Section: US & Canada
Poroshenko to make repeat bid for U.N. peacekeepers in Donbas
KYIV – Historically, Ukraine has been in the top tier of contributors to United Nations peacekeeping missions in conflict zones worldwide. Now, one of the intergovernmental body’s truce contingents might land in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has waged an unprovoked war since April 2014, a month after it illegally annexed the Ukrainian...
Saakashvili returns to Ukraine
Police serve him with notice on breaching border LVIV – Ukrainian border-control authorities have formally read out a document to Mikheil Saakashvili on what officials said was his illegal entry into Ukraine on September 10. The ex-Georgian president and former governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region was served the notice on September 12 in...
Ukrainian World Congress celebrates its 50th anniversary in Kyiv
KYIV – The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) held its 50th anniversary commemoration at the Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv on August 26. Joining the UWC leadership and representatives of its international network were Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and First Lady Maryna Poroshenko; Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Patriarch Filaret of...
Russia’s Kerch Strait bridge: New threat to regional stability
After illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia declared it would build a 12-mile-long road-and-rail bridge across the Kerch Strait, connecting mainland Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula. And last year (2016), with construction under way, Moscow officials promised that the building of this massive bridge would “in no way limit [maritime]...
North Korea’s Bitcoin and Kenya’s New Railway: The Week in Global-Affairs Writing
North Korea Is Dodging Sanctions With a Secret Bitcoin Stash Yuji Nakamura and Sam Kim | Bloomberg “North Korea appears to be stepping up efforts to secure bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which could be used to avoid trade restrictions including new sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council.Hackers from Kim Jong Un’s...
North Korea’s Bitcoin and Kenya’s New Railway: The Week in Global-Affairs Writing
North Korea Is Dodging Sanctions With a Secret Bitcoin Stash Yuji Nakamura and Sam Kim | Bloomberg “North Korea appears to be stepping up efforts to secure bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which could be used to avoid trade restrictions including new sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council.Hackers from Kim Jong Un’s...
In Ukraine, Children’s Book Featuring Lesbian Parents Met With Threats, Fears Of Violence
A children’s book featuring a story about a girl and her two mothers struck a nerve among some Ukrainians, leading its presentation at a Kyiv book fair to be canceled over fears of violence. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
EU Renews Russia Sanctions, Keeps Ban On New U.S. Envoy Antonov
The European Union has prolonged its asset freezes and travel bans on Russian officials and Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine for another six months, with Russia’s new ambassador to the United States likely to remain on the list, diplomats said. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
Russian-Israeli Blogger Leaves Azerbaijan After Presidential Pardon
A Russian-Israeli blogger who was jailed in Baku for traveling to Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region has left Baku on a flight to Israeli, three days after receiving a pardon from President Ilham Aliyev. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
How I Believe Facebook Was Censoring My Political Speech
In the Summer of 2007 I traveled to China to speak at a conference concerning security preparations for the Olympic Games, which were to be held in Beijing the following year. While transiting Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport I noticed something odd. The internet sites that I checked every day would not open, to include The American...
