‘The plan included sabotage and militarily trained people disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions,’ according to Moldovan leader.
Maia Sandu’s remarks come after she nominated a new prime minister on Friday to keep her country on a pro-EU trajectory | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Russia wants to stage a coup d’état in Moldova, the country’s President Maia Sandu said Monday.
Sandu called for heightened security measures in Moldova after the pro-EU government resigned last week, following months of pressure from Moscow which is waging an all-out war on neighboring Ukraine.
“The plan included sabotage and militarily trained people disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and taking hostages,” Sandu told reporters at a press conference Monday.
She added that citizens of Russia, Montenegro, Belarus and Serbia would be among those entering Moldova to try to spark protests in an attempt to “change the legitimate government to an illegitimate government, controlled by the Russian Federation to stop the EU integration process.”
There is currently no technique that could have helped Nepal predict when the recent earthquake would strike. AP/PA/Niranjan Shrestha
theconversation – Can earthquakes ever be predicted? This question is timely after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Nepal recently. If authorities had more warning that the earthquake was coming, they may have been able to save more lives.
While Nepal is a documented area of previous seismic activity, at the moment there is no technique that provides predictions of sufficient clarity to allow for evacuations at short notice. So if we cannot predict these events now, are there avenues of research to provide useful predictions in the future?
The key word here is “useful”. It is possible to make long-term forecasts about future earthquake activity, partly by using the past record of earthquakes as a guide. There is no reason to believe that a region of the Earth is going to behave differently in the next few thousands of years from its pattern over the same range back in time. In the short term, seismologists can draw on data from recording stations, with records going back roughly 40 years on a global scale. Tiếp tục đọc “Why it is so hard to predict where and when earthquakes will strike”→
The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “more than double”, according to a United Nations emergency relief coordinator.
Martin Griffiths, speaking to Sky News on Saturday, said he expected tens of thousands more deaths.
At least 24,596 people have been confirmed dead after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and north-western Syria on Monday, with multiple aftershocks.
Griffiths said: “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble, but I’m sure it will double or more,” said Griffiths.
“That’s terrifying. This is nature striking back in a really harsh way.
“It’s deeply shocking … the idea that these mountains of rubble still hold people, some of them still alive.
“We haven’t really begun to count the number of dead.”
He said that a 72-hour period after a disaster was usually the “golden period” for rescues, which had now expired, but that survivors were still being pulled out of the rubble.
“It must be incredibly difficult to decide when to stop this rescue phase,” he said.
Griffiths said he was launching a three-month operation for Turkey and Syria to help pay for the costs of operations there.
Griffiths also told Reuters he hoped in Syria aid would go to both government and opposition-held areas, but that things with this regard were “not clear yet”.
Earlier on Saturday, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that negotiations were continuing to gain access to more areas in Syria and called for “solidarity” in the relief effort.
He said: “Our message is clear, it’s time to put all politics aside. Just focus on the men, women and children who desperately need help in Syria and in southern Turkey.
“Wherever we work, we have to work with the authorities in charge. That’s just the way that UN humanitarian aid is structured. So in the rebel-held territories, we work with the authorities there; in the government-held areas, we work with the government.”
Responding to criticism of the UN’s response to the urgent need in Syria after the earthquake, he added:
“I think if I was standing in the middle of devastation and my community had been hit, I would be unhappy and I would be critical because aid never comes quickly enough. But I can tell you that the UN stands with the people of Syria, whether they live in rebel territories, whether they live in government-held territories.”
A wave of recent closures of environment organizations in Vietnam, as well as the arrests of NGO leaders, reflects the difficult position that activists face in the one-party state.
Nonprofit organizations have an unclear legal status in the country, and are vulnerable to pressure from the state as well as from powerful private interests.
Though the communist-led government has at times recognized the value of NGOs as partners in implementing social and environmental programs, it has also attacked the concept of civil society as a threat to official ideology and morality.
Thuý, who helped run environmental programs at a nonprofit based in Ho Chi Minh City, had for weeks pondered quitting her job to pursue an advanced degree. The 24-year-old, who like all NGO workers interviewed for this story used a pseudonym due to fear of reprisals, was at a loss as to how to communicate her hard decision to her supervisors. While she felt it was time to move on, Thuý was grateful for the open-minded and dynamic working environment that had allowed her to grow tremendously.
Much to Thuý’s surprise, it was her supervisors who initiated a conversation about her career, advising her to be prepared to leave soon, because their organization was being told “from above” to shut down.
Dù Ngân hàng Nhà nước đã cấm ép khách mua bảo hiểm, nhưng gần sáu tháng tìm hiểu và đồng hành cùng bạn đọc, phóng viên Tuổi Trẻ vẫn ghi nhận được hàng loạt góc khuất trong việc “gài” thế buộc phải… tự nguyện mua bảo hiểm nhân thọ khi vay vốn.
Tại tòa nhà Prudential Plaza, một khách hàng hoàn tất thủ tục hủy hợp đồng bảo hiểm nhân thọ, sau đó được hoàn 153,3 triệu đồng – Ảnh: BÔNG MAI
Theo quy định, trong vòng 21 ngày cân nhắc – kể từ ngày nhận được hợp đồng bảo hiểm, bên mua có quyền từ chối tiếp tục tham gia và được hoàn lại phí đã đóng, sau khi trừ chi phí hợp lý. Để tránh “đêm dài lắm mộng”, hàng loạt chiêu đã được người bán tung ra.
Sắp tới một số khoản chi của bảo hiểm cho ngân hàng sẽ được khống chế. Mục đích là hạn chế lợi nhuận trả cho ngân hàng khi tham gia hoạt động bán bảo hiểm.
CVD 