Section: Newsweek (USA)
World’s Population To Top 11 Billion by 2100
The population total will grow to 11.2 billion worldwide by the end of the 21st century, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs is predicting. The current world population, at 7.3 billion, will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050 before rising to more than 11 billion five decades later, the department’s Population Division...
Hotel Siege Ends in Mali; 12 Dead
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Malian security forces on Saturday stormed a hotel used by United Nations staff and freed four hostages held there by suspected Islamist militants during a nearly 24-hour siege in which 12 people died. The gunmen had seized the Byblos Hotel in the town of Sevare, around 600 km (400 miles) northeast of the west African...
Food Destruction Causes Public Outcry in Russia
Hundreds of thousands of Russians have taken to the internet to voice their opposition to the government’s decision to destroy contraband food products, seized by Russian authorities under trade sanctions imposed on European importers. Russia officially began implementing its new policy of bulldozing the banned food imports on Thursday. The...
Nobody Trusts Putin, Except Russia and Vietnam: Study
Vladimir Putin’s favorability rating in Russia stands at an impressive 88 percent. Unfortunately for the Russian president, this adoration ends at the country’s borders. That’s according to a new study by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center, which found that Putin and Russia as a whole are not viewed very favorably...
Russian Parliament Speaker Calls for Tribunal Over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings
An international tribunal should be set up to investigate the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to Sergey Naryshkin, speaker of Russia’s Duma, or lower house of parliament, Russian state news agency Itar-Tass reports. Speaking at an event in Moscow’s State Institute of International Relations,...
Russia Considers Limiting State Procurement of Foreign Condoms
Russia could ban the government procurement of medical goods including bandages, tampons and condoms from all but three foreign states, according to a draft law submitted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. It is not immediately clear why the Russian government would consider such a legal move, however it comes less than a week after Iceland,...
NATO Halves Size of Baltic Air Police Mission
Despite a rise in Russian air activity over northern Europe, NATO is halving the size of its Baltic Air Policing mission headquartered in Lithuania, as it believes the number of aircraft stationed there exceeds the needs of the mission. The Air Policing mission has carried out a large part of the interceptions of Russian aircraft approaching and,...
Russia Claims 463,000 Square Miles of Arctic Territory
Russia has renewed its claim on 436,000 square miles of Arctic territory in an application to the United Nations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Russia’s previous claim was rejected in 2002 by a U.N. commission on the grounds of insufficient evidence. This time, the ministry says it has “ample scientific data collected in years...
Ukraine Warns European Politicians of Bans Over Illegal Trips to Crimea
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned European politicians and other foreign nationals that they could be banned from entering Ukraine, if they visit annexed Crimea without Kiev’s permission. Armed men in military attire, but without specific military marking, seized Crimean public buildings in February 2014 while...
Ukraine Says Pro-Russia Rebels Are Building a Dirty Bomb
Less than a mile behind the rebel front line in eastern Ukraine, the abandoned warehouses of the Donetsk chemical factory sprawl across a chunk of the city’s westernmost suburb. The homes surrounding it bear the scars of the past year’s artillery bombardment. Whole apartment blocks have been burned out, and low-rise buildings are...
