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| Bangkok boating lake park becomes focus of protests Friday, Feb 28, 2014 07:10 PM PST  By Nick Macfie BANGKOK (Reuters) - A green park in downtown Bangkok was slowly beginning to resemble a tent city on Saturday, a day after anti-government protesters said they would clear camps blocking key intersections and congregate in the park instead. The protesters have blocked some streets since mid-January in their bid to push out Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and eradicate the influence of her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, seen as the real power in Thailand. "We will stop closing Bangkok and give every intersection back to Bangkokians. We will stop closing Bangkok from Monday," protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told supporters on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Obama warns Russia of 'costs' for intervention in Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 07:05 PM PST  By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday that military intervention in Ukraine would lead to "costs," as tension with old foe President Vladimir Putin rose in a Cold War-style crisis. "We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," he told reporters. Obama and European leaders would consider skipping a G8 summit this summer in the Russian city of Sochi if Moscow intervenes militarily in Ukraine, a senior U.S. official said. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. regulator seeks to block Alaskan mine to protect salmon Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:52 PM PST By Julie Gordon VANCOUVER (Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators moved on Friday to block development of the Pebble mine in Alaska, which could be one of the largest copper projects in the world, citing potential "irreversible harm" to the state's salmon fishery. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it has initiated a rarely used process under the Clean Water Act to "identify appropriate options to protect" the Bristol Bay fishery from the impact of the proposed mine. The decision follows a report in January that found large-scale mining would pose serious risks to salmon and native cultures in the pristine corner of southwest Alaska. "Extensive scientific study has given us ample reason to believe that the Pebble mine would likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on the Bristol Bay watershed and its abundant salmon fisheries," EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. sees Russian troop movements into Crimea, officials say Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:33 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has seen indications of Russian troop movements from and into Ukraine's Crimea region on Friday but their numbers are unclear, as are the intentions of those movements, U.S. officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. One U.S. official said some of the movements could be designed to bolster protection of Russian forces there. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech) Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's U.N. envoy: 'We are strong enough to defend ourselves' Friday, Feb 28, 2014 03:20 PM PST By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Ukraine's U.N. ambassador on Friday accused Russia of illegally sending military planes and attack helicopters across the border of the former Soviet republic and declared that his country was strong enough to defend itself. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev was speaking to reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council in a closed-door session on the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Armed men took control of two airports in Ukraine's autonomous Crimea region earlier on Friday in what the country's leadership described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces. Russia denied involvement in the airport seizures. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's defense ministry warns of action by 'radical' forces in Crimea Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:45 PM PST Ukraine's defense ministry said it had information that unknown "radical forces" were planning to try to disarm its military units in Crimea early Saturday morning and warned against such action. "In the case of such unknown actions, the Ukrainian armed forces will act in accordance with the laws of Ukraine and the regulations of the Ukrainian armed forces," the ministry said in a statement on its Website. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Crimea deployments based on agreements with Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:25 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Any Russian military movements in Crimea are in keeping with Moscow's existing arrangement with Ukraine on the deployment of military assets in the former Soviet republic, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Friday. "We are acting within the framework of that agreement," he told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He did not give any details or comment on specifics of any Russian military deployments on Ukrainian territory. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Chris Reese) Full Story | Top |
| U.S. "gravely disturbed" by reports of Russian military deployments in Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:08 PM PST The United States on Friday said it was gravely concerned by reports that Russia has deployed military assets in Ukraine's autonomous region of Crimea and called on Moscow to pull back. "We are gravely disturbed by reports of Russian military deployments into the Crimea," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Ukraine. She also called for an independent international mediation mission to be quickly dispatched to Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Jailed Venezuela protest leader mocks Maduro's talks Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:58 PM PST  By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis CARACAS (Reuters) - Jailed Venezuelan protest leader Leopoldo Lopez scoffed on Friday at President Nicolas Maduro's efforts to open talks with opponents and businessman after a month of demonstrations and violence that have killed at least 17 people. Maduro, 51, seems to have weathered the worst of an explosion of protests against his socialist government that exposed deep discontent with economic problems and brought the nation's worst unrest in a decade. Some students are still setting up roadblocks and clashing with police in Caracas and the western state of Tachira. But the number of protesters has dropped, and many Venezuelans have begun heading for the beach to enjoy a long weekend for Carnival celebrations. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine leader's son ran major business empire Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:55 PM PST By Stephen Grey KIEV (Reuters) - On a street in ousted President Yanukovich's political stronghold, Donetsk, stands the imposing headquarters of the Mako Group, a Ukrainian banking-to-construction conglomerate. The 20-storey block is modern but built in the decorated style of the Stalin era and contains a hotel, restaurant, bank, and Mako's unmarked offices - all, according to residents, belonging to Yanukovich's eldest son Oleksander, 40. The business activities of Oleksander, who trained as a dentist, have long been the object of scrutiny by critics of Yanukovich. Two opposition research groups, PEPWatch and Anticorruption Action Centre, say on yanukovich.info, a website they jointly run, that his assets have risen by 7,285 percent in three years. Full Story | Top |
| France striving to stop Central African Republic split, Hollande says Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:52 PM PST  By Serge Leger Kokpakpa BANGUI (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande told the Central African Republic on Friday that his troops would work to stop the country splitting in two and endeavor to disarm rival fighters engaged in months of inter-religious killing. Arriving in the capital Bangui from Nigeria, where he attended unification celebrations, Hollande met the interim president, religious leaders and addressed French troops. "We need to stop score-settling, establish the authority of government, allow it to engage in dialogue and avoid any temptation to partition the east of the Central African Republic," Hollande told French soldiers in a helicopter hangar at the airport in Bangui. Full Story | Top |
| Son of Ukraine's ex-president says Swiss bank freeze will hit coal exports Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:39 PM PST By Stephen Grey KIEV (Reuters) - Switzerland's freezing of bank accounts linked to the family of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich could reduce coal exports from Ukraine, a company owned by his son warned on Friday. In a statement to Reuters, a Ukrainian conglomerate, the Mako Group, based in Yanukovich's political stronghold Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, confirmed it was 100 percent owned by Oleksander Yanukovich, a son of the former president. His and Oleksander's foreign assets were frozen by Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein earlier in the day. Mako said that its Swiss arm - the Mako Trading Company (Switzerland) - "carries out legal trading activity (coal exports) from Ukraine to more than 20 countries". Full Story | Top |
| In Crimean port city, dreams of a return to Russia's fold Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:20 PM PST By Alissa de Carbonnel SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Flying the Russian flag, men in combat fatigues wave down cars at a roadblock made of plywood and tyres outside this port city in Ukraine's southern region of Crimea that dates from Tsarist times. They are ethnic Russians intent on defending Sevastopol against people they regard as Ukrainian nationalists who they fear may arrive from the capital Kiev to impose their rule after ousting President Viktor Yanukovich. "We don't want to be ruled by fascists," said Oleg Golovan, a retired Russian military officer who is in charge of the checkpoint about 20 km (12 miles) outside the city. Full Story | Top |
| Armed men seize two airports in Ukraine's Crimea, Russia denies involvement Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:06 PM PST  By Alissa de Carbonnel and Alessandra Prentice SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region on Friday in what Ukraine's government described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces, stoking tension between Moscow and the West. More than 10 Russian military helicopters also flew into Ukrainian airspace over the region on Friday, Kiev's border guard service said, accusing Russian servicemen of blockading one of its units in the port city of Sevastopol, where part of Moscow's Black Sea fleet is based. Tensions have been rising on the Black Sea peninsula, the only Ukrainian region that has an ethnic Russian majority and the last major bastion of resistance to the overthrow of Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich as president almost a week ago. Moscow has promised to defend the interests of its citizens in Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Venezuela unrest chokes transport, worsens economic woes Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:04 PM PST By Eyanir Chinea CARACAS (Reuters) - Anti-government protests in Venezuela have left some 1,500 trucks that distribute about half the country's vegetables sitting idle in the western city of La Grita, waiting for roads blocked by demonstrators to be re-opened. At least 17 people have been killed in unrest that has posed the most serious challenge yet to socialist President Nicolas Maduro's 10-month-old administration. Some transport companies have idled trucks due to the threat of violence as protesters face off against security forces at barricades, especially in the western state of Tachira. "It's not just that we could lose our trucks, or their contents, we could lose our lives too," said Freddy Rosales, spokesman for a group of vegetable producers in La Grita. