VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A police car passes the Palais Coburg, where closed-door nuclear talks with Iran will take place, in Vienna, Austria, Mar 11, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Lisa Leutner) - 

France, Britain and Germany warned Russia on Saturday (Mar 12) that its demands to have its trade guaranteed with Iran risked the collapse of an almost-completed nuclear deal.

Negotiators have reached the final stages of discussions to restore the so-called JCPOA deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, long seen by the West as a cover for developing atomic bombs.

However, last Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov unexpectedly demanded sweeping guarantees that Russian trade with Iran would not be affected by sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

"Nobody should seek to exploit JCPOA negotiations to obtain assurances that are separate to the JCPOA," France, Britain and Germany - the so-called E3 European parties to the 2015 accord - said in a joint statement.

"This risks the collapse of the deal," they said.

The deal on the table should be concluded with the utmost urgency, they added.

Washington has already insisted it will not agree to Russia's demands.

The 11-month-old international talks seek to bring Iran back into compliance with the deal's restrictions on its rapidly advancing nuclear activities and bring the United States back into the accord it left in 2018 under former President Donald Trump.

Oil markets are closely watching the progress of talks to see whether restrictions on Iranian crude exports might be lifted, which could help to offset disruption to supplies from Russia's war in Ukraine//CNA

This handout photograph taken on Jul 29, 2021 and released by the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos on Jul 30, 2021, shows the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module "Nauka" (Science) being docked next to the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on the International Space Station (ISS). (Photo: Oleg NOVITSKY / Russian Space Agency Roscosmos / AFP) - 

Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station to crash, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos warned Saturday (Mar 12), calling for the punitive measures to be lifted.

According to Dmitry Rogozin, the sanctions, some of which predate Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS.

As a result, the Russian segment of the station - which helps correct its orbit - could be affected, causing the 500-tonne structure to "fall down into the sea or onto land", the Roscosmos chief wrote on Telegram.

"The Russian segment ensures that the station's orbit is corrected (on average 11 times a year), including to avoid space debris", said Rogozin, who regularly expresses his support for the Russian army in Ukraine on social networks.

Publishing a map of the locations where the ISS could possibly come down, he pointed out that it was unlikely to be in Russia.

"But the populations of other countries, especially those led by the 'dogs of war', should think about the price of the sanctions against Roscosmos", he continued, describing the countries who imposed sanctions as "crazy".

Rogozin similarly raised the threat of the space station falling to earth last month while blasting Western sanctions on Twitter.

On Mar 1, NASA said it was trying to find a solution to keep the ISS in orbit without Russia's help.

Crews and supplies are transported to the Russian segment by Soyuz spacecraft.

But Rogozin said the launcher used for take-off had been "under US sanctions since 2021 and under EU and Canadian sanctions since 2022".

Roscosmos said it had appealed to NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, "demanding the lifting of illegal sanctions against our companies".

Space is one of the last remaining areas where the United States and Russia continue to cooperate.

At the beginning of March, Roscosmos announced its intention to prioritise the construction of military satellites as Russia finds itself increasingly isolated as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Rogozin also announced that Moscow would no longer supply the engines for the US Atlas and Antares rockets.

"Let them soar into space on their broomsticks," he wrote.

On Mar 30, US astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, are scheduled to return to Earth from the ISS onboard a Soyuz spacecraft//CNA

A customer prepares to pump gasoline into his car at a Sam's Club fuel island in Gulfport, Mississippi, Feb 19, 2022. The Russia-Ukraine crisis is helping to raise oil and gasoline prices to high levels. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) - 

A US gasoline tax cut is among the options being considered to provide relief to consumers, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday (Mar 11), adding she was confident that the country's economy would perform well this year.

"We're looking at a range of things that we might do to relieve consumers. The gas tax is one of the things on the list," Yellen told reporters on Friday at a social services agency in Denver, Colorado.

However, she added that she had concerns that cutting the gasoline tax could cause benefits to flow to oil companies and not to consumers.

She also said that a tighter monetary policy to fight inflation could cause a recession, but added that the Federal Reserve should be able to balance its dual mandate for maximum employment and price stability.

"I have confidence in the Fed to get inflation under control without causing a recession. And I see a good strong economy that, even with inflation and the problems that the Russia Ukraine situation is causing, I believe the economy will do well this year."

Commenting on the US dollar's reserve currency status, which has enabled powerful sanctions against Russia, she said there was no serious competitor to the dollar.

"There really is no other currency that I think can rival it as its the reserve currency, and creates the ability to impose very strong sanctions", Yellen said, when asked if the dollar could lose some of its global clout due to efforts by Russia and China to find alternatives ways to do business.

"China has engaged in searches, Russia has as well, but it's really not come close to inventing any kind of substitute for the dollar," Yellen said//CNA

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi (second right) and officials showing multi-trip railway cards at Solobalapan Station, Surakarta, Central Java, on Saturday (March 12, 2022). ANTARA/Aris Wasita - 

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi made assurance that development of the commuter railway system will be continued to cater to the residents' increasing demand for proper mass public transportation services.

"In the upcoming five years, we plan to expand the commuter railway network from Madiun, East Java, to Kutoarjo, Central Java. The first phase of the Yogyakarta-Surakarta line will soon be expanded to Jebres Station in east Surakarta," Sumadi noted during the commuter train's special multi-trip card launch event in Surakarta's Solobalapan Station, Central Java on Saturday.

The Yogyakarta-Surakarta commuter line, in its first year of operation, had served 2.2 million passengers that boarded commuter trains, with a 30-minute headway, he stated.

"In Jakarta, the headway between trains is only five minutes, and we plan to make train journeys here more frequent and reduce the current 30-minute headway to only five minutes. This means a six-fold increase in capacity that will attract more residents to utilize the mass transportation," the minister remarked.

Sumadi urged the ministry's officials to coordinate regarding existing public transportation modes to support better integration between the commuter railway system and other modes of transportation.

"I remind the ministry and railway operator officials that railway is a major (means of) transportation for which coordination (with other transportation modes is deemed necessary). Akin to Surakarta, we will expand the railway network, including to Surakarta's Adi Soemarmo Airport, to enhance the reliability of mass transportation for residents now and in the future," he affirmed.

Sumadi emphasized that the ministry's Directorate General of Railways and railway operator PT KCI had persistently striven to comply with President Joko Widodo's instruction to improve and enhance the quality of railway services.

Meanwhile, President Director of PT KCI Roppiq Lutfi Azhar remarked that during the first year of operations of the Yogyakarta-Surakarta commuter rail, some 250 thousand multi-trip cards were distributed to passengers.

The high level of circulating multi-trip cards demonstrated the commuter passengers' increased trust in the cashless payment mode applied in the commuter railway system, he added//ANT