Europe

Blackouts hit three Ukrainian regions after Russian air attack

By Victoria LUKOVENKO KYIV, Ukraine, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – Ukraine said on Friday it had imposed emergency blackouts on three regions after Russia fired dozens of missiles and drones at its power stations overnight. Moscow has stepped up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, targeting energy infrastructure in response to deadly Ukrainian assaults on Russia’s border regions. National grid operator Ukrenergo said its dispatch centre was “forced to apply emergency blackout schedules […]

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Russian court orders journalist in Navalny case detained

MOSCOW, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – A Moscow court on Friday ordered a journalist who covered the trials of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be held in pre-trial detention on “extremism” charges. Prosecutors say Antonina Kravtsova, a correspondent for the independent SotaVision outlet, participated in an “extremist organisation”, charges which carry up to six years in prison. The Kremlin outlawed Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” before his death and has carried out a crackdown against […]

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France eyes spent uranium plant to bypass Russia: ministry

PARIS, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – The French government has said it is “seriously” studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is located in Russia. “The option of carrying out an industrial project to convert reprocessed uranium in France is being […]

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Russia faces backlash as veto ends UN’s N. Korea sanctions monitoring

SEOUL, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – Russia faced a mounting backlash Friday after using its veto power to effectively end official UN monitoring of sanctions on North Korea amid a probe into alleged arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang. Russia’s UN Security Council veto on Thursday blocked the renewal of the panel of experts tasked with investigating violations of sanctions tied to North Korea’s banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. South Korea’s foreign ministry on […]

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Russia hits Ukraine energy sector in overnight attack

KYIV, Ukraine, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – Russia fired dozens of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, wounding at least six people and cutting off power in several regions, officials said on Friday. Moscow has stepped up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, targeting electricity facilities in response to an uptick in deadly Ukrainian assaults on Russia’s border regions. Ten regions across Ukraine came under attack, damaging critical infrastructure and wounding […]

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Nations fail to reach pandemic accord: talks to resume April

By Robin MILLARD GENEVA, March 28, 2024 (AFP) – Two years of talks aimed at striking a landmark global agreement on handling future pandemics failed to seal a deal in time on Thursday, and will restart next month for one final push. Scarred by Covid-19, which shredded economies, overturned societies, crippled health systems and killed millions, countries are trying to craft an international accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. But while they largely agree […]

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Harvard library removes human skin from book binding

Prestigious Harvard University said Wednesday it had removed human skin from the binding of a book held for over 90 years at one of its libraries. A copy of the 19th-century book “Des Destinées de l’Ame” — or Destinies of the Soul, a meditation on life after death — was found in 2014 to be bound in the skin of a deceased woman. Harvard said it had removed the binding and noted “past failures in […]

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Russia sentences journalist to 2 years in prison, detains others

MOSCOW, March 28, 2024 (AFP) – A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a journalist to two years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive on Ukraine, as police in Moscow detained five other reporters over a 24-hour period. Russia has made on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal since it sent troops into Ukraine two years ago, arresting and fining those who defy the Kremlin’s narratives. A court in the western exclave of Kaliningrad said […]

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Climate change changing Earth’s time: study

By Daniel Lawler and Juliette Collen PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Struggle to wrap your head around daylight savings? Spare a thought for the world’s timekeepers, who are trying to work out how climate change is affecting Earth’s rotation — and in turn, how we keep track of time. In a strange twist, global warming could even help out timekeepers by delaying the need for history’s first “negative leap second” by three years, a […]

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Milky Way’s black hole surrounded by strong magnetic fields: astronomers

PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered powerful magnetic fields spiralling around the black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday. A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarised light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole. The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart […]

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Russia blames Kyiv, West over Moscow gun attack

MOSCOW, March 26, 2024 (AFP) – Russia on Tuesday sought to shift blame for the Moscow concert hall attack onto Ukraine and its Western backers, despite the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the massacre of at least 139 people. The Kremlin’s security services have been scrambling to explain how gunmen on Friday managed to carry out the worst attack in Russia in over two decades. President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that “radical Islamists” conducted […]

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Putin says ‘Islamists’ behind Moscow attack, links them to Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 25, 2024 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday acknowledged for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but suggested they were linked to Ukraine somehow. Eleven people have been detained in connection with the attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen storm into Crocus City Hall, open fire on concert-goers and set the building ablaze, killing at least 139 people. “We know that the […]

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