Author: RT

Maintaining NATO is ‘of utmost importance’ to German interests – Merkel Maintaining the NATO defense alliance is of utmost importance to Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. The statement came after French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent criticism of the Western military alliance. “Maintaining NATO today is even more in our very own interests as it was in the Cold War – or at least as important as it was in the Cold War,” Merkel told lawmakers in parliament. “Because, and the foreign minister said this yesterday, Europe currently cannot defend itself on its own,” Reuters quoted the chancellor as saying. Maintaining NATO is ‘of utmost importance’ to German interests – Merkel Source: RT

Japan’s regulator approves restart for nuclear reactor closest to epicenter of 2011 quake Japan’s Tohoku Electric Power said on Wednesday it has won initial regulatory approval to restart a reactor at its Onagawa power plant. Onagawa was the closest among Japan’s nuclear stations to the epicenter of the 9-magnitude quake in March 2011, Reuters said. The station was swamped by the tsunami, but survived with its cooling system intact, saving its reactors from the threat of meltdowns similar to those that occurred at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi station to the south. Tohoku Electric said it has received a first green light from Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority to restart the No. 2 reactor at Onagawa, subject to a public consultation period. Further approvals will ...

Israeli aircraft attack Hamas sites after rocket fire from Gaza – military Israeli aircraft hit several sites for Gaza’s Hamas early on Wednesday in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, AP reported. The Israeli military said the targets of the multiple airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip included a weapons manufacturing facility. There were no reports of injuries. The airstrikes came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to “respond vigorously to any attack.” Late Tuesday, the Israeli military had said it identified two projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip, with missile defenses intercepting one. Israeli aircraft attack Hamas sites after rocket fire from Gaza – military Source: RT