The United States and Russia are engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war over the breakaway region of Kosovo, which is awaiting a final U.N. recommendation on whether it will become an independent nation or remain part of Serbia.
Popularity: 1% [?]
December 6, 2006The Russian couple, crossing from the Ledra Palace border gate located north of the U.N.-controlled buffer zone on the divided island, was stopped by Greek Cypriot police on Sunday. They were detained since they were in possession of a property deed showing that they bought a villa and flyers about real estate.
Popularity: 5% [?]
November 21, 2006Russian changes to a draft UN resolution on Iran’s nuclear and missile programs would “cut back substantially†from restrictions the U.S. and its allies are seeking, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 15, 2006Russia has been negotiating deals to provide electricity to North and South Korea, a Russian official said, although the talks are now in jeopardy because of U.N. Security Council sanctions against the communist nation, AP reports.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Top Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani states Iran would overview its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors if punitive UN sanctions are imposed, Agence France Presse reported Friday.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 10, 2006Russia has rejected European-proposed U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons drive, but Moscow appears to be applying its own pressure by threatening to delay a key nuclear power project, AP reports.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 9, 2006Iran said it preferred Russia’s stance on its disputed nuclear program even though Moscow has said it supports limited sanctions on Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
“Russians’ stance is better than other…countries. They have a softer policy. Since the beginning, their stance was different,†said Mohammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 7, 2006Moscow welcomes an agreement between radical Palestinian organization Hamas and the moderate Fatah party to form a new national unity government, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman is quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Russia will agree to United Nations sanctions against Iran if they have a defined timeframe and an agreed mechanism for lifting them, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, the Reuters news agency reported.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Russian businessman placed on the list of individuals allegedly involved in delivering weapons to Congo has denied his involvement after President George W. Bush said earlier this week he had ordered that assets be frozen of dissident general Laurent Nkunda and six other individuals, including Viktor Bout.
Russian entrepreneur Viktor Bout denied his involvement in deliveries of weapons to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday. “I have absolutely nothing to do with any shipments of weapons to Congo,†Bout told Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio.
Previously, Viktor Bout had been accused of illegally selling weapons to a number of countries, including African nations.
On Tuesday President George W. Bush on Tuesday ordered that assets be frozen of dissident general Laurent Nkunda and six others considered by the White House to be destabilizing forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reuters reported. Bush issued an executive order immediately blocking any assets under U.S. jurisdiction of seven individuals accused of impeding disarmament activities, violating international laws on the targeting of children, or violating the U.N. arms embargo.
The move came two days after a presidential election in the central African country, which is home to the United Nations’ largest peacekeeping force. The vote, praised by foreign observers as largely peaceful and transparent, was meant to bring an end to decades of conflict and pillage that have left the mineral-rich country destitute.
Nkunda, a Tutsi accused of war crimes allegedly committed in 2004, leads a rebellion from Congo’s eastern hills and is reinventing himself as a protector of all Congolese excluded by the central government. Also targeted by the executive order was Hutu rebel leader Ignace Murwanashyaka, president of Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR is accused of taking part in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The U.N. last year extended the arms embargo on Congo and introduced a travel ban and assets freeze on those violating the embargo.
Others named in the executive order were: Khawa Panga Mandro, former president of the Party for Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo (PUSIC); Viktor Anatolijevitch Bout, owner of the Great Lakes Business Company and Business Air Services; Sanjivan Singh Ruprah, a businessman; Dimitri Igorevich Popov, general manager of the Great Lakes Business Company; and Douglas Mpano, manager of the Great Lakes Business Company.
Popularity: 1% [?]
November 1, 2006
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