Section: KXAN (USA)
Israeli ex-Mossad spy chief Meir Dagan dies at 71
JERUSALEM (AP) — Meir Dagan, a former Israeli general and longtime director of its spy agency, died Thursday. He was 71. Dagan directed the Mossad from 2002 until he retired in early 2011. Under his leadership, the Mossad reportedly carried out covert attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists and unleashed cyber-attacks, including the Stuxnet...
Polish leader suggests 2010 plane crash was act of terrorism
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s defense minister is coming under criticism for suggesting that the 2010 plane crash in Russia that killed Poland’s president was an act of terrorism perpetrated by Russia. Official investigations by Poland and Russia have determined that the crash that killed Lech Kaczynski and dozens of other top...
US envoy John Kerry meets Europe’s top diplomats in Paris
PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with new French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Europe’s top diplomats to discuss major international issues including the Syria peace talks. The British, German and Italian foreign ministers and the EU foreign policy chief were also joining the meeting Sunday in Paris. The...
Syrian government to send delegation to Geneva talks
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Syrian government will send a delegation to Geneva to take part in U.N.-sponsored indirect peace talks with the opposition but has rejected the U.N. envoy’s call for presidential elections to be held in the next 18 months. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters that the government team will head...
Kerry arrives in Saudi for talks on Syria, Yemen wars
HAFR AL-BATIN, Saudi Arabia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed Friday at a sprawling military facility in northeastern Saudi Arabia where the kingdom just finished a three-week-long counter-terrorism drill that included 20 nations and which observers say was a show of force against its foes. Kerry touched down at the King Khalid...
World Anti-Doping Agency says 99 meldonium cases this year
MOSCOW (AP) — The drug at the center of the Maria Sharapova doping case has produced 99 positive tests so far this year, the World Anti-Doping Agency said Friday. WADA spokesman Ben Nichols told The Associated Press in an e-mail that since meldonium was banned on Jan. 1 “there have been 99 adverse analytical findings” for the drug. Nichols did...
IAAF: No reinstatement for Russian track at this stage
MONACO (AP) — The IAAF says Russia’s track and field federation has not yet done enough to reform its anti-doping program to have its athletes reinstated to global competition. IAAF President Sebastian Coe made the announcement on Friday at the end of a two-day council meeting, saying Russia “should not be reinstated at this stage.” Coe...
Russian biathlete Latypov tests positive for meldonium
MOSCOW (AP) — Another Russian athlete has tested positive for meldonium, the same drug found in Maria Sharapova’s sample at the Australian Open. The Russian Biathlon Union says Eduard Latypov, a 21-year-old biathlete who won a gold medal at last year’s world junior championships, tested positive at the IBU Cup. Latypov is the third...
Ukrainian pilot denounces her trial in Russia as a farce
DONETSK, Russia (AP) — Defiant in her closing statement Wednesday to a Russian court, Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko brandished her middle finger, burst into the Ukrainian national anthem and declared her trial in the death of two Russian journalists to be “the farce of Kremlin puppets.” Savchenko’s case has sparked anger at home and...
Russian judge sets date for Ukrainian pilot verdict
DONETSK, Russia (AP) — A Russian judge has set a date of March 21-22 for issuing the verdict in the case against jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine. Prosecutors last week asked the court in the border town of Donetsk to sentence Savchenko to 23 years...
