Boris Nemtsov funeral: Russia restricts foreign mourners
- 16 minutes ago
Several EU politicians and Russia's opposition leader have been barred from attending the funeral of murdered Russian politician Boris Nemtsov.
A Polish politician was denied a visa under existing Russian sanctions while a Latvian MEP was turned back after arriving at a Moscow airport.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was denied permission to leave jail, where he is serving a 15-day sentence.
Mourners are filing past Nemtsov's coffin at Moscow's Sakharov centre.
His funeral will be held in the afternoon (local time) at a Moscow cemetery, Troyekurovskoye, where murdered journalist Anna Politkovskayta was buried in 2006.
Christian militia in Syria defends ancient settlements against Isis
Fighters try to protect last pockets of Assyrian Christians after Islamic State kills dozens, captures 300 hostages and forces thousands into exile
A few hundred Christian militants are at the vanguard of a fight in far north-eastern Syria to preserve some of the last major Christian pockets within the swath of central Arabia conquered by Islamic State.
For the past week, about 450 militiamen have tried to defend four Assyrian Christian villages among a cluster of 30 ancient settlements in Hassakeh province that had survived more than two millennia of war, invasion and insurrection.
Isis has shelled the area from its outskirts, ransacked its ancient core, and chased men, women and children into exile, capturing at least 300 hostages and killing dozens more. In doing so, the jihadi group has all but fulfilled its pledge to rid the area it controls – from Raqqa in Syria to Mosul in Iraq – of anyone who does not submit to its draconian ways.
Nicaragua canal connects oceans, divides people
Nicaragua's government is building a massive canal that will connect the Pacific and Caribbean. Canal critics fear there will be confiscations of land, environmental mayhem and a job boom that will bypass the locals.
US and European exporters could profit handsomely from the so-called Grand Interoceanic Canal as it will cut shipping costs to Asia and allow passage of supertankers too large to transit Panama. Petroleum and liquefied natural gas producers in particular stand to benefit.
Canal supporter Michael Healey, head of a Nicaraguan agribusiness association, says the Chinese-led project will provide over $50 billion (44 billion euros) in foreign INVESTMENT
and create over 250,000 full time and construction jobs.
and create over 250,000 full time and construction jobs.
"For the economy it's an excellent step," he said. "Now we have 4-4.5 percent annual growth. With the canal I believe it would be 10 percent. We're going to create a lot of jobs."
But environmentalists argue that the canal will destroy Lake Nicaragua and irreparably disrupt wildlife migration. Local campesinos (peasant farmers) worry that their land will be confiscated, and they will be forced to relocate.Greeks in the Crisis: 'We Need To Explain Ourselves'
What hopes and fears has the new government in Greece awakened, and how bad are relations with Germany? Four weeks after the election, SPIEGEL sat down to discuss the situation with six Greek people from different walks of life.
With tensions between Greece and Berlin having been significant in recent weeks, SPIEGEL decided to invite six prominent Greeks to a roundtable discussion at Katzourbos tavern in Athens' Pankrati neighborhood.
Athens' politically independent mayor, Georgios Kaminis, 60, arrives shortly thereafter on foot -- an inconspicuous man wearing a corduroy suitcoat. The others are: Natassa Bofiliou, 31, a famous Greek pop star who has been threatened by supporters of Golden Dawn because of her vocal opposition to the party; Christos Ikonomou, 44, whose book "Just Wait, Something's Happening," is a compilation of short stories about everyday life in Greece during the crisis; entrepreneur Aggeliki Papageorgiou, 50, the owner of a small ice cream spoon factory that is on the verge of shutting down; and journalist Xenia Kounalaki, 44, who writes for the center-right newspaper Kathimerini and has been disappointed thus far by Syriza's behavior in Europe.
Sherpas head back to Everest, leaving bitter protests behind (+video)
An avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas last year sparked protest over working conditions and pay, shutting down the rest of the 2014 season for international climbers.
KATHMANDU, NEPAL — After a year of protest over safety and pay, Nepal’s intrepid Sherpas are brushing aside concerns raised by last April’s avalanche on Mount Everest and say they are ready to work again.
The avalanche killed 16 Sherpas, the deadliest disaster ever for the famed local porters who are considered indispensable for international teams that annually climb the world’s highest peak.
The shock to the tight-knit Sherpa community led many to question the risks they take. A $400 government compensation to families of the victims was seen as humiliating.
But Sherpas earn about $6,000 per Himalayan expedition in a country where average annual wages are around $700, and the risks of the profession are known. With limited sympathy at home, they are now heading back to the mountain with only vague promises of the increased pay they sought, spurred by the need for income as well as better medical and life insurance. 5 things to know about China's 'Inconvenient Truth'
If you live in China and haven't watched -- or at least heard about -- "Under the Dome," you must have been living under a rock.
The almost two-hour documentary on air pollution in China produced by a famous TV journalist has quickly gone viral since its online release Saturday, clocking millions of views on various video sites and stirring ferocious debates across Chinese cyberspace.
Here are five things to know to put the phenomenon in context:
1. Overnight sensation
The slickly produced video shows journalist Chai Jing presenting a comprehensive slide show, intercutting with fast-paced footage of her travels across China and the rest of world, to find answers to three questions: What is smog, where does it come from and what can be done to tackle it?
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