George Soros: Russia poses existential threat to Europe - The Guardian
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The following article will appear in The New York Review’s November 20 issue.
Europe is facing a challenge from Russia to its very existence. Neither the European leaders nor their citizens are fully aware of this challenge or know how best to deal with it. I attribute this mainly to the fact that the European Union in general and the eurozone in particular lost their way after the financial crisis of 2008.
The fiscal rules that currently prevail in Europe have aroused a lot of popular resentment. Anti-Europe parties captured nearly 30 percent of the seats in the latest elections for the European Parliament but they had no realistic alternative to the EU to point to until recently. Now Russia is presenting an alternative that poses a fundamental challenge to the values and principles on which the European Union was originally founded. It is based on the use of force that manifests itself in repression at home and aggression abroad, as opposed to the rule of law. What is shocking is that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has proved to be in some ways superior to the European Union—more flexible and constantly springing surprises. That has given it a tactical advantage, at least in the near term.
Europe and the United States—each for its own reasons—are determined to avoid any direct military confrontation with Russia. Russia is taking advantage of their reluctance. Violating its treaty obligations, Russia has annexed Crimea and established separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine. In August, when the recently installed government in Kiev threatened to win the low-level war in eastern Ukraine against separatist forces backed by Russia, President Putin invaded Ukraine with regular armed forces in violation of the Russian law that exempts conscripts from foreign service without their consent.
In seventy-two hours these forces destroyed several hundred of Ukraine’s armored vehicles, a substantial portion of its fighting force. According to General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, the Russians used multiple launch rocket systems armed with cluster munitions and thermobaric warheads (an even more inhumane weapon that ought to be outlawed) with devastating effect.* The local militia from the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk suffered the brunt of the losses because they were communicating by cell phones and could thus easily be located and targeted by the Russians. President Putin has, so far, abided by a cease-fire agreement he concluded with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on September 5, but Putin retains the choice to continue the cease-fire as long as he finds it advantageous or to resume a full-scale assault.
In September, President Poroshenko visited Washington where he received an enthusiastic welcome from a joint session of Congress. He asked for “both lethal and nonlethal” defensive weapons in his speech. However, President Obama refused his request for Javelin hand-held missiles that could be used against advancing tanks. Poroshenko was given radar, but what use is it without missiles? European countries are equally reluctant to provide military assistance to Ukraine, fearing Russian retaliation. The Washington visit gave President Poroshenko a façade of support with little substance behind it.
Equally disturbing has been the determination of official international leaders to withhold new financial commitments to Ukraine until after the October 26 election there (which will take place just after this issue goes to press). This has led to an avoidable pressure on Ukrainian currency reserves and raised the specter of a full-blown financial crisis in the country.
There is now pressure from donors, whether in Europe or the US, to “bail in” the bondholders of Ukrainian sovereign debt, i.e., for bondholders to take losses on their investments as a precondition for further official assistance to Ukraine that would put more taxpayers’ money at risk. That would be an egregious error. The Ukrainian government strenuously opposes the proposal because it would put Ukraine into a technical default that would make it practically impossible for the private sector to refinance its debt. Bailing in private creditors would save very little money and it would make Ukraine entirely dependent on the official donors.
To complicate matters, Russia is simultaneously dangling carrots and wielding sticks. It is offering—but failing to sign—a deal for gas supplies that would take care of Ukraine’s needs for the winter. At the same time Russia is trying to prevent the delivery of gas that Ukraine secured from the European market through Slovakia. Similarly, Russia is negotiating for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor the borders while continuing to attack the Donetsk airport and the port city of Mariupol.
It is easy to foresee what lies ahead. Putin will await the results of the elections on October 26 and then offer Poroshenko the gas and other benefits he has been dangling on condition that he appoint a prime minister acceptable to Putin. That would exclude anybody associated with the victory of the forces that brought down the Viktor Yanukovych government by resisting it for months on the Maidan—Independence Square. I consider it highly unlikely that Poroshenko would accept such an offer. If he did, he would be disowned by the defenders of the Maidan; the resistance forces would then be revived.
Putin may then revert to the smaller victory that would still be within his reach: he could open by force a land route from Russia to Crimea and Transnistria before winter. Alternatively, he could simply sit back and await the economic and financial collapse of Ukraine. I suspect that he may be holding out the prospect of a grand bargain in which Russia would help the United States against ISIS—for instance by not supplying to Syria the S300 missiles it has promised, thus in effect preserving US air domination—and Russia would be allowed to have its way in the “near abroad,” as many of the nations adjoining Russia are called. What is worse, President Obama may accept such a deal.
That would be a tragic mistake, with far-reaching geopolitical consequences. Without underestimating the threat from ISIS, I would argue that preserving the independence of Ukraine should take precedence; without it, even the alliance against ISIS would fall apart. The collapse of Ukraine would be a tremendous loss for NATO, the European Union, and the United States. A victorious Russia would become much more influential within the EU and pose a potent threat to the Baltic states with their large ethnic Russian populations. Instead of supporting Ukraine, NATO would have to defend itself on its own soil. This would expose both the EU and the US to the danger they have been so eager to avoid: a direct military confrontation with Russia. The European Union would become even more divided and ungovernable. Why should the US and other NATO nations allow this to happen?
The argument that has prevailed in both Europe and the United States is that Putin is no Hitler; by giving him everything he can reasonably ask for, he can be prevented from resorting to further use of force. In the meantime, the sanctions against Russia—which include, for example, restrictions on business transactions, finance, and trade—will have their effect and in the long run Russia will have to retreat in order to earn some relief from them.
These are false hopes derived from a false argument with no factual evidence to support it. Putin has repeatedly resorted to force and he is liable to do so again unless he faces strong resistance. Even if it is possible that the hypothesis could turn out to be valid, it is extremely irresponsible not to prepare a Plan B.
There are two counterarguments that are less obvious but even more important. First, Western authorities have ignored the importance of what I call the “new Ukraine” that was born in the successful resistance on the Maidan. Many officials with a history of dealing with Ukraine have difficulty adjusting to the revolutionary change that has taken place there. The recently signed Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine was originally negotiated with the Yanukovych government. This detailed road map now needs adjustment to a totally different situation. For instance, the road map calls for the gradual replacement and retraining of the judiciary over five years whereas the public is clamoring for immediate and radical renewal. As the new mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, put it, “If you put fresh cucumbers into a barrel of pickles, they will soon turn into pickles.”
