of Europe, particularly Ukraine,...
Ukrainian-born Blavatnik tops UK rich list, Queen falls out of top 300
LONDON – Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik has become Britain’s wealthiest man, a “rich list”published annually by The Sunday Times newspaper showed on Sunday, but Queen Elizabeth slipped down the rankings despite her net worth growing.Boosted largely by rising stock markets, the newspaper said the super-rich had...
Russia ponders raising retirement age in budget crunch
MOSCOW – Taking care of pensioners who are his bedrock of support has been a key feature of President Vladimir Putin’s rule, but as crisis bites, the Russian government is mooting an idea that has been taboo for 80 years: raising the retirement age.Since 1932, Russian men have been eligible to retire at the age of 60 and women at the...
Kiev accuses Russia of not wanting Ukraine peace
KIEV – Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of resisting a peaceful end to fighting in eastern Ukraine and called for weapons from its allies, saying it is striving to settle the separatist conflict.”The situation is difficult. Russia does not want peace,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told parliament.He accused Moscow of failing...
Dutch expert suspended after showing MH17 victim photos
THE HAGUE – A Dutch expert helping to identify victims from last year’s MH17 airliner crash in Ukraine has been suspended after showing photographs of the dead at a public lecture, police said Thursday.”He has been suspended from his work and we’ll see if other measures need to be taken,” Thomas Aling, spokesman for...
‘Many’ human remains found at MH17 crash site: Dutch
THE HAGUE – Dutch investigators have recovered “many” more body parts and pieces of wreckage after resuming their search at the MH17 plane crash site in Ukraine, the Netherlands said Wednesday.All 298 passengers and crew onboard the Malaysia Airlines jetliner – most of them Dutch – died when it was shot down over...
‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ asks for ‘forgiveness’ in German court
Former SS officer Oskar Groening, dubbed the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, asked for “forgiveness” over his role in mass murder at the Nazi death camp, as his German trial began Tuesday.”For me there’s no question that I share moral guilt,” the 93-year-old former Nazi told the judges, admitting that he knew...
US starts training Ukrainians to fight pro-Russia forces
YAVORIV, Ukraine – US paratroopers Monday began training Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on in the ex-Soviet country.Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko welcomed troops from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in a rain-soaked ceremony at a military base...
Russian opposition parties link up ahead of 2016 polls
MOSCOW – The marginalised Russian opposition parties of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and arch Putin foe Alexei Navalny have announced they will form an alliance for legislative polls in 2016.Nemtsov’s RPR-Parnas and Navalny’s Party of Progress said Friday they are joining forces to put forward joint candidates at local...
US military trainers in Ukraine may ‘destabilise’ situation – Kremlin
The Kremlin said on Friday the arrival of US paratroopers in Ukraine to train Kiev’s National Guard could destabilise the situation in the east of the country, where separatists are fighting government forces.”The participation of instructors or specialists from third countries on Ukrainian territory, where the domestic Ukrainian...
