Section: Newsweek (USA)
Why Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Benefit from the End of Sanctions
ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards did well under international sanctions, and the elite military force is destined to become still richer now they’ve been lifted. Iran’s clerical rulers have supported economic growth of the Guards, rewarding the group for sanctions-busting as well as suppressing dissent at...
Swine Flu Kills 12 in Russia as Illness Spreads Throughout Region
Swine flu has has been gaining ground across Russia, killing more than 12 people in the country since December, according to state news agency TASS. The majority of flu cases are caused by the A(H1N1) strain, commonly known as swine flu. Russia’s current epidemic is expected to peak in January and February, according to Russian Health...
Has Ukraine’s President Poroshenko Forgotten How to Speak Ukrainian?
Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has been mocked for “forgetting Ukrainian” by Russian media after struggling to recall the word for “wallet” during a press conference. While Ukrainian is the only official language in Ukraine, Russian is widely spoken in some regions, most notably the war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk, parts of which have been...
Three Dead After Avalanche Hits School Group in Alps
At least three people were killed and more were gravely injured when an avalanche hit a school group and other skiers on a closed slope in the French Alps on Wednesday, the interior ministry said. The snow slide killed a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old and a Ukrainian adult skier who was not with the school group, according to police and an official...
Russia ‘Aims to Create a Boutique State in Syria,’ Erdogan Warns
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed Russia’s claims that its air campaign in Syria seeks to defeat the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and said Moscow’s true aim is to set up a “boutique state” in Syria’s northwest, national newspaper Daily Sabah reports. Russia began airstrikes in Syria in September and...
EU to Investigate right-wing Polish Government Policies
The European Commission on Wednesday launched a formal investigation into the policies of Poland’s new right-wing government. Speaking to reporters, the commission’s First Vice President Frans Timmermans said: “Today we have decided that the commission will carry out a preliminary assessment on this matter under the rule of law...
Depardieu’s Stalin film begins shooting in Portugal
The film starring controversial French-born actor Gérard Depardieu as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has begun shooting in Portugal, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports. Stalin’s Couch, based on the 2013 novel of the same name ( Le Divan de Staline ) by French author Jean Daniel-Baltassat, is set during the 1950s. Directed by...
Putin: Reports Russia is bombing non-ISIS are ‘lies’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Western media reports that Russia has bombed targets in Syria not belonging to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) as “lies” and defended Syrian President Bashar Assad, German tabloid Bild reports. Putin was interviewed by Bild in Sochi, Russia, on January 5, with the paper publishing the...
Ukraine’s Opposition Move to Overturn Blacklisting of Gérard Depardieu, Fred Durst and Others
The Kiev District Administrative Court has requested that Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture justifies the blacklist it has compiled of pro-Russian actors and entertainers, whose work is set to be sanctioned in the country, Ukrainian news agency Ukrainsky Novini reports. Currently 83 people are on the Ukrainian government’s so-called...
Putin: ‘Paris Attacks Could Have Been Avoided If The U.S. Had Listened To Me’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Islamist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people in November could have been avoided if the U.S. and others had listened to his advice, and not intervened in the Middle East. Putin gave a rare foreign interview to popular German tabloid Bild on January 5 in the Russian city of Sochi, with the full...
