Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Freed Ukrainian pilot returns home after 2 years in Russia
KIEV, Ukraine — Russia freed Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko on Wednesday after holding her for nearly two years, with President Vladimir Putin pardoning her as part of a swap for two Russian servicemen jailed in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president sent his plane to pick up Savchenko in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia and bring her home to Kiev,...
News of the day from across the globe, April 30
South Sudan’s leaders have formed a transitional coalition government bringing together politicians from the government and the armed opposition who have been at war for 2½ years. The government, which has a 30-month mandate culminating in fresh elections, has been formed according to a peace deal signed by Kiir and Machar in August under...
News of the day from across the globe, April 27
Portugal’s Constitutional Court rejected a former CIA operative’s appeal against extradition to Italy to serve a six-year sentence for her part in the U.S. extraordinary renditions program, a court official said Tuesday. A judge ruled there were no constitutional grounds to reverse a decision by a lower court and the Supreme Court to...
Chernobyl 30th anniversary recalls painful memories
Kiev, Ukraine — As Ukraine and Belarus on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident with solemn words and an angry protest, some of the men who were sent to the site in the first chaotic and frightening days were gripped by painful memories. The disaster shone a spotlight on lax safety standards and government secrecy...
Chernobyl 30th anniversary recalls painful memories
Kiev, Ukraine — As Ukraine and Belarus on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident with solemn words and an angry protest, some of the men who were sent to the site in the first chaotic and frightening days were gripped by painful memories. The disaster shone a spotlight on lax safety standards and government secrecy...
30 years after blast, labor to clean Chernobyl’s nuclear traces
CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER STATION, Ukraine — Thirty years after the world’s worst nuclear accident, the Chernobyl power plant is surrounded by both desolation and clangorous activity, the sense of a ruined past and a difficult future. Just a few hundred yards away from the hulk, hundreds of workers labor to construct a vast and remarkable...
News of the day from across the globe, April 20
Japan’s southern quake-hit area was rattled by a strong aftershock Tuesday and searchers found a woman’s body buried under landslide rubble, raising the death toll from the twin earthquakes to 45. More than 100,000 evacuees, some sleeping in their cars and others in gymnasiums or community centers, were bracing for another chilly...
News of the Day From Around the World, April 18
Jordan’s prime minister on Monday said his government has decided to call off a plan to install surveillance cameras at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, derailing a U.S.-brokered pact to ease tensions at the volatile compound. In a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordan offered to install the cameras last...
Putin assures Russians economy on the mend
MOSCOW — Mixing wry jokes with economic statistics, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to reassure the nation during his annual marathon call-in TV show Thursday, promising that its troubled economy will rebound and vowing to make other countries take account of Russia’s interests. Putin answered questions from adults and children from...
Disillusioned Ukrainians await new government
KIEV, Ukraine — Swept into office by the mass protests that deposed the Russia-friendly president two years ago, Ukraine’s new leaders promised that the country would soon be welcomed into Europe as a thriving new democracy. Disillusioned and angry, Ukrainians now await the arrival of a new government that will be under immediate pressure...