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine says Russia follows pre-Georgia war scenario in Crimea Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:44 PM PST Ukraine's acting president accused Russia of open aggression on Friday and said it was provoking his country in the same way as it had Georgia before going to war in 2008. Urging President Vladimir Putin to stop "provocations" in Ukraine's Russian-speaking Crimea, Oleksander Turchinov recalled Russia's intervention in Georgia over breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have large ethnic Russian populations. Russia's Black Sea fleet has a base in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. Full Story | Top |
| Tunisian Prime Minister replaces Islamist governors ahead of election Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:41 PM PST  Tunisia's prime minister replaced most state governors on Friday, bowing to a demand from secular parties to purge Islamists From key jobs before elections this year. After a political crisis brought on by the killing of two opposition leaders last year, the ruling Islamist party stepped down to allow a caretaker government to take over until elections later this year under a new constitution. The secular opposition accused the Ennahda Islamist party of placing party officials in senior state jobs just before it quit power, and had asked that the appointments be reviewed. "Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa decided to change 18 out of 24 governors to overhaul the administration," Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou said on the outcome of that review. Full Story | Top |
| Colombian rebels want U.S. to participate in peace talks Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:37 PM PST  By Rosa Tania Valdés HAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels asked for the United States to join its peace talks with the Colombian government, saying on Friday it would speed up the process because Washington was making all the important decisions anyway. The U.S. State Department said it disagreed with FARC's assessment and was unaware of any effort to join the talks. Colombia did not respond to the request, which it would likely reject on grounds of national sovereignty. "We are discussing a matter of interest for the United States," Ivan Marquez, head of the FARC's negotiating team in Havana, told reporters before entering the latest round of talks. Full Story | Top |
| Russian cooperation crucial for resolving Ukraine's crisis: EU official Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:22 PM PST By Daniel Bases NEW YORK (Reuters) - Any peaceful resolution of Ukraine's political turmoil must have Russia in the mix out of concern the two nations could descend into open warfare, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani said on Friday. "Of course it is important to back democracy, but at the same time it is important to work with Russia. Because without strong cooperation with Russia it is impossible to have a good solution. Tajani was alluding to the 2008 war involving Russia and another former Soviet republic, Georgia, over two Moscow-backed breakaway regions, Abhkazia and South Ossetia. Full Story | Top |
| Chilean indigenous leader jailed in high-profile murder case Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:16 PM PST A court on Friday sentenced a Mapuche indigenous leader to 18 years in prison for his participation in the killing of a couple during an arson attack last year in a high-profile case that rekindled divisions over land rights in Chile. A Temuco criminal tribunal found Celestino Cordova, a 27-year-old traditional healer, guilty of taking part in the deadly attack on the elderly Luchsinger landowners on their estate in the southern Araucania region. Many Mapuche, famous for their fierce resistance to the Spanish conquest, say they were robbed by the Chilean government's often brutal colonization policy in the 19th century. That has bred deep-seated Mapuche resentment against the descendants of immigrants such as the Luchsingers, whose ancestors reportedly arrived in Southern Chile in 1883. Full Story | Top |
