ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Monday said Ankara backed a US initiative to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict but stressed that talks should involve both warring sides.
Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a backdrop of rapprochement between new US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We attach great importance to the new US initiative as a result-oriented approach. We believe that a solution can be reached through negotiations in which both sides participate,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara.
Lavrov’s visit comes on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the Turkish capital.
Lavrov said Russia is ready for negotiations on the Ukraine war but will only stop fighting when a peace settlement “suits” Moscow.
“We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said.
Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an agreement reached without him.
Fidan, whose country hosted talks between Ukraine and Russia during the start of the war, said Turkiye was ready to take any step that would help bring peace.
“Turkiye is always prepared to assume any facilitating or accelerating role... Our goal is to end this devastating war as soon as possible and to heal the wounds in the region,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Lavrov is due to meet with Erdogan later in the day.
Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
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Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’
- Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks
- Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Volodymyr Zelensky
Vatican’s solemn run-up to Easter opens with recovering Pope Francis improving but on the sidelines
- Pontiff, who survived a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia this winter, is expected to make some appearances
- By all indications he is continuing to improve after his hospital stay and is slowly resuming some of his normal activities
The 88-year-old Francis, who survived a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia this winter, is expected to make some appearances, however. He made a surprise cameo at the end of Palm Sunday Mass last weekend and in recent days has made some unannounced visits – including one in which he wasn’t dressed in his papal white cassock – to pray in St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Mary Major basilica across town.
By all indications he is continuing to improve after his five-week hospital stay and is slowly resuming some of his normal activities. In recent outings, he has been seen without the nasal tubes that provide supplemental oxygen and Vatican officials say he is increasingly less reliant on the therapy.
On Wednesday, Francis held his first formal group audience since returning to the Vatican on March 23, meeting with the medical staff of the Gemelli hospital who cared for him during his 38-day stay. Gathered in a Vatican audience hall, Francis thanked the 70-plus doctors, nurses and administrators and asked them for their continued prayers.
“Thank you for everything you did,” Francis said, his voice still labored but seemingly stronger as he continues respiratory and physical therapy.
He gave special thanks to the rector of Gemelli’s affiliated Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Elena Beccalli, whom he praised for her strong leadership. “When women command, things go well,” he said in his longest public remarks since his hospitalization.
Francis has delegated the demanding Holy Week liturgical celebrations to hand-picked cardinals, but the Vatican says the pope himself composed the meditations that will be read aloud by others during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on Friday night at Rome’s Colosseum.
The Holy Thursday Mass, for example, during which the oils used in liturgical rituals throughout the year are blessed, was being celebrated by the retired head of the Vatican’s patrimony office, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno. Friday’s solemn commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ was assigned to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, who heads the Vatican office in charge of eastern rite Catholics. Easter Sunday was assigned to the retired administrator of St. Peter’s, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.
It remains to be seen how Francis will handle Easter Sunday’s traditional “Urbi et Orbi” speech and blessing (Latin for “to the city and the world”). Normally the pope delivers a sometimes lengthy discourse on the state of the world from the loggia of St. Peter’s, and then imparts a special blessing to the faithful in the piazza below. In theory someone else could read the speech while Francis could impart the blessing.
Francis was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 with bronchitis that quickly developed into a life-threatening case of double pneumonia. Upon his release March 23, doctors proscribed two months of convalescence at the Vatican with daily respiratory and physical therapy to improve his breathing and vocal function. With time, they have predicted he will be able to resume his normal activities.
Mass drone attack kills three, injures at least 30 in Ukraine’s Dnipro, governor says
- Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night
A Russian mass drone attack killed three people, including a child, and injured many more on Wednesday evening in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that 30 people had been injured, including five children. Sixteen people were being treated in hospital.
The attack triggered several fires.
Mayor Borys Filatov said one strike came within 100 meters (110 yards) of the municipal offices. He also said at least 15 dwellings had been damaged, as well as a student residence, an educational institution and a food processing plant.
Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night, as well as gutted vehicles and buildings with smashed windows and damaged facades.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said a Russian missile attack injured two people in the town of Izium. The town was captured by Russian troops in the early days of the February 2022 invasion, but was retaken by Ukrainian forces later in the year.
Colombia declares health emergency due to yellow fever cases, deaths
- The outbreak has resulted in 74 confirmed cases and 34 deaths since the start of last year
- Most critical situation is in Tolima, in central-west Colombia, where 22 cases have been detected
BOGOTA: The Colombian government declared a nationwide health emergency late on Wednesday due to an increase in yellow fever cases.
The outbreak has resulted in 74 confirmed cases and 34 deaths since the start of last year, said Health Minister Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo.
Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted by the bite of Aedes and Haemagogus mosquitoes.
Jaramillo said the most critical situation is in Tolima, in central-west Colombia, where 22 cases have been detected.
Myanmar junta says to free nearly 5,000 prisoners in amnesty
- Civil rights groups say the junta has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its 2021 coup
- Amnesties are regularly announced to commemorate national holidays or Buddhist festivals
YANGON: Myanmar’s military government said Thursday it will release nearly 5,000 prisoners in an amnesty to mark the country’s new year festivities.
Civil rights groups say the junta has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its 2021 coup cut short Myanmar’s experiment with democracy and plunged the nation into a multi-sided civil war.
Amnesties are regularly announced to commemorate national holidays or Buddhist festivals, but most high-profile political prisoners including deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remain detained.
A junta statement said 4,893 prisoners will be pardoned “to participate in the state-building process, for peace of mind of people and on compassionate grounds.”
To convey the “loving kindness of the state,” the junta also said other prisoners would have their sentences reduced by one-sixth, except for those who had committed serious offenses.
The offenses include unlawful association and terrorism, as well as murder and rape.
The junta said 13 foreign nationals would also be pardoned and deported, without giving details of their identities or crimes.
Early on Thursday morning an AFP journalist saw crowds of families gathered outside Yangon’s Insein prison, prepared to meet those freed.
The amnesty announcement was made as junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was reportedly due to make a rare foreign trip to Bangkok to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is chairing the 10-country ASEAN bloc this year.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has in the past barred junta officials from its summits over lack of progress on a peace plan.
But Anwar said he would meet Min Aung Hlaing Thursday to discuss the safety of Malaysian humanitarian teams dispatched to Myanmar following last month’s magnitude-7.7 earthquake.
The junta has not confirmed the meeting.
Myanmar’s ongoing “Thingyan” water festival typically marks the country’s new year with water-splashing rituals representing cleansing and renewal.
But celebrations have been muted following the March 28 tremor in the country’s central belt, which has killed 3,725 according to the latest official toll.
China says it will ignore US threats to raise tariffs up to 245%
- Washington said Trump was open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, insisting that China needed “our money”
BEIJING: China will pay no attention if the United States continues to play the “tariff numbers game,” China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, after the White House outline how China faces tariffs of up to 245 percent due to its retaliatory actions.
In a fact sheet released on Tuesday, the White House said China’s total duties include the latest reciprocal tariff of 125 percent, a 20 percent tariff to address the fentanyl crisis, and tariffs of between 7.5 percent and 100 percent on specific goods to address unfair trade practices.
US President Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on all countries two weeks ago, before suddenly rolling back higher “reciprocal tariffs” for dozens of countries while keeping punishing duties on China.
Beijing raised its own levies on US goods in response and has not sought talks, which it says can only be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and equality. Meanwhile, many other nations have begun looking at bilateral deals with Washington.
Last week, China also filed a new complaint with the World Trade Organization expressing “grave concern” over US tariffs, accusing Washington of violating the global trade body’s rules.
China this week unexpectedly appointed a new trade negotiator who would be key in any talks to resolve the escalating tariff war, replacing trade tsar Wang Shouwen with Li Chenggang, its envoy to the WTO.
Washington said Trump was open to making a trade deal with China but Beijing should make the first move, insisting that China needed “our money.”
