Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
Russian doctors protest as reforms threaten jobs
MOSCOW – Russian doctors have taken to the streets in a rare protest as thousands are set to lose their jobs and dozens of hospitals are due to shut in Moscow in controversial moves to modernise the creaking health system.With white coats slung over their winter clothing, more than 6,000 doctors and nurses braved the November cold on Sunday...
Fearing Ebola surge, Mali widens virus watch
BAMAKO – Fearful of a surge of Ebola cases, Mali placed more than 440 people under surveillance, as a US hospital said Monday it had been unable to save the life of a doctor airlifted from Sierra Leone.Officials in Mali met to consider increasing security at its border following two confirmed cases of Ebola due to infection in neighbouring...
End of communism not all good for Christianity
VATICAN-COMMUNISM – The end of communist rule in Europe, which began 25 years ago this month, was not all positive for Christianity because it brought tensions between Rome and Russia back to the surface, a senior Vatican official said on Monday.Cardinal Kurt Koch, the top Roman Catholic official for inter-church relations, said the...
Sanctions, bloodshed and espionage leaves Russia in bad light
MOSCOW – Russia expelled several Polish diplomats for spying on Monday, deepening the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War as the EU eyed fresh sanctions against Moscow over the violence in Ukraine.Fresh bloodshed in Ukraine between pro-Kremlin rebels and Kiev’s forces added to the tensions after Russian President Vladimir Putin...
World’s first oil well still bubbling up black gold in Poland
BOBRKA, Poland – The smell of money hangs thick in the air as black crude oil bubbles up from what is billed as the world’s oldest oil well, but this is not Texas or Saudi Arabia.The sleepy village of Bobrka in southern Poland lays claim to the planet’s first oil well and rig, one that is still pumping up enough black gold to be...
Obama to Putin: Stop backing rebels in Ukraine
BRISBANE – United States President Barack Obama said that Russia would remain isolated by the international community if President Vladimir Putin continued to violate international law in Ukraine, in some of his toughest remarks yet on the crisis.Mr Putin came under intense pressure from other leaders at the weekend’s Group of 20...
MH17 wreckage removal starts in east Ukraine
GRABOVE, Ukraine – Workers started winching debris from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on to trucks in eastern Ukraine Sunday, paving the way for its eventual return to the Netherlands four months after it was downed, killing 298 people.RELATED STORIES All the latest news about MH17Investigations into downed MAS flight MH17 extended to Aug...
Removal of MH17 wreckage starts in rebel-held east Ukraine
GRABOVE, Ukraine – Work began Sunday to remove the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, four months after it was shot down claiming 298 lives.An AFP journalist saw workers from the emergency ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic begin cutting pieces of the...
Britain’s Cameron warns Russia of isolation, further sanctions over Ukraine
BRISBANE, Australia – British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday that Europe and the United States had sent a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will be isolated from the world community if the crisis in Ukraine is not resolved.”I think that Russia needs to know that there is a real unity of...
Putin resists Western offensive as testy G20 closes
BRISBANE – G20 leaders wrapped up an annual summit Sunday with a vow to reinvigorate the global economy, but geopolitical frictions sparked anew as Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off Western anger over Ukraine.Host Tony Abbott insisted that everyone including Putin – who left the Brisbane summit a little early – was on...