| IMF's Lagarde says no need to panic on Ukraine aid request Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:14 PM PST By Anna Yukhananov WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday that there was no need to "panic" in terms of delivering economic aid to Ukraine, as she cast doubt the nation would need as much immediate help as its new leaders claim. "We do not see anything that is critical, that is worthy of panic at the moment," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters. "We would certainly hope that the (Ukrainian) authorities refrain from throwing lots of numbers which are really meaningless until they've been assessed properly." Ukraine's government coffers have been depleted by huge debt repayments, efforts to protect its currency and high energy costs. The country's new leaders, appointed after President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted last weekend, say they need $35 billion over two years to avoid default, and may need $4 billion immediately. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine accuses Russia of aggression, following Georgia scenario Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:09 PM PST Ukraine's acting president accused Russia of open aggression on Friday and said Moscow was following a similar scenario to the one before it went to war with Georgia in 2008. Urging President Vladimir Putin to stop "provocations" in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, Oleksander Turchinov drew a comparison to Russia's intervention in Georgia over the breakaway Akhazia region which has a large ethnic Russian population. "Russia has sent forces into Crimea ... they are working on scenarios which are fully analogous with Abkhazia, when having initiated a military conflict, they started to annex the territory," he said in televised comments. Full Story | Top |
| Panama Canal says deal with consortium to be signed next week Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:06 PM PST  By Lomi Kriel PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The Panama Canal Authority said on Friday it expects to sign a financing deal next week to finish work on expanding the waterway and end a dispute over cost overruns that has held up the multibillion-dollar project. Following bitter wrangling with the Spanish-led building consortium since the start of the year, the authority announced a preliminary deal Thursday night. Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano said he expected the agreement to be signed on Thursday. The deal with the construction group led by Spanish builder Sacyr and Italy's Salini Impregilo foresees work finishing by December 2015 and would require the canal and the consortium to immediately each inject $100 million. Full Story | Top |
| Cuban agent released from U.S. prison gets hero's welcome Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:04 PM PST  By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro and top leaders of the Cuban government and Communist Party greeted a Cuban intelligence agent with a hero's welcome upon his return to Havana on Friday, a day after his release from a U.S. prison. Fernando Gonzalez, 50, had served more than 15 years for spying on Cuban-American exile groups in Miami and is one of the "Cuban Five" whose detentions have complicated the already tense relations between the United States and Cuba. The United States deported him on Friday, and he told reporters he was still in handcuffs until the plane touched down at the Havana airport. Three of the original five remain in prison in the United States, and all are treated as heroes in Cuba, where their cases are considered emblematic of U.S. hostility toward its neighbor 90 miles away. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. State Department official to make delayed trip to India next week Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:55 AM PST  By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior official of the U.S. State Department will travel to India next week, a visit originally scheduled for January that was postponed due to a dispute over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York. Nisha Biswal, the U.S. assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, will visit Bangalore and New Delhi from March 4-6, the State Department said. It will be her first trip to India since taking up her position last year. "During her visit, Assistant Secretary Biswal will seek to further broaden and deepen the U.S.-India relationship, which President Obama has called "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century," the State Department said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| U.N. Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Ukraine crisis Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:33 AM PST By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council will hold a closed-door emergency session on the escalating crisis in Ukraine on Friday at the request of the new Kiev government, which warned that the situation in Crimea threatened Ukraine's territorial integrity. Armed men took control of two airports in Ukraine's autonomous Crimea region earlier on Friday in what the country's leadership described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces. Russia denied involvement in the airport seizures. "Due to the deterioration of the situation in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Ukraine, which threatens territorial integrity of Ukraine ... I have the honor to request an urgent meeting of the Security Council in accordance with Articles 34 and 35 of the U.N. Charter," Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev wrote to Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite. Full Story | Top |
| White House to Russia: intervention in Ukraine would be grave mistake Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:27 AM PST The White House urged Russia to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine on Friday, saying any intervention would be a grave mistake. White House spokesman Jay Carney's comment came as reports surfaced of armed men having taken control of two airports in the Crimea region of southern Ukraine in what the new Ukrainian leadership called an invasion. He said Washington is concerned about reports that there might have been an intervention by "an outside state." The United States has sided with the pro-Western Ukrainian leadership that took over after the departure of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovich early this week. Full Story | Top |
