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KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — An international oil pipeline running through a key rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine blew up on Friday, Russian media said, with images showing a fireball lighting up the night sky. The blast rocked the Druzhba pipeline in the Russian-backed separatist city of Lugansk, Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency said. The incident, the causes of which remain unclear, occurred during a sharp escalation in fighting that has redoubled fears that Russia […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia said Friday it had begun withdrawing more tanks and other armoured vehicles from areas near Ukraine’s border after running war games that had raised concerns in the West. “Another military train carrying personnel and military equipment belonging to tank army units of the western military district returned to their permanent bases in the Nizhny Novgorod region after completing scheduled exercises,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement. Separately, […]
by John Hadoulis Agence France-Presse ATHENS, Greece (AFP) – Two minutes into a Greek jobs fair interview, Hashim, a 21-year-old Afghan refugee, is offered work as a waiter at a swanky Corfu hotel. It’s his ticket out of the grim migrant camp he has called home for the past year, but there’s a caveat: he has to cut his ponytail. “Health and safety protocol,” his interviewer explains. Hashim, who won asylum in Greece a month-and-a-half […]
by Sebastian Smith with Michael Mainville in Moscow and Dave Clark in Kyiv Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – The United States said Thursday that Russia is on the verge of unleashing a massive military attack against Ukraine, dismissing Moscow’s claim to be pulling forces back, as artillery fire hit a Ukrainian kindergarten. In a dramatic, previously unscheduled speech to the United Nations in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said […]
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – Russia is putting Europe’s security at risk with demands that hark back to the Cold War, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday, ahead of the annual Munich Security Conference set to be dominated by the Ukraine crisis. “With an unprecedented deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine and Cold War demands, Russia is challenging fundamental principles of the European peace order,” Baerbock said in a statement. Moscow needs to […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — President Ignazio Cassis has tested positive for Covid-19, the government said on Thursday — the same day Switzerland lifted almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions despite high case numbers. Wednesday’s “test came back positive and the president went into self-isolation this morning as soon as he learned of the test result,” a government statement said. “Mr Cassis has no symptoms and is in good health.” The former cantonal doctor, aged 60, who […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — A heavy storm swept across Germany on the night of Wednesday into Thursday, grounding flights and trains and forcing schools in several states to close. Police warned residents to stay home and avoid parks or forests, as gale-force winds whipped in from the north of the country. The strongest winds were felt on Brocken, the highest point in the Harz highlands in central Germany, with speeds of up to 152 kilometres […]
by Aurélia END with David CLARK in Kyiv Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday dismissed reports that Russia was withdrawing troops from Ukraine’s border, instead accusing Moscow of sending more soldiers as fears of an invasion grow. Russia has increased its presence on the border with Ukraine by “as many as 7,000 troops,” some of whom arrived Wednesday, said a senior White House official, slamming Moscow’s announcement of […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – Russia on Wednesday said military drills in Moscow-annexed Crimea had ended and that soldiers were returning to their garrisons, a day after it announced a first troop pullback from Ukraine’s borders. “Units of the Southern Military District, having completed their participation in tactical exercises, are moving to their permanent deployment points,” Moscow’s defence ministry said in a statement. State television showed images of military units crossing a bridge linking the Russia-controlled […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK’s unemployment rate remained steady at the end of last year despite the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, official data showed on Tuesday. The figure stood at 4.1 percent in the three-month period ending in December, the same as the previous quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rate was lower than the period ending in September when it was at 4.3 percent, but […]
by Anna SMOLCHENKO Agence France-Presse MOSCOU, Russia (AFP) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due in Moscow Tuesday in search of a diplomatic solution to avoid a war in Ukraine as the West and Russia signalled tentative hopes of an easing in the tense standoff. His talks with Vladimir Putin are the latest in an intense diplomatic scramble to dissuade the Russian leader from attacking his ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine. Western leaders consider the Russian troop […]
SAINT-LAURENT-DE-LA-SALANQUE, France (AFP) — Seven people including two children were killed overnight from Sunday to Monday in a fire caused by an unexplained explosion in southern France, prosecutors said. Residents reported hearing a blast around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) that set buildings ablaze on both sides of a street in the small seaside town of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque, around 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the city of Perpignan. “I heard a very loud explosion, then I saw […]
