Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Ukraine: cutting graft top priority to reach new bailout
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Ukraine will focus on fixing its huge problem of corruption as it tries to convince its international rescue creditors to give it more loans, a government official said Saturday. The government will also try to make the judicial system more open, streamline the civil service and overhaul law enforcement, he said on the...
10 reported killed in rocket fire on Mariupol in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say the strategically important coastal city of Mariupol has come under rocket fire, and one says 10 people were killed. Heavy fighting in the region in the autumn raised fears that Russian-backed separatist forces would try to establish a land link between Russia and Crimea. …read more Source: San...
Pro-Russian rebels reject peace deal, launch offensive
DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine rejected a previously signed peace deal Friday and announced a new multipronged offensive against Ukrainian government troops. Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said rebel fighters launched the offensive to gain more territory and forestall a Ukrainian attack. The U.N. human rights...
Top official: Russians will ‘eat less’ for Putin
Russia has for the past year been sliding into recession amid a slump in its energy export prices as well as Western sanctions against Moscow’s role in the conflict in Ukraine that has claimed more than 5,000 lives. Shuvalov’s comments triggered pithy remarks on Russia social media including an opposition activist who posted photos of...
Ukraine rebels say 24 fighters killed by rockets at airport
Rebel defense spokesman Eduard Basurin said the terminal was targeted by Ukrainian government forces Friday with Uragan multiple rocket launchers. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Ukraine bus attack kills 13, dashes peace hopes for east
SOKILNYKY, Ukraine (AP) — Hours after a new peace initiative for Ukraine began taking shape, mortar shells rained down Thursday on the center of the main rebel-held city in the east, killing at least 13 people at a bus stop. The deaths in Donetsk sparked wrath and grief that was swiftly exploited by pro-Russian rebel leaders, who paraded captive...
NATO: Fighting in eastern Ukraine fiercer than ever
BRUSSELS (AP) — Fighting in eastern Ukraine is fiercer than ever in some locations, NATO’s top commander in Europe said Thursday — adding that the weapons systems seen now in the region have in the past heralded a fresh incursion by Russian troops. What’s more, said Breedlove, NATO intelligence has begun to detect “the...
Russia accuses Poles of ‘mockery of history’ over Auschwitz
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russia has accused Poland of engaging in a “mockery of history” after the Polish foreign minister credited Ukrainian soldiers, rather than the Soviet Red Army, with liberating Auschwitz 70 years ago. The situation is particularly awkward since Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945, and some of...
News of the day from across the globe, Jan. 22
Mystery in the gunshot death of a prosecutor who had accused Argentina President Cristina Ferandez of covering up a terror attack deepened Wednesday with the revelation that a door to his apartment barely locked and the discovery of another previously unknown entry. The locksmith who opened the back door to give investigators access to the home...
Ukraine president points to Russian hand in conflict
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he appealed for political and financial support, President Petro Poroshenko held up a piece of a bullet-riddled bus as evidence of shelling last week by heavy artillery in “occupied” parts of Ukraine. Ukraine’s intelligence has confirmed from independent sources that there are...
