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 GAZA CITY — Israeli tanks massed at the Gaza border on Sunday as warplanes again pounded Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave where raids have killed more than 280 people in less than 48 hours. Dozens of tanks and personnel carriers idled at several points near the border after Israel warned it could launch a ground offensive in addition to its massive air bombardment, AFP photographers reported. Hamas responded by firing rockets the farthest yet into Israel, with one striking not far from Ashdod, Israel’s second-largest port, some 30 kilometers north of Gaza. It caused no casualties, medics said. In the latest plea for the violence to end, Pope Benedict XVI implored the international community to do “all it can to help the Israelis and Palestinians on this dead-end road. |
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SNOW SHOT
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Having arrived from Vologda by helicopter, Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, declared the New Year celebrations officially open by firing a cannon shot of Antarctic snow from the roof of the Peter and Paul Fortress at midday on Saturday. |
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MOSCOW — If history was a challenging subject for you at school, or if you found yourself snoozing in the middle of class, the Museum of the History of Corporal Punishment may offer you more engaging ways to connect with the distant past. Its shadowy, cloth-draped halls stored with guillotines, lashes, tongs and shackles of all shapes and sizes depict the history of the subject in a wonderfully demonstrative way.
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SINGAPORE — Team Russia has withdrawn from the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race because of insufficient funding during the worldwide economic crisis, team backer Oleg Zherebtsov said. “By this stage in the Volvo campaign we had intended to find sponsorship, but this process has been impacted by the global economic situation,” Zherebtsov, the founder of a Russian hypermarket chain, announced late Tuesday. |
All photos from issue.
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KIEV — Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared a day of national mourning as the death toll from an explosion that ripped through an apartment block in a Black Sea resort town rose to 26, including three children. “This is a major disaster,” Yushchenko said yesterday as he visited the site in Yevpatoria on the Crimean peninsula. “It is important to be here to demonstrate that the victims aren’t forgotten. The nation is with them, we are all with them.” The blast late last Wednesday, which destroyed 33 apartments, is the country’s deadliest such incident since a gas explosion killed at least 13 people in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk in October last year. |
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 NOVOKUZNETSK, Kemerovo Region — The working week, like the winter days in this Siberian city, has become shorter since the global financial crisis paralyzed its heavy industry. |
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 MOSCOW — Russian energy giant Gazprom warned European clients Friday that its gas conflict with Ukraine, conduit for European-bound gas from Russia, could affect deliveries to Europe. The warning came in a letter from Gazprom chief Alexei Miller to the company’s European clients. “Gazprom is doing everything possible to avoid any disruption of gas deliveries to Europe,” said Miller in the letter cited by Interfax news agency. |
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 Suddenly, Russia stands out as one of the countries likely to be worst hit by the international financial crisis, although it entered the crisis with huge budget and current accounts surpluses since 2000 and the third-largest currency reserves in the world. |
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin were quick to react to the street demonstrations against higher tariffs on imported used cars in Vladivostok over the past two weekends. |
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The year 2008 will receive a special mention the history books of Russia’s foreign policy. The Georgia war in August brought a host of consequences demanding attention, and the convulsions of the global financial markets in September and October redefined the boundaries of what Russia could realistically achieve. |
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 There is no Christmas on Dec. 25 in Russia, and foreigners celebrating on that day have long felt the absence of the typical trimmings and trappings. However, as a motley medley of foreigners have found over the centuries, all you really need is Christmas cheer. Besides which, there is only a week to wait before the biggest Russian holiday of them all — New Year’s. |
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GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan — Hundreds of thousands of supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto gathered in her home town on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of her assassination. The anniversary of the killing that sparked days of violence by her supporters, comes as Pakistan faces yet another crisis. Tension has been rising with India over last month’s militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, stoking fears of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Bhutto, 54, was killed in a gun and bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi as she emerged from an election rally just over two months after she had returned from years of self-exile. |
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 LONDON — Worries about the global economy and violence across the world have turned the celebration of Christmas into a more somber affair this year, Queen Elizabeth said on Thursday. |
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LOS ANGELES — It was an improbable plot hatched during World War II and to match it on movie screens, Hollywood offered perhaps the most unlikely casting of a hero at the holidays — Tom Cruise playing a Nazi-era German army officer. Cruise, of course, enjoys All-American looks that helped send him to movie stardom playing heroic young men such as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in 1986 movie, “Top Gun. |
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HONOLULU — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama was without electricity for 12 hours at his vacation home on Oahu after a suspected lightning strike blacked out Hawaii’s most populous island, an aide said on Saturday. |
 BERLIN — Whether smashing plates in San Diego to relieve frustration or drinking “Bailout Bitter” beer in Canada sold as a “bitter ale for bitter times,” people the world over kept a sense of humor in 2008 despite financial woes. Some of the year’s top off-beat tales included a Canada brewery that created a special tough times bitter and “Sarah’s Smash Shack” in California, which charges patrons $10 for 15 minutes of pleasure by pulverizing dinnerware against a wall. |
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Issues Archive