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Quinn to present Hillary Clinton with state honor

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 4:25 PM

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Quinn to present Hillary Clinton with state honor

Gov. Pat Quinn will present Hillary Rodham Clinton with an Order of Lincoln medallion, the state's highest honor.

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Associated Press 2:12 p.m. CDT May 3, 2014

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a press conference in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room at the State Department in Washington, DC on April 12, 2012, following the conclusion of the G8 Ministerial meeting. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)(Photo: SAUL LOEB AFP/Getty Images)

CHICAGO (AP) - Gov. Pat Quinn will present Hillary Rodham Clinton with an Order of Lincoln medallion, the state's highest honor.

Clinton, who was born in Chicago and grew up in the northwest suburb of Park Ridge, is one of several people receiving the award Saturday. Others include Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, a Chicago native.

The awards are given out each year to those who have "brought honor to their state with their achievements."

In a statement released before the evening ceremony in Chicago, Quinn said that Clinton "has personified the best of Illinois and the United States" through her decades of service as first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

In particular, he mentioned her work championing human rights, democracy, civil society and opportunity for women.

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Can Obama's 'Year of Action' revive his presidency?

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 4:24 PM

Christian Science Monitor | USA

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Touting his “Year of Action,” President Obama is doing everything he can to show that he’s not a lame duck with sorry poll numbers, rendered ineffective by a Congress that may well turn even more Republican in this year’s elections – all of which is more or less the case these days.

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In his radio/Internet address Saturday, Obama ticked off examples of the “more than 20” executive actions he’s taken this year to improve Americans’ economic circumstances:

“I acted to raise more workers’ wages by requiring that workers on new federal contracts earn a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour ….  I acted to encourage more pay transparency and strengthen enforcement of equal pay laws, so that more women have the tools they need to earn fair pay…. I’ve launched new hubs to help attract more high-tech manufacturing jobs to America – and ordered a reform of job training programs to make sure more Americans can earn the skills that employers need right now.  I’ve brought together business leaders to help us connect more classrooms to high-speed internet, and give more of the long-term unemployed a better shot at finding a job.”

As Friday’s jobs figures show, it’s those long-term unemployed who remain a persistent problem, undercutting an unemployment rate that’s inched down to 6.3 percent, the lowest it’s been since September 2008, before Obama took office.

As the Monitor’s Mark Trumbull points out, “The decline in unemployment stemmed from adults leaving the workforce rather than finding new jobs.”

A  Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll conducted 4/26-5/1 shows – at best – mediocre results for Obama. (Sample size was 850 adults with a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.)

On “presidential leadership,” Obama gets a favorable/unfavorable rating of 43-50 percent. Female, younger, and Black/Hispanic voters are more inclined to view Obama favorably with older, white men less so.

On how well Obama is doing his job as president, the approve/disapprove split is 42-49 percent.

On jobs, budget, and the economy, just 38 percent say Obama’s performance has been “excellent” or “good.” Asked if they think the economy is improving or not improving, respondents are evenly divided.

Other recent polls are similarly discouraging for the White House, including a Washington Post/ABC News poll this week.

“Obama’s approval rating fell to 41 percent, down from 46 percent through the first three months of the year and the lowest of his presidency in Post-ABC News polls,” the Washington Post reported. “Just 42 percent approve of his handling of the economy, 37 percent approve of how he is handling the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and 34 percent approve of his handling of the situation involving Ukraine and Russia.”

Understandably, Obama in his Saturday address takes a whack at Congress: “So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked or voted down every serious idea to create jobs and strengthen the middle class. They’ve said ‘no’ to raising the minimum wage, ‘no’ to equal pay for equal work, and ‘no’ to restoring the unemployment insurance they let expire for more than two million Americans looking for a new job.”

“We could do a lot more if Republicans in Congress were less interested in stacking the deck in favor of those at the top, and more interested in growing the economy for everybody,” Obama said. “They’ve now voted more than 50 times to take apart the Affordable Care Act – imagine if they voted 50 times on serious jobs bills.”

If anything, the relationship between Obama and Congress – especially the Republican-led House – is deteriorating, particularly over the Benghazi affair with Republicans charging that the White House white-washed, if not covered up, it’s response to the killing of the US ambassador and other Americans during an attack on US facilities in Libya.

On Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R) of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena intended to force Secretary of State John Kerry to testify before the panel on Benghazi.

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner says he'll establish a special committee to investigate the Benghazi attack.

In such an atmosphere, Obama’s only recourse to advancing his agenda may be his “Year of Action” executive orders.

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Kerry to Russia: Stop Supporting Ukraine Separatists

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 3:25 PM

Voice Of America

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is calling the release of European monitors taken captive by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine a positive step, but says more is needed to de-escalate the situation.
Speaking Saturday in Kinshasa -- the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo -- Kerry said it is important that Russia withdraw support for the separatists, who have seized a number of government buildings in eastern Ukraine.
Kerry made his comments after speaking by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The Russian foreign ministry says Lavrov told Kerry Saturday the U.S. should use its influence to make Ukraine's government stop its military operations in the country's southeast.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the freeing of the seven observers with the OSCE -- the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The monitors were freed Saturday, along with their five Ukrainian assistants. In a statement, Mr. Ban's spokesman said the U.N. chief expresses his appreciation to all who helped facilitate the release, including Russia.
According to news organizations, an insurgent leader said he ordered the release because of increasing insecurity in the city.
The separatists had seized the group in the flashpoint town of Slovyansk more than a week ago, claiming some members were spies.
The team had been acting under the authority of a four-party agreement directing the Vienna-based OSCE to monitor security and human rights in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east and south.
Pro-Russian gunmen have seized control of a number of key facilities in eastern Ukraine. They have declared a May 11 referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
In another development Saturday, the interim government declared at least two days of mourning in the port city of Odessa where clashes Friday between pro-Russian separatists and supporters of the central government in Kyiv resulted in at least 42 deaths.
Most of the people died in a building fire that broke out during the fighting. Odessa, a key Black Sea port, had escaped most violence gripping large parts of eastern Ukraine.
U.N. chief Ban was said to be "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives" and called for "swift and conclusive investigations" into the incident.
In Moscow, a spokesman for Russian President Putin called a Ukrainian offensive under way in Slovyansk "a criminal act." He also said it had "effectively destroyed the last hope" for implementing an April 17 international accord aimed at defusing the crisis.
Mr. Putin on Thursday demanded that Ukraine withdraw all military personnel from the troubled region near the Russian border.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama -- speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- said that if Russia's leadership continues to destabilize eastern Ukraine, the U.S. and European Union will move quickly to impose additional penalties, including both diplomatic and economic sanctions.

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Ukraine Presses Rebels as Events Spiral in East

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 3:24 PM

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KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s security forces pressed their assault on pro-Russia militants in and around the separatist stronghold of Slovyansk on Saturday, even as the rebels freed seven European military observers and the Kremlin cited the deaths of dozens of people in Odessa as proof that Ukraine could no longer protect its citizens.

The Ukrainian troops built on recent advances into Slovyansk’s outskirts, entering the nearby town of Kramatorsk, where the Interior Ministry said they had recaptured the main state security building.

But even with that reported success after earlier military setbacks, the violence in Odessa on Friday was a measure of how far events have spiraled out of the authorities’ control, and added to the pressure from Russia. Odessa’s population includes many Russian speakers sympathetic to Moscow, but it is far west of the restive eastern region where most fighting has occurred.

An official in Odessa said 46 people had died in street battles between pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine groups, and in a fire in a building held by pro-Russia militants. If confirmed, the death toll would be the highest since the struggles in February between pro-Europe demonstrators and the pro-Russia government of ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Until Friday, Odessa, a Black Sea port in southern Ukraine, had been mostly calm. But as the battles raged, the police were apparently unable or unwilling to restore order.

Near the end of the day, the pro-Russia militants had retreated to the local House of Trade Unions, which was then set on fire as the two sides continued to battle. Amid the lobbing of firebombs, it was impossible to know who had started the blaze. Most victims were apparently overcome by smoke or burned, but eight were said to have died leaping from the flames. The Odessa authorities said 214 people had been injured in the various events, including 88 who were hospitalized. Three days of mourning were declared.

The official death toll came from the regional prosecutor, Ihor Borshulyak, who spoke to reporters on Saturday, the Interfax news agency said. He also announced that 144 people had been arrested and that one of several inquiries would look into whether the police had failed to execute their duties. The local police chief, appointed in March with a view to ending corruption and mismanagement, appealed for calm in Odessa, a city of some one million people, but was fired shortly afterward by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, said Russia would no longer be able to tell the hundreds of ethnic Russians who he said were calling for help not to take up arms. “The authorities in Kiev are not only directly responsible, they are direct accomplices in these criminal actions,” Mr. Peskov said. “Their hands are full of blood.”

He added that Russia had “lost its influence on those people, because it would be impossible to persuade them to disarm amid a direct threat to their lives.”

Mr. Peskov also said Russia regretted that the United States and the European Union had endorsed Ukraine’s military operations in the southeast, saying they, too, bore responsibility for fueling violence.

Russian state-run television maintained a belligerent tone on Saturday when reporting about events in Ukraine, with leading politicians and commentators saying repeatedly that war crimes were being committed and that victims there needed protection. The Rossiya 24 satellite channel turned its onscreen titles to black and gray in mourning for the people in Odessa.

But despite that steady public drumbeat and the vigor of Mr. Peskov’s statements, analysts said the Kremlin did not seem poised to intervene militarily at this point.

A day after two Ukrainian helicopters were reported to have been shot down as the government moved to retake positions in and around Slovyansk, the Ukrainian authorities said the operation was continuing in Kramatorsk. “We are not stopping,” Mr. Avakov said Saturday on his Facebook page.

In the one diplomatic success of the day, the European military observers — four Germans, a Czech, a Dane and a Pole — were freed. That followed the arrival of a Kremlin envoy, Vladimir P. Lukin, in Donetsk, the regional center south of Slovyansk.

Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said in a phone interview from the checkpoint outside Slovyansk where he met the German-led team that Mr. Lukin, a friend, had secured the observers’ release. Mr. Jagland said they and Mr. Lukin had encountered fighting en route to the checkpoint, delaying their arrival.

The team had been detained April 25 while working, at the Ukrainian military’s invitation, to assess security conditions in eastern Ukraine. The mission was part of a process approved by the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to which Russia, Ukraine and the United States belong. One observer, a Swede with diabetes, was released last weekend, but the others were paraded before reporters in a spectacle that the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called “disgusting.”

Germany is seen as a central player in trying to resolve the crisis, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who values relations with Germany, had spoken of the need to release the observers. The degree to which the Kremlin holds sway over the militants in Slovyansk is not clear, but it clearly took Russian intervention to get the observers freed.

A spokeswoman for the self-declared authorities in Slovyansk would not comment on whether the militants still saw the observers as NATO spies, on what led to the resolution or on whether prisoners held by Ukraine’s government had been freed in exchange.

As the reports from Ukraine dominated the news in Russia, Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said he believed that Mr. Putin was extremely aware of the high costs in terms of Russian lives and treasure if he were to fight a full-scale war to take control of economically troubled Ukraine.

“He is much more likely to wait rather than jump the gun to intervene,” Mr. Trenin said. In pressuring Ukraine to put off the presidential election scheduled for May 25, as Mr. Peskov did on Saturday, the Kremlin may be aiming to wait for the West to grow weary of the Ukrainian problem. Then, in a few months, Russia could use its influence to shape a government more to its liking, he said.

But there is always a chance that the violence will reach a point where Russia feels it must do something. “It can all easily escalate without any decisions from the Russian government,” said Sergei A. Karaganov, dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs in Moscow and an occasional Kremlin consultant.

Correction: May 3, 2014 
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified the location of a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine. It is Kramatorsk, not Donetsk.

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Ukraine crisis: death by fire in Odessa as country suffers bloodiest day since the revolution

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 3:10 PM

Ukraine Crisis - Latest News And Developments From Ukraine And Crimea

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The chain of events that led up to the tragedy on Friday night is already a matter not only of debate, but of partisan loyalty.

What can be said with certainty is that trouble began ahead of a football match between the home side, Chornomorets Odessa, and the visitors, Metalist Kharkiv.

 Fireman extinguish the fire inside the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine (Barcroft Media)

Ukraine’s football ultras were strongly in favour of the revolution in the “Maidan” - as Independence Square in the heart of Kiev is universally known - which brought down Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian regime in February. The two rival sets of supporters arranged to join a march for Ukrainian unity organised to take place ahead of Friday's match.

The crowd, which included ordinary members of the public as well as members of the “Maidan Self Defence forces” and at least some members of Pravy Sektor, a hardline nationalist group, began to gather at around 2pm in Cathedral Square.

Before they reached the stadium, however, witnesses said the march was attacked by men who appeared to be pro-Russian activists, sporting the black and orange ribbon of St George.

