Arms treaty talks

MOSCOW: Russia and the US will resume stalled talks on a replacement nuclear arms reduction treaty in early February, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. Military officials are holding talks in Moscow to clarify differences over verification and missile defence, Lavrov said. A new agreement would succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expired on December 5. The two countries had hoped to reach a deal before the end of the year, but problems persisted.

Ship stranded

MOSCOW: A Russian emergency official says a cargo ship with a 30-strong crew has iced over and is stranded in the Sea of Okhotsk with the risk of sinking. An emergency spokesman on Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin Island says the captain of the Smolninsky refrigerated cargo vessel sent a distress signal early on Friday.

Jet crashes

YANGON: A Myanmar Air Force fighter plane has crashed while attempting to land in Yangon, killing its pilot. An official at Yangon International Airport said the Chinese-made jet crashed on Friday morning near the airport while on a training flight. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.