Section: The Japan Times (Japan)
Rights abuses fueled rise of Islamic militants: Human Rights Watch
Governments increasingly view human rights as “a luxury” they can ill afford, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, warning that abuses fuel crises in world trouble spots like Syria and Ukraine. Western powers, including the United States, are far from blameless and in some cases their wrongdoing has fed the very climate in which serial rights […]...
US warns Russia over Ukraine ‘escalation,’ welcomes new EU sanctions
The United States told Russia on Thursday that it is mulling fresh sanctions over the fighting in Ukraine and welcomed a move by the European Union to broaden existing measures imposed on Moscow. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the agreement by EU foreign ministers to expand existing European sanctions “is just a further sign […] The...
More than 1,000 children living rough in Donetsk
About 1,100 children are living rough in underground shelters in Ukraine’s rebel-held eastern city of Donetsk, the U.N. children’s agency said Tuesday. “We were able to assess 12 bomb shelters where there are adults and parents with the children,” UNICEF’s representative in Ukraine Giovanna Barberis said. “They are not going...
Rocket attack in Ukraine ‘targeted civilians’: U.N.
The U.N. said Monday that a rocket attack that killed 30 people in a city in eastern Ukraine deliberately targeted civilians, as Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned Western calls to rein in a pro-Moscow insurgency. A senior U.N. official told an emergency Security Council meeting that the deadly rocket barrage on the port city of […] The...
Miss Colombia crowned Miss Universe; Miss USA runner-up
Miss Colombia Paulina Vega has been crowned Miss Universe, beating out contestants from 87 other countries. Miss USA Nia Sanchez and Miss Ukraine Diana Harkusha were the runners-up during Sunday’s competition. Miss Jamaica Kaci Fennell and Miss Netherlands Yasmin Verheijen were also among the top five. Vega said the contests leading to Miss...
Ukraine: Phone calls prove rebels attacked city, killed 30
Intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russian-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded Ukraine’s southeastern city of Mariupol and killed at least 30 people, President Petro Poroshenko said Sunday during an emergency meeting of his Security Council. U.S. President Barack Obama also put the...
Pro-Russian rebels attack key Ukrainian port; at least 30 reported dead
Pro-Russian rebels launched an offensive against the strategic port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, prompting the European Union’s foreign policy chief to warn of a further “grave deterioration” in EU-Russian relations. Mariupol’s city administration said the rebels had killed at least 30 people and injured 83 others by...
Dutch to collect more remains from MH17 crash site in Ukraine
A Dutch team is to return to the MH17 crash site in war-torn Ukraine to collect more remains of the 298 people killed when the Malaysia Airlines Boeing was downed in July, officials said Friday. “A small team including defense ministry employees will return to Kharkiv in Ukraine at the end of next week,” the […] The post Dutch to collect more...
Signs emerge of major Ukraine rebel offensive looming
Signs emerged Friday of a major rebel offensive looming in eastern Ukraine, which has seen a surge in fighting and deadly attacks despite diplomatic efforts to craft a lasting peace deal. One separatist leader said his pro-Russian rebels have launched a multipronged offensive and won’t join further peace talks — but left unclear whether...
Putin said to shrink inner circle as Ukraine hawks trump tycoons
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t just angering leaders from Berlin to Washington. He’s irking some of his richest friends, too, by snubbing their pleas to end the conflict in Ukraine and ostracizing all but a handful of hard-liners. The ruble’s plunge has heightened opposition to Putin’s backing of the rebellion in...
