Section: US & Canada
Russian rabbi slams demand that Jews condemn Ukrainian oligarch
(JTA) — A senior Russian rabbi accused the country’s communist party of “vulgar and primitive anti-Semitism” after it demanded Russian Jews condemn a Ukrainian Jewish oligarch. The condemnation Wednesday by Rabbi Boruch Gorin, an advisor to Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar and Lazar’s spokesperson, followed a letter that two communist...
NATO says Russian military equipment entering east Ukraine
Sofia (AFP) – NATO has observed columns of Russian military equipment including tanks, artillery and combat troops entering eastern Ukraine in the past two days, the military alliance’s supreme allied commander said Wednesday.”Across the last two days we have seen the same thing that OSCE is reporting. We have seen columns of...
Profile: Simon Panek – From Student Protests To War Zones
It’s 25 years since Czechs overthrew their communist regime, but the country is still in transition, says former student leader Simon Panek. He was just 21 when he joined Vaclav Havel’s team negotiating the transfer of power from the Communists. Shortly after the revolution, Panek set up People In Need, a charity providing...
East-West Divisions Highlight Germany’s Patchwork Economy
The bells of Dresden’s Kreuzkirche were gutted by fire in World War II and were slowly rebuilt over the following decades, like much of the rest of the city. Dresden is now seen as the perfect example of successful German reunification. Since 1990, state support and investment have helped it blossom into a booming city of industry and...
Heavy artillery fire around Ukraine rebel city Donetsk
Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) – Heavy artillery fire on Wednesday rocked east Ukraine’s main rebel bastion of Donetsk in the fiercest fighting around the city in days, an AFP journalist said.The explosion of outgoing mortars being fired from near the centre towards government positions around the ruined airport could be heard from early in...
Moscow Sends More Convoys Into Ukraine as Ceasfire Collapses
Russian officials announced on Wednesday plans to send a seventh convoy across the border into Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region, amid widespread accusations that the Kremlin is sending arms to separatist forces instead of aid to civilians. The announcement follows reports from the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) that 43...
Economic headwinds threaten G20 growth pledge
Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) – G20 leaders will this weekend pledge to rev up combined growth by two trillion dollars but analysts are sceptical of success with key pistons of the global economic engine such as Germany and China starting to misfire, and Japan again at risk of going into reverse.With Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping and...
Ukraine violence flares as ceasefire collapses
Gunfire crackles and flames scar battlefields in eastern Ukraine — signs, officials warn, of a crumbling ceasefire in the volatile region. …read more Source:...
Ukraine Rebels: A Disunited Front Run by Warlords
PEREVALSK, Ukraine—They don’t call Nikolai Kozitsyn “Daddy” for nothing. In this rebel-held eastern Ukrainian town, the mustachioed Cossack lords it over the locals and pays little heed to the bosses of the breakaway movement. Patches of Ukraine’s depressed industrial basin in the east — in the throes of a pro-Russian separatist...
Dutch Investigators Collect Remains at MH17 Crash Site
Dutch investigators are back in eastern Ukraine, where nine victims of the MH17 disaster remain missing. The Malaysia Airlines plane was brought down in July, killing all 298 passengers and crew — two-thirds of whom were Dutch nationals. Signs on the crash site grounds read “Entry prohibited. Remains of victims of MH17 crash might be...
