KIEV, February 10 -- Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine say they have completely surrounded the strategic town of Debaltseve, a claim denied by the Ukrainian army who insist the fighting is ongoing. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on Tuesday said its fighters have cut off the main supply road into the government-held town - which is in between the separatist hubs of Luhansk and Donetsk. The route had also been used as a humanitarian corridor in recent weeks, allowing civilians to flee the fighting. "We have just spoken to a rebel separatist commander who tells us Debaltseve is completely surrounded by separatists. As he understands it the separatists are not in the town, the Ukrainian military are still inside," he said. "The military are denying this, saying there are ongoing battles on the main supply route out of the city. We were on that supply route yesterday and the Ukrainian military we saw were in a state of disarray. "They wanted us out immediately and were pulling back their heavy weaponry. "The situation is very fluid and there is no direct contact with the separatist fighters." Major rail hub Debaltseve is of great strategic importance to both sides in the conflict as it is the site of a major rail hub that connects the rebel-controlled DPR with Russia. "We have spoken to separatist commanders in recent weeks and they have said they are not interested in pushing for peace until they have taken the town," correspondents say. "There is a greater sense of confidence now among the separatists, whereas the general atmosphere among the Ukrainian troops is one of panic, especially on that main supply route." Separatist fighters from the DPR urged Ukrainian forces to surrender and leave the Debaltseve trap peacefully, said spokesman Eduard Basurin. "We guarantee security to all who lay down their arms. The others will be eliminated. If the enemy attempts to attack in another place, the strike will be repelled. Some 5,000 - 6,000 Ukrainian servicemen have been trapped in Debaltseve," Basurin said. Ukraine's military said no reports had confirmed the rebels' claims that the town was encircled. "Fighting is on to control the Artemnivsk-Debaltseve motorway, where a military confrontation continues," military operation spokesman Andriy Lysenko told Interfax on Monday evening. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday that Russian-backed fighters had launched an artillery strike on the town of Kramatorsk, which is more than 50km (30 miles) away from the front line. Poroshenko said the first round of rocket fire hit the headquarters of the Ukrainian command in eastern Ukraine and the second landed in a residential area. The government-controlled Donetsk regional administration said seven people were killed, while 16 people were injured in the residential area and 10 more at the military headquarters.
0 Comments
MOSCOW, February 8 -- The leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine are expected to hold telephone negotiations on Sunday that will culminate the shuttle efforts to find a way out the Ukraine crisis that were taken at the very top level this weekend. "Work (on the Ukraine crisis) will continue and its preliminary results will be summed up next Sunday during a summit-level telephone conversation to be held in the "Normandy format", the Russian president’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said at night after the five-hour talks in the Kremlin last Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The European leaders arrived in Moscow last Thursday, February 5, after consultations with Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko whom they had met in Kiev. "Judging from proposals formulated by the French president and German chancellor, the text of a possible joint document on implementation of the Minsk agreements is being in the making. The document is supposed to include proposals made by the Ukrainian president and initiatives formulated today (on Friday) and added by Russian President Vladimir Putin," the Kremlin spokesperson said adding the text and the proposals would be submitted for approval to all the sides in the Ukraine conflict. The participants in the negotiations preferred not to elaborate on the essence of the talks or the initiatives under discussion. The Russian president also refrained from making any public assessment of the Friday consultations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who is also in Munich held a series of consultations on the Ukraine crisis, including with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier. In his speech at the conference, Lavrov said that Russia was ready to act as a guarantor of the future agreements between Kiev, Lugansk and Donetsk. Russia confirmed its stance that the sides in conflict should establish a direct dialogue with each other.
An the unveiling Dartford council's Jeremy Kite said, 'Platform 2 has a small but important role in pop music history. I hope that in the years ahead many thousands of rail passengers will enjoy looking at the plaque and realising the part the station played in bringing The Rolling Stones together.' Keith Richards described the day he met Mick Jagger on October 17, 1961 in his autobiography 'Life'. In 1962, he wrote a letter to his Aunty Patty. 'You know I was keen on Chuck Berry and thought I was the only fan for miles but one morning on the Dartford Station I was holding one of Chuck's records when a guy I knew at primary school 7-11 years y'know came up to me. He's got every record Chuck Berry ever made and all his mates have too, they are all rhythm and blues fans, real R&B I mean (not this Dinah Shore, Brooke Benton crap). Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Chuck, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and all the Chicago bluesmen. Real lowdown stuff, marvellous. Bo Diddley, he's another great. 'Anyway the guy on the station, he's called Mick Jagger . Mick is the greatest R&B singer this side of the Atlantic'. MOSCOW, February 8 -- The Russian Emergencies Ministry relief convoy bound for Donbas has arrived at the Russian state border in the Rostov region, Oleg Voronov, the deputy head of the ministry’s national crisis management center says. "The customs formalities at the Donetsk and Matveyev Kurgan border crossing posts are over and now head for Donetsk and Lugansk," he said. Representatives of Ukraine’s customs and border services and OSCE monitors are helping to inspect the vehicles. More than 170 trucks will deliver over 1,800 tonnes of relief cargoes such as food, sanitary essentials, building materials and other life necessities for the population of the conflict-stricken Donetsk and Lugansk regions. "The relief convoy was formed in the territory of the Rostov region over the past week. Cargoes were delivered from various parts of Russia," Voronov said adding that the Russian Emergencies Ministry had practiced to perfection all the mechanisms of dispatching aid to Donbas from the convoy’s formation to the aid’s delivery to the final destination in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. "The aid convoy is going to split in two parts: more than a hundred vehicles will deliver over 1,100 tonnes of relief aid to Donetsk; the other 70 trucks with more than 700 tonnes of relief cargoes will head for Lugansk," Voronov clarified. "The drivers know the route very well. They have already delivered aid to the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, sometimes in harsh weather conditions in which they had to display self-possession and concentrate attention," the Emergencies Ministry representative said. On February 7, the Emergencies Ministry staff working at the Donskoy rescue center allowed journalists to look inside the trucks, which the latter chose to their own discretion. Correspondents say that some trucks contained canned food and sacks with rice and flour; others were loaded with building materials, which the people of Donbas needed urgently to restore and repair buildings damaged by shells. The Russian Emergencies Ministry leadership has said many times that the ministry will continue sending relief aid to Donbas so long as the region needs it. Another aid convoