Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Polish prime minster: No risk of EU sanctions against Poland
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister said Thursday she doesn’t believe the European Union will impose sanctions on the country over its new laws that have been criticized as running counter to the bloc’s principle of the rule of law. In December, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, which took power in November...
Avalanche in French Alps hits high school ski group, kills 3
PARIS (AP) — An avalanche in the French Alps struck a high school ski group Wednesday afternoon, killing at least three people, according to French officials. French authorities in the Alps region confirmed that two high school students and a Ukrainian skier died in the accident, which took place on a ski trail that had been closed amid avalanche...
Negotiators vow to enforce cease-fire in eastern Ukraine
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Representatives of Russia and Ukraine have pledged to make a new effort to enforce a shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and exchange prisoners. A peace agreement last February has helped reduce fighting, but skirmishes have continued and there has been little progress in bringing about a political settlement. …read...
The Latest: Avalanche in French Alps leaves at least 1 dead
French authorities say an avalanche in the Alps has killed two French high school students and an Ukrainian skier in the Deux Alps ski resort. A French police official says that an avalanche that struck a school group skiing in the Alps has killed at least one person and left three gravely injured. An avalanche has struck a school group in the...
Lithuania marks 25th anniversary of Soviet crackdown
Hundreds of people gathered in Vilnius in freezing temperatures to honor the 14 people killed when Soviet troops and tanks moved into a crowd of protesters outside a TV tower on Jan. 13, 1991. President Dalia Grybauskaite drew parallels between those events and Ukraine’s conflict with Moscow, saying “we feel a bond of unity with the...
Orthodox faithful mark Christmas with services, celebration
Some Orthodox churches follow the liturgical calendar observed by the Roman catholic and Protestant churches and celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25. In his Christmas greetings to the nation, Putin said: It is very important in these days that the Russian Orthodox Church and other Christian confessions in Russia continue the traditions of responsible...
The Latest: Ukraine says no one speaks out against sanctions
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador says no member of the U.N. security Council spoke out against imposing new sanctions against North Korea during the council’s closed-door emergency meeting on Pyongyang’s announced nuclear test. A statement issued by the council after emergency closed-door consultations on Wednesday called the test...
News of the day from across the globe, Jan. 3
Thousands of people attended funerals Saturday in the West Bank for Palestinians killed in violence over the past few months. The burials came a day after Israel transferred 23 bodies of Palestinians it says were involved in the current wave of attacks. In October, Israel began withholding the bodies of suspected attackers as a tactic to crack...
For Ukraine’s rebel east, 2016 promises more tension
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — The holiday market in the central square of Donetsk, the principal city of rebel-held eastern Ukraine, has all the trappings of a celebratory time — shiny ornaments, colorful toys and a cartoon-faced kiddie train on a meandering track. The Ukrainian government has halted payment of pensions and social stipends to the...
Crimeans enter 2016 struggling, but optimistic
Sevastopol and the rest of Crimea are slowly recovering from a blackout that hit the Russia-annexed peninsula in late November when unidentified attackers blew up pylons of the lines from mainland Ukraine that supplied nearly all its electricity. The blackout underscored how dependent Crimea remained on Ukraine even after Russia claimed control...
