
-
Kenya's economy faces climate change risks: World Bank
-
Katy Perry set to roar into space on all-female flight
-
Trump spotlight divides S.Africa's Afrikaners
-
Chinese exports soared in March ahead of Trump's 'Liberation Day'
-
China's exports beat forecast in March despite trade war woes
-
Solar park boom threatens Spain's centuries-old olive trees
-
Trump tariff rollercoaster complicates ECB rate call
-
Asian stocks rise on electronics tariffs exemption, gold hits new high
-
A coffin for Pol Pot's memory, 50 years after Phnom Penh's fall
-
German archive where victims of the Nazis come back to life
-
Xi warns protectionism 'leads nowhere' as starts SE Asia tour
-
Trump warns no country 'off the hook' on tariffs
-
Trump downplays tariffs walk-back, says no country 'off the hook'
-
Trump advisor Navarro looks to cool spat with Musk
-
Moviegoers digging 'Minecraft Movie,' tops in N.America theaters
-
Paris Olympic torches, other memorabilia auctioned off
-
US says tech tariff exemptions may be short-lived
-
China calls on US to 'completely cancel' reciprocal tariffs
-
Bulgarian border city hails Schengen tourism boom
-
Indonesia palm oil firms eye new markets as US trade war casts shadow
-
Harvey Weinstein sex crimes retrial to begin Tuesday in NY
-
World Expo opens in Japan in rocky times
-
Ecuador's presidential hopefuls face toxic brew of crime, unemployment
-
'Slow travel' start-up launches cross-Channel crossings by sail
-
Toll hits 225, Dominican officials say all bodies returned to loved ones
-
Accord reached 'in principle' over tackling future pandemics: negotiating body
-
Junta chief frontrunner as Gabon holds first election since 2023 coup
-
German refinery's plight prompts calls for return of Russian oil
-
Frustrated families await news days after 222 killed in Dominican club disaster
-
Chinese manufacturers in fighting spirits despite scrapped US orders
-
Man executed by firing squad in South Carolina
-
Asset flight challenges US safe haven status
-
Trump wants to halt climate research by key agency: reports
-
Fed official says 'absolutely' ready to intervene in financial markets
-
Abuse scandal returns to haunt the flying 'butterflies' of Italian gymnastics
-
Canada, US to start trade talks in May: Carney
-
Pig kidney removed from US transplant patient, but she set record
-
UN shipping body approves global carbon pricing system
-
Spain marine park defends facilities after France orca transfer blocked
-
Dollar plunges, stocks wobble over trade war turmoil
-
Trump says tariff policy 'doing really well' despite China retaliation
-
Jolted by Trump, EU woos new partners from Asia to Latin America
-
Bogota ends one year of climate-induced water rationing
-
Dollar slides, stocks diverge as US-China trade war escalates
-
UK parliament to be recalled Saturday to discuss British Steel's future
-
JPMorgan Chase sees 'considerable turbulence' facing economy as profits rise
-
Trump's trade whiplash sends dollar into tailspin
-
Dollar slides, stocks diverge as China hits back at US tariffs
-
Elegance of the Edwardians on display at Buckingham Palace
-
Massive black hole 'waking up' in Virgo constellation

Russians killed two Zaporizhzhia nuclear staff, abused others: Ukraine
Russian forces controlling Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have killed two staff at the facility and detained and abused dozens of others, the head of Ukraine's nuclear energy agency told AFP on Friday.
The Zaporizhzhia plant -- the largest in Europe -- was captured by Russian troops in March. An uptick in fighting around it in recent weeks has raised fears of a nuclear disaster with both Moscow and Kyiv blaming the other for the escalation.
"A regime of harassment of personnel was gradually established," following the Russian takeover, Petro Kotin said.
"Two people were beaten to death. We do not know where about ten people are now, they were taken (by the Russians) and after that we have no information about their whereabouts," Kotin said, adding about 200 people had been detained.
He described the current situation at the plant as "very difficult," citing "torture" of staff and "beatings of personnel.
"The Russians look for pro-Ukrainian people and persecute them. People are psychologically broken," he said in an interview with AFP reporters in his office in Kyiv.
Frequent shelling of the plant -- including the town of Energodar where the facility is located -- means staff have been trying to secure safe passage for family members to leave the area, Kotin said.
"Two people on the territory of the plant were wounded during shelling -- a woman and a man -- on separate occasions," Kotin, clad in a military-style jacket, said.
"But people understand that the nuclear safety of the plant depends on them, so the employees return to Energodar and continue working at the facility," he added.
- Demilitarisation zone needed -
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) dispatched a 14-strong mission last week to the plant and released a report following the inspection.
Kotin said it described difficult psychological working conditions at the plant that ultimately amounted to "a violation of nuclear radiation safety.
"This situation must be corrected as soon as possible," he told AFP.
The IAEA in its report called for "the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone" around the plant as it faces an "untenable" situation.
But Kotin said there was room for interpretation there.
"If this is the demilitarisation of the nuclear plant, we fully support it. If it is ... the creation of some security zones with joint control along with the Russians, then this is of course an unacceptable decision for us," Kotin said.
"We will insist on creating a demilitarised zone around the plant, including with the participation of peacekeeping groups," he added.
Kotin also said Ukraine insists that Russia remove military hardware from the plant and that staff from Russian nuclear agency Rosatom also leave the area.
"For this, international partners need to put a lot of pressure on Russia to meet conditions that the Ukrainian authorities and the IAEA have made."
Kotin added all power lines connected to the plant have been severed as a result of shelling and the only reactor still on "is operating at a very low power level".
If these power lines are not restored, Kotin said, the station will go into blackout mode and will be able to rely only on diesel engines "to cool the nuclear material".
The head of the IAEA meanwhile on Friday echoed the point, saying nearby shelling had caused a blackout in Energodar and compromised safe operation of the plant.
Director General Rafael Grossi in a statement on social media described the recent shelling as a "dramatic development".
"This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand," he added.
"It is necessary to renew the communication line with the Ukrainian power system as soon as possible and supply it with power from external sources of energy supply," Kotin stressed.
C.Peyronnet--CPN