ST. PETERSBURG / AP EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned Russia on Thursday that the 28-nation bloc will only lift its sanctions if the Kremlin fully implements a Ukraine peace deal. “The next step is clear, full implementation of the agreement—no more, no less,” Juncker told Russia’s main economic forum in Saint Petersburg ahead of a meeting with President …

  Seoul / AFP South Korea said on Thursday it would resume salvage operations on the Sewol ferry next week, but underlined the enormous challenges posed by raising the vessel that sank in 2014 with massive loss of life. The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it went down off the southwestern island of Jindo, leaving 304—mostly school children—dead in …

  Seoul / AFP South Korea on Thursday kicked off a live-fire naval exercise near its disputed sea border with North Korea — a move likely to fan already elevated military tensions with Pyongyang. The three-day exercise in the Yellow Sea is aimed at practising responses to simulated incursions by North Korean vessels and aircraft, the South’s navy said in …