The assault by the pro-Russians appears to have been planned. Witnesses and video footage show the attackers were well equipped for a street fight, with shields, helmets, sticks and body armour.

But so, too, were the marchers. Once the clash started, casualties were almost inevitable.

Dr Andrei Vegerzhinsky, the chief doctor of Odessa’s Hospital No. 1, soon knew that he was in for a long day. “The way we work, is that I always have a phone on so I can be alerted if a major incident happens. I got that call about 3pm” he remembered.

”The stream of casualties began about 4pm and it continued until 1am,” added Dr Vegerzhinsky. “In principle, we’re ready to deal with lots of casualties - we’re prepared for earthquakes, bus crashes, you name it - but we weren’t ready for this.”

Both sides were fighting with bricks, improvised clubs, petrol bombs and firearms, although it is not yet clear whether they were loaded with live rounds or rubber bullets.

 Flames destroy Odessa's House of Trade Unions (Barcroft Media)

The surgeons at Hospital No. 1, who treated 90 people, said they saw multiple gunshot wounds, certainly including those inflicted by rubber ammunition. But they could not say whether they had seen the aftermath of live bullets.

At 6.40pm, an ambulance delivered a patient with a gunshot wound that had severed an artery. The victim died of blood loss on the operating table 20 minutes later.

Oleg Konstantinov, the editor in chief of a local news website, arrived in hospital with his own wounds shortly afterwards. He had witnessed what he called “a real street battle.”

Amid the chaos, the pro-Maidan group stole a fire engine and used it to ram aside some barricades built by their opponents to obstruct their march.

By the time Mr Konstantinov came to the scene, he believes that at least one person had already died. The fighting had spread from the sidestreets to coalesce in Gretska street, a main thoroughfare in central Odessa.

He was one of few witnesses to credit the police with actually trying to do something.

At one point, the police attempted to form a cordon to separate the two sides. “And at that point shooting started. I saw at least three, maybe four, policemen fall in front of my eyes,” said Mr Konstantinov.

Before long, he was himself was in hospital - struck in the forearm, leg and back between 5pm and 6pm. “I thought it was a bullet, but the doctor said today it is probably shrapnel,” he said, motioning to his forearm. His leg and back wounds, he suspects, were caused by rounds from a “traumatic pistol.”

Mr Konstantinov, who expects to be out of hospital in two days, is lucky. Of the 90 people who arrived at Hospital No. 1 - one of four that took in casualties that night - 23 are still being treated. Of these, nine have bullet wounds - and four are in a serious condition.

They include a police captain, who has serious injuries to his liver and kidneys, and one man whose lung was punctured.

The battle lasted into the evening, when a group of pro-Russians, heavily outnumbered, managed to break away. Some witnesses say they melted through the police lines without being stopped.

At this point, an enraged crowd decided to march on the House of Trade Unions, located beside a park where pro-Russians had set up a small protest camp some weeks ago.

”They decided to clear them out. They were angry after what had happened on the streets,” said Alexandra, a local resident who was among the crowd that day.

The pro-Maidan football fans and self-defence units quickly destroyed the camp, setting fire to the tents. The pro-Russians tried to make a last stand on the steps of the House of Trade Unions, throwing up barricades around the great stone pillars in front of the doors. Finally, they were forced to retreat inside.

We will probably never know whose petrol bomb began the fire that eventually spread throughout the building, but this inferno ended up killing 32 people.

Witnesses sympathetic to the pro-Maidan movement point out that video footage appears to show the fire beginning on the third floor, behind an intact window - and out of reach of the petrol bombs thrown by the crowd outside. Maybe, they say, a pro-Russian dropped a petrol bomb by accident.

This is a possible explanation. But there is also no doubt that petrol bombs were being hurled in both directions. Only a full investigation might discover where exactly the fire started. Even then, it will probably never be clear whether the carnage was pre-meditated or accidental.

Once the blaze took hold, Alexandra said that the pro-Maidan crowd tried to rescue the pro-Russians inside. “Some of the self-defence got hold of some scaffolding and used it to get access to the second floor window, where they got people out from,” she said.

As people tried to escape from the burning building, however, some were set upon by pro-Maidan demonstrators. Others in the march formed a protective corridor to provide safe passage for the pro-Russian escapers to reach police vehicles.

But many of the friends and relatives of the dead are convinced that extreme elements in the crowd had murder on their minds from the beginning. “Those Nazis set themselves the task of herding people into this building and killing them,” said one man, who asked not to be named. “They were peaceful protesters here. We have been here for months in these tents.”

Moris Ibrahimov said: “The people who lived in the tents went into the building simply to avoid bloodshed. But those fascists had the task of killing the people who were here.”

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Merkel Signals That Tension Persists Over U.S. Spying

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 3:05 PM

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WASHINGTON — President Obama tried to mend fences with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Friday, calling her “one of my closest friends on the world stage.” But Ms. Merkel replied tartly that Germany still had significant differences with the United States over surveillance practices and that it was too soon to return to “business as usual.”

The cordial but slightly strained encounter, which played out as the two leaders stood next to each other at a Rose Garden news conference, attested to the lingering scars left by the sensational disclosure last October that the National Security Agency had eavesdropped on Ms. Merkel’s phone calls.

It came as the two leaders sought to project a unified front against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, threatening President Vladimir V. Putin with sweeping new sanctions if Russia disrupted elections in Ukraine later this month, even as they acknowledged that not all European countries were ready to sign on to the most punishing measures.

Ms. Merkel, who last fall declared that “spying between friends is simply unacceptable” and that the United States had opened a breach of trust that would have to be repaired, said at the news conference that “we have a few difficulties yet to overcome.” One remaining issue, she said, was the “proportionality” of the surveillance.

The president and the visiting Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany delivered remarks on finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine.

Credit By AP on Publish Date May 2, 2014

Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

Mr. Obama, pointing to his administration’s efforts to restore privacy safeguards, even for non-Americans, said, “We have gone a long way in closing some of the gaps, but as Chancellor Merkel said, there are some gaps that need to be worked through.”

Nearly a year after the first disclosures about the N.S.A.’s practices at home and abroad, however, the agency is emerging with a mandate to make only modest changes: some new limits on what kind of data it can hold about Americans, and stricter White House oversight of decisions to tap the cellphones of foreign leaders. The Obama administration is now turning its attention to Silicon Valley — the subject of a major White House study released Thursday — and whether the government should intervene to protect and prevent discriminatory behavior.

“These are complicated issues,” Mr. Obama said of the debate over surveillance and civil liberties, as he glanced over at Ms. Merkel. “We’re not perfectly aligned yet, but we share the same values, and we share the same concerns.”

The depth of their differences, however, was reflected by the failure to reach a broader intelligence-sharing agreement between the United States and Germany. The two sides could not even agree on how the talks had begun, with Mr. Obama disputing that the United States had ever offered Germany a so-called no-spy agreement.

“We do not have a blanket no-spy agreement with any country,” he said, adding, “we’re not holding back from doing something with Germany that we somehow do with somebody else.”

Months of negotiations to reach an agreement ended unsuccessfully after the two sides could not agree on its scope. According to administration officials, the Germans insisted that the United States not conduct any unsanctioned espionage on German soil, including from its embassy in Berlin, something it has not agreed to with other allies.

Ms. Merkel did not address the negotiations directly, but said the debate showed the need for further dialogue between the United States and Germany, not just at the level of governments but also between lawmakers and the German and American people.

Even as she highlighted differences with the White House, Ms. Merkel’s government advised against inviting Edward J. Snowden, the renegade former N.S.A. contractor who leaked the information about its surveillance practices, to testify before the German Parliament.

A report by a German ministry on Friday said Mr. Snowden’s appearance would cause further damage to the relationship between the United States and Germany. The German officials had solicited an opinion from a Washington law firm suggesting that American authorities could seek to charge members of Parliament for complicity in Mr. Snowden’s publicizing of classified information.

Still, for two leaders who had bonded over thorny issues like the European financial crisis, the N.S.A. furor has taken an obvious toll. Ms. Merkel deflected a question about whether the personal trust between her and Mr. Obama had been restored.

When Ms. Merkel was asked if she was satisfied with how the White House had responded, Mr. Obama jumped in to answer first, saying he knew how emotional the issue was in Germany.

“Angela Merkel is one of my closest friends on the world stage, somebody whose partnership I deeply value,” the president said. “It has pained me to see the degree to which the Snowden disclosures have created strains in the relationship.”

In their private meetings on Friday, an American official said, the chemistry between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Obama was still good. They spent most of their time talking about the crisis in Ukraine, where they have emerged as the two leaders marshaling the Western response.

Both kept up the pressure on Mr. Putin over Ukraine, setting a new trigger for much broader sanctions against Russian industry. Ms. Merkel noted that these measures would be imposed if Russia disrupted an election in Ukraine planned for May 25.

“Should that not be possible to stabilize the situation further, further sanctions will be unavoidable,” she said. “This is something that we don’t want.”

Mr. Obama was even more emphatic, saying, “The Russian leadership must know that if it continues to destabilize eastern Ukraine and disrupt this month’s presidential election, we will move quickly on additional steps, including further sanctions that will impose greater costs.”

While administration officials say Germany and the United States have been united in their response, the Germans have balked at sweeping sanctions on the Russian energy industry because that could reverberate on their fossil fuel-dependent economy.

Building European support for industrywide sanctions will be a challenge, Mr. Obama said, because “you’ve got 28 countries, and some are more vulnerable than others to potential Russian retaliation. And we have to take those into account. Not every country is in the same place.”

Some experts on Germany said the Ukraine crisis could give Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel the foundation to rebuild their relationship, reminding them that despite the suspicion generated by the surveillance disclosures, their countries still have much in common.

“Despite their enormous differences in background and style, Merkel and Obama share a similar approach to crises — they react cautiously, slowly, and incrementally,” said Jackson Janes, the president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “That instinct has been on display again in recent months.”

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Ukraine Presses Rebels as Events Spiral in East

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 3:03 PM

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KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s security forces pressed their assault on pro-Russia militants in and around the separatist stronghold of Slovyansk on Saturday, even as the rebels freed seven European military observers and the Kremlin cited the deaths of dozens of people in Odessa as proof that Ukraine could no longer protect its citizens.

The Ukrainian troops built on recent advances into Slovyansk’s outskirts, entering the nearby town of Kramatorsk, where the Interior Ministry said they had recaptured the main state security building.

But even with that reported success after earlier military setbacks, the violence in Odessa on Friday was a measure of how far events have spiraled out of the authorities’ control, and added to the pressure from Russia. Odessa’s population includes many Russian speakers sympathetic to Moscow, but it is far west of the restive eastern region where most fighting has occurred.

An official in Odessa said 46 people had died in street battles between pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine groups, and in a fire in a building held by pro-Russia militants. If confirmed, the death toll would be the highest since the struggles in February between pro-Europe demonstrators and the pro-Russia government of ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Until Friday, Odessa, a Black Sea port in southern Ukraine, had been mostly calm. But as the battles raged, the police were apparently unable or unwilling to restore order.

Near the end of the day, the pro-Russia militants had retreated to the local House of Trade Unions, which was then set on fire as the two sides continued to battle. Amid the lobbing of firebombs, it was impossible to know who had started the blaze. Most victims were apparently overcome by smoke or burned, but eight were said to have died leaping from the flames. The Odessa authorities said 214 people had been injured in the various events, including 88 who were hospitalized. Three days of mourning were declared.

The official death toll came from the regional prosecutor, Ihor Borshulyak, who spoke to reporters on Saturday, the Interfax news agency said. He also announced that 144 people had been arrested and that one of several inquiries would look into whether the police had failed to execute their duties. The local police chief, appointed in March with a view to ending corruption and mismanagement, appealed for calm in Odessa, a city of some one million people, but was fired shortly afterward by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, said Russia would no longer be able to tell the hundreds of ethnic Russians who he said were calling for help not to take up arms. “The authorities in Kiev are not only directly responsible, they are direct accomplices in these criminal actions,” Mr. Peskov said. “Their hands are full of blood.”

He added that Russia had “lost its influence on those people, because it would be impossible to persuade them to disarm amid a direct threat to their lives.”

Mr. Peskov also said Russia regretted that the United States and the European Union had endorsed Ukraine’s military operations in the southeast, saying they, too, bore responsibility for fueling violence.

Russian state-run television maintained a belligerent tone on Saturday when reporting about events in Ukraine, with leading politicians and commentators saying repeatedly that war crimes were being committed and that victims there needed protection. The Rossiya 24 satellite channel turned its onscreen titles to black and gray in mourning for the people in Odessa.

But despite that steady public drumbeat and the vigor of Mr. Peskov’s statements, analysts said the Kremlin did not seem poised to intervene militarily at this point.

A day after two Ukrainian helicopters were reported to have been shot down as the government moved to retake positions in and around Slovyansk, the Ukrainian authorities said the operation was continuing in Kramatorsk. “We are not stopping,” Mr. Avakov said Saturday on his Facebook page.

In the one diplomatic success of the day, the European military observers — four Germans, a Czech, a Dane and a Pole — were freed. That followed the arrival of a Kremlin envoy, Vladimir P. Lukin, in Donetsk, the regional center south of Slovyansk.

Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, said in a phone interview from the checkpoint outside Slovyansk where he met the German-led team that Mr. Lukin, a friend, had secured the observers’ release. Mr. Jagland said they and Mr. Lukin had encountered fighting en route to the checkpoint, delaying their arrival.

The team had been detained April 25 while working, at the Ukrainian military’s invitation, to assess security conditions in eastern Ukraine. The mission was part of a process approved by the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to which Russia, Ukraine and the United States belong. One observer, a Swede with diabetes, was released last weekend, but the others were paraded before reporters in a spectacle that the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called “disgusting.”

Germany is seen as a central player in trying to resolve the crisis, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who values relations with Germany, had spoken of the need to release the observers. The degree to which the Kremlin holds sway over the militants in Slovyansk is not clear, but it clearly took Russian intervention to get the observers freed.

A spokeswoman for the self-declared authorities in Slovyansk would not comment on whether the militants still saw the observers as NATO spies, on what led to the resolution or on whether prisoners held by Ukraine’s government had been freed in exchange.

As the reports from Ukraine dominated the news in Russia, Dmitri V. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said he believed that Mr. Putin was extremely aware of the high costs in terms of Russian lives and treasure if he were to fight a full-scale war to take control of economically troubled Ukraine.

“He is much more likely to wait rather than jump the gun to intervene,” Mr. Trenin said. In pressuring Ukraine to put off the presidential election scheduled for May 25, as Mr. Peskov did on Saturday, the Kremlin may be aiming to wait for the West to grow weary of the Ukrainian problem. Then, in a few months, Russia could use its influence to shape a government more to its liking, he said.

But there is always a chance that the violence will reach a point where Russia feels it must do something. “It can all easily escalate without any decisions from the Russian government,” said Sergei A. Karaganov, dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs in Moscow and an occasional Kremlin consultant.

Correction: May 3, 2014 
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified the location of a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine. It is Kramatorsk, not Donetsk.

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· · · ·

Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 2:59 PM

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SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The rebel leader spread a topographic map in front of a closed grocery store here as a Ukrainian military helicopter flew past a nearby hill. Ukrainian troops had just seized positions along a river, about a mile and a half away. The commander thought they might advance.

He issued orders with the authority of a man who had seen many battles. “Go down to the bridge and set up the snipers,” the leader, who gave only a first name, Yuri, said to a former Ukrainian paratrooper, who jogged away.

Yuri commands the 12th Company, part of the self-proclaimed People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a previously unknown and often masked rebel force that since early April has seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and, until Saturday, held prisoner a team of European military observers it accused of being NATO spies.

His is one of the faces behind the shadowy paramilitary takeover. But even with his mask off, much about his aims, motivations and connections remains murky, illustrating why this expanding conflict is still so complex.

As the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine grows, the divisions within Ukrainian society become deeper as both sides prepare for a potential confrontation.

Credit By Ed Ou|Quynhanh Do on Publish Date May 2, 2014

Credit Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Yuri, who appears to be in his mid-50s, is in many ways an eastern Ukrainian common to his generation. A veteran, he survived the Soviet collapse to own a small construction business in Golubovka, about 40 miles from here.

But his rebel stature has a particular root: He is also a former Soviet special forces commander who served in Afghanistan, a background that could make him both authentically local and a capable Kremlin proxy.

In this war, clouded by competing claims on both sides, one persistent mystery has been the identity and affiliations of the militiamen, who have pressed the confrontation between Russia and the West into its latest bitter phase.

Moscow says they are Ukrainians and not part of the Russian armed forces, as the so-called green men in Crimea were.

Western officials and the Ukrainian government insist that Russians have led, organized and equipped the fighters.

A deeper look at the 12th Company — during more than a week of visiting its checkpoints, interviewing its fighters and observing them in action against a Ukrainian military advance here on Friday — shows that in its case neither portrayal captures the full story.

The rebels of the 12th Company appear to be Ukrainians, but like many in the region they wish to make independent, they have deep ties to and affinity for Russia. They are veterans of the Soviet, Ukrainian or Russian Armies, and some have families on the other side of the border. Theirs is a tangled mix of identities and loyalties.

Further complicating the picture, while the fighters share a passionate distrust of Ukraine’s government and the Western powers that support it, they disagree among themselves about their ultimate goals. They argue about whether Ukraine should redistribute power via greater federalization or should seek annexation into Russia, and they harbor different views about which side might claim Kiev, the capital, and even about where the border of a divided Ukraine might lie.

Yuri speaks with ambivalence about the possibility of Russian annexation, even as Russia’s tri-colored flag fluttered beside the porch where he directed his troops.

He says he participated in the seizure of Ukraine’s intelligence service building in Donetsk on April 7 and led the capture of this city’s police building five days later, twin operations that helped establish the militia’s foothold. Videos and photographs of the second attack confirm his story.

Throughout the week, as Ukrainian soldiers sometimes pressed closer, he chuckled at the claims by officials in Kiev and the West that his operations had been guided by Russian military intelligence officers.

There is no Russian master, he said. “We have no Muscovites here,” he said. “I have experience enough.”

That experience, he and his fighters say, includes four years as a Soviet small-unit commander in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in the 1980s.

The 119 fighters he said he leads, who appear to range in age from their 20s to their 50s, all speak of prior service in Soviet or Ukrainian infantry, airborne, special forces or air-defense units.

One, Kostya, served in the post-Soviet Russian Army, where he was a paratrooper. But he too claimed Ukrainian citizenship, which he said he received two years ago after moving to the Donetsk region in 1997 to live near his mother.

Two others said they were from outside eastern Ukraine, one from Odessa, in the south, and the other from Dnipropetrovsk, in the center.

For now, the 12th Company forms part of the front lines in Slovyansk, where its fighters stand at barricades facing the Ukrainian military, with whom the militia has clashed several times.

The company’s members wear masks on patrols, which crisscross the city around the clock.

They show signs of discipline, including organizing rotating watches at checkpoints, frequently cleaning their weapons and abstaining from alcohol.

And they claim to have a sprawling network of informers who warn them of Ukrainian military actions as they begin.

All spoke of disgust with the interim authorities in Kiev, who came to power after chasing President Viktor F. Yanukovych from office in February.

Each bristled at any suggestion that their seizure of government buildings was wrong. Pro-Western protesters in Kiev have held government buildings and the city’s main square since last fall, they said.

“Why did America support those acts, but is in opposition to ours?” said Maksim, the young former paratrooper who organized Yuri’s snipers by the bridge. “These are the contradictions of the West.”

Maksim, like many others, speaks of what he sees as unbreakable cultural, economic and religious ties to Russia and his ideal of a greater Slavic world, which he says is threatened from outside.

The threats, the fighters said, were made clear by a parliamentary proposal in February by the interim authorities in Kiev that would have stripped Russian of its status as an official language in eastern Ukraine. The proposal was vetoed by the interim president, but in the fighters’ view the episode signaled an official cultural assault.

“That was a turning point,” said Maksim, adjusting a knife tucked against his chest in a black vest.

Several fighters shook their heads at the idea that they had been paid by Russia, by oligarchs or by anybody else.

“This is not a job,” said one fighter, Dmitry. “It is a service.”

Moreover, if Russia’s intelligence services had been helping them, they said, they would have new weapons, not the dated arms visible at their checkpoints and stored in the base where they sleep. During the fighting on Friday, two of the fighters carried hunting shotguns, and the heaviest visible weapon was a sole rocket-propelled grenade.

Much of their stock was identical to the weapons seen in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers and Interior Ministry special forces troops at government positions outside the city. These included 9-millimeter Makarov pistols, Kalashnikov assault rifles and a few Dragunov sniper rifles, RPK light machine guns and portable antitank rockets, including some with production stamps from the 1980s and early 1990s.

Militia members said their weapons had either been taken from seized police buildings and a column of captured Ukrainian armored vehicles, or bought from corrupt Ukrainian soldiers.

There was no clear Russian link in the 12th Company’s arsenal, but it was not possible to confirm the rebels’ descriptions of the sources of their money and equipment.

There were, however, indicators of local support.

One afternoon, a crowd labored to build a barricade and a bunker beside a bridge over a canal to the city’s west.

At the 12th Company’s main base, the home of Tanya and her husband, Lev, residents visited to donate food: homemade pastries, slabs of salted pork fat, a vat of borscht, bags of fresh green onions, jars of pickled vegetables and fruits.

Tanya, 60, who offered to feed the rebels after her son joined them last month, has assumed the role of company cook. She keeps the table behind the house stacked with food and admonishes the men to eat more whenever they leave bowls of borscht unfinished.

The couple’s garage has become a barracks; a shed is now an armory. Camouflage hangs on lines strung from cherry trees.

The militia claims to have mostly good relations with the local police, who have done little to stop them. Many police officers still patrol in rebel territory, accepting the militia’s authority while directing traffic or investigating accidents.

Where these militiamen and their backers are trying to steer Ukraine remains a matter of dispute even among the men wearing masks.

In the 12th Company, some hope the eastern provinces can establish autonomy within a federalized Ukraine. Others speak of dividing the nation in two, with much of it joining Russia.

Asked whether Ukraine should remain one nation, Sergey, a veteran of the Soviet air-defense service, said, “Sure, why not?”

“No, no, no,” interjected Dmitry, a younger fighter. “What kind of united Ukraine could there be?”

Later, another fighter, Aleksey, agreed. “In western Ukraine, they showed their faces: Nazis, fascist,” he said. “They destroyed monuments to Lenin, attacked our history. Living on one land with them is senseless for us.”

Then came the matter of details, where might a new border be, and which side should keep Kiev.

“Let Kiev remain there in the west,” said Sanya, a huge man with a shaved head who carried a Dragunov sniper rifle. “It’s not a problem in principle.”

“No, all the way to Kiev!” Dmitry said.

Alexey proposed a border along the Dnieper, the river that runs through Kiev.

“Fine, along the Dnieper,” Dimitry said. “Left bank is theirs, right bank is ours.”

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· · · · · · ·

BBC News - Russia sympathisers vent anger at Ukraine Odessa deaths

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 2:46 PM

BBC News - Europe

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3 May 2014 Last updated at 13:37 ET

The BBC's Fergal Keane reports from Odessa's Trade Unions House

Pro-Russia supporters in the Ukrainian city of Odessa have voiced their anger a day after 42 people were killed.

Friday's clashes culminated in a major fire at a trade union building where most of the deaths occurred. Hundreds of people gathered there on Saturday.

The protest comes as Ukraine says it has seized a security building from rebels in the east of the country.

Seven international monitors held by pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine were released earlier.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, have again spoken by phone about the crisis.

Mr Lavrov urged Mr Kerry to put pressure on Kiev to stop its military operation, which he said risked "plunging the country into a fratricidal conflict".

Mr Kerry said Moscow should stop backing the pro-Russian separatists.

Both men also discussed the possibility of greater involvement by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in trying to find a solution to the crisis.

Grief and anger were evident outside the burned out trade union building in Odessa

Ukrainian troops man checkpoints round the rebel-held town of Sloviansk

The Ukrainian government claimed some success in its military operation in Kramatorsk

The violence in Odessa was the most serious in Ukraine since February when more than 80 people were killed during protests in Kiev against the ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Sarah RainsfordBBC News, Donetsk

---

A second day of military operations is under way to try to reassert central control here in eastern Ukraine and in particular in the city of Sloviansk, which has become the stronghold of pro-Russian groups.

Ukraine's interior minister has been saying "we will not stop" - suggesting that, unlike in the past when Ukrainian troops have moved in and then withdrawn, these operations will continue.

The interior ministry is also very angry that Moscow has been talking of Kiev carrying out "punitive actions" in the east and that it has been firing on civilians. The government in Ukraine is anxious that it does not give any pretext for Russia to send in its troops. That pretext would be that civilians - Russian-speaking citizens - were in danger and needed protection.

Pro-Russian groups have spoken again of needing peacekeeping troops. That would include Russians coming in to protect civilians - obviously something Kiev wants to avoid.

Groups sympathetic to Russia, some armed, are reported to have attacked a larger protest against separatism. Skirmishes between the two groups then broke out in several parts of the south-western city.

Pro-Russia protesters are later said to have sought refuge in the trade union building after their encampment was burned down. Petrol bombs were thrown leading to the deaths of at least 36 people inside, according to official figures.

