News related to
Ceasefire

By John Irish and Andrea Shalal | MUNICH MUNICH Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed on Saturday to use their influence to implement a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Monday in eastern Ukraine. Fighting has recently escalated between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the region, refocusing global attention on a simmering conflict that has strained relations between Russia and the West. “On Feb. […]

MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian authorities on Saturday to temporarily recognise civil registration documents issued in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine, a decision strongly criticised by Ukraine’s president. The decision will enable people from the conflict-hit region to travel, work or study in Russia. According to Putin’s order, published on the Kremlin website, Russia will temporarily recognise identity documents, diplomas, birth and marriage certificates and vehicle […]

DIYARBAKIR (Story corrects paragraph 5 to show conflict flared up again in 2015 not last year.) A car bomb exploded in the garden of a housing complex in Turkey’s southeastern town of Viransehir on Friday, killing a child and wounding 17 other people, the provincial governor’s office told Reuters. Initial findings showed that an unidentified individual thought to be between 18 to 20 had parked the car […]

By Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will seek on Saturday to soothe allies unnerved by his boss’ unorthodox statements on Russia and NATO as he stresses America’s commitment to Europe during the first major foreign address for the Trump administration. Pence will tell the annual Munich Security Conference that Europe is an “indispensable partner” for the United States, a message he will […]

AMMAN Syria’s main opposition body on Sunday approved a new delegation to take part in Geneva peace talks later this month, which include Russian-backed blocs that have been critical of the armed insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad. The High Negotiation Committee, (HNC) the main umbrella group, said in a statement after two-days of meetings in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, that the new 21-member negotiating team included members […]

RIYADH U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday the U.N. envoy to Yemen had his full support, days after Yemen’s Houthi group asked him not to renew the diplomat’s term due to what it said was bias against the Iranian-aligned movement. “Our envoy has my full support and I believe that he is doing an impartial work, that he is doing it in a very professional way […]

MANILA The Maoist-led New People’s Army (NPA) has engaged in guerrilla warfare in the Philippines for nearly five decades, with more than 40,000 people killed in a conflict that has stunted growth in resource-rich areas. Following is a look at the background of one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies. – Jose Maria Sison, a political science professor, founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in […]

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By Neil Jerome Morales | MANILA MANILA The Philippine government will on Friday withdraw from a ceasefire with communist rebels, President Rodrigo Duterte said, as he ordered soldiers to get ready to fight and declared there would be no peace with the insurgents for a generation. Duterte had made a nationwide peace process one of the priorities of his administration but showed frustration over demands made by […]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/03 February) — Three Army soldiers were killed in a clash with communist guerrillas in Bukidnon only hours after the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army announced the termination of their unilateral ceasefire declaration. Ka Allan Juanito, NPA spokesperson for North Central Mindanao, said the soldiers, who belonged to the 8th Infantry Battalion were intercepted by a rebel unit at […]

The oil industry is zeroing in on a prospective tax shift in Washington that has the potential to upend energy flows around the world.  The “border adjustment tax” (BAT) put forth by Republican lawmakers and embraced sporadically by President Donald Trump would radically change the way companies are levied, taxing imports and exempting exports in the world’s biggest economy. While the Trump administration’s stance on BAT has […]

MANILA The Maoist-led rebel group in the Philippines said on Wednesday it was terminating a unilateral ceasefire it declared five months ago and resuming a protracted guerrilla warfare that has killed tens of thousands of people. The New People’s Army said in a statement that the ceasefire agreed to last August would expire on Feb. 10, but added the rebels would still support peace talks with the […]

WASHINGTON The United States is “deeply concerned” with the spike in violence in eastern Ukraine, which has caused dozens of Ukrainian military and civilian casualties, the State Department said on Tuesday. “To avert a larger humanitarian crisis, we call for an immediate, sustained ceasefire and full and unfettered access for” monitoring, acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other on Tuesday […]

By Tulay Karadeniz | ANKARA ANKARA Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to order safe zones in Syria, and has long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said on Thursday. Trump said on Wednesday he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, he is expected […]

By John Irish and Andrew Osborn | ASTANA/MOSCOW ASTANA/MOSCOW Peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Kazakhstan were a coup for their international sponsors, but exposed the limits of what Russia, Turkey and Iran can achieve in their efforts to resolve the six-year-old war. It was the first time in nine months the two sides had come together, albeit briefly and unhappily, and the first […]

By Denis Dyomkin and John Irish | ASTANA ASTANA Syria’s warring sides met for their first talks in nine months on Monday, with their Russian and Turkish backers pushing to cement a ceasefire that could pave the way for political talks. The meeting in the Kazakh capital comes at a time when Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, each want […]

A policeman marks the site where firearms were recovered after a clash in Makilala, North Cotabato. —CARLO AGAMON MAKILALA, NORTH COTABATO—While the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) panels are talking peace in Rome, a clash between soldiers and communist rebels erupted here on Saturday. A rebel was killed in the encounter in the remote village of Biangan, said Lt. Col. Harold Argamosa, […]

The Syrian government and rebels opened talks in Kazakhstan on Monday as part of a Turkish and Russian-backed effort to end the Arab state’s near six-year civil war. It is the first time the warring parties have held negotiations in a year, and if successful could mark a turning point in a conflict that has killed an estimated 400,000 people, while also underlining the increasing roles of […]

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ASTANA ASTANA A Syrian opposition delegation to peace talks set to open in the Kazakh capital on Monday said it would only discuss ways to salvage a fragile Russian-Turkish ceasefire it sees as having been violated chiefly by Iranian-backed militias in Syria. The Syrian government considers most of the rebel groups attending the conference to be foreign-backed “terrorists”, but says it is ready […]

BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies on Sunday drove Islamic State from several villages east of Aleppo, a military media unit run by Hezbollah and a war monitor reported, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. Several overlapping conflicts are being fought in Syria, dragging in regional and global powers as well as the government and local groups, complicating the battlefield in the north […]

BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies on Sunday drove Islamic State from the village of Soran, east of Aleppo, state media and a military media unit run by Hezbollah reported, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. Several overlapping conflicts are being fought in Syria, dragging in regional and global powers as well as the government and local groups, complicating the battlefield in the […]

BERLIN German diplomats helped broker a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces in a mountainous valley near Damascus, a deal designed to restore water supplies to the capital, the German foreign ministry said on Friday. The agreement, first reported by German news magazine Der Spiegel, is aimed at giving opponents of the Syrian government an opportunity to withdraw from the Wadi Barada valley to the […]

BEIRUT Syrian rebel groups have decided to attend peace talks backed by Russia and Turkey in Kazakhstan to press for implementation of a widely violated ceasefire, rebel officials said on Monday, in a boost for Moscow-led diplomacy. Rebel groups took the decision at meetings that are underway in Ankara, and are now working to form a delegation that will be different to one sent to peace talks […]

BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his government is ready to negotiate on “everything” in proposed peace talks in Kazakhstan but said it was not yet clear who would represent the opposition and no date had been set. Assad also said a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia, his most powerful ally, ahead of the talks was being violated and the army’s role was to recapture an […]

LAGOS A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, said on Friday that it had asked its fighters to prepare to fight the “enemy” as authorities were not ready for dialogue. The Niger Delta Avengers had declared a ceasefire last year after staging major attacks on oil facilities crippling the OPEC member’s oil output in a fight […]

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