Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
EU to extend Russia sanctions, add new names, prepare new steps
BRUSSELS – The European Union will extend by six months sanctions imposed on Russia last March over its annexation of Crimea, add new people to those under sanctions and prepare new measures, draft conclusions for an EU foreign ministers meeting showed.EU foreign ministers will meet on Thursday in Brussels for emergency talks to address...
International travellers hit record 1.13 billion in 2014
GENEVA – The number of international tourists rose 4.7 per cent on the year to a record 1.138 billion in 2014, according to figures published Tuesday by the UN World Tourism Organisation.Growing travel demand in China and other emerging nations offset the dampening effects of the Ukraine crisis and the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in...
Obama, Merkel want Russia held accountable for violence in Ukraine
BERLIN – US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their concern about Russia’s role in rising violence in eastern Ukraine in a phone call late on Tuesday and agreed on the need for funds to stabilise the Ukrainian economy.The White House said both leaders were worried about “Russia’s material...
Putin eyes benefits as rebels gain in Ukraine
MOSCOW – Boxed into a corner by a financial crisis and the West’s refusal to drop sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has come out fighting.After a relative lull in the conflict in east Ukraine since a ceasefire deal was reached last September, separatists have launched a new offensive. Kiev says...
Elderly Auschwitz survivors urge world never to forget
AUSCHWITZ – For what may be the last time, elderly Holocaust survivors returned Tuesday to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 70 years after its liberation, to urge the world never to forget one of history’s worst atrocities.Around 300 survivors, some wearing scarves in the blue-and-white stripes of their death camp uniforms,...
Inquiry opens into Russian ex-spy’s radiation death
LONDON – The most sensational spy tale since the Cold War landed in a London court on Tuesday as inquiry hearings began to examine alleged Russian state involvement in the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.The former agent with Russia’s FSB security service, who was doing work for Britain’s MI6, was killed with...
EU says to consider new Russia sanctions over Ukraine
BRUSSELS – EU leaders have asked ministers to consider a new wave of sanctions against Russia in the wake of a new military campaign by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, a statement said Tuesday.The European Union’s 28 heads of government asked the bloc’s foreign ministers, who meet in Brussels on Thursday, “to assess...
Last survivors recall Auschwitz, ask if lessons learned
OSWIECIM, Poland – Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be absent from the main event marking 70 years since Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, held against a backdrop of hostilities in Ukraine and warnings of a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.The commemoration on Tuesday at the site in southern Poland where the Nazis...
UN Security Council to meet on Ukraine crisis after deadly clashes
KIEV – The UN Security Council will hold a special meeting Monday on the violence in eastern Ukraine after a rocket barrage blamed on Kremlin-backed rebels killed 30 and threatened to open up a new front in the war.US President Barack Obama vowed to ramp up pressure on Russia after Saturday’s assault on Mariupol – the main city...
Australia PM in ‘time warp’ as British royal knighted
SYDNEY – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott marked his country’s national day Monday by honouring Britain’s Prince Philip with a knighthood, sparking criticism from his political opposition of being in a “time warp”.Abbott said Queen Elizabeth II had accepted his recommendation that her husband, the Duke of...