The blackened trade union building, its windows broken, was ringed by police on Saturday as the crowd assembled. Some laid flowers; others chanted pro-Russian slogans.

There were isolated scuffles between rival groups and Ukrainian flags were burned or bundled away.

Military operation

Early on Saturday, the Kiev government resumed military action against Russian separatists in the east of the country, with fighting reported in some areas.

In Kramatorsk, south of rebel-held Sloviansk, Ukrainian forces recaptured the headquarters of the SBU security service from pro-Russian separatists, according to the interior ministry.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the "active phase" of the military operation was continuing, with Ukrainian forces also taking a television tower in Kramatorsk.

Axel Schneider: "According to the word given by the mayor, we have been treated as good as possible"

The defence ministry also reported "serious fighting" on Friday night in Andreevka, some 6km (4 miles) west of rebel-held Sloviansk, with two Ukrainian soldiers killed.

Ten separatists were killed in Andreevka, a spokeswoman for the pro-Russian force in Sloviansk said.

'Without conditions'

The seven international military observers freed early on Saturday were captured a week ago and held in Sloviansk.

Separatist leader Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (left) said the observers left after celebrating his birthday

German Col Axel Schneider praised his observer team's attitude

There was a heavy police presence in Odessa as hundreds gathered outside the burned out trade union building

A pro-Russian activist and a pro-Ukraine supporter scuffle for a Ukrainian flag in Odessa on Saturday

Five Ukrainian officers captured with the observers, who are linked to the OSCE, were also released.

Pro-Russian separatists in Sloviansk say they released the observers "without conditions".

Continue reading the main story

Odessa

• City founded in 1794 by Empress Catherine the Great
• Population: 1m
• Ukraine's third largest city
• Hosts Ukrainian naval base
• Population: Ukrainian 62% ethnic Russian 29%

"As I promised them, we celebrated my birthday yesterday and they left. As I said, they were my guests," the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said.

Russia had sent an envoy to negotiate the releases. Vladimir Lukin said he hoped the "voluntary act" by the separatists would be reciprocated by Kiev, adding: "I would very much like military actions to end."

One of the observers, German Col Axel Schneider, said the team had been treated "as good as possible" in what was a "miserable situation".

Footage shows people trying to escape from the building in Odessa

Western leaders had condemned the abductions.

The observers - four Germans, a Dane, a Pole and a Czech - are not part of the main OSCE monitoring mission, which was agreed after long negotiations by Russia, Ukraine and the US.

Are you in Odessa or eastern Ukraine? How have you been affected by the recent violence? You can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line 'Ukraine unrest'.

Send your pictures and videos to <a href="mailto:yourpics@bbc.co.uk">yourpics@bbc.co.uk</a> or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Ukraine Needs U.S. Military Aid

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 2:35 PM

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May 2, 2014 6:51 p.m. ET

The battle for Ukraine is entering a dangerous new phase, as the Kiev government is finally making an attempt to regain control over its eastern cities from local thugs and Russian special forces. Is it too much to ask the U.S. to offer the military means to help Ukraine keeps its own territory?

Vladimir Putin's campaign to destabilize and disrupt his neighbor is escalating as the May 25 date to elect a new Ukrainian government nears. The Russian strongman wants to block the vote, or disrupt it enough so he can call it illegitimate. His Russian-sponsored fighters moved this week from smaller towns in eastern Ukraine to the regional centers of Donetsk and Luhansk, taking key government installations.

A Ukrainian Army soldier in the village of Andreevka, Ukraine. Associated Press

The interim authorities in Kiev, which came into office after Moscow crony and President Viktor Yanukovych fled this winter, has dithered. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov on Wednesday said the Ukrainian state had no authority in the east, a demoralizing and questionable admission. Seizing an opening, Mr. Putin the next day told Kiev to withdraw from the east and sue for peace. The Ukrainians might as well send him the keys to the capital.

We're told the assault launched on Friday reflects a change in approach and a commitment to push back. The "restraint" shown by Kiev in Crimea and in the east—which President Obama praised again on Friday—has frustrated most Ukrainians and failed to stop the Russian advance. The interim government might have faced an uprising in Kiev over its defeatist approach.

Russian gains in the east will nonetheless be hard to reverse given the weakness of Kiev's government and military. Ukrainian forces moved Friday against the Russian-held town of Slovyansk, strategically located on the road between Donetsk and Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city. Two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down, showing how well-armed and trained the Russian-backed forces are.

A Kremlin spokesman claimed the operation "effectively destroys all hope for" the peace deal reached last month in Geneva. Cue the laughter in Moscow. Russia all along merely used Geneva as cover for its destabilization strategy, and its boys in Slovyansk are still holding as hostages seven foreign monitors who were sent to implement Geneva.

Yet eastern Ukrainians are hardly rushing to secede and join Russia. Though skeptical of the new authorities in Kiev, easterners are even more opposed to Russian intervention. No leading politician among remaining Yanukovych allies has gone over to Moscow's side. Pro-Ukraine demonstrations in the southeast are large, and the Russians have tried to beat them into silence. Some three dozen people died on Friday during clashes in Odessa.

Ukraine is desperately seeking Western military help, but so far the U.S. has refused. Earlier this week in Manila, President Obama tetchily addressed his Ukraine policy, saying, "Well, what else should we be doing?" He offered another rhetorical question: "Do people actually think that somehow us sending some additional arms into Ukraine could potentially deter the Russian army?"

Well, who knows? Mr. Putin could crush Ukraine if he wants to send in the tanks, but he also knows the political cost of an invasion would be high. That's why he prefers destabilization with special forces, hostage-taking, murder and thuggery. Defensive but lethal weapons for Ukraine—anti-tank mines or artillery, modern guns—would raise the cost and risk of this intervention.

But Mr. Obama is so worried about upsetting Mr. Putin that he refused to send even night-vision goggles, offering 300,000 meals-ready-to-eat instead. The Ukrainians are battling to free themselves of Russian domination and build a European democracy. They deserve more than Spam in a can from America.

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· · · ·

Apathy in the Executive - WSJ.com

Saturday May 3rd, 2014 at 2:34 PM

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Updated May 2, 2014 5:59 p.m. ET

Rome

Friends and I kept seeing groups of Poles who'd taken planes or 20-hour bus rides to be here for the canonization of John Paul II. They did not look wealthy. A lot of them wouldn't have had tickets to the big Mass because the Vatican kept saying there were no tickets. (In fact there were, and they were thoughtfully color-coded.) A lot of them knew they'd spend a rainy night on the floor of a church or, some of them, wrapped in plastic parkas as they slept on the street on yoga mats they carried on their backpacks. Many would watch the proceedings on a Jumbotron in a piazza far from St. Peter's. They didn't care. They came anyway because they loved him. He was enmeshed in their lives, and whether they'd known him or not they felt enmeshed in his. Lech Walesa, at an American reception, seemed to speak for them when I asked how he felt to see his old friend elevated. "I feel I will have a friend in Heaven to greet me if I get there," he said.

In the days before and after the canonization, I couldn't help reflect on what a leader is, and how it is that great leaders engender gratitude, loyalty and love.

You have to stand for something. You have to suffer for it. (John Paul was shot and almost killed, and he spent the last third of his pontificate in constant physical distress. He kept showing up anyway.) You have to be brave. (He wasn't afraid of any earthly power, not even the Soviet Union.) You have to stand by your beliefs as long as you know they are right; you have to speak and write the truth. Explaining what you believe involves trusting people to hear and consider; it assumes they will respond fairly and even with their highest selves. In this way you develop a relationship with people, an ongoing conversation between your articulations and their private thoughts. You are talking to them. When eventually they respond, they are talking to you.

Great leaders are clear, honest, suffer for their stands and are brave. They conduct a constant dialogue. At the end, when they are gone, the crowd declares what they heard. When John Paul died, they issued their judgment: He was a saint.

Popes aren't presidents, and presidents aren't saints. Both operate within wildly different realities and have wholly different obligations, so to compare the two isn't quite just. And yet I couldn't help think the past week of President Obama, whom I started to think of as poor Obama—whose failings as a leader are now so apparent, and seem so irremediable, partly because they spring from not only his nature and personality but his misunderstanding of what leaders do.

Does he stand for something? I suppose he stands for many things, but you can't quite narrow it down and sum it up. A problem with his leadership is that there's always the sense that he's not quite telling you his core and motivating beliefs. There are a lot of rounded banalities. There are sentiments and impulses. But he isn't stark, doesn't vividly cut through. There's a sense he's telling people as much as he feels he can within the parameters of political safety, and no more.

President Obama leaving a White House event, May 1. Reuters

As for speaking truthfully, well, he speaks, in many venues and sometimes at great length. But rather than persuade the other side, he knocks down a lot of straw men and deploys no affection or regard for those who disagree with him. He says the great signature program of his presidency will do one thing and it turns out to do another. He is evasive about Benghazi and the other scandals. He winds up with polls showing Americans do not see him as a truth teller. That's treacherous for a leader. People give politicians a lot of leeway because they think so little of them. But they don't like it when they're being played.

Is he brave? Well, he can take a punch. He's not afraid to be foolhardy, either in statements about red lines or in the U.S. role in Libya. But he seems increasingly passive. He is not passive when it comes to his political fortunes—he goes out and speaks and tries to rally the base—but even there, and certainly when it comes to governing, he seems bored, as if operating at a remove. Valerie Jarrett was once quoted saying he's so exceptionally gifted that he's been bored most of his life. It seems to me more likely an exceptionally gifted person would be exceptionally interested in and alive to the wonder and drama of things. I think her meaning was that only the most demanding and important of jobs would consistently arouse his engagement and focus. But he seems pretty bored as president.

He's not a dynamist. He doesn't seem excited about all the possibilities for America.

To be in Europe is to realize, again and at first hand, that America has experienced a status shift. Europeans know we are powerful—we have the most drones and bombs and magic robot soldiers—but they don't think we are strong. They've seen our culture; we exported it. The Internet destroyed our ability to keep under wraps, at least for a while, our embarrassments. People everywhere read of our daily crimes and governmental scandals. The people of old Europe thought we were great not only because we were wealthy but because we were good. We don't seem so good now. And they know we're not as wealthy as we were.

In these circumstances it would be quite wonderful to have a leader who is a deeply believing enthusiast who could tell the world—and us—that we can, and will, turn it all around.

Pollsters always say a politician has to project optimism. I think what they have to project is belief, and when people see it they appreciate it and become more optimistic. Does Mr. Obama project belief? Or does he project something more like doubt, or inertia? How wonderful it would be to see an American president appreciate all the possibilities of becoming a great energy-producing nation—all the new technologies and jobs, all the rebound they'd bring. To have a leader who feels and conveys a palpable joy in the transformative nature of this new world. Instead what we see is a ticket-checking approval, coupled with a wary, base-pandering, foot-dragging series of decisions such as the latest delay of the Keystone pipeline. It looks like a kind of historical lethargy, or listlessness.

The aspect of the presidency he seems to enjoy most is the perks—the splashy vacations, the planes, the hoops, the golf. When his presidency is over there will be the perks of the post-presidency—foundations, libraries, million-dollar speeches, staff, protection. A literary agent estimated he'll get up to $20 million for his memoirs, Michelle Obama perhaps $12 million.

So no, you don't get the impression he'll have to suffer for where he stands, or who he is.

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mikenova shared this story from AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE). Ukraine's security services have said the country is fighting a war against separatists in the east of the country, and blamed agents in the breakaway Moldovan region for provokin...

» Dozens killed in Ukraine riot and fire; OSCE monitors freed
03/05/14 09:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Oleksander Miliukov and Maria Tsvetkova ODESSA/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine Sat May 3, 2014 8:13am EDT ODESSA/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - At least 42 people were killed in street battles between supporters and op...

» Ukraine braced for more bloodshed as Russia warns peace has been 'destroyed'
03/05/14 09:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Day of violence across Ukraine yesterday sparks fears of Russian invasion Cleaners were this morning clearing up after fierce riots in Odessa A fire in a union building there killed 37,...

» Ukraine crisis: Pro-Russian separatists release Western observers in Slaviansk
03/05/14 09:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Just In. Updated 1 hour 57 minutes ago Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have freed a team of European military observers after more than a week in captivity in the flashpoint town of Slaviansk. "...

» OSCE Observers Held in Ukraine Released | TIME.com
03/05/14 09:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from [Untitled]. (SLOVYANSK, Ukraine) — Pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine on Saturday released the seven OSCE military observers and five Ukrainian assistants who had been held for more than a week...

» Sinn Fein Leader’s Time in Jail Is Extended, as Party Sees Political Motives by Police
02/05/14 22:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . LONDON — The Northern Ireland police were granted permission on Friday to keep Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, in custody for another 48 hours for questioning about a gruesome 1972 murder. His par...

