Section: AsiaOne (Singapore)
Putin beats Obama again in Forbes power ranking
NEW YORK – For a second year in a row, Russian President Vladimir Putin has beaten Barack Obama to the title of world’s most powerful leader as ranked by Forbes.In a year in which Russia annexed Crimea, stoked a conflict in Ukraine and clinched a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline deal with China that Forbes called the world’s...
Ukraine peace plan hangs by a thread
UKRAINE – The ceasefire in Ukraine hung by a thread Wednesday after President Petro Poroshenko accused pro-Russian rebels of endangering the peace process and ordered troop reinforcements to eastern cities.In another sign of how far apart the two sides are drifting, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced he was cutting the rebel-held...
McCain could shake up US defence in powerful new Senate role
WASHINGTON – Senator John McCain’s voice just got a whole lot louder.One of President Barack Obama’s noisiest detractors, McCain is expected to take the helm of the powerful Armed Services Committee in the new Republican-controlled US Senate when the US Congress convenes in January.The Arizona senator, a critic of the $399...
No Obama-Putin meetings on sidelines of APEC and G20: Kremlin
MOSCOW – No bilateral meetings between Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are scheduled during the APEC and G20 summits next week, a Kremlin spokesman said Wednesday.”No bilateral meeting is planned for the moment,” spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency. He added that informal contacts...
Malaysia, Netherlands keep pressing for access to MH17 site
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia – The leaders of Malaysia and the Netherlands vowed on Wednesday to keep pressing for access to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and to bring to justice those responsible for downing the plane in Ukraine.RELATED STORIESDowning of MH17: All the latest reportsPrime Minister Najib Razak met with his visiting...
Obama, post-midterm loss, must re-energize presidency
WASHINGTON – Six years after sweeping into the White House on the slogan “Yes We Can,” Barack Obama, whose Democratic party has lost control of both houses of Congress, must now find a new can-do spirit.Floundering in the polls and shunned by his own party’s candidates, as Obama moves into the final two years of his term...
Bone by bone, Ukraine identifies its dead
ZAPORIZHIA, Ukraine – Before the war, Ms Oksana Biryukova’s lab helped investigators connect criminals to crime scenes. Now her equipment is buzzing around the clock trying to identify the charred remains of Ukrainian soldiers.The DNA laboratory in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhia is the only one in the country charged with...
Russian ultra-nationalists to march in shadow of Ukraine war
MOSCOW – Thousands of ultra-nationalists were expected to march in Moscow on Tuesday amid fears that the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine was whipping up xenophobia and jingoism at home.The annual “Russian March” comes at a time of heightened social tensions, with the country’s isolation growing and...
Ponta tops Romania presidency first round vote
BUCHAREST – Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta looked set Monday for a closer-than-expected victory in the first round of the presidential election despite fears he could reverse reforms aimed at tackling rampant corruption in one of Europe’s poorest countries.The first official results showed Ponta taking 37.5 per cent of...
Pro-Russian rebels vote for leaders in eastern Ukraine
DONETSK – Pro-Russian rebels elected a separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine on Sunday in a vote President Petro Poroshenko called “a farce.” Mining electrician-turned-rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko won over 81 per cent of the vote, according to the rebels’ exit polls of an election that has worsened a standoff...
