Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
OSCE mission comes under fire in eastern Ukraine
MOSCOW (AP) — A team of international observers monitoring the shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine says it came under fire while inspecting a village. Eduard Basurin, a top official for the Russia-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, was quoted by rebel news site DAN as saying the shots apparently came from government forces. …read...
Ousted Russian Orthodox Church cleric assails Russian elites
MOSCOW (AP) — A conservative priest who lost his high-level job at the Russian Orthodox Church assailed Russia’s “immoral elites” Friday and predicted a national catastrophe if the country fails to allow free public discussion. Speaking to RBC news portal, Chaplin said that his view that the Russian government and the Russian...
European Union extends sanctions against Russia
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Monday extended sanctions against Russia for six months, achieving unity among 28 member nations despite rising divisions over how long to press a major trading partner on its annexation of Crimea and fueling of a separatist war in Ukraine. The decision to extend the sanctions comes at the end of a difficult year...
Kerry calls for common ground with Russia on Syria, Ukraine
MOSCOW (AP) — The United States and Russia need to find common ground to end Syria’s civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday, as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to narrow gaps in the countries’ approaches to the crises. Russia and the U.S. are at odds over...
Kerry in Moscow for talks on Syria, Ukraine
MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened talks in Moscow on Tuesday with Russia’s foreign minister to try to narrow broad gaps on ways to end Syria’s civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine. Russia and the U.S. are at odds over the mechanics of a political transition aimed at halting the war in Syria as well...
The Latest: Kerry, Lavrov meet with Syria on agenda
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has opened talks in Moscow with Russia’s foreign minister to try to narrow broad gaps on ways to end Syria’s civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine. Russia and the U.S. are at odds over the mechanics of a political transition aimed at halting the war in Syria as well as the military...
International observers: Eastern Ukraine fighting continues
More than 9,000 people have been killed in fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government troops which has been raging since April 2014, according to the U.N. Alexander Hug, OSCE deputy chief monitor in Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday fighting in eastern Ukraine continues despite the September cease-fire deal that also included...
AP EXPLAINS: The rise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Merkel, 61, is the European Union’s longest-serving head of government and has been a serial winner of Forbes magazine’s title of world’s most powerful woman. Merkel helped negotiate the Kyoto accord to curb greenhouse gas emissions as environment minister in the 1990s. In the crisis over Ukraine, she has stuck doggedly to...
Belarus enjoys boost from selling Russians forbidden fruit
Following a rash of Russian bans on foreign products and services, Belarus is specializing in selling Russians a way round their own government’s restrictions. Since the start of 2014, Russia has embraced sanctions as a foreign policy tool, banning food imports from the European Union and United States over the Ukraine crisis, and now also...
UN: 9,000 killed in Ukraine conflict, but now violence eases
The office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said a “cease-fire within a cease-fire” agreed in late August, and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from front lines, has calmed violence between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. …read more Source: San Francisco...