» Obama: U.S., Germany United in Imposing Costs on Russia
02/05/14 21:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated May 2, 2014 6:40 p.m. ET U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel present a united front on the Ukraine crisis, Berkshire Hathaway heir apparent to be Buffett's eldest son, a Mo...

» Ukraine crisis: dozens killed in Odessa fire as violence spreads to country's south
02/05/14 21:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Ukraine Crisis - Latest news and developments from Ukraine and Crimea. Riot police largely stood aside as pro-Russian activists carrying bats and shields and distinguished by the orange and black St. Georg...

» How Ukraine and Russia are moving toward war
02/05/14 21:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WorldViews. With Ukrainian troops launching a major assault on a rebel stronghold Friday , just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Kiev to withdraw its troops from the east and south of th...

» Chaos grips Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city
02/05/14 20:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WorldViews. Friday marked a dark day in Ukraine's months-long turmoil, with forces sent by the government in Kiev clashing with pro-Russian separatists in the breakaway town of Slovyansk, leaving at least ...

» Ukraine clashes: dozens dead after Odessa building fire | World news
02/05/14 20:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. People wait to be rescued from the trade union building in Odessa, after it was set alight during chaotic clashes. Photograph: Reuters More ...

» Fire kills 31 in Odessa after pro-Russia clashes
02/05/14 20:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Michael Winter, USA TODAY 6:44 p.m. EDT May 2, 2014 Ukrainian government supporters clashed with pro-Russian demonstrators in the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine, on May 2, 2014. (Photo: Sergei Poliakov, AP...

» More than 40 killed in fire, clashes in Ukraine's Odessa
02/05/14 20:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Natalia Zinets KIEV Fri May 2, 2014 3:18pm EDT KIEV (Reuters) - More than 40 people were killed in Odessa on Friday, most caught in a building set on fire after pro-Russian activists and supporters of Ukra...

» В Одессе десятки человек стали жертвами столкновений и пожара - YouTube
02/05/14 18:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on May 2, 2014 На десятки идет число погибши ...

» BBC News - Ukraine crisis: Dozens killed in Odessa fire amid clashes
02/05/14 18:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from BBC News - Europe. 2 May 2014 Last updated at 16:31 ET Footage from activist Vitaliy Umanets shows violence on the streets of Odessa At least 31 people have been killed in a fire in an official building am...

» Dramatic video: Odessa Trade Unions building on fire with dozens of activists blocked inside - YouTube
02/05/14 18:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on May 2, 2014 At least 38 anti-government activists died in fire at Odessa's Trade Unions House after suffocating with smoke or jumping out of windows of the burning building, Ukrainian Interior Mi...

» Turmoil in Venezuela: An Update - YouTube
02/05/14 17:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Mar 19, 2014 As civil unrest continues in Venezuela, we asked Latin American Program Director, Cindy Arnson, for an update on the sometimes violent situation. She provides insight into what's hap...

» Putin and Crimea Part I - YouTube
02/05/14 17:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 15, 2014 Listening to the rhetoric surrounding Russia's move on Crimea, you might think the Cold War never ended. Why did Putin make this move and is there more in store? And how significant ...

» 20140502SE - YouTube
02/05/14 17:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on May 2, 2014 Wilson Events - Captured Live on Ustream at

» President Obama Holds a Press Conference with Chancellor Merkel of Germany - YouTube
02/05/14 17:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by WoodrowWilsonCenter. Published on May 2, 2014 President Obama and Chancellor Merkel of Germany answer questions from the press at the White House. May 2, 2014.

» Into the Fold or Out in the Cold? NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War | Wilson Center
02/05/14 17:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. Events Into the Fold or Out in the Cold? NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War May 02, 2014 // 10:00am — 12:00pm Event Co-sponsors:  Kennan Insti...

» Jane Harman - Google Search
02/05/14 16:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Jane Harman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Jane _ Harman ‎ Cached Similar Share View shared post Wikipedia Loading... Jane Margaret Lakes Harman (born June 28, 1945) is the fo...

» Russia in East Asia: History, Migration, and Contemporary Policy
02/05/14 16:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. This talk explores Russia’s ties with East Asia through the lens of migration and policy. Russia spans the Eurasian continent, yet its historic and present connections with E...

» Dealing with Russia: A Way Forward
02/05/14 16:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has been the subject of many editorials and op eds.  However, there has not been enough analysis as to why relations with Russia have reached t...

» Chuck Hagel | Wilson Center
02/05/14 16:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. Chuck Hagel was sworn in as the 24 th Secretary of Defense on February 27, 2013 becoming the first enlisted combat veteran to lead the Department of Defense. Secretary Hagel ...

» Ukraine crisis highlights NATO defense spending problem: Hagel
02/05/14 16:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By David Alexander WASHINGTON Fri May 2, 2014 11:45am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia's actions in Ukraine have shattered the myth of European security in the post-Cold War era and underscored the danger NA...

» Hagel urges NATO members to raise defense budgets in response to Russian threats
02/05/14 16:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . NATO members will be “judged harshly” if they do not increase defense spending in response to the challenge now posed by Russia, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told U.S. allies Friday. “Talki...

» Hagel Wilson Center - Google Search
02/05/14 16:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . About 124,000 results Washington Post ‎- 5 hours ago ... of the current fiscal impasse, Hagel said in an address at the Wilson Center . ... Hagel's speech is the toughest yet among a series of Obama ...

» Hagel: Idea of permanent peace in Europe is gone | Military Times
02/05/14 16:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Pro-Russia supporters block the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk road to prevent Ukrainian National Guard troops from advancing on Friday. Russia warned on Friday that Ukraine's use of the army against its own people in ...

» German Businesses Urge Halt on Sanctions Against Russia
02/05/14 16:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated May 1, 2014 10:11 p.m. ET German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office Friday. Reuters BERLIN— Angela Merkel is carrying a clear message from Germany's bu...

» Obama: ‘We Do Not Have a Blanket No-Spy Agreement With Any Country’
02/05/14 16:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Defense One - All Content. President Obama on Friday addressed the rolling controversy surrounding his administration’s international surveillance and rejected suggestions that the U.S. had brokered ...

» Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s foreign policy of denial
02/05/14 16:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Charles Krauthammer: Most Recent Articles and Archives. Obama’s first rhetorical defense , as usual, was to attack a straw man: “Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force?̶...

» The military's sexual assault response is a catastrophic blight on our service | BriGette McCoy | Comment is free
02/05/14 16:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Military sexual trauma has become a blood sport of the military – and the chiefs sit by and watch as the men and women who serve get h...

» Neanderthals aren't grunting, club-wielding idiots – we are | Martha Gill | Comment is free
02/05/14 16:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Science | The Guardian. 'People had been comparing Neanderthals to their successors, rather than their contemporaries. Which is rather like assuming I am more advanced than my parents because I know how to...

» Why can't nerds break news instead of just explaining it? | James Ball | Comment is free
02/05/14 15:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Media | The Guardian. How similar is reporting the Snowden files to indulging in five minutes of self-gratification? If you don't closely follow the "future of journalism" debates, here's hoping those two ...

» Merkel Visits the White House - NYTimes.com
02/05/14 15:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story .

» CBS News crew held in Ukraine by pro-Russia militants
02/05/14 15:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WorldViews. A pro-Russia militant guards barricades near Slovyansk, in eastern Ukraine. (Sergei Grits/AP) As the Ukrainian army launched its first major assault on the rebel stronghold in Slovyansk at dawn...

» ‘Difficulties Yet To Overcome’ In US Spy Scandal « CBS DC
02/05/14 15:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CBS DC. Latest News Get Breaking News First Receive News, Politics, and Entertainment Headlines Each Morning. Sign Up WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...

» Obama: U.S., Germany united in sanctioning Russia for Ukraine crisis
02/05/14 15:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Europe. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Further sanctions would target specific sectors of Russian economy, Obama says NEW: But he says targeting energy sector is "unrealistic" NEW: May 12 meeting of Europ...

» Obama, Merkel call on pro-Russia forces to stand down in Ukraine
02/05/14 13:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday called on Russia to influence pro-Russian military groups in Ukraine to stand down and said it was disgraceful that the mil...

» Obama, Merkel To Display Unity Against Russia | TIME.com
02/05/14 13:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from [Untitled]. (WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel mounted a display of trans-Atlantic unity Friday against an assertive Russia, even as sanctions imposed by Wester...

» События на Востоке: силовики захватили все блокпосты вокруг Славянска - Последние новости Украины - Руководители АТО требуют немедленно освободить всех заложников в Славянске
02/05/14 13:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from СЕГОДНЯ | Самые актуальные новости, мнения, комментарии. Пятница, 2 мая 18.21. Сепаратис ...

» Russia demands Security Council meeting on Ukraine
02/05/14 13:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from KyivPost / Independence. Community. Trust. Russia is calling for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the crisis in Ukraine. © Courtesy Associated Press Associated Press  Russia is calli...

» BBC News - Ukraine crisis: Government forces in Sloviansk offensive
02/05/14 13:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from BBC News - Home. Pro-Russian rebels have shot down two of Ukraine's army helicopters during an "anti-terror" operation in the eastern city of Sloviansk, Kiev has said. It said a pilot and serviceman had be...

» Russia warns of gas supply disruption to Europe
02/05/14 13:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from KyivPost / Independence. Community. Trust. The state-controlled OAO Gazprom says deliveries scheduled in June should be paid by Ukraine for upfront. © AFP Wall Street Journal  Russia's energy min...

» German Chancellor Merkel arrives at White House
02/05/14 13:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from RSS Breaking News - Asia. German Chancellor Merkel arrives at White House Published on May 2, 2014 10:47 PM   0   20   0   0 PRINT EMAIL   US President Barack Obama and German Chan...

» At least one man has been killed in clashes that broke out in Odessa, Ukraine (LIVE BLOG)
02/05/14 12:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . GLOBALPOST LIVE BLOG: UKRAINE STRUGGLES FOR UNITY UPDATE: 5/2/14 11:40 AM ET The riot police, standing by Odessa might be seeing the same inaction from security forces other parts of Ukraine have seen in the ...

» How a Boston College research project could send Gerry Adams to prison
02/05/14 12:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Enlarge Adams denies involvement in McConville's death. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) Please support our site by enabling javascript to view ads. LONDON, UK — Gerry Adams, arguably the world’s most...

» One man shot dead in clashes in Ukraine's Odessa-police
02/05/14 12:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . KIEV Fri May 2, 2014 8:16pm IST KIEV May 2 (Reuters) - One man was shot dead in clashes between pro-Russian protesters and supporters of Ukrainian unity in the largely Russian-speaking port city of Odessa, lo...

» Unrest Spreading? Riots Turn Deadly...
02/05/14 12:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from odessa - Google News. Unrest Spreading? Riots Turn Deadly in Odessa <a href="http://NBCNews.com" rel="nofollow">NBCNews.com</a>  - ‎26 minutes ago‎ Ukraine's tug-of-war between...

» YouTube
02/05/14 12:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Вадим Петров. 3:02 Одесса сейчас Столкновения, ...

» Одесса Сейчас Коктели Молотова 2 05 2014 - YouTube
02/05/14 12:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on May 2, 2014 ПОДПИШИСЬ НА НОВОСТИ http://loo.gl/NdSd

» Molotov cocktails in Ukraine’s Odessa as pro- and anti-Maidan rallies clash — RT News
02/05/14 12:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from RT - News. Published time: May 02, 2014 13:48 Edited time: May 02, 2014 15:22 Image from <a href="http://twitter.com" rel="nofollow">twitter.com</a> @RT_com A fatality and injuries have been re...

» Митинги в Одессе переросли в массовую драку - Чрезвычайные новости, 31.03 - YouTube
02/05/14 12:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 1, 2014 "Чрезвычайные новости" - информ&#...

» Массовая драка в центре Одессы - YouTube
02/05/14 12:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Массовая драка в центре Одессы

» Видео массовых столкновений в Одессе: есть раненые и погибшие
02/05/14 12:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Новости Украины 24 часа в сутки : ЛІГАБізнесІнформ. Столкновения в Одессе ме ...

» СБУ установила личность диверсанта "Абвера" из "группы Стрелка"
02/05/14 12:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ПОДРОБНОСТИ: Все новости. Контрразведка Службы безопа&#...

» Two Ukrainian soldiers, one insurgent killed in Sloviansk fighting; one protester killed in Odessa (LIVE UPDATES)
02/05/14 12:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from KyivPost / Independence. Community. Trust. Editor's Note: Early on May 2, an anti-terrorist operation initiated by the Ukrainian government resumed in Sloviansk, a Donetsk Oblast city of 125,000 people tha...

» The Right Lessons From Chernobyl
02/05/14 12:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Twenty-eight years after Unit 4 at the Chernobyl power plant in what was then Soviet Ukraine erupted into a volcano of radioactivity, its name has become synonymous with the nightmarish side of nuclear power....

