Top Biden aide to Denmark for international talks on Ukraine

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is traveling to Denmark this weekend to participate in a meeting about Ukraine which may include some countries that have refused to condemn the invasion. The talks in Copenhagen are being organized by Ukraine “to discuss basic principles of peace,” a…

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Pakistan’s economic meltdown spurs more people to risk lives to reach Europe

By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam KHUIRATTA, Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Reuters) – Hameed Iqbal Bhatti had prospered over two decades working in Saudi Arabia, but after returning to Pakistan three years ago, he was getting desperate. The economy had suffered in the pandemic and his restaurant business closed. With work avenues drying up and sky-high inflation blowing a…

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PwC Australia in talks to spin off units damaged by scandal – source

By Lewis Jackson and Scott Murdoch SYDNEY (Reuters) -PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia is looking to sell its government, education and healthcare practice to private equity firm Allegro Funds, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the firm battles the fall out from a major scandal. The scandal, which first broke in January, centres around a…

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Titanic submersible: when it vanished and the race to find it

(Reuters) – The five people aboard a submersible visiting the wreck of the Titanic died after a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber, U.S. Coast Guard officials said on Thursday. A “debris field” matching the submersible was discovered by a robotic deep-sea vessel. Here is a timeline of events since the start of the trip,…

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Protesters in Madrid mark anniversary of deadly day at Spain-Morocco border

By Elena Rodriguez and Joan Faus MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) – Protesters wearing white masks and carrying signs reading “massacre” and “Europe responsible” marked the anniversary on Friday of a mass attempt to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla in which at least 23 migrants and refugees died. Speakers from the Spanish umbrella rights…

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Titanic sub firm’s late CEO was committed to safety, says co-founder

MADRID (Reuters) – The co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, which owned the submersible that imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck, defended on Friday the chief executive’s commitment to safety and risk management after he died with four others on the craft. Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009, left the company…

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Families of Titanic sub’s victims could still sue despite liability waivers 

By Jack Queen (Reuters) -Liability waivers signed by passengers on a submersible lost at sea during a dive to the Titanic wreck may not shield the vessel’s owner from potential lawsuits by the victims’ families, legal experts said. The Titan submersible vanished on Sunday roughly two hours into its dive and was found in pieces…

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Russia won’t tell US number of nuclear warheads in Belarus

(Reuters) – Russia will not inform the U.S. about the number of nuclear warheads it is stationing in Belarus or tests of its nuclear-capable Poseidon torpedo, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday. Moscow and Minsk say Belarus has already begun receiving the Russian tactical, or short-range, nuclear…

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EBRD lends 50 million euros to Ukraine’s Ukreximbank

KYIV (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide a 50-million-euro ($54 million) loan to one of Ukraine’s biggest banks, state-owned Ukreximbank, under an agreement signed on Friday. Matteo Patrone, EBRD’s Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, said in a statement that the funding would help keep finance flowing to…

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