Hundreds of Russian gunmen surround Ukraine military base

 

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) -- 







Associated Press journalists say hundreds of unidentified gunmen have just arrived outside Ukraine's infantry base in Privolnoye in its Crimea region.

If you think conflict prevention is expensive, try conflict

The awful developments in the Central African Republic are finally drawing the world’s attention to an often forgotten country.

Tragically this is not the first time the country has hit the headlines – there is a clear sense of déjà vu given events ten years ago. Indeed, twenty years ago a local donor learnt that soldiers were about to riot because their wages hadn’t been paid. He desperately ran around the other donors to try to raise the $10 million needed to bridge the gap. No one was willing. It was too much. It was too risky. Aid wasn’t for the military.  After soldiers had torched the capital, donors spent $100 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to fund the cost of reconstruction.

Ukraine after Yanukovych: Dropping the pirate?

President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine clearly had no sense of irony when he placed a mock pirate ship in the lake at the mansion he built on (stolen) state land outside Kyiv. With all his vices, however, as long as he remained in power Russia, the West and Ukrainian politicians had no reason to reconsider their own inadequate policies on Ukraine. Now he has gone, all three must raise their game. This insight looks at each in turn, but focuses on what the EU can do for Ukraine, and what Ukraine needs to do for itself.



For Russia, Yanukovych was an acceptable leader of Ukraine, despite his faults. With his power base near the Russian border and his ties to oligarchs dependent on Russian markets, he was not the man to stand up to Moscow’s pressure to walk away from an association agreement with the EU in autumn 2013. His reward for doing Moscow’s bidding was a one-third cut in the price of Russian gas (to be reviewed quarterly, in case he thought of changing his mind) and a $15 billion loan (about €10 billion), of which $3 billion (€2 billion) was disbursed before his fall. 

Terrorist attack in China leaves dozens dead

More than 10 assailants slashed scores of people with knives at a train station in southern China in what state media said Sunday was a terrorist assault by ethnic separatists from the far west. Twenty-nine slash victims and four attackers were killed and 143 people wounded.

Police fatally shot four of the assailants, captured one and were searching for the others following the attack late Saturday at the Kunming train station in Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. State broadcaster CCTV said two of the attackers were women — one of the slain and the one who was captured and later brought to a hospital for treatment.

Witnesses described assailants dressed in black storming the train station and slashing people indiscriminately with large knives and machetes.

Student Qiao Yunao, 16, was waiting to catch a train at the station when people starting crying out and running, and then saw a man cut another man's neck, drawing blood.

Wikileaks: Από το 2006 προειδοποιούσαν αμερικανοί διπλωμάτες στην Ουκρανία για την πιθανή διαίρεση της χώρας - Τα ήξεραν όλα

Ένα δίκτυο πληροφοριών υπό την αναπληρωτή επικεφαλής της αποστολής των ΗΠΑ στο Κίεβο, Sheila Gwaltney - η οποία υπηρετεί σήμερα ως υψηλόβαθμη διπλωμάτης στην πρεσβεία των ΗΠΑ στη Μόσχα, μετά την αποχώρηση του Πρέσβη Michael McFaul - προειδοποιεί για μια πιθανή ρωσική απειλή για την Κριμαία, το " μαλακό υπογάστριο" της Ουκρανίας.

Emerging Oil Venues Attracting Pirates

The recent hijacking of a ship off the coast of emerging oil darling Angola, and the apparent heist of $8 million in fuel, helps us trace how piracy on the high seas has shifted geographically and how it changes and adapts to new security efforts.

Civil war-torn and anarchic Somalia used to steal all the piracy headlines—not so anymore. Pirates were pushed off the Somali coast, and along with some other ingenious adaptations to their modus operandi, they moved with the geographical—and increasingly geological—times. Where the oilmen go, the pirates will follow.

Ουκρανία: Ο «ακήρυχτος πόλεμος» του φυσικού αερίου

Οικονομική παράμετρος της κρίσης

Η κλιμάκωση της έντασης στην Κριμαία και τα τύμπανα πολέμου που ηχούν εκκωφαντικά πλέον στην Ουκρανία “κρύβουν” μια παράμετρο της κρίσης που άπτεται του ενδιαφέροντος όχι μόνο της Ρωσίας, αλλά και της κεντρικής Ευρώπης.

Κυπριακό: Κοιτάζουν προς ενδιάμεση συμφωνία – Οι ΗΠΑ εργάζονται για «Γενικό Πλαίσιο Λύσης» στο τέλος του 2014

Του Κώστα Βενιζέλου

Στο σενάριο της ενδιάμεσης λύσης στρέφονται οι Αμερικανοί, θεωρώντας πως αυτό μπορεί να βοηθήσει τις προσπάθειες ακόμη και στην περίπτωση αδιεξόδου. Σύμφωνα με ασφαλείς πληροφορίες, οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, οι οποίες έχουν αναλάβει πλήρως τα ηνία στο Κυπριακό αφήνοντας τους άλλους παίκτες στο περιθώριο, φαίνεται να επεξεργάζονται τώρα ένα σενάριο για την επίτευξη ενδιάμεσης συμφωνίας στο Κυπριακό, θέτοντας ως χρονικό ορίζοντα το τέλος του 2014.

Ukraine mobilizes troops after obama-putin talk

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Ukraine is mobilizing troops around the country, official says
• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemns Russia's "invasion and occupation''
• Putin says Russia reserves the right to defend its interests and people
• Obama made clear violating Ukraine's sovereignty would impact Russia's standing