» Why Economics Failed - NYTimes.com
02/05/14 12:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . On Wednesday, I wrapped up the class I’ve been teaching all semester: “The Great Recession: Causes and Consequences.” ( Slides for the lectures are available via my blog .) And while teachin...

» U.S. and Germany Fail to Reach a Deal on Spying
02/05/14 12:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . WASHINGTON — The effort to remake the intelligence relationship between the United States and Germany after it was disclosed last year that the National Security Agency was tapping Chancellor Angela Mer...

» A Heinous Crime, Secret Histories and a Sinn Fein Leader’s Arrest
02/05/14 12:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BOSTON — For years, the researchers painstakingly recorded and transcribed oral histories from many of the leaders of the factions caught up in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. They pledged absolute se...

» A Surge Forward on Marriage Equality
02/05/14 12:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . In a landmark 5-to-4 ruling in June, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act’s denial of federal benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples — but, in another case from Califor...

» U.S. Sanctions Strategy, Explained - Video
02/05/14 11:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Signed in as mikenova Share this story on NewsBlur Share this story Subscribe to this site Shared stories are on their way...

» So Far, U.S. Sanctions Over Ukraine May Be Inflicting Only Limited Pain on Russia
02/05/14 11:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Some background on the impact of sanctions on Russia and what could happen if the Western leaders decide to go further. Credit By Natalia V. Osipova on Publish Date May 2, 2014 Credit Alexey Druzhinin/Agence ...

» Clashes in Eastern Ukraine as Moscow Issues New Warnings
02/05/14 11:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — Just two days after declaring its forces “helpless” to control events in eastern Ukraine, the interim government in Kiev began what it called the “active phase” of an as...

» Putin Demands That Ukraine Pull Its Troops From Southeast
02/05/14 11:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia told Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Thursday that Ukraine must remove its military from the southeastern region of the country to resolve the showd...

» Ukraine crisis: why do so many politicians admire Russia's Vladimir Putin?
02/05/14 11:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Vladimir Putin. This is the man that Alex Salmond, the Scottish National Party leader, said this week that he admired for having “restored a substantial part of Russian pride”. Mr Salmond was, ...

» In U.S., Calls To Hold Energy-Rich Baku's Feet To The Fire Over Rights
02/05/14 11:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. W ASHINGTON -- The United States should hold Azerbaijan accountable for its human rights record, even as the energy-rich country has come into renewed focus as a potentia...

» Georgia Tries New Tack With NATO
02/05/14 11:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . With the crisis in Ukraine, Georgia's efforts to join NATO have gained new energy. And while Tbilisi hasn't changed its ultimate aim -- gaining the elusive Membership Action Plan for the alliance -- it is com...

» НАТО может разместить ПРО в Грузии — Haqqin
02/05/14 11:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Haqqin. Специальный представитель гене...

» NATO’s Eastern Members Seek Bases to Deter Russian Threat
02/05/14 11:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Businessweek.com -- Top News. NATO’s newer eastern members are pushing to have alliance forces stationed permanently in their nations, a move at odds with a 1997 understanding with Russia that limits...

» Украина: испытание для НАТО
02/05/14 11:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ. В случае дальнейшей эскалации ...

» бывший посол США в России
02/05/14 11:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Радио Свобода. x Заместитель генерального сек ...

» Want More Renewable Energy? Send in the Drones
02/05/14 11:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Defense One - All Content. When the world’s largest photovoltaic power plant went online this week in Arizona, it began generating 290 megawatts of clean green electricity that’s powering 100,0...

» D.C. ‘Insiders’ Are Wrong, NATO Could Beat Russia
02/05/14 10:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Defense One - All Content. “The NATO alliance is not prepared to counter a newly aggressive Russia,” or so blared the lead of the latest National Journal Security Insiders poll . Three-quarters...

» «Глобальную военную игру против НАТО Россия проиграла»
02/05/14 10:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from БК55: новости. Известный джазмен считает, что ...

» Russia stages first Red Square May Day parade since Soviet days
02/05/14 10:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era on Thursday, with workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin...

» Putin's Promises To Eastern Ukraine Could Bankrupt Russia
02/05/14 10:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . As the moniker Petrostate implies, the Russian economy and state have an extreme dependence on energy : One half of budget revenues come from taxes and levies on oil and gas. Energy exports currently bring in...

» Russia Shows Modern Military in Ukraine Crisis
02/05/14 10:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. WASHINGTON — An estimated 40,000 Russian troops are deployed on the Ukrainian border, poised to invade if the order comes from Moscow. These forces are part of a much larger militar...

» Russia’s economy: Tipping the scales
02/05/14 10:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . WESTERN measures against Russia—asset freezes and visa restrictions aimed at people and firms close to Vladimir Putin—may be pinpricks, but the crisis in Ukraine has already taken its toll on Russ...

» Ukraine reintroduces conscription to counter threat of pro-Russia separatists | World news
02/05/14 10:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Link to video: Ukraine: pro-Russian separatists storm prosecutor's office in Donetsk Ukraine 's embattled government has announced that it i...

» Cold War Against Russia—Without Debate
02/05/14 10:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story .

» US Troops Head to Latvia as Russia Progresses Against ‘Helpless’ Ukraine
02/05/14 10:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from [Untitled]. May 1, 2014 6:30pm Pro-Russian mobs have taken control of more government buildings in Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded the Ukrainian government pull back its troops from t...

» BBC News - How does Europe wean itself off Russian gas?
02/05/14 10:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from BBC News - Home. 1 May 2014 Last updated at 17:13 ET European countries are trying to break away from their dependence on Russian gas Each escalation of the crisis in Ukraine sends a jolt of nervousness fa...

» Russia as a Regional Power
02/05/14 10:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . It's hard to look on the bright side of the dismemberment of a sovereign state by force of arms. But because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the ongoing threat Vladimir Putin intends to pose to eas...

» Ukraine minister: Russia planning invasion - Europe
02/05/14 10:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE). Ukraine's foreign minister has accused Russian troops of infiltrating and destabilising the east of the country, saying Moscow plans to invade and annex other regions. In an inter...

» Merkel makes first White House visit since NSA spying scandal
02/05/14 10:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from euronews. For the first time since it emerged her mobile phone may have been monitored for years by the US, Angela Merkel is visiting the White House. Ukraine will be the focus of the talks but the spying ...

» Spying, Ukraine Are the Main Topics for Meeting Between Obama and Merkel
02/05/14 09:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Wire. On Friday morning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet with President Obama amid a tense atmosphere that involves the ongoing situation in Ukraine as well as disagreements over the U.S...

» NATO Official: Russia Undermining Global Security
02/05/14 09:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ABC News: Politics. The United States and some of its NATO allies see Russia's intervention in Ukraine as a post-Cold War turning point, possibly ending two decades of hope that Moscow could be made a last...

» Obama and Merkel Huddle as Russia Crisis Wears On
02/05/14 09:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany — a pivotal figure in the standoff between Russia and the West — is in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama at a crucial point in the crisis. When t...

» Президент России
02/05/14 09:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Глава Российского государства оп&#...

» Ukraine Launches Large-Scale Offensive to Regain Slovyansk -- Update
02/05/14 09:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Lukas I. Alpert Ukraine launched a military operation Friday to regain control of the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Slovyansk, overrunning numerous roadblocks and surrounding the city, officials sai...

» ​Ukraine army launches assault on rebel stronghold
02/05/14 09:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine, and Friday’s developments raised the risks of a Russian military response. Ukrainian troops attacked the rebel stronghold of ...

» Ukraine Launches Military Assault On Slavyansk
02/05/14 08:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Two pilots have been killed after pro-Russian separatists shot down helicopters during the most significant government offensive so far in the east of Ukraine. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov urged l...

» Home Office says sorry for Britain's airports IT meltdown
02/05/14 08:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Nationwide fault on UK Border Force computers caused severe disruption Travellers queued for up to four hours as every British airport was affect Reports of fights breaking out at Gatwi...

» The brink of war: Military helicopter shot down by pro-Russian rebels as violence rocks Ukraine's east
02/05/14 07:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Around 300 pro-Kremlin activists storm prosecutor's office in Donetsk Guard of 100 police officers attacked with rocks and Molotov cocktails Officers responded with tear gas and stun gr...

» Former Director of Venezuelan Intelligence Agency Shot Dead in Caracas
01/05/14 22:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Global Research. Global Research, April 30, 2014 The former director of Venezuela’s primary intelligence agency has been found shot dead. Venezuelan officials said Eliézer Otaiza was shot dead s...

» Russia's 'Gay Propaganda' Law Takes Effect in Crimea
01/05/14 22:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Advocate.com - Gay News | The Advocate | The World's Leading Source for LGBT News and Entertainment. Authorities have canceled a Pride march and are planning more serious measures to eradicate the 'exp...

» Ukraine detains Russian military attaché for spying
01/05/14 20:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Natalia Zinets and Matt Robinson KIEV Thu May 1, 2014 11:32am EDT KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine ordered the expulsion of Russia's military attaché, saying it had caught him "red-handed" receiving classifie...

» Moscow holds first May Day parade since Soviet era | World news
01/05/14 20:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. The traditional May Day parade made a return to Moscow's Red Square on Thursday, gathering tens of thousands of students, labour union membe...

» Russia’s Weimar Syndrome - NYTimes.com
01/05/14 09:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . LONDON — Sergei Karaganov, a prominent Russian foreign policy expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, recently provided a useful summation of his vast country’s sense of humiliation an...

» Ukraine Expels Russian Naval Attaché
01/05/14 09:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — As pro-Russian forces extended their control over parts of eastern Ukraine, the country’s interim authorities ordered the expulsion of a naval attaché at Moscow’s embassy in Ki...

» Ukraine Says That Militants Won the East
01/05/14 09:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . KIEV, Ukraine — It is by now a well-established pattern. Armed, masked men in their 20s to 40s storm a public building of high symbolic value in a city somewhere in eastern Ukraine, evict anyone still t...

» BBC News - Ukraine crisis: Russian military attache held for 'spying'
01/05/14 08:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from BBC News - Europe. 1 May 2014 Last updated at 06:32 ET Ukraine's special forces held an overnight military exercise in the capital Kiev A Russian military attache has been held in Ukraine on suspicion of s...

» Northern Ireland police arrest Gerry Adams over 1972 murder
01/05/14 08:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Maurice Neill and Conor Humphries BELFAST/DUBLIN Thu May 1, 2014 4:49am EDT BELFAST/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Northern Ireland police arrested Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday as part of an investigation...

» Gerry Adams arrest: Son of IRA victim says he knows who killed his mother but is too scared to tell police
01/05/14 08:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from UK headlines. “I haven’t told the police. If I told the police now me or one of my family members or one of my children would get shot. “Everyone thinks this has gone away. But it hasn ...

» Ukraine 'Detains Russian Attache For Spying'
01/05/14 07:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Ukraine Mine: Militia Controls Million Weapons Updated: 11:37pm UK, Wednesday 30 April 2014 By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent, in Ukraine At the end of a completely anonymous road on the outskirts of the ...

» Sinn Fein Leader Held for 2nd Day Over IRA Killing
01/05/14 07:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ABC News: International. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams remained in police custody for a second day Thursday as detectives questioned him over his alleged role in the Irish Republican Army's abduction, killi...

» 2 inmates killed, dozens hurt as jail building partially collapses
01/05/14 07:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Justice. By Tina Burnside , CNN updated 6:14 AM EDT, Thu May 1, 2014 STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: " We don't know if they dead or alive," relative says About 600 inmates were in the building The cause o...

» Report: Worldwide Press Freedom Declines
01/05/14 07:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. A Washington-based democracy advocacy group says media freedom around the world has declined to its lowest levels in a decade, including in places that had been making progress. Freedom H...

» Why NATO is such a thorn in Russia's side
30/04/14 20:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Europe. STORY HIGHLIGHTS In cadet school, Russian pupils have questions for NATO They ask: why do you need to be on our border Putin used strategic military reasoning to annexe Crimea Among gener...

» Ukraine's restive east slipping from government's grasp
30/04/14 19:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . HORLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Moscow separatists seized government offices in more Ukrainian towns on Wednesday, in a further sign that authorities in Kiev are losing control of the country's eastern indu...

» Ukraine's Acting President Warns Spread of Unrest Must Be Prevented
30/04/14 19:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated April 30, 2014 11:04 a.m. ET Efforts by the new government in Kiev to maintain control in the troubled east have stumbled amid a renewed push by militants to seize government buildings. Ukraine's acti...

» Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams arrested on suspicion of 1972 murder
30/04/14 19:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. 'Freedom fighter'-turned-politician, 65, was arrested in Co Antrim He is accused of the murder of mother-of-ten Jean McConville She was abducted and murdered by Provisional IRA and secr...

» US says Russia behind escalating violence in Ukraine
30/04/14 15:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. John Kerry claims Russia reneged on deal struck in Geneva two weeks ago Pro-Russian separatists today seized control of buildings in Horlivka Kerry reveals U.S. has evidence of Moscow d...

» Forty-Fifth Defendant Sentenced for Trafficking Identities of Puerto Rican U.S. Citizens
30/04/14 12:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ENEWSPF News. Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—April 28, 2014. A Dominican national was sentenced today for his role in trafficking the identities and corresponding identity documents of Puerto Rican U...

» Announced today Jose Caldero changes in the Police
30/04/14 12:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Superintendent Jose Caldero Lopez on Monday directed the game of musical chairs inside the dome of the Police, que has already made several changes, i knew this medium. Cauldron López, who was sworn in t...

» Gobernador garantiza trabajo de empleados de procuradurías – Metro
30/04/14 12:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Metro - Últimas noticias. El gobernador Alejandro García Padilla insistió el miércoles en que reducirá el tamaño del gobierno sin despedir empleados y aseguró que los servicio...

» Challenging Putin’s Values - NYTimes.com
30/04/14 10:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . While you can talk about Ukraine until the cows come home, this story is 95 percent about Vladimir Putin and how he has chosen to define Russia’s interests. The truth is, Russia and its neighbors need a...

» Not Getting Through to Mr. Putin
30/04/14 10:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . The United States and the European Union announced another round of sanctions against Russia on Monday and Tuesday: the Americans against Russians close to President Vladimir Putin, including the president of...

» Ukrainian President Says Police Can’t Control Militias in East
30/04/14 10:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . DONETSK, Ukraine — The acting president of Ukraine said on Wednesday that the police and security officials in several regions in the eastern part of the country could not control the pro-Russian militi...

» Americans Want to Pull Back from World Stage, WSJ Poll Finds
30/04/14 10:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 30, 2014 12:05 a.m. ET A WSJ/NBC News poll shows that approval of President Barack Obama's handling of foreign policy sank to the lowest level of his presidency. Pictured, Mr. Obama at a news conference...

» Ukraine, Sanctions Expected to Dominate Merkel's Obama Meeting
30/04/14 10:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated April 29, 2014 9:20 p.m. ET The Ukraine crisis—and the role of further potential sanctions on Russia—will top the agenda for both Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama when t...

» Ukraine Army on 'Full Combat Alert'
30/04/14 10:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Ukraine's acting president says its military is "on full combat alert" against a possible invasion by Russian troops massed on the border. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said in a m...

» Ukraine crisis: Small numbers, global impact
30/04/14 10:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Europe. Pro-Russian activists storm an administration building in the center of Luhansk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 29. Ukraine has seen a sharp rise in tensions since a new pro-European governme...

» Ukraine crisis: Kiev powerless as east slips out of its control | World news
30/04/14 09:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Link to video: Donetsk in east Ukraine rocked by violent clashes Ukraine 's beleaguered government appears to have lost control of law and o...

» Restive eastern Ukraine slips from Kiev government's grasp
30/04/14 09:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . By Marko Djurica HORLIVKA, Ukraine Wed Apr 30, 2014 8:26am EDT HORLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Masked gunmen in military fatigues seized government offices in another Ukrainian town on Wednesday, in a further s...

» последние события в Донбассе и Крыму
30/04/14 08:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Новости Украины 24 часа в сутки : ЛІГАБізнесІнформ. Что происходит в Харьков ...

» 1 of 6 victims shot at FedEx facility remains critical; dead...
29/04/14 19:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . A 19-year-old baggage handler, who was armed ‘like Rambo,’ opened fire on his co-workers at a FedEx facility in Kennesaw early this morning, injuring six people, before killing himself. The gunman...

» ‘We Won’t Invade Ukraine,’ Russian Military Chief Tells Chuck Hagel | TIME.com
29/04/14 14:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from [Untitled]. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel received “assurance” from his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoygu, on Monday that the Kremlin would not send troops amassed on its western border wit...

» Kerry: U.S. Taped Moscow’s Calls to Its Ukraine Spies - The Daily Beast
29/04/14 13:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Landov The United States has proof that the Russian government in Moscow is running a network of spies inside eastern Ukraine because the U.S. government has recordings of their conversations, Secretary of St...

» ЦРУ перехватило указания кремлевских чиновников сепаратистам на востоке Украины
29/04/14 13:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Перехваченная информация свидет ...

» Разведка США перехватила разговоры Кремля со шпионами в Украине - В Мире
29/04/14 13:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from MIGnews.com.ua. Государственный секретарь СШh...

» 5 More Questions: Kyiv Post editor Brian Bonner's unfiltered take on Ukraine
29/04/14 13:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Brian Bonner left the St. Paul Pioneer Press for good in 2007, eventually returning to the Kyiv Post in Ukraine, where he was quickly reappointed chief editor of the small, independent paper. A classic, tough...

» Kyiv Post editor Brian Bonner's unfiltered take on Ukraine
29/04/14 13:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from KyivPost / Independence. Community. Trust. April 29, 2014, 6:35 p.m. | A pro-Russian activist throws flowers from a window near a flag of the so-called "People's militia of Donbass" after she and other act...

» Лукашенко и Путин обсудят ситуацию в Украине
29/04/14 13:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ПОДРОБНОСТИ: Все новости. Сегодня в Минске об Украине бу...

» Pro-Russian Protesters Storm Offices in Ukraine's Luhansk
29/04/14 13:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. P ro-Russian demonstrators have seized the regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk. Several thousand demonstrators marched on the buildi...

» Pro-Russia Activists Seize Government Headquarters in Luhansk | News
29/04/14 13:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters Pro-Russian activists attack the regional administration building in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine. Hundreds of pro-Russian separatists have seized the regional government head...

» The Progressive Economics Forum » The Kleptocracy of Vladimir Putin
29/04/14 13:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Progressive Economics Forum. More than one critic has noted that Russia doesn’t manufacture anything the world wants (a knock that now can be laid against Canada, especially since the dramatic fa...

» Video: Do US-EU sanctions against Russia go far enough?
29/04/14 13:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. The European Union widened sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, following similar steps yesterday by the US, which called separatist v...

» Ukraine Crisis: Pro-Russia activists seize Luhansk headquarters - Europe - World
29/04/14 13:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Activists shouting "Referendum Russia" flew a Russian flag over the building after a number of men armed with metal bars smashed the windows and doors to gain access. The action will doubtless raise tensions ...

» EU extends sanctions against Russians over Ukraine | World news
29/04/14 12:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Pro-Russian activists storm an administration building in Luhansk. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP The European Union has released t...

» Ukraine: EU sanctions list – who's who | World news
29/04/14 12:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak is one of the few well-known names on the EU sanctions list. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP The EU s...

» What are Russia's real motivations in Ukraine? We need to understand them | Ruth Deyermond | Comment is free
29/04/14 12:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Ukrainian soldiers sit on top of an armoured personnel carrier at a checkpoint outside the city of Slaviansk where pro-Russian separatist re...

» Is the Mafia Europe's New Security Threat? - Room for Debate
29/04/14 11:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Responses to Europe's Mob Economy. Introduction Officials excavating toxic waste allegedly buried by the mafia in Southern Italy. Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times The strength of organized crim...

» Senate Drops Bid to Report on Drone Use
29/04/14 11:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . WASHINGTON — The Senate has quietly stripped a provision from an intelligence bill that would have required President Obama to make public each year the number of people killed or injured in targeted ki...

» Representative Grimm’s Ex-Business Partner Has Mob Ties, Prosecutors Say
29/04/14 11:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Bennett Orfaly, who owned a restaurant with Representative Michael G. Grimm, trying to shield Ofer Biton, a former fund-raiser for the congressman, from cameras in Brookl...

» Grimm, Staten Island Lawmaker, Is Charged With Fraud
29/04/14 11:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Representative Michael G. Grimm of Staten Island; Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn; and George Venizelos, an F.B.I. assistant director, discussed the congressman’s indictment. Pu...

» Rep. Michael Grimm - Google Search
29/04/14 11:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story .

» Rep. Michael Grimm, facing federal charges of tax and business fraud, surrenders to FBI
29/04/14 11:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Republicans face the prospect that the indictment could cost them their only congressional seat in New York City, as Grimm was already facing a formidable challenge from former City Council member Domenic M. ...

» Russian Defense Minister Tells Hagel Russia Will Not Invade Ukraine
29/04/14 10:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The Pentagon says Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu has assured Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Russian forces will not invade Ukraine. The two spoke by telephone Monday, with Hag...

» Ukraine crisis: Moscow assures Pentagon it will not invade
29/04/14 10:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Ukraine Crisis - Latest news and developments from Ukraine and Crimea. Mr Hagel also asked Moscow's help in "securing the release of the seven inspectors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation ...

» Russian troops deployed along Ukrainian border 'return to barracks' | News | DW.DE
29/04/14 10:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (pictured above, center) told US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel that the decision to pull back the troops came after Moscow had received assurances from Ukraine that i...

» Hagel asks Russians to declare their intentions in Ukraine
29/04/14 10:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Enlarge Photo Ukrainian government troops atop an armored personal carrier travel on a country ... more > Related Stories Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has asked his Russian counterpart to clarify his...

» No sign of Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine border-NATO official
29/04/14 10:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BRUSSELS Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:30am EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO has seen no sign that tens of thousands of Russian troops are withdrawing from close to the Ukraine border, a NATO official said on Tuesday, desp...

» Kerry Sees Ukraine Crisis as Uniquely Putin's
29/04/14 10:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated April 29, 2014 4:55 a.m. ET Secretary of State John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month. He says more sanctions may be needed. Getty Images Secretary of State John...

» NATO: No Sign Russian Troops Are Pulling Back From Ukraine
29/04/14 10:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 29, 2014 8:36 a.m. ET BRUSSELS—Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said they saw no sign of a withdrawal of Russian forces from near the border with Ukraine and cast doubt on a Rus...

» ITAR-TASS: World - Russian defense minister reassures US colleague on Ukraine
29/04/14 10:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ITAR-TASS. WASHINGTON, April 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave reassurances to his US counterpart Chuck Hagel that Russia had no plans of bringing its troops to Ukraine, a s...

» Defense Minister Shoigu Concerned At U.S., NATO Military Activity | News
29/04/14 10:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Yevgeny Razumny / Vedomosti Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Hagel that Russian forces had returned to their permanent positions. The Russian defense minister has expressed concern about what he calle...

» Moscow calls US, NATO military buildup near Russian borders ‘unprecedented’ — RT News
29/04/14 10:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from RT - News. Published time: April 28, 2014 21:58 Edited time: April 29, 2014 01:32 Russia's Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu (L) and U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (R) (RIA Novosti / Reuters) Russia ...

» Ramzan Kadyrov Picks A New Fight
29/04/14 10:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. T wo years after his highly publicized but inconclusive polemic with Republic of Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov over the disputed border between their respective repu...

» Shoigu Says Russia Won't Invade Ukraine
29/04/14 10:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. R ussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has assured U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Russia will not invade Ukraine. The two defense chiefs spoke by phone on April...

» Russia Denounces New US Sanctions
29/04/14 08:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Who's Who On Latest Sanctions US And EU List Updated: 11:00am UK, Tuesday 29 April 2014 The US has targeted seven of President Vladimir Putin's "cronies" in a new round of sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. T...

» South African 'free diver' swims NAKED just inches from deadly sharks
29/04/14 08:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Photos show Lesley Rochat swimming with Tiger sharks in South Africa Dressed in only a bikini, she comes within inches of the deadly creatures Ms Rochat, who founded AfriOceans, aims to...

» Pakistani killer murdered 3 gay men after having sex with them
28/04/14 20:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Muhammed Ejaz, 28, confessed to killing the three men he met online Members of the gay community are worried he will be seen as a hero in Pakistan's conservative Islamic society Ejaz ha...

» Russia sanctions not tough enough — yet, analysts say
28/04/14 20:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Russian businessman Yuri Kovalchuk attends an Oct. 6, 2011, meeting in Moscow. (Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP) SHARE 20 CONNECT EMAIL MORE The latest sanctions announced Monday by the United States and ...

» Russia's Ukraine actions highlight its military limits
28/04/14 20:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Russian troops patrol near the Ukraine border. (Photo: Pavel Golovkin, AP) WASHINGTON — Russia's successful annexation of Crimea and destabilizing efforts on Ukraine's eastern border suggest the country...

» Obama’s half-measures give Vladimir Putin little to fear
28/04/14 17:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Culture Connoisseur Badge Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment. More about badges | Request a badge Washingtologist Badge Washing...

» Trainee surgeon Suheil Ahmed struck off for turning hospital ward into 'porn studio'
28/04/14 17:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Dr Suheil Ahmed, 28, will be struck off in 28 days medical tribunal rules Police investigation found 110 images of female patients on his computer He admitted 11 counts of voyeurism and...

» Is Putin at Risk of Being Overthrown by a Coup?
28/04/14 17:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Staunton, April 28 – Many in Russia and the West have speculated that the combination of Vladimir Putin’s policies against Ukraine, Moscow’s increasing iso...

» Mayor in eastern Ukraine shot as pro-Russian militants gain ground
28/04/14 17:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Kernes has swiveled his allegiance and now maintains civil relations with the new Ukrainian government in Kiev. His city was a hotbed of pro-Russian activists, but in recent weeks Kernes and police managed to...

» U.S. imposes new sanctions on Russia
28/04/14 17:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . The new sanctions were imposed under executive orders Obama signed last month following Russia’s incursion into the Ukrainian region of Crimea. In a statement, the White House noted that a separate orde...

» U.S. sanctions Putin allies as Ukraine violence goes on
28/04/14 17:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . DONETSK/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - The United States imposed new sanctions on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, prompting Moscow to denounce "Cold War" tactics amid more violence in ea...

» Pro-Russian mayor shot in the back in assassination attempt in Ukrainian city that has been the scene of pro-Moscow protests
28/04/14 17:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Gennady Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv, was shot during morning bike ride Comes day after ultranationalists clashed with protesters in the city Meanwhile, masked militants seized council ...

» U.S. Announces More Sanctions Against Russia
28/04/14 14:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . In Manila, President Obama said new sanctions against Russian individuals and companies were “the next stage in a calibrated effort” to change President Vladimir V. Putin’s behavior in Ukrai...

» José Caldero juramenta como nuevo superintendente
28/04/14 14:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . El superintendente de la Policía, José Caldero López, tomó oficialmente posesión de su trabajo como jefe de la uniformada al juramentar esta mañana al cargo en una ceremonia cele...

» The War on Truth in Ukraine
28/04/14 14:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . WASHINGTON — For a moment last week, war seemed imminent. A day after Russia ’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, warned Ukraine ’s leaders against using force in the crisis there, the Ukr...

» Putin’s Useful Idiots - NYTimes.com
28/04/14 14:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Western intellectuals have long had a soft spot for Russia. Voltaire, the French teacher of tolerance and a great friend of Catherine the Great , said that he would gladly move to Russia, though only if its c...

» Opinion: Why Geneva accord on Ukraine is tactical victory for Russia
28/04/14 13:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Opinion. A masked man stands guard outside a regional administration building seized by pro-Russian separatists in Slaviansk, Ukraine. STORY HIGHLIGHTS The declaration is set to be an important t...

» U.S. targets Putin's 'inner circle' in new sanctions over Ukraine
28/04/14 12:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Europe. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Those sanctioned include Russia's envoy to Crimea, tech chief, deputy PM The EU will target about 15 officials The new round of sanctions comes as tensions remain hi...

» Появилось видео допроса захваченного в плен луганского активиста
28/04/14 12:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Новости Украины 24 часа в сутки : ЛІГАБізнесІнформ. В интернете появилось ви ...

» One serviceman killed, one injured after explosion in Donetsk region
28/04/14 12:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from KyivPost / Independence. Community. Trust. April 28, 2014, 6:11 p.m. | Ukraine — by Interfax-Ukraine Armed men in military fatigues stand guard in front of a regional administrative building seized l...

» Кто такой лидер самообороны в Славянске: полковник из России и любитель военной реконструкции (фото)
28/04/14 12:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from ПОДРОБНОСТИ: Все новости. Руководитель самообороны Сл&#...

» Khodorkovsky Gets Chilly Reception In Donetsk
28/04/14 12:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. M ikhail Khodorkovsky spent Sunday being alternately cheered and heckled during a trip to the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Khodorkovsky, the Russian ex-tycoon who s...

» 'Russian Rambos' Sentenced In Far East
28/04/14 12:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. A court in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok has sentenced six men -- nicknamed the "Russian Rambos" -- for the murder of three police officers, as well as attempt...

» U.S. Hits Putin's 'Inner Circle' In Fresh Russia Sanctions
28/04/14 12:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. T he United States has slapped sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 companies it says are linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates, the late...

» В Славянске нашли еще одно тело со следами пыток (видео) - Новости Донбасса - Чтобы журналисты могли работать в Славянске, нужно получить разрешение у лидера местных сепаратистов Игоря Стрелкова
28/04/14 12:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from СЕГОДНЯ | Самые актуальные новости, мнения, комментарии. В Славянске нашли еще од ...

» ЕС ввел санкции против еще 15 граждан РФ, причастных к кризису в Украине : Новости УНИАН
28/04/14 12:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Ранее запреты ЕС уже коснулись 55 гр ...

» Все подробности покушения на Кернеса - Новости Харькова - Пуля прошила градоначальника насквозь. Специалисты: работал профессионал
28/04/14 12:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from СЕГОДНЯ | Самые актуальные новости, мнения, комментарии. Перекрыли дорогу. Правоl...

» В Донецкой области двое военных подорвались на самодельной бомбе - Происшествия
28/04/14 12:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from MIGnews.com.ua. Во время выполнения служебных ...

» U.S., Europe Impose New Sanctions on Russia
28/04/14 11:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated April 28, 2014 9:58 a.m. ET WASHINGTON—The U.S. imposed additional sanctions against Russia on Monday over its intervention in Ukraine. The latest measures target seven Russian officials and 17 ...

» Ukraine: US and EU announce new sanctions against Russia - live updates | World news
28/04/14 10:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Luke Harding in Donetsk, one of the main flashpoints in eastern Ukraine, has details of the mayor's shooting in Kharkiv. The mayor of Kharki...

» Defending the "Obama Doctrine" - YouTube
28/04/14 10:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 28, 2014 Jake Tapper, Maeve Reston & Jonathan Martin on Obama's response to his critics & why he doesn't seek military options.

» CrossTalk: Containment 2.0? (ft. Stephen Cohen & John Mearsheimer) - YouTube
28/04/14 09:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 28, 2014 What does Washington's "containment" policy mean? What threats does it pose? Will it work against today's Russia? And does this mean Washington has declared a new Cold War? CrossTalk...

» Stephen Cohen: As US Rushes Into New Cold War, Where Is the Debate?
28/04/14 09:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story .

» Cost of trade sanctions on Russia 'price worth paying' says William Hague
28/04/14 09:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Foreign Secretary says damage to UK economy is worth it America admits sanctions have more impact on EU than on US Many fear London, where Russian oligarchs invest billions, will suffer...

» U.S. Beefs Up Military Options for China as Obama Reassures Allies in Asia
28/04/14 09:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 27, 2014 7:52 p.m. ET The question of security in the South and East China seas has dogged President Obama, above in Kuala Lumpur Sunday, during his Asian trip. Larry Downing/Reuters WASHINGTON—Th...

» Ukraine Mayor Gennady Kernes Shot in Attack, Kharkiv City Council Says
28/04/14 09:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 28, 2014 6:23 a.m. ET Gennady Kernes, mayor of Kharkiv, speaks to journalists on March 15 about unrest in the city amid pro-Russia protests. Kharkiv City Council The mayor of Ukraine's second largest ci...

» Philippines Signs Pact to Allow Greater U.S. Troop Presence
28/04/14 09:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 27, 2014 11:55 p.m. ET The new defense agreement between the Philippines and the U.S. may not be a game changer for security in the region. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to Lowy Institutes Aaron Connelly...

» Obama announces new U.S. sanctions on Russia over Ukraine
28/04/14 08:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MANILA/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against some Russians on Monday to stop President Vladimir Putin from fomenting the rebellion in eastern Ukraine, but ...

» The Russia Problem - WSJ.com
28/04/14 08:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Updated April 27, 2014 6:03 p.m. ET The U.S. and EU are saying they will impose new sanctions on Russia as early as Monday, albeit watered down again due to fears of economic harm in Europe. This continues th...

» Obama Unveils Timing of New Russia Sanctions Over Ukraine
28/04/14 08:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 28, 2014 6:58 a.m. ET President Obama give a press conference at Malacanang Presidential Palace in Manila. European Pressphoto Agency MANILA—President Barack Obama announced that new U.S. sanction...

» White House defends Russia foreign policy, amid criticism Putin goes undeterred
27/04/14 20:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 27, 2014: Pro-Russian activists at a rally in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. REUTERS The White House on Sunday defended its foreign policy strategy on Russia, saying the international sanctions are hurting t...

» Pro-Russia Separatists Free One of Detained Observers in E. Ukraine
27/04/14 14:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. — Pro-Russian separatists have freed one of the eight European observers being detained in the eastern Ukraine city of Slaviansk on Sunday evening. The Swedish observer was escorted...

» Russia Tightens Grip on the Internet
27/04/14 13:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. WASHINGTON — These are not easy days to blog or use social media in Russia – particularly, analysts say, if you’re critical of the Kremlin’s current occupant. Russ...

» Pro-Russian forces parade detained European officers
27/04/14 13:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . “We wish from the bottom of our hearts to go back to our nations as soon and as quickly as possible,” one of the observers, German Col. Axel Schneider, said at a news conference arranged by his ca...

» Ukraine: kidnapped observers paraded by pro-Russian gunmen in Slavyansk | World news
27/04/14 13:20 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian. Link to video: East Ukraine detainees: 'we have not been touched' Eight European military observers kidnapped by pro-Russian gunmen in easte...

» Тимошенко: Путина остановит только сила США и ЕС - YouTube
27/04/14 12:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Reuters. Published on Apr 27, 2014 Юлия Тимошенко, бывший пре&...

» East Ukraine detainees: 'we have not been touched' - video | World news
27/04/14 12:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . A group of kidnapped military observers give a press conference in Slavyansk, east Ukraine, where they are being held by pro-Russian separatists. Colonel Alex Schneider from Germany confirms the eight men hav...

» G-7 Prepares Russia Sanctions as Release of Observers Sought (2)
27/04/14 12:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Businessweek.com -- Top News. Group of Seven leaders said new sanctions on Russia will be imposed as soon as tomorrow, while the U.S. and the U.K. called on the government in Moscow to help release of obse...

» Video bloggers taking internet by storm and earn £20,000 a MONTH for posts
27/04/14 12:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Some high-profile video bloggers have up to 26million subscribers 'Vloggers' can earn up to £20,000 for adverts on their YouTube sites UK's best-known bloggers include Zoe Sugg - w...

» Captured European Monitors in Ukraine say They are Well
27/04/14 12:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. A group of European monitors detained by pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine appeared in public Sunday to give assurances they are not being mistreated, even as negotiations began to...

» Pennsylvania Police searching for teens who left SUV on tracks in the path of train
27/04/14 12:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Published: 20:38 GMT, 26 April 2014 | Updated: 14:19 GMT, 27 April 2014 11 shares Pennsylvania authorities are still trying to find the people who abandoned an SUV on train tracks, caus...

» "Strelok" gave interview - YouTube
27/04/14 09:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . "Strelok" gave interview WAR: UKRAINE-RUSSIA · 194 videos 123 Subscription preferences Loading... Loading... Working... 23 views 0     0 Published on Apr 27, 2014 Russian GRU officer Strel...

» Pro-Russian Commander in Eastern Ukraine Sheds Light on Origin of Militants
27/04/14 07:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . April 26, 2014 7:03 p.m. ET Pro-Russian militants stand guard outside the Ukraine Security Service building on Saturday in Slovyansk, Ukraine. The elusive commander of the pro-Russia militants who have seized...

» US, Europe Must Act Collectively Against Russia
27/04/14 07:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. and Europe must act together in levying sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine that he says threaten that country's independence an...

» Conn. school stabbing suspect under psychiatric evaluation
27/04/14 07:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;A HREF="http://lax1.ib.adnxs.com/click?VAj2JtNO4z9HuuqtZmngP-XQItv5fso_R7rqrWZp4D9UCPYm007jP3u1R985QjEVFEyO1cnjiwpg4VxTAAAAABATGQD0AwAACAcAAAIAAAA0H68Aw8ICAAAAAQBVU0QAVVNEACwB-gAYYgAA3...

» Ukraine crisis: US pressures Russia on captive observers - European News | Latest News from Across Europe | The Irish Times
27/04/14 07:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Irish Times - News. US secretary of state John Kerry has urged Russia to support efforts to free military observers held by pro-Moscow forces in Ukraine . Mr Kerry also told Russian foreign minister Se...

» Obama urges united riposte to Russia for 'destabilizing' Ukraine
27/04/14 07:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . KUALA LUMPUR/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday said the United States and Europe must join forces to impose sanctions on Russia to stop it destabilizing Ukraine, where armed...

» Obama: World must unite to disapprove of Russian actions in Ukraine
27/04/14 07:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - Europe. Relatives and friends of a man killed in a gunfight participate in his funeral ceremony in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on Saturday, April 26. Ukraine has seen a sharp rise in ...