Contrary to some widely circulated accounts, the resistance on the Maidan was led by the cream of civil society: young people, many of whom had studied abroad and refused to join either government or business on their return because they found both of them repugnant. (Nationalists and anti-Semitic extremists made up only a minority of the anti-Yanukovych protesters.) They are the leaders of the new Ukraine and they are adamantly opposed to a return of the “old Ukraine,” with its endemic corruption and ineffective government.
The new Ukraine has to contend with Russian aggression, bureaucratic resistance both at home and abroad, and confusion in the general population. Surprisingly, it has the support of many oligarchs, President Poroshenko foremost among them, and the population at large. There are of course profound differences in history, language, and outlook between the eastern and western parts of the country, but Ukraine is more united and more European-minded than ever before. That unity, however, is extremely fragile.
The new Ukraine has remained largely unrecognized because it took time before it could make its influence felt. It had practically no security forces at its disposal when it was born. The security forces of the old Ukraine were actively engaged in suppressing the Maidan rebellion and they were disoriented this summer when they had to take orders from a government formed by the supporters of the rebellion. No wonder that the new government was at first unable to put up an effective resistance to the establishment of the separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine. It is all the more remarkable that President Poroshenko was able, within a few months of his election, to mount an attack that threatened to reclaim those enclaves.
To appreciate the merits of the new Ukraine you need to have had some personal experience with it. I can speak from personal experience although I must also confess to a bias in its favor. I established a foundation in Ukraine in 1990 even before the country became independent. Its board and staff are composed entirely of Ukrainians and it has deep roots in civil society. I visited the country often, especially in the early years, but not between 2004 and early 2014, when I returned to witness the birth of the new Ukraine.
I was immediately impressed by the tremendous improvement in maturity and expertise during that time both in my foundation and in civil society at large. Currently, civic and political engagement is probably higher than anywhere else in Europe. People have proven their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country. These are the hidden strengths of the new Ukraine that have been overlooked by the West.
The other deficiency of the current European attitude toward Ukraine is that it fails to recognize that the Russian attack on Ukraine is indirectly an attack on the European Union and its principles of governance. It ought to be evident that it is inappropriate for a country, or association of countries, at war to pursue a policy of fiscal austerity as the European Union continues to do. All available resources ought to be put to work in the war effort even if that involves running up budget deficits. The fragility of the new Ukraine makes the ambivalence of the West all the more perilous. Not only the survival of the new Ukraine but the future of NATO and the European Union itself is at risk. In the absence of unified resistance it is unrealistic to expect that Putin will stop pushing beyond Ukraine when the division of Europe and its domination by Russia is in sight.
Having identified some of the shortcomings of the current approach, I will try to spell out the course that Europe ought to follow. Sanctions against Russia are necessary but they are a necessary evil. They have a depressive effect not only on Russia but also on the European economies, including Germany. This aggravates the recessionary and deflationary forces that are already at work. By contrast, assisting Ukraine in defending itself against Russian aggression would have a stimulative effect not only on Ukraine but also on Europe. That is the principle that ought to guide European assistance to Ukraine.
Germany, as the main advocate of fiscal austerity, needs to understand the internal contradiction involved. Chancellor Angela Merkel has behaved as a true European with regard to the threat posed by Russia. She has been the foremost advocate of sanctions on Russia, and she has been more willing to defy German public opinion and business interests on this than on any other issue. Only after the Malaysian civilian airliner was shot down in July did German public opinion catch up with her. Yet on fiscal austerity she has recently reaffirmed her allegiance to the orthodoxy of the Bundesbank—probably in response to the electoral inroads made by the Alternative for Germany, the anti-euro party. She does not seem to realize how inconsistent that is. She ought to be even more committed to helping Ukraine than to imposing sanctions on Russia.
The new Ukraine has the political will both to defend Europe against Russian aggression and to engage in radical structural reforms. To preserve and reinforce that will, Ukraine needs to receive adequate assistance from its supporters. Without it, the results will be disappointing and hope will turn into despair. Disenchantment already started to set in after Ukraine suffered a military defeat and did not receive the weapons it needs to defend itself.
It is high time for the members of the European Union to wake up and behave as countries indirectly at war. They are better off helping Ukraine to defend itself than having to fight for themselves. One way or another, the internal contradiction between being at war and remaining committed to fiscal austerity has to be eliminated. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Let me be specific. In its last progress report, issued in early September, the IMF estimated that in a worst-case scenario Ukraine would need additional support of $19 billion. Conditions have deteriorated further since then. After the Ukrainian elections the IMF will need to reassess its baseline forecast in consultation with the Ukrainian government. It should provide an immediate cash injection of at least $20 billion, with a promise of more when needed. Ukraine’s partners should provide additional financing conditional on implementation of the IMF-supported program, at their own risk, in line with standard practice.
The spending of borrowed funds is controlled by the agreement between the IMF and the Ukrainian government. Four billion dollars would go to make up the shortfall in Ukrainian payments to date; $2 billion would be assigned to repairing the coal mines in eastern Ukraine that remain under the control of the central government; and $2 billion would be earmarked for the purchase of additional gas for the winter. The rest would replenish the currency reserves of the central bank.
The new assistance package would include a debt exchange that would transform Ukraine’s hard currency Eurobond debt (which totals almost $18 billion) into long-term, less risky bonds. This would lighten Ukraine’s debt burden and bring down its risk premium. By participating in the exchange, bondholders would agree to accept a lower interest rate and wait longer to get their money back. The exchange would be voluntary and market-based so that it could not be mischaracterized as a default. Bondholders would participate willingly because the new long-term bonds would be guaranteed—but only partially—by the US or Europe, much as the US helped Latin America emerge from its debt crisis in the 1980s with so-called Brady bonds (named for US Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady).
Such an exchange would have a few important benefits. One is that, over the next two or three critical years, the government could use considerably less of its scarce hard currency reserves to pay off bondholders. The money could be used for other urgent needs.
By trimming Ukraine debt payments in the next few years, the exchange would also reduce the chance of a sovereign default, discouraging capital flight and arresting the incipient run on the banks. This would make it easier to persuade owners of Ukraine’s banks (many of them foreign) to inject urgently needed new capital into them. The banks desperately need bigger capital cushions if Ukraine is to avoid a full-blown banking crisis, but shareholders know that a debt crisis could cause a banking crisis that wipes out their equity.
Finally, Ukraine would keep bondholders engaged rather than watch them cash out at 100 cents on the dollar as existing debt comes due in the next few years. This would make it easier for Ukraine to reenter the international bond markets once the crisis has passed. Under the current conditions it would be more practical and cost-efficient for the US and Europe not to use their own credit directly to guarantee part of Ukraine’s debt, but to employ intermediaries such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the World Bank and its subsidiaries.
The Ukrainian state-owned company Naftogaz is a black hole in the budget and a major source of corruption. Naftogaz currently sells gas to households for $47 per trillion cubic meters (TCM), for which it pays $380 per TCM. At present people cannot control the temperature in their apartments. A radical restructuring of Naftogaz’s entire system could reduce household consumption at least by half and totally eliminate Ukraine’s dependence on Russia for gas. That would involve charging households the market price for gas. The first step would be to install meters in apartments and the second to distribute a cash subsidy to needy households.
The will to make these reforms is strong both in the new management and in the incoming government but the task is extremely complicated (how do you define who is needy?) and the expertise is inadequate. The World Bank and its subsidiaries could sponsor a project development team that would bring together international and domestic experts to convert the existing political will into bankable projects. The initial cost would exceed $10 billion but it could be financed by project bonds issued by the European Investment Bank and it would produce very high returns.
It is also high time for the European Union to take a critical look at itself. There must be something wrong with the EU if Putin’s Russia can be so successful even in the short term. The bureaucracy of the EU no longer has a monopoly of power and it has little to be proud of. It should learn to be more united, flexible, and efficient. And Europeans themselves need to take a close look at the new Ukraine. That could help them recapture the original spirit that led to the creation of the European Union. The European Union would save itself by saving Ukraine.
—October 23, 2014
* I am deeply disturbed by a report in The New York Times quoting Human Rights Watch that subsequently—on October 2 and 5—Ukrainians also used cluster bombs, which I condemn. NATOshould clarify both alleged Ukrainian and Russian use of such munitions.
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Investor says Vladimir Putins aggressive nationalism challenges values and principles on which the EU was founded
George Soros has warned that Russias expansionism poses an existential threat to the EU and called for greater material support for Ukraine.
The investor and philanthropist argues that Vladimir Putins mix of authoritarianism and aggressive nationalism represents an alternative model to western liberal democracies, referring to the admiration for the Russian president expressed by the Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, president of Frances Front National, and Hungarys prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
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Talented sailor Jessica Eales hanged herself the day after her birthday. An inquest heard that the 17-year-old from Lymington in Hampshire had been taking an acne drug linked to depression.
Reading the papers these days I find that the two world leaders who stir the most passion in me are Pope Francis and Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. One is everything you’d want in a leader, the other everything you wouldn’t want. One holds sway over 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, the other over nine time zones. One keeps surprising us with his capacity for empathy, the other by how much he has become a first-class jerk and thug. But neither can be ignored and both have an outsized influence on the world today.
First, the pope. At a time when so many leaders around the world are looking to promote their political fortunes by exploiting grievances and fault lines, we have a pope asking his flock to do something hard, something outside their comfort zone, pushing them to be more inclusive of gays and divorced people.
Yes, Francis was rebuffed by conservative bishops at a recent Vatican synod when he asked them to embrace the notion that “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” adding, “are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities?”
But, as an editorial in this paper noted: “The very fact that Francis ordered church leaders to address these challenges seems a landmark in Vatican history.” The pope asked that rejected language be published for all to see, while also cautioning against “hostile inflexibility — that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word, and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God.”
“Hostile inflexibility?” Whose leadership does that describe? Look at Putin’s recent behavior: His military was indirectly involved in downing a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and his K.G.B. has not only been trying to take a bite out of Ukraine but is nibbling on Estonia, Georgia and Moldova, all under the guise of protecting “Russian speakers.”
I opposed NATO expansion because I believed that there are few global problems that we can solve without the help of Russia. By expanding NATO at the end of the Cold War, when Russia was weak, we helped to cultivate a politics there that would one day be very receptive to Putin’s message that the West is ganging up on Russia. But, that said, the message is a lie. The West has no intention of bringing Ukraine into NATO. And please raise your hand if you think the European Union plans to invade Russia.
Yet Putin just exploits these fears for two reasons. First, he has a huge chip on his shoulder — no, excuse me; he has a whole lumberyard there — of resentment that Russia is no longer the global power it once was. But rather than make Russia great again by tapping its creative people — empowering them with education, the rule of law and consensual politics to realize their full potential — he has opted for the shortcut of tapping his oil and gas wells and seizing power from his people.
And instead of creating a Russia that is an example to its neighbors, he relies on the brute force that his oil and gas can still buy him. While he rails against NATO, he is really afraid of European Union expansion — that Ukrainians would rather embrace the E.U. market and democracy rules than their historical ties to Russia because they know that through the E.U. they can realize potentials that would never be possible with Russia.
By seizing Crimea and stoking up nationalism, Putin was not protecting Russia from NATO. He was protecting himself from the viruses of E.U. accountability and transparency, which, if they took hold in Ukraine, could spread to Moscow, undermining his kleptocracy.
Normally, I wouldn’t care, but when the world is dividing between zones of order and disorder, and the world of order needs to be collaborating to stem and reverse disorder, the fact that Putin is stoking disorder on Russia’s borders, and not collaborating to promote order in the Middle East, is a real problem. What’s more worrying is that the country he threatens most is Russia. If things go bad there — and its economy is already sagging under Western sanctions — the world of disorder will get a lot bigger.
That is why Putin’s leadership matters, and so does the pope’s. I’m focused on Putin because I think he is making the world a worse place for bad reasons, when he could make a difference in Europe and the Middle East with just an ounce more decency and collaboration. America, too, has plenty to learn from the pope’s humility, but say what you will, we’re still focused on trying to strengthen the global commons, whether by protecting people from jihadists in Iraq or fighting Ebola in Africa. We could do more. Putin needs to do a lot more.
“The best leaders don’t set timid and selfish goals that are easy to meet but instead set bold and inclusive goals that are hard to achieve,” remarked Timothy Shriver, the chairman of the Special Olympics, who has just written a book on leadership, “Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most.” “We’re all looking for ways to make sense of a world without a center, but we’ll only find that in people who lead with authentic humility and reckless generosity.”
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OTTAWA — The heart of the Canadian capital was traumatized and placed in emergency police lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman fatally wounded a soldier guarding the National War Memorial, entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed.
It was the second deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces in three days and heightened fears that the country, a strong ally of the United States, had been targeted in organized terrorist attacks.
The Canadian authorities provided F.B.I. agents with the name of the dead Parliament assailant, law enforcement officials in Washington said. A search of F.B.I. databases has so far not come up with anything, they said. They declined to reveal the gunman’s name.
Police officers rushed to secure the Parliament building and move occupants to safety as they hunted for what Canadian news reports said were possibly two or three assailants.
The police declined to specify how many more gunmen they might be seeking, but told reporters at a midafternoon news conference that the situation was “dynamic and unfolding.”
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The soldier died later at a hospital and the gunman was killed inside the Parliament building, the Ottawa police confirmed in a statement. The Canadian Press, without attribution, said the sergeant-at-arms, Kevin Vickers, had killed the gunman.
The shootings came amid heightened concern among Canadians about terrorist plots. Two days earlier, a radical jihadist ran over two soldiers at a suburban Montreal strip mall, killing one of them. Mr. Harper, an outspoken critic of the Islamic State movement and other militant groups, has been considering the introduction of new antiterrorism legislation.
The Ottawa Hospital said in a statement that it was treating three people for wounds related to the shooting.
The shooting upended a busy day in the capital and paralyzed much of the city.
The United States Embassy in Ottawa reported that it was in lockdown mode, in an advisory to American citizens posted on its website.
The police told reporters that they began getting multiple 911 calls about shootings in the Parliament area at 9:52 a.m., just as the leaders of the three major parties in Parliament were holding their weekly meetings, suggesting the possibility of the attack being deliberate timed. Many of the lawmakers were rushed into secure rooms in the basement by guards.
“I heard the shots as I was walking into a conference meeting,” said Chrystia Freeland, a member of Parliament from Toronto, speaking by cellphone from a windowless room in the basement. “I’m surrounded by more than a dozen House of Commons security guards.”
Mr. Harper had been inside Parliament at the time of the shooting but several witnesses saw him taken away in a motorcade. The entire downtown area was placed on lockdown as police reinforcements arrived, with thousands of workers trapped in office towers.
One or more gunmen opened fire at multiple locations in Ottawa on Wednesday.
War Memorial One gunman killed a soldier who was guarding the National War Memorial.
House of Commons Witnesses said the gunman who shot the soldier ran into the House of Commons, firing dozens of rounds.
Rideau Centre Contrary to earlier reports, the Ottawa Police Service said that no incident occurred near the Rideau Centre.
There had been early reports of a shooting in a shopping mall near Parliament but the Ottawa police said those reports were incorrect.
Convoys carrying heavily armed police officers continued to race into the area hours after the first shots were fired, apparently in the hunt for other possible gunmen. But the normally congested streets were otherwise ghostlike. As the hours passed, the police extended their perimeter of closed roads ensnaring the core in a ring of gridlock.
The Ottawa Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned the public in a Twitter post to “stay away from the downtown Ottawa area.”
Witnesses reported seeing the gunman who shot the soldier running into the House of Commons and firing dozens of rounds. Some witnesses said that he had hijacked a passing car to make the trip to the principal Parliament building in the area, known as Parliament Hill. The assailant’s identity and motive were not clear.
A special ambulance, modified from a transit bus to handle disasters, stood nearby Parliament Hill at the Supreme Court, as did several paramedics, some wearing helmets and body armor.
Journalists covering Parliament were ordered by police officers at gunpoint to lie on the floor in the foyer in front of the House of Commons, The Globe and Mail reported on its website. The Globe and Mail’s correspondent, Josh Wingrove, said in a series of Twitter posts that the hallways were filled with the smell of gunpowder.
Dozens of Royal Canadian Mounted Police squad cars as well as one armored police vehicle converged on Parliament Hill’s Centre Block, as heavily armed officers wearing bulletproof vests went into the complex.
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Published on Oct 22, 2014
По данным ООН, в прошлом году около 40 тысяч россиян попросили убежища за границей - на 76 процентов больше, чем в 2012 году. Россия оказалась на втором месте в мире - после Сирии - по числу подавших заявления о предоставлении убежища в другой стране.
Ларри Полтавцев, президент американской организации Spectrum Human Rights, утверждает, что в связи с изменениями российской политики, число русскоязычных представителей сексуальных меньшинств, обратившихся с просьбой о получении политического убежища в США, увеличилось вдвое.
Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/vid...
Ларри Полтавцев, президент американской организации Spectrum Human Rights, утверждает, что в связи с изменениями российской политики, число русскоязычных представителей сексуальных меньшинств, обратившихся с просьбой о получении политического убежища в США, увеличилось вдвое.
Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/vid...
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Georgian Ex-Defense Minister Sentenced To Prison For Tortureby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Georgian Service)
A Georgian court has sentenced former Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia to 7 1/2 years in prison for torturing convicts in 2006.
 УНИАН |
Стрелков пугает Путина скорым разгромом "Новороссии"
УНИАН Бывший командующий формированиями боевиков Донбасса Игорь Стрелков (Гиркин) попросил российские власти предупредить президента Владимира Путина о том, что украинские силовики готовят операцию по разгрому Новороссии. Стрелков обратился к российским властям ... "Стрелков"-Гиркин предупредил Путина о скором разгроме "Новороссии": опубликовано видеоГлавред Стрелков Путину: Разгром "Новороссии" закончится печально для России. ВидеоMIGnews.com.ua Стрелков раскрыл военные планы КиеваVlasti.NET GORDONUA.COM -GIGAmir Все похожие статьи: 144 » |
Mexican military tried to cover up murders of up to 15 people, report says by Associated Press in Mexico City
National human rights commission calls for investigation into deaths of suspected gang members last summer
Soldiers murdered at least 12 and probably 15 people at a warehouse in southern Mexico last summer, the governments human rights commission said in a sweeping indictment of attempts by the military and civilian prosecutors to cover up the crimes.
The commissions report exposed the constantly changing government versions of the killings and the brutality with which they were carried out, and could spell the end of prosecutors efforts to first deny the killings, and then blame them on three rogue soldiers.
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(Reuters) - A Saudi court has sentenced 13 suspected members of an al Qaeda cell - 11 Saudis, a Qatari and an Afghan citizen - to up to 30 years in prison for plotting to attack U.S. soldiers in Qatar and Kuwait, the state news agency SPA reported.
A Pentagon official says the US is "very confident" the vast majority of its weapons bundles ended up in the hands of the Kurds.
 Fortune |
Russia calls Europe's bluff on Ukraine gas deal
Fortune Russia, Ukraine and the European Union failed late Tuesday to strike a deal that would guarantee Russian gas supplies through the coming winter, after the E.U. refused a request by the Russian side to guarantee full and proper payment by Ukraine. Gas Deal Eludes Russia and Ukraine, but Talks Will ContinueNew York Times No Russia-Ukraine gas deal at EU talks; Moscow queries financesReuters Ukraine urges Russia to stop separatist electionsUSA TODAY Washington Post -Bloomberg -Financial Times all 960 news articles » |
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Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin took the opportunity to criticize the United States on October 22, following reports that a U.S. air drop of ammunition and weapons intended for Kurdish militias in Kobani had fallen into the hands of Islamic State (IS) group militants.
 Bloomberg |
Russia Loses Oil Ally in De Margerie After Moscow Crash
Bloomberg Christophe de Margerie's last act as chief executive officer of Total SA (FP) left no room for doubt about his feelings toward Vladimir Putin's Russia. In a Moscow speech hours before the plane crash that took his life two days ago, De Margerie said U ... Russia loses key Western business ally in airport tragedyYahoo News Russia Cites Negligence, Drunkenness on Jet Crash that Killed Total CEOWall Street Journal With De Margerie's Death, Putin Loses a Strong Business AllyBusinessweek Reuters -CBS News all 1,360 news articles » |
Head of Mexican Cartel Appears in US Courtby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A man U.S. authorities call the head of a major Mexican drug gang, the Gulf Cartel, has appeared in a court in Beaumont, Texas. Juan Francisco Saenz-Tamez, from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, was arrested by U.S. federal agents while shopping in Edinburg, Texas on October 9. He is charged with conspiracy in shipping thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border and with money-laundering. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of life in prison. Saenz-Tamez is the latest of several people who have headed the Gulf Cartel following the 2013 arrest of former leader Mario Ramirez-Trevino.
Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee Dies at 93by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
One of the great figures in American journalism has died. Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post, who oversaw coverage of the Watergate scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon, was 93 years old. Bradlee died at his home in Washington of natural causes. Bradlee skyrocketed to fame in the early 1970s - first by spearheading a legal battle by the Post and The New York Times that culminated in a Supreme Court ruling allowing the newspapers to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers - a secret government accounting of America's involvement in Vietnam. Then, he oversaw an investigation by the Post into the burglary at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. His collaboration with young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein eventually brought down the Nixon presidency and established the Washington Post as one of the world's top newspapers. Donald Graham, the former publisher of the Post, hailed Bradlee as "the best American newspaper editor of his time." Donald Graham's mother, Katherine Graham, was publisher of The Washington Post during Bradlee's tenure. Bradlee's Watergate fame was sealed with the movie All the President's Men, in which he was portrayed by actor Jason Robards. After retiring, Bradlee wrote a memoir entitled A Good Life in 1995 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama last year. In a statement released by the White House, Obama called Bradlee "a true newspaperman" who believed journalism was "a public good vital to our democracy." "The standard he set - a standard for honest, objective, meticulous reporting - encouraged so many others to enter the profession," Obama said.
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Obama’s Ebola Czar to Fix Political Damageby webdesk@voanews.com (Luis Ramirez)
President Barack Obama’s new Ebola czar begins his job Wednesday and part of his responsibility will be to help fix the political storm that prominent Ebola cases on U.S. soil have brought. Ron Klain is a lawyer with a reputation as a formidable campaigner and administrator but no public health background. That raised immediate questions last week, when White House spokesman Josh Earnest first discussed his nomination. “What we were looking for is not an Ebola expert, but rather an implementation expert. And that's exactly what Ron Klain is. He is somebody who has extensive experience in the federal government," said Earnest. At the start, the president was adamant in saying the United States was at little or no risk of a serious outbreak, raising the expectation among many Americans that the government would prevent the disease from arriving on U.S. shores. That is where the administration believes Klain can help, says Tevi Troy. Troy ran the White House Domestic Policy Council in the George W. Bush administration and now heads the American Health Policy Institute in Washington. “It seemed that there were problems with competence but also that the administration’s statements, the overly optimistic statements, were out of whack with what’s really happening, so that’s why there needs to be an adjustment," said Troy. With congressional elections just weeks away, the three highest profile Ebola cases in the United States could not have appeared at a worse time for President Obama and the Democrats. The cases drew extensive media attention and raised anxiety among some Americans who questioned his administration’s competence. Along with the public health aspect, analysts say the Obama administration sees the Ebola issue as a messaging problem that may cost Obama’s party public support. Tevi Troy says that partly explains why the president chose a political operative to help fix an image problem. “The American people aren’t that well versed in the details of what’s going on, but they do see the public communications. And this is an extent to which it is a messaging problem," he said. Ron Klain will oversee and coordinate the massive effort that ranges from deploying 4,000 American troops to West Africa to revising and implementing guidelines for workers at U.S. hospitals. After appointing Klain, the administration moved to further stem criticism from Republicans who accuse President Obama of not doing enough to protect the American people from Ebola and have criticized his refusal to impose a travel ban. Officials on Tuesday announced new restrictions on travelers coming from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Passengers from those countries will now have to enter the United States only at certain U.S. airports where they will undergo enhanced screening.
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Column: Republicans Appear on Verge of Senate Controlby webdesk@voanews.com (Jim Malone)
Less than two weeks before U.S. congressional midterm elections, a Republican takeover of the Senate seems likely, though not a certainty. And we may not even know for sure on Election Day, November 4th. Possible runoff elections in Louisiana in December and Georgia in January mean it’s possible that party control of the Senate may not be determined until early next year. But what has become clear of late is that voter concerns about Ebola and the Islamic State are now...
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Op-Ed Contributors: Azerbaijan's Increasingly Intolerant Regime by By GUNAY ISMAYILOVA and SAMIR KAZIMLI
How can Azerbaijan act as host to Europe's guardians of freedom, even as it jails its own people?
 ABC News |
At Berlin Wall, Kerry Warns Against Cold War Redux
ABC News Surrounded by relics of the Cold War, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his German counterpart warned Wednesday against a return to the bitter divide between east and west over the current crisis in Ukraine. Under gloomy skies and a steady rain, Kerry ... Kerry: US Congress important to Iran negotiationsBusinessweek Kerry: Current relations between Israel, Palestinians 'unsustainable'Jerusalem Post Kerry in Berlin to Honor Fall of Berlin Wall, Talk With Chancellor, Foreign MinisterRIA Novosti Reuters -Independent Online all 51 news articles » |
Americans Anxious over Ebolaby webdesk@voanews.com (Carolyn Presutti)
A recent survey shows more than four in 10 Americans are worried they or a relative might catch the Ebola virus, even though so far there has only been three confirmed Ebola cases in the United States. In the world of 24 hour news, it is hard to avoid reports about the Ebola threat. Some say the coverage just increases Ebola anxiety among Americans. Washington resident Jau’Nelle Hugee said Ebola just adds to her already high stress level. Staying healthy is how she fights back. Hugee said she feels very anxious about going to the hospital. A new Gallup Poll shows Americans list Ebola as one of the country’s top ten problems, while another survey shows nearly half of Americans worry they or a loved one will get infected. The American Psychological Association said misinformation causes alarm. After the first person in the U.S. was diagnosed with Ebola and admitted into a Dallas, Texas hospital, the head of the Centers for Disease Control Thomas Frieden was optimistic there would be no other cases. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here,” said Frieden. Then the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died, and two nurses who treated him were diagnosed with Ebola. Frieden was also confident about how the hospital would handle the Ebola case. “Virtually any hospital in the country that has isolation can do Ebola isolation," said Frieden. But it was at “virtually any hospital” that the virus spread to the Dallas nurses. And that’s what panics some Americans. Psychologists say some anxiety is good because it increases awareness. But too much can be paralyzing. Mary Alvord is a psychologist who specializes in anxiety and mood disorders. She said her patients feel anxious when they aren’t in control. “When we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t have the information and so then our imaginations fill in the gaps. Or conversations with other people fill in the gaps,” said Alvord. The best advice is to get facts from the experts. But sometimes even the experts don’t have the answers. “I don’t think we can predict when this epidemic is going to be over,” said Anthony Faucy, an infectious disease expert with the National Institutes of Health. “We may not know what we don’t know,” pointed out Jesse Goodman, of the Walter Reed/Georgetown University hospital. Here’s one thing doctors do know: Ebola is contagious... and fear can be too.
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French Aviation Experts Join Probe into Fatal Moscow Crashby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
French aviation experts arrived in Russia late Tuesday to help investigate the plane crash that killed the chairman of France's leading oil firm earlier this week. The group includes national air safety officials and representatives from the companies that made and operated the private jet, which hit a snow plow during take-off from Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Monday. The plane caught fire, killing its three crew members and Christophe de Margerie, the chairman and CEO of French oil giant Total. The French team is expected to begin work with the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee on Wednesday to look at the plane's black box. Russian officials suspect the plow driver was drunk at the time of the crash. They have opened a criminal investigation into the case. Nicknamed "Big Moustache" for his bushy facial hair, de Margerie became chief executive officer of Total in 2007. He added Chairman to the title three years later. Before becoming CEO, de Margerie headed Total's Middle East division during the United Nations' corruption-marred oil-for-food program in Iraq in the 1990s. De Margerie's death leaves a void at the top of the French firm. The company announced on its website that the board of directors would meet to discuss the leadership position. Total operates with nearly 100,000 employees in more than 130 countries.
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Russian shares opened higher on Wednesday while the ruble was steady, reflecting reviving global risk appetite and shrugging off a failure of Russia and Ukraine to reach a gas deal.
Supreme commander says craft must be brought to surface while Swedish ships comb archipelago outside Stockholm
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Radoslaw Sikorski, former Polish foreign minister and current speaker of parliament, says he was "over-interpreted" when he said Mr Putin suggested Poland and Russia "sort out" Ukraine between them
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The Slow, Dangerous Work Of Recovering Ukraine's War Deadby noreply@rferl.org (Bohdana Kostiuk)
A single volunteer organization has taken on the challenge of retrieving the bodies of slain fighters from the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. We look at the grim work of the Black Tulip organization.
'Spice': The new drug craze that is killing people in Russia
Washington Post (blog) It is cheap and looks like marijuana, but it can have a lethal impact: the drug "spice" is making headlines in Russia. As of Oct. 7, there had been at least two dozen deaths and 700 people hospitalized, according to Viktor Ivanov, the director of ... |
Azerbaijan's opposition National Council of Democratic Forces (NSDS) convened a mass meeting in Baku on October 12 to protest the unprecedentedly harsh crackdown launched by the authorities.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office and security services have begun reviewing safety measures at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport - the site of Christophe de Margerie's fatal accident on Monday night.
Putin Given Country Estates in Crimea by The Moscow Times
As the political and economic costs of Russia's annexation of Crimea escalate, President Vladimir Putin has been handed a few quiet countryside getaways on the peninsula.
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Be it a Russian submarine or be it not, whatever has been lurking beneath the waves of the Stockholm archipelago since last week is not only drawing threats of martial force from Sweden's military, it's also getting on Lasse Schmidt's nerves.
 Kansas City Star |
Ukraine asks for big EU loan during gas standoff
Kansas City Star Ukraine has asked the European Union for an additional loan of $2.5 billion as it struggles to cope with the implications of its standoff with Russia. EU Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor said Tuesday that the Ukraine request for the 2 billion euro loan ... and more » |
Christophe de Margerie, the CEO and chairman of the French energy giant Total who was killed in a private plane accident in Moscow on Monday night, was fond of saying that one couldn’t drill for oil in pleasant, peaceful places — a riposte to environmentalists and human-right activists who have railed against oil companies for cutting lucrative deals with repressive leaders. “I’d be more than delighted to go find energy in Club Med,” he told TIME back in December 2009, seated on a private plane during an overnight flight from Paris to the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain. “But we’ve tried, and did not find it.”
It was a characteristically blunt statement in an industry that is famous for its opaque leadership rather than plain-talking executives. Unlike his peers, De Margerie, 63, seemed unconcerned about what he said publicly. Rather, he appeared to relish his image as an outsized personality whose common touch — despite his wealthy family background — won him friends, as well as some detractors, in difficult, even hostile, places. Explaining his personality, he told TIME that his lifelong shyness (“I hate going on stage, I’m really scared,” he said) had compelled him from childhood to become a keen observer of people, and that he had learned to “listen to people, from the hotel doorman to the King of Saudi Arabia.”
Tributes flooded in on Tuesday after news broke that De Margerie had died on his way back from Moscow where he had attended a gathering of foreign investors and met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at Medvedev’s country residence near the capital. The private plane in which De Margerie was traveling collided with a snowplow at Moscow’s Vnukovo International airport shortly before midnight, killing him and three French crew members on board. Russian investigators quickly blamed the operator of the plow (who survived unscathed), saying that the man was drunk, and adding that air traffic controllers might also have made errors. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov voiced President Vladimir Putin’s condolences, saying that the Russian leader “has long known De Margerie [and] had a close working relationship with him.” In Paris, President François Hollande said De Margerie had “brilliantly defended the level of excellence and success of French technology,” and praised his “independent character” and “originality.”
Indeed, it seemed hundreds of people across the world knew De Margerie — if only as the man with the abundant gray whiskers framing his corpulent cheeks, which had earned him the nickname of “Monsieur Moustache” among his employees.
De Margerie joined the company in 1974 fresh out of university, largely, he told TIME, because it was a 10-minute walk from his family home in western Paris, and because his youthful dream of becoming a motorcycle policeman had come to naught. He rose to head its crucial exploration and production department, helping to expand hugely Total’s operations across the world. He became CEO in 2007 and chairman in 2010. During his career the company faced several serious accusations of wrongdoing. He and other Total executives faced charges in France of helping then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein skirt the U.N.’s oil-for-food sanctions during the 1990s and although they were cleared, the company paid a fine in the U.S. And after an oil tanker broke apart and sank off the Brittany coast in 1999, spewing thousands of tons of oil into the sea and killing an estimated 150,000 sea birds, a Paris court ordered Total to pay more than $250 million in damages.
Apparently unaffected by these controversies, De Margerie steadily built Total into a giant company, opening new fields across the world — including in places from which other energy companies steered clear, like Burma and Yemen. Total is now the fourth biggest Western oil company, after ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, with nearly 100,000 employees in 130 countries andrevenues of nearly $240 billion last year.
But De Margerie will likely be remembered most of all for his insistence that governments should as much as possible leave it to oil companies to decide where to operate. And it is that insistence that led him most regularly into fiery debates with activists, who accused Total of cozying up to dictators in order to win concessions that were worth billions.
De Margerie, unlike other oil executives, never shied away from the argument, telling journalists that the world could face a serious oil shortage — an argument that seems less urgent these days, with declining growth in demand for oil and sinking prices on the world oil markets. “Where is electricity coming from? Flowers?” he told TIME during the flight from Paris to Bahrain in late 2009. “Maybe some day. But what’s available now is from oil and gas,” he said.
De Margerie defended his decision to extract natural gas in Burma and pipe it across the country at a time when U.S. sanctions prevented most American business links with the military government, telling an audience of Columbia University students in 2009, “Who is telling us who are the cowboys and who are the Indians? People who have never been in those countries.” As such, De Margerie nurtured relationships even under sanctions — including in Russia, where Total has a $27-billion deal to produce liquefied natural gas in Siberia.
Gregarious, with a love of fine dining — his grandfather Pierre Taittinger founded the famed Champagne house of that name — De Margerie was known to be excellent company, no matter one’s views. During the all-night flight on the rented private plane he slept little, preferring to talk for hours about everything from politics to the latest celebrity gossip, and to debate which Bordeaux wine on offer in the plane was best. Back then, Total executive Jacques de Boisseson, who heads the company’s exploration and production operations in Russia, told TIME that his boss had a knack for breaking the ice even in formal meetings with heads of state — and even after arriving late, as he frequently did. “He changes a meeting with his personal touch,” de Boisseson said. “He can get very close to very different people.”
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 USA TODAY |
JPMorgan hit with $78 million in EU fines
USA TODAY European authorities fined U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase (JPM) more than $78 million Tuesday for manipulating an international financial benchmark and participating in a derivatives cartel tied to the Swiss franc. Swiss banking giants UBS and Credit ... EU fines JPMorgan, UBS, Credit Suisse for taking part in cartelsReuters RBS blows whistle on Swiss franc bank cartelTelegraph.co.uk Brussels fines global banks €94m for their part in two cartelsFinancial Times New York Times (blog) -TIME -swissinfo.ch all 36 news articles » |
ANKARA (Reuters) - Iranian security services have arrested several suspected spies in the southern province of Bushehr where the country's first nuclear power plant is located, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.
Russian 'Anticorruption' Lawyer Seeks Asylum In U.S.by noreply@rferl.org (Carl Schreck)
Russian lawyer Andrei Stolbunov, who has represented high-profile clients such as late, crusading journalist Mikhail Beketov, says he has applied for asylum in the United States due to "fabricated" criminal charges pending against him in Russia.
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Footage allegedly shows fighters opening boxes of weapons intended for Kurdish forces, as they wait for reinforcements.
Air travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea must rebook their flights if they do not arrive at one of five US airports.
theguardian.com becomes worlds second most popular English-language newspaper website, with 42.6m uniques in September
The Guardian has passed the New York Times to become the worlds second most popular English-language newspaper website, according to the latest monthly traffic figures from comScore.
Last month theguardian.com website network recorded 42.6 million worldwide unique visitors, a 12.3% month-on-month increase, according to the latest comScore report on desktop web usage. The New York Times drew 41.6 million worldwide unique visitors, up 8% month on month.
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The leftist regional bloc ALBA also adopted a 23-point response to the outbreak, which has not spread to Latin America.
Ebola Best Controlled at Sourceby webdesk@voanews.com (Joe DeCapua)
Researchers said the best way to prevent Ebola from spreading from West Africa is to do a better job of controlling it at the source. They said while exit and entry screening at airports is helpful, it cannot replace stemming the number of new infections. The Lancet has published a new research paper that says, “Every month, three Ebola-infected people are likely to leave West Africa through air travel.” It warns that “if the epidemic persists and grows, it’s likely there will be more...
Phthalates are found in numerous items around the home, and even in food packaging. So its a little worrying that theyre being linked to, among other things, a decrease in libido in women
Research into the effects of phthalates on womens libido has yielded some strange headlines. Witness the Daily Telegraphs Rubber ducks can kill your sex drive. Apparently, plastic shower curtains the bath theme is coincidental are also to blame. These, along with countless other household items, contain phthalates (pronounced THALates), a group of chemicals usually introduced to plastics in order to increase their flexibility. The libido problem is best not addressed with a sex toy because lots of those are thought to contain phthalates too. In fact, phthalates there are around 25 of them proliferate in daily life to such an extent that they are present even in the enteric coating of some pills. (Last year, the EU published a draft guideline [pdf] on phthalates in medicinal products.)
The latest study, led by Dr Emily Barrett at the University of Rochester in New York State, was presented this week to the American Society for Reproductive Medicines annual conference in Honolulu. Barrett measured the levels of phthalates in the urine of 360 pregnant women. She collected further evidence by interview, asking the same women how often they lost interest in sex in the months leading up to their pregnancy. Asking people to express publicly a memory of their feelings from several months ago may not appear to be the most watertight research method. However, each of the 360 women showed traces of phthalates in their urine. Those with the most were two and a half times as likely to have low libido as those with the least.
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Turkish PM Unveils Tighter Security Steps After Deadly Protests by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled a tightening of security legislation on Tuesday following deadly protests this month, amid growing fears that the government is using the unrest to tighten its grip on power. Around 40 people were killed in violence that swept southeast Turkey after Kurdish protesters took to the streets to express their fury over the fate of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, besieged by Islamic State militants for a month. Sparked by anger at...
Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total oil company, dies at 63 by Lynn Berry, Lori Hinnant
Christophe de Margerie, the charismatic CEO of Total SA who dedicated his career to the multinational oil company, was killed at a Moscow airport when his private jet collided with a snowplow whose driver was drunk, Russian investigators said Oct. 21. He was 63.
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Moscow is to ban import of all fruits and vegetables from Ukraine starting Wednesday, Russia’s agriculture watchdog said Tuesday.
A British soldier traveling to Sierra Leone to train health workers says there is 'an element of excitement' to the trip. Lance Corporal Richard Blagg, who is one of 135 troops flying on Tuesday, says though their notice period has been short, most of them are excited Continue reading...
USA TODAY |
DHS requires West Africa travelers to arrive at five airports
USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday. Customs and Border ... US to funnel travelers from Ebola-hit region through five airportsReuters US Homeland Security Officials Announce Travel Restrictions From W. AfricaBoston.com Ebola Outbreak: Travelers From West Africa Must Arrive at Five US AirportsNBCNews.com Fox News -Washington Post -ABC News all 105 news articles » |
North Korea has released Jeffrey Fowle, one of three Americans who have been detained by the reclusive country, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
“I am in a position to confirm that Jeffrey Fowle has been allowed to depart the DPRK and is on his way home to his family as we speak,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a briefing.
The U.S. negotiated Fowle’s release through the government of Sweden, which handles consular cases for American citizens in North Korea.
Fowle, who was visiting the country as a tourist, was arrested earlier this year for leaving a bible in the restroom of a club. Two other Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, continue to be held.
North Korea requested that the U.S. provide transportation for Fowle out of the country, and Earnest said the Department of Defense arranged transport for his trip back to the U.S.
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I would know if another prisoner wanted to give me a kickingby Matthew Taylor and Sandra Laville
As report reveals poor safety in a third of UK adult male prisons, ex-inmates reveal impact of lack of support in bullying culture
Each night, shortly after the guards locked Phil Rowland in his cell, the bullying would begin.Prisoners would shout to each other through their windows, trying to set up fights and warning others not to come out in the morning.
I would know straight away if someone wanted to give me a kicking the next day, that is just how it was, said the 17-year-old, who spent two months in a young offender institution before being released in August.
Continue reading...Ukraine to Try Fugitive Yanukovych in Absentiaby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a move to head off discontent before an election, signed a law on Tuesday that will allow ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych to be tried by court in his absence for crimes carried out while he was in power. Poroshenko and his pro-Western government, who are seeking a strong mandate in a parliamentary election on Sunday, face criticism from many for not being tough enough in bringing to justice Yanukovych who fled "Euromaidan" street protests...
Afghanistan Poppy Cultivation Hits Record Highby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Poppy production in Afghanistan grew to an all time high in 2013 despite the United States spending some $7 billion in eradication efforts over the past 10 years. A report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said Afghan farmers grew 209,000 hectares of poppies in 2013, surpassing the previous peak of 193,000 hectares in 2007. It said one reason for the increase was more affordable deep-well technology that has allowed farmers to turn some 200,000...
Sweden Ready to Use Force Against Suspected Underwater Vessel by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Sweden's military says it may use force to bring a suspected foreign vessel photographed underwater in the Stockholm archipelago to the surface. The supreme commander of Swedish armed forces, General Sverker Goeranson, told reporters Tuesday in Stockholm that he was ready to use “weapons if necessary” to force the mystery vessel to surface. Since Friday, naval ships, helicopters and more than 200 troops have searched an area about 30 to 60 kilometers...
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's military is working on two new observations that could be evidence of suspected "foreign underwater activity" near the country's capital, a senior naval officer said on Tuesday.
Published on Oct 21, 2014
The CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, has died in a plane crash in Russia. VIDEOGRAPHICS
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