Page 430 - Icks News Today

Two British-Iranians who have been held in Iran for years are leaving the country as Tehran and London continue talks over a long-standing debt owed to Iran.

The leaders of three Central European countries have praised Ukraine for its "brave fight" against invading Russian forces after concluding a trip to Kyiv in a defiant act of solidarity with the besieged city and Ukraine's beleaguered president.

Russia has escalated its bombardment of Kyiv overnight and launched new assaults on the port city of Mariupol as peace talks were to resume and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy prepared to make a direct appeal for more help in a speech to the U.S. Congress.

Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court has upheld the lengthy prison sentence handed to former President Almazbek Atambaev in the case of the illegal release of a notorious crime boss in 2013, rejecting his appeal for a retrial.

The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan has called on the Central Asian nation's government to secure full Internet reconnection for residents of the volatile Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), who have been living without access to the Internet since mass anti-government protests in November. 

U.S. President Joe Biden has for the first time called Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" over the Russian president's bloody invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

If Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine turns into a prolonged conflict, almost 30 percent of the country's population of 44 million could slip below the poverty line, while a further 62 percent would be at risk of also falling into poverty within a year, the United Nations says.

Russian requests for Chinese military equipment, the future of the BRI in Europe, and why Beijing is quietly following Russia sanctions. 

Courts of arbitration in several Russian regions and Moscow have been hacked in an apparent protest over Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden has announced $1 billion in new security aid and the deployment of longer-range weapons and drones to Ukraine, while expressing "unprecedented" support for Kyiv in its war with Russia.