Browsing: World News

The EU was intensifying diplomatic efforts Tuesday to get Ukraine’s leadership and pro-Moscow rebels to the negotiating table, as the OSCE said Moscow supports a de-escalation roadmap for the crisis. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier kicks…

9 May 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today voiced concern at renewed violence in Venezuela, and at…

The Washington Monument, one of the US capital’s most recognizable landmarks, reopened Monday under dazzling blue skies, three years after sustaining damage from a rare earthquake. The popular tourist attraction is the US capital city’s tallest building…

Rebels in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region appealed on Monday to join Russia after what they claimed were resounding victories in independence referendums. Moscow said it “respects” the result of the weekend votes on self-rule, which were denounced…

Emperador, the Philippines’ largest liquor producer, said Monday it had agreed to buy Scottish whisky-maker Whyte and Mackay as part of an expansion beyond its traditional base of brandy. The company said in a disclosure to the Manila stock exchange…

The United States said Monday it does not recognize the “illegal referendum” held over the weekend in east Ukraine that called for breaking away from Kiev. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the voting organized by pro-Russian elements in Donetsk…

Irish police arrested a man after a huge car bomb was found in Dublin hours before the city welcomed a stage of the Giro d’Italia cycling race at the weekend, police said Monday. The bomb, reportedly containing 50 lb (22 kilos) of explosives made from…

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch launched Monday an ambitious bid to create a pan-European television giant to tackle fierce competition, rapid sector consolidation, and aggressive bidding wars for live football rights. British pay-TV group BSkyB revealed…

Though anti-EU outsiders UKIP might top the polls at the European Parliament elections in Britain, a eurosceptic streak runs through all the mainstream parties they stand against. The United Kingdom Independence Party of Nigel Farage, which is fixed…

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned Sunday of the difficulties of negotiating with an “utterly merciless” group like Boko Haram, but called for active contact with the Nigerian Islamists over their abduction of scores of schoolgirls. Welby…

The United States has no plans to send troops to Nigeria to help recover hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. “There’s no intention, at this point, to (put) American…

A suspected Al-Qaeda suicide bomber Sunday killed 12 soldiers and a civilian in an attack on a military base in southeast Yemen, officials said, as government forces pursued jihadists in three restive provinces. The bombing came just hours after three…

Iran will not accept “nuclear apartheid” but is willing to offer more transparency over its atomic activities, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday ahead of new talks with world powers. Iran and the P5+1 group of nations will start hammering out a draft…

Swathes of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels voted on independence Sunday in polls the West slammed as illegal amid fears they could fan violence into full civil war and lead to the break-up of the ex-Soviet republic. Fighting flared…

                The Daily Banter follows the Wall Street Journal in reporting the Recorded Future’s revelations Al Qaeda operatives switched communications encryption within months of Snowden’s INTEL “dump” to the world. For all who were deeply…

The Eurovision Song Contest hit the airwaves on Saturday with its inimitable mix of glitz and politics as the Ukraine conflict and an Austrian drag queen took centre stage in the annual spectacle. “It’s … a show that has a worldwide audience, including…

Gregor and Lewis Young made history when they became the first twin brothers to represent Scotland at the same time in the modern era in the final leg of the IRB Sevens World Series at Twickenham. And the duo went one better than that in their Pool…

Syrians streamed back into the ruins of the Old City of Homs on Saturday, picking through the remains of their homes and trying to come to terms with the destruction. Thousands of people walked through the devastated streets of their former neighbourhoods…

Saudi Arabia has announced 13 more deaths from the MERS coronavirus, as the World Health Organisation prepared for an emergency meeting over worries about the spread of the disease. The Middle East Respiratory System coronavirus has now killed 139 people…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said Saturday that a planned separatist referendum in eastern Ukraine is “illegal,” during a meeting in Germany. The two European leaders also warned Moscow of “consequences” if…