Tag: Evening Edition

Medvedev, who liberals hoped would prove a major political reformer when he took power in 2008, told a meeting of international experts that Russia’s system of government was not in need of major change.

“Nothing needs to be radically changed. Not because it is not allowed, but because there is no need,” Medvedev told the meeting at a forum in the Volga city of Yaroslavl.

Officials said the blast in the city of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia was caused by a suicide bomber who drove up to a local market in an explosives-packed car and whose headless body was later discovered.

The head of the FSB security service, Alexander Bortnikov, announced Thursday evening that three people had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack.

As expected in the findings of its own inquiry, BP did not admit “gross negligence” for the April 20 explosion that killed 11 people and unleashed 4.9 million barrels of oil in the worst-ever maritime spill.

The disaster was due to a “sequence of failures” BP said, as it exonerated its well design and apportioned a large share of the blame to mistakes made by rig owner Transocean and Halliburton, which cemented the well.

The White House lent its voice to growing concern from military leaders that the incendiary move could trigger outrage around the Islamic world, as well as stoke a growing anti-Muslim tide of feeling in the United States.

“It puts our troops in harm’s way. Any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm’s way would be a concern to this administration,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, reiterating comments by top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.

Nine policemen and four schoolchildren were among those killed by the attack in Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, not far from tribal areas that are a stronghold of the Taliban.

At least 110 people have been killed over the past week as militants step up their attacks across the country.

Had it functioned properly, the blowout preventer would have sealed off the well after the explosion that ripped through it in April and the biggest maritime oil spill in history would never have happened.

The giant safety valve, which is being transferred to a NASA facility near New Orleans after being raised from the ocean on Saturday, could incriminate BP or one of the other firms involved in drilling the well.

The bomber was among a 450-strong crowd marching through the southwestern city of Quetta on Friday and blew himself up as the procession reached the main square.

Chaotic scenes followed, with an angry mob starting fires and shooting into the air while others fled or lay on the ground to avoid the gunfire.

The bomber was among the 450-strong crowd and detonated on reaching the main square in the city, according to police.

The explosion triggered chaotic scenes, with an angry mob starting fires and shooting into the air while others fled or lay on the ground to avoid the gunfire, they added.

Speaking before some 40 countries were to address finance, an issue that has helped hamstring UN climate talks, Figueres said floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia and other weather disasters had been a shocking wakeup call.

“The news has been screaming that a future of intense, global climate disasters is not the future that we want,” Figueres, newly-appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told reporters.