Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
Aviation leaders seek new safety mandate after deadly 2014
Aviation leaders will try to secure a mandate to implement new safety standards when they meet next week after a string of high-profile accidents around the world made 2014 the deadliest year for commercial airlines in almost a decade.Efforts to adopt new standards for global plane tracking and co-operation on the risks of flying over conflict...
Dollar set to end January with record run
LONDON – The dollar was poised to end January with its longest run of gains since it was floated in 1971 while European shares were set for their best monthly performance in three years, despite sagging slightly on Friday.The dollar, bolstered by expectations the US Federal Reserve will be the first major central bank to raise interest...
Britain says fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers
LONDON – British Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian Bear long-range bombers which had flown close to UK airspace, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday.The Russian planes were detected flying over the Channel, south of England, on Wednesday and typhoons were launched from Royal Air Force (RAF)...
EU wins Greek backing to extend Russia sanctions
BRUSSELS/KIEV – European Union foreign ministers extended existing sanctions against Russia on Thursday, holding off on tighter economic measures for now but winning the support of the new left-leaning government of Greece, whose position had been in doubt.The ministers agreed to extend until September travel bans and asset freezes imposed...
Opposition blogger may have “outed” Putin’s daughter
MOSCOW – One of Vladimir Putin’s main opponents may have broken a taboo by publishing what he says is the pseudonym used by one the Russian president’s daughters to stay out of the spotlight.Putin has made his and his family’s private life little less than a state secret, keeping his rarely-photographed daughters...
Russia warns West of ‘catastrophe’ over Ukraine
MOSCOW – Russia’s envoy to the European security watchdog OSCE urged the United States and Europe on Thursday to stop supporting “party of war” in Ukraine and warned a “catastrophe” could lie ahead, Interfax news agency reported.”I would like to appeal to the states that have influence on Kiev’s...
Putin says Russia to remain part of global economy
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia will remain a part of the global economy but needs to strengthen its financial and economic sovereignty.Addressing Russian regional leaders, Putin said regional chiefs must track food inflation to prevent any price “speculation”. Russia’s economy has been hit by...
Gorbachev warns of ‘hot’ war as Europe sets new Russia sanctions
MOSCOW – Europe prepared Thursday to draft even tougher sanctions against Russia over Ukraine as ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned against the danger of an increasingly isolated Kremlin fighting back.The last Soviet leader’s words of caution came with the daily death toll in Ukraine’s separatist east spiking again with...
Rights abuses, Western powers fuelled rise of Islamic militants: HRW
WASHINGTON – Governments increasingly view human rights as “a luxury” they can ill afford, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, warning that abuses fuel crises in world trouble spots like Syria and Ukraine.Western powers, including the United States, are far from blameless and in some cases their wrongdoing has fed the very climate...
Spy Litvinenko post-mortem was world’s most dangerous ever, UK inquiry hears
LONDON – Pathologists examining the body of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope London in 2006, carried out the world’s most dangerous-ever post-mortem, an inquiry into his killing heard on Wednesday.They also said they would probably never have discovered the way he had been killed had unusual...
