Wednesday, January 15

World

Germany's Scholz speaks with Putin, demands Russia withdraw from Ukraine
16Nov By No Comments
World

Germany's Scholz speaks with Putin, demands Russia withdraw from Ukraine

  FILE - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz leaves the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 7, 2024. A German government spokesperson said Scholz spoke via telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. A German government spokesperson said that Chancellor Olaf Scholz held direct talks via telephone Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which he demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and that Russia show a willingness to negotiate a just and lasting peace. A statement from German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Scholz condemned Russia\'s war of aggression against Ukraine and called on Putin to end it and withdraw troops. The statement said the chancellor reaffirmed Germany\'s unwave...
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Across Asia, crimes against journalists keep mounting
16Nov By No Comments
Asia-pacific

Across Asia, crimes against journalists keep mounting

By RFA Staff2024.10.31In the decade since the U.N. first launched its International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, nearly 800 journalists have been killed across the globe. Many more have faced violence, threats, harassment and lawfare, with the perpetrators often going unpunished. This is the situation in war zones like Myanmar, where journalists find themselves trapped in crossfire. But it is also true in ostensibly peaceful countries. China remains the world’s largest jailer of journalists; Cambodia has seen reporters assaulted for trying to expose wrongdoing; and, just this week, Vietnam sentenced a blogger to 12 years in prison in a case many believe to be retaliation for his reporting on corruption. RELATED STORIESCambodian journalist freed on bail after apology ...
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Is Europe ready for year-end cutoff of Russian gas via Ukraine?
16Nov By No Comments
World

Is Europe ready for year-end cutoff of Russian gas via Ukraine?

  FILE - Warning signs are posted in front of a gas compressor station, a part of the Polish section of the Yamal pipeline that links Russia with western Europe and is owned in part by Gazprom, in Gabinek near Wloclawek, Poland, May 23, 2022. On the first day of 2025, Ukraine’s contract with Russian state-owned Gazprom will expire, shutting down a major Russian natural gas pathway to Europe. Although the Kremlin says it is ready to continue the transit deal, urging Europeans to persuade Ukraine to extend the contract, Kyiv has said it won’t budge. Russian natural gas supplies were a cornerstone of European energy security before Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, when it temporarily cut off 80 billion cubic meters of gas supplies to the co...
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Can Trump's return to White House be an opportunity for enhancing US-Turkey ties?
16Nov By No Comments
World

Can Trump's return to White House be an opportunity for enhancing US-Turkey ties?

  FILE - President Donald Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington. washington — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on his early November election victory. President Joe Biden has not hosted Erdogan at the White House though the two have met on sidelines of international summits and spoken by phone. Speaking to journalists accompanying his return from visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, Erdogan expressed his hope for improved U.S. ties, adding, however, that in-person meetings would be needed to achieve that end, and that Ankara needs to wait to see what kind of a ...
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16Nov By No Comments
Asia-pacific

Church in village of Myanmar’s Catholic leader bombed in junta raid

By RFA Burmese2024.10.31Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese.Junta forces damaged a church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, one of several religious buildings destroyed in fighting between the military and pro-democracy forces, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.Bo, Myanmar’s Roman Catholic leader, lives in the main city of Yangon and was not in Mon Hla village, in the central Sagaing region, when a junta drone bombed St. Michael’s Church on Wednesday night.“They’ve destroyed an entire side of the church, the whole right side,” said one woman in the village, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.The church’s bell tower and nave were also damaged, she said.Opponents of the junta have accused the military of ta...
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Trial begins for Russian accused of sending military video to Ukraine
16Nov By No Comments
World

Trial begins for Russian accused of sending military video to Ukraine

  Nikita Zhuravel is escorted by police from a court after a hearing on a treason case in Volgograd, Russia, on Nov. 14, 2024. MOSCOW — A Russian man went on trial Thursday on charges of high treason for a video he allegedly sent to Ukraine\'s security services, the latest in a growing series of espionage cases involving the conflict. The Volgograd District Court began hearing a new case against Nikita Zhuravel, who is currently serving a 3½-year sentence for burning a Quran in front of a mosque. The new charges are based on allegations that Zhuravel filmed a trainload of military equipment and warplanes in 2023 and sent the video to a representative of Ukraine\'s security agency. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. Righ...
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16Nov By No Comments
Asia-pacific

Myanmar junta charges Burmese-Indian man who criticized film that ridiculed Hinduism

By RFA Burmese2024.10.31Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.A Burmese-Indian activist who went missing after slamming a Myanmar film as racist toward Hindus is in the custody of authorities, who are investigating him for “instigation,” the junta announced Wednesday.Hindus have faced decades of discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they endure restrictions on religious practice and travel, according to the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.Shine Htet Aung, 33, disappeared on Oct. 26, days after posting a review of the Myanmar rom-com “Jar Kit Sar Pu Thee” (Have You Ever Ridden a Jeep) on Facebook, in which he described the film as racist toward Hindu culture. The review went viral on social media, garnering thousands of likes and shares....
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16Nov By No Comments
Asia-pacific

UN labor watchdog to take action against Myanmar junta

By Kiana Duncan for RFA2024.11.12The International Labor Organization, or ILO, has decided to take action against the Myanmar junta for rights violations, saying that the country failed to adhere to recommendations made by the watchdog.ILO’s Commission of Inquiry recommended in October last year the military cease violence, release detained unionists, restore civil rights, and end forced labor practices after it found that the junta, since its 2021 coup, had severely restricted civil liberties and trade union rights.“ILO decided to place on the agenda of … an item concerning measures under article 33 of the Constitution to secure compliance by Myanmar with the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry,” the watchdog said in a report on Wednesday. Article 33 can lead to significant conse...
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Operation False Target: How Russia plotted to mix a deadly new weapon among decoy drones in Ukraine
16Nov By No Comments
World

Operation False Target: How Russia plotted to mix a deadly new weapon among decoy drones in Ukraine

  A Ukrainian officer shows a thermobaric charge of a downed Shahed drone launched by Russia in a research laboratory in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, Nov. 14, 2024. KYIV, Ukraine — At a secretive factory in Russia\'s central grasslands, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon, an Associated Press investigation has found. The plant at Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone recently started churning out thermobaric drones alongside the decoys, the investigation found. The thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls. They suck out all the oxygen in their path, and have a fearsome re...
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16Nov By No Comments
Asia-pacific

Myanmar junta bombs insurgent-held gem-mining hub killing 9

By RFA Burmese2024.11.12Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.Updated on Nov. 12, 2024 at 2:24 p.m. ETJunta forces bombed a famous ruby-mining town under insurgent control in central Myanmar killing nine people and wounding 13 in a deliberate attack on civilians, an insurgent group official told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. Junta aircraft bombed three neighborhoods in Mogok on Monday at around 11 p.m. while one of the military’s Russian helicopters also fired into the town for about 30 minutes, they said.“Nine people died. We have to say it really impacted them badly. The junta wasn’t fighting, they were targeting residents,” said Lway Yay Oo, a spokesperson for the anti-junta Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA.The insurgent group is part of a three-member alliance that has made ...
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