Tag: Russia

Duterte: My mouth can’t bring down a country

(Eagle News)– President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday (September 22) fired his critics anew, saying his tough talk doesn’t scare off investors and cannot floor the country. “Do not keep complaining about my mouth because my mouth is not the problem. It cannot bring down a country,” Duterte stressed. “Ang issue dito hindi ang bunganga ko. And they are saying the ratings sa business, sa economy. Eh ‘di so be it. Lumayas kayo. Then we can […]

Syria meeting breaks up without plan to restore truce

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A high-level international meeting on the crisis in Syria broke up Thursday without agreement on a way to revive a collapsed US and Russian-brokered truce. US Secretary of State John Kerry said his Russian counterpart had not been able to promise to ground Syria’s bombers and to halt the bombardment of its cities. “The question now is whether there remains any real chance of moving forward, because it is […]

U.S., Russia fail to agree on how to revive Syria ceasefire

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the International Syria Support Group meeting at the Palace Hotel in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz   (REUTERS)   The United States and Russia failed to agree on how to revive a short-lived ceasefire in Syria during what the U.N. Syria mediator called a “long, painful, difficult and disappointing” meeting on Thursday. The International Syria Support Group, including […]

Aid convoy attacked as Syria ceasefire collapses

by Karam al-Masri ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — A convoy delivering aid to Syrians in Aleppo province was hit by an air strike, leaving 12 dead hours after the Syrian military declared an end to a week-long ceasefire, monitors and the UN said. At least 18 trucks were destroyed as the convoy travelled to the hard-to-reach town of Orum al-Kubra in Aleppo province, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying 12 Red Crescent volunteers and […]

Air strikes hit aid convoy as Syria says ceasefire over

  (REUTERS) An aid convoy was hit in Aleppo province, the United Nations said on Monday, as the Syrian military declared that a week-long ceasefire was over. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the attacks were carried out by either Syrian or Russian aircraft, adding that there had been 35 strikes in and around Aleppo since the truce ended. Fourteen Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers were killed, Elhadj As Sy, secretary general […]

U.S.-led forces strike Syrian troops, prompting emergency U.N. meeting

  (REUTERS)  U.S.-led coalition air strikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire and prompting an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as tensions between Moscow and Washington escalated. The United States military said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit. The United States relayed […]

Doping: WADA urges Russia to stop hacks

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Thursday called on Russia to do all it could to stop a series of hacks of star athletes’ medical records as the Kremlin said it was ready to help. “We condemn this criminal activity and have asked the Russian Government to do everything in their power to make it stop,” said Olivier Niggli, WADA’s director general. Niggli said the hack on WADA’s computer system constituted “retaliation” […]

China, Russia to stage military drills in S.China Sea

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China and Russia were to start war games in the South China Sea on Monday, Beijing’s defense ministry said, in a show of force after an international tribunal invalidated the Asian giant’s extensive claims in the area. The eight-day joint drills will include exercises on “seizing and controlling” islands and shoals, Chinese navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement. They will involve surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine […]

‘Last chance’ Syria ceasefire takes effect

by Karam al-Masri and Maher al-Mounes ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — A US- and Russia-brokered ceasefire dubbed by Washington as maybe the “last chance to save Syria” took effect at sundown on Monday, amid scepticism over how long it would hold. An initial 48-hour truce came into force at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) across Syria except in areas held by jihadists such as the Islamic State group. AFP correspondents in Syria’s devastated second city […]

China, Russia naval drill in South China Sea to begin Monday

  (REUTERS)  China and Russia will hold eight days of naval drills in the South China Sea off southern China’s Guangdong province starting from Monday, China’s navy said. The exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the contested waters after an arbitration court in The Hague ruled in July that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea and criticized its environmental destruction there. China rejected the ruling and refused […]

Airstrikes kill scores in Syria after new truce deal

  by Rana Moussaoui with Dave Clark in Geneva BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — A barrage of airstrikes on rebel-held areas in Syria have killed scores of people, just hours after the government in Damascus approved a US-Russian plan to halt fighting in the country’s suppurating civil war. It was not immediately clear who carried out the raids, which hit the key northern cities of Idlib and Aleppo. But they came as a new ceasefire, agreed […]

New Ukraine truce jeopardised by first combat death

KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) – by Olga SHYLENKO Ukraine on Friday reported its first combat death since a new ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels went into effect on September 1 before the new school year. The announcement delivered a worrying signal that one of the most enduring in a series of truces risked collapsing just as tensions between Moscow and Kiev are scaling new hights. “In the past day, as a result of military activities, one of […]