Despite strict government censorship and the threat of jail, residents of Russia's capital are finding subtle ways to express alarm and dissent over the Kremlin's year-long offensive in Ukraine.. The 32-year-old was detained last April and faces up to 10 years in prison for replacing labels in a Saint Petersburg supermarket with messages protesting the Ukraine offensive.
Wall Street stocks shrugged off early weakness and pushed higher Wednesday as they followed European bourses upward after strong US economic data.. The gains by stocks "suggests perhaps that buyers were influenced more by the hopeful economic implications of the January retail sales data than its potentially adverse implications for monetary policy," said Briefing.com.
A fifth person has died in New Zealand in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, police said Thursday, amid fears the death toll could climb further.. National police said in a statement Thursday that a person is "believed to have died after being caught in flood water" in the Gisborne region, bringing the death toll in the Hawke's Bay area on the east coast to four.
When Raquel Welch donned a deerskin bikini for a 1966 caveman screen epic, she became one of the hottest sex symbols of her time, a role she never felt able to escape.. "Americans have always had sex symbols.
World Bank chief David Malpass announced Wednesday he would step down by the end of June from his position heading the development lender.. In a note to staff seen by AFP, Malpass said: "Developing countries around the world are facing unprecedented crises and I'm proud that the Bank Group has continued to respond with speed, scale, innovation, and impact."
The United States risks defaulting on payment obligations as soon as July, if lawmakers fail to resolve a gridlock and raise the federal borrowing limit, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates Wednesday.. "If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to pay its obligations fully," the CBO warned Wednesday.
Sedef's relief at surviving Turkey's deadly earthquake is quickly giving way to fears she could succumb to diseases that threaten to take hold across shattered regions now devoid of basics including toilets.. "Maybe we didn't die from the earthquake, but we will certainly die from diseases," she told AFP, declining to give her family name.
Ethiopia warned on Wednesday that efforts by UN-backed investigators to probe abuses committed during the war in the country's north could "undermine" the progress of a peace agreement signed last year.. In its first report published in September last year, the UN-backed International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said it had found evidence of violations by all sides that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As a Soviet army conscript, Vasil Slabun helped in the clean-up of radioactive material after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.. "I'll return when the Ukrainian army has won," he said.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation Wednesday after more than eight years leading its devolved government, in a shock move jolting UK politics on both sides of the border.. Some critics, even within the SNP, have blamed Sturgeon for failing to deliver a winning strategy on the issue after the Supreme Court in November sided with the UK government in blocking a fresh vote.
