Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Ukraine warns of worsening security situation
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine says the security situation in rebel-held areas in the east has steadily worsened as separatist fighters move closer to demarcation lines separating them from government forces. National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Thursday that the Russian army is massing troops, including air defense...
NATO says Russian troops are in Ukraine
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — NATO’s top commander says new columns of Russian troops and tanks have rolled into eastern Ukraine, the claim promptly denied by Moscow. U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove said Wednesday that in the last two days “we have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense...
Russian bomber patrols to reach Gulf of Mexico
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s long-range bombers will range from the Arctic Ocean to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico on regular patrol missions, the military said Wednesday, a show of muscle reflecting tensions with the West over Ukraine. Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers were making regular patrols across the Atlantic and the Pacific...
NATO general: Russia beefing up bases in Crimea
NAPLES, Italy (AP) — NATO’s top commander says Russia is reinforcing its bases in disputed Crimea, but there is no clear assessment of whether that includes deployment of nuclear weapons. U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove said Tuesday that Russian forces “capable of being nuclear” are being moved to the Crimean Peninsula, but NATO...
Ukraine rebels: a disunited front run by warlords
Patches of Ukraine’s depressed industrial basin in the east — in the throes of a pro-Russian separatist insurgency — have fallen under the control of such warlords, who run towns as their personal fiefdoms. Capital punishment is a necessary deterrent to crime in unruly times, Kozitsyn told The Associated Press in an interview at his...
Amid strains, Obama puts bright face on China ties
On the sidelines of the economic summit, Obama also had a brief encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping who has been locked in conflict with Obama over his country’s actions in Ukraine. Key obstacles to completing the deal remain, including Japan’s objection to opening its markets...
In shift, Russia lets ruble float free in markets
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Central Bank on Monday scrapped its daily controls on the value of the ruble, allowing the battered currency to float freely in financial markets earlier than planned. The bank, which had planned to let the ruble trade freely starting next year, made the move as the currency has come under sustained pressure in the...
Families, friends mourn MH17 victims in Amsterdam
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Hundreds of grieving family members and friends of victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster are gathering in Amsterdam for a national commemoration ceremony nearly four months after the passenger jet was downed over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people on board. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Report: Russia-West military encounters rising
LONDON (AP) — A London-based think tank says Russian forces have been involved in dozens of close encounters with Western militaries since Moscow annexed Crimea — and that both sides risk losing control over events. A study by the European Leadership Network released Monday offers details on 40 incidents and says that they add up to a disturbing...
News of the Day From Across the Globe, Nov. 10
Israeli police went on heightened alert Sunday following protests across the country over the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Arab Israeli who appeared in video footage to be retreating from police. Video footage later emerged, apparently taken from a security camera, showing a man banging on the window of a police vehicle with an object in his...
