Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
A father buries his 4-year-old son and curses Ukraine’s war
DONETSK, Ukraine – Vladimir Bobryshchev was returning home early on a recent morning after a long night of work when a rocket ripped through the sky, falling straight toward his home.He saw it hit his house, and he rushed over to save his two sons and his wife. This week, he stood in a cemetery in the rebel bastion of Donetsk burying his...
Ukrainian nationalists hurt in grenade attack, stokes anti-Russian feeling
Six people were treated in hospital for injuries on Tuesday after what police said was a grenade attack on a group of Ukrainian nationalists in the eastern city of Kharkiv which several officials blamed on pro-Russian forces.The explosion, the latest in a spate of mystery blasts targeting Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities, occurred on Monday...
Huge anti-Charlie Hebdo rally in Chechnya as global protests rumble on
GROZNY, Russia – The furious backlash against French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed rumbled on Monday with a huge rally in Chechnya, Afghan protesters burning the French flag and Gazans levelling threats against France.Hundreds of thousands of people flooded into the centre of Grozny, the capital of...
Terror attacks overshadow EU foreign ministers meeting
BRUSSELS – EU foreign ministers meet Monday with the deadly Paris attacks and the jihadist cell uncovered in Belgium dominating the headlines as they try to resolve sharp differences over ties with Russia strained to breaking point by the Ukraine crisis.The Paris assaults by three French citizens linked to various jihadist groups in Syria...
UN chief alarmed by flareup in Ukraine fighting
UNITED NATIONS, United States – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced alarm Sunday over fierce fighting around the Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine and called for an immediate end to the violence.Heavy shelling rocked the city as Ukraine rushed tanks to the frontlines and declared it had pushed back pro-Russian rebels from most of the...
Ukrainian troops retake most of Donetsk airport from rebels
KIEV – Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks, as thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march on Sunday.The offensive brought fighting close to the industrial city of Donetsk, centre of a pro-Russian rebellion, while shelling...
Poroshenko rejected peace proposal made by Putin
MOSCOW – Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko rejected a peace plan proposed to him last week by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday evening, according to Russian media.Peskov said the plan, contained in a letter sent by Putin on Thursday evening, proposed a ceasefire by both...
Russians keep calm and shop on in face of rising prices
For shoppers like pensioner Tatiana Ivanovna buying their weekly groceries in a Moscow supermarket, these are increasingly tough times. Fuelled by a double whammy of a plummeting ruble and the embargoes Russia slapped on many Western products in retaliation for sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, inflation is soaring.Prices on meat, fish and...
US blasts ICC war crimes probe of Israel as ‘tragic irony’
WASHINGTON – The United States joined Israel in condemning the International Criminal Court decision to open a preliminary probe Friday into possible war crimes committed against Palestinians, blasting it as a “tragic irony”.ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office would conduct an “analysis in full independence and...
Romney says he’s not running – for US Senate
WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney kept them guessing.In his first prominent speech since telling donors last week he was still interested in the White House, the 2012 Republican nominee hinted and quipped about a possible presidential run next year but stopped well short of any announcement.With the 2016 election cycle clearly underway and Jeb Bush...