| Pope skips seminary visit because of slight fever -Vatican Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:26 AM PST  By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis skipped a planned visit to student priests at a Rome seminary on Friday evening because he was suffering from a slight fever and was advised to rest, the Vatican said. "Pope Francis will not go to the Roman Seminary tonight because of a slight indisposition with a slight fever," chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement. "His doctor has advised him to skip the planned event and rest." The cancellation came after several weeks of hectic activities for the pope as he approaches the first anniversary of his election in two weeks. They included meetings all last week with visiting prelates to discuss the future of the Vatican's central bureaucracy, Vatican finances, and to prepare for a major Church meeting on the family scheduled for October. Full Story | Top |
| UK's Hague to hold talks in Ukraine on Sunday with new leadership Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:15 AM PST British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday he would travel to Ukraine at the weekend to hold talks with the new leadership, after Prime Minister David Cameron told Russia to respect the volatile nation's territorial integrity. I will travel to Kyiv on Sunday for talks with the new government," Hague said on Twitter. Hague's announcement followed a phone call between Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in which the British government said the two men had agreed that the elections that the interim government has pledged to hold were the best way to secure a positive future for Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine protests to Russia over airspace violation Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:53 AM PST KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine protested on Friday to Russia that it had violated its airspace and broken the terms of an agreement under which Moscow leases a base for its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. The Foreign Ministry gave no details but the Ukrainian border guard service said more than 10 Russian military helicopters had flown from Russia into Ukrainian airspace over the Crimea region. Russian servicemen also blocked off a unit of Ukrainian border guards near the port city of Sevastopol, where part of Russia's Black Sea fleet is based, a Reuters correspondent said. ... Full Story | Top |
| Ukrainian airline says Crimean airspace closed Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:18 AM PST KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian International, Ukraine's biggest airline, said on Friday the airspace over the Crimea region had been closed after its main airport was taken over by armed men. Interfax reported earlier on Friday that no flights from the national capital Kiev were being allowed to Simferopol international airport. But an airport information official said only one flight from Kiev had been delayed, and other flights had been coming and going from Simferopol without any problems. (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki, Editing by Timothy Heritage) Full Story | Top |
| Crackdown on share fraud yields 110 arrests in Europe and U.S. Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:07 AM PST Anti-fraud police have arrested 110 people in Europe and the United States in an international crackdown on gangs selling bogus shares that cost some investors their life savings, British authorities said on Friday. City of London Police, responsible for law enforcement in the British capital's financial district, said the arrests, made in a series of raids this week, arose out of a two-year investigation into "boiler room" operations believed to be responsible for millions of pounds of investment fraud. Boiler rooms consist of teams of young men cold-calling potential investors offering them worthless, overpriced or even non-existent shares using high-pressure sales techniques. Codenamed Operation Rico, the investigation led to 84 arrests in Spain, 20 in Britain, four in Serbia and two in the United States, with most of those arrested on suspicion of money laundering and fraud, City of London police said. Full Story | Top |
| Italy approves decree to stave off bankruptcy for Rome council Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:07 AM PST  By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) - Matteo Renzi's new Italian government on Friday approved an emergency decree to bail out Rome city council whose mayor had warned the capital would have to halt essential services unless it got financial help. The decree transfers 570 million euros ($787 million) to the city to pay the salaries of municipal workers and ensure services such as public transport and garbage collection. Renzi, under pressure from critics who say Rome is getting favorable treatment, attached conditions to the bailout. Rome must spell out how it will rein in its debt, justify its current levels of staff, seek more efficient ways of running its public services and sell off some of its real estate, the government decree said. Full Story | Top |
| EU says Van Rompuy, Russia's Putin discuss Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:54 AM PST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the financial and security situation in Ukraine in a phone call on Friday, a European Union spokesman said. The EU gave no details of the call, which came amid international concern over the situation in Ukraine's Crimea region where armed men took control of two airports on Friday. Europe is also discussing a range of options for short- and longer-term financial assistance to Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted after months of protests. ... Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar orders aid group to stop work, patients at risk: MSF Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:50 AM PST  By Jared Ferried YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has ordered Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to halt all its work in the country, leaving tens of thousands of people without vital care, the medical aid group said on Friday. MSF did not give a reason for the suspension, but local media reported government officials had been angered by the charity's public comments on the western strife-torn state of Rakhine. The Nobel Prize-winning aid group has been giving care there to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare. The United Nations and human rights groups say at least 40 Rohingya were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians in a restricted area of the state in January. Full Story | Top |
| Fugitive Yanukovich urges Russia's Putin to take firm line over Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:47 AM PST By Denis Pinchuk ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) - Viktor Yanukovich urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a bolder line with Ukraine's new rulers who had ousted him, telling him on Friday that Russia could not remain indifferent to what had happened in the former Soviet republic. Appearing in southern Russia where he has taken refuge since fleeing Ukraine on February 21, Yanukovich said: "I think that Russia should act and is obliged to act. "Knowing Vladimir Putin's personality, I am surprised that he is still saying nothing. Russia cannot be indifferent, cannot be a bystander watching the fate of as close a partner as Ukraine," the 63-year-old Yanukovich said. Full Story | Top |
| German court rules Auschwitz suspect, 94, unfit to stand trial Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:29 AM PST  A German court ruled on Friday that a 94-year-old man was unfit to stand trial on charges of being an accessory to murder during his time as an alleged former guard at Nazi Germany's Auschwitz death camp. Judges at Ellwangen court in southwest Germany said the accused, named by the Simon Wiesenthal Nazi-hunting group as Hans Lipschis, suffered from worsening dementia and would be unable to follow what would have amounted to a long trial. Lipschis was arrested in May last year as part of a renewed campaign to bring lower-level Nazi collaborators to justice before they die. He was number four on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre list of most wanted Nazi criminals and was charged with being an accessory to 10,510 counts of murder. Full Story | Top |
| Syrian air strikes kill three near Lebanese border Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:13 AM PST Syrian air strikes near the Lebanese border town of Arsal killed three people and wounded seven on Friday, security sources said, in further spillover from Syria's civil war that has raised tensions across Lebanon. The sources said the dead were believed to be rebels involved in Syria's conflict but their nationality remained unclear. Mainly Sunni Syrian insurgents and Sunni allies from Lebanon are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad and they often use Arsal as a border crossing. Rockets fired by Sunni militants inside Syria later in the day wounded a woman and her two children in the Lebanese town of Britel, a stronghold of the pro-Assad Shi'ite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, 35 km (20 miles) south of Arsal. Full Story | Top |
| Conciliatory words hide Putin's anger over Ukraine Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:11 AM PST By Elizabeth Piper MOSCOW (Reuters) - At almost midnight and with little fanfare, the Kremlin put out a statement outlining President Vladimir Putin's orders on Ukraine - and they were as conciliatory as earlier Russian announcements had been confrontational. Ordering his government to work with Ukrainian and foreign partners to find a financial package to shore up Ukraine's collapsing finances, Putin struck a measured note compared to the military muscle-flexing of other officials, who had put thousands of Russian troops on high alert. As the Kremlin issued its statement, armed men in Ukraine's Crimea region, thought to be ethnic Russians, were holed up in the local parliament. Within hours, Ukraine had accused Russian forces of taking over two airports on the Black Sea peninsula, despite Moscow's denials. Full Story | Top |
| EU offer of free-trade pact with Ukraine still stands, Brussels ready to sign: EU trade chief Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:06 AM PST By Robin Emmott ATHENS (Reuters) - Ukraine would see the economic benefits of a free-trade deal with the European Union within weeks of signing the accord, helping the near-bankrupt nation's standing in the eyes of its creditors, the EU's trade chief said on Friday. Despite the upheaval since pro-EU Ukrainians drove the Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich from power, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told Reuters that Brussels' offer of a comprehensive trade deal was Ukraine's for the taking. We are ready to sign when Ukraine is ready to sign," De Gucht said in an interview following a meeting of EU trade ministers in Athens. "The benefits will be seen a couple of weeks after the signature." Unrest erupted in Ukraine after Yanukovich abandoned the proposed trade pact with the European Union in November and turned instead towards Moscow, which offered a $15 billion bailout and cheaper supplies of natural gas. Full Story | Top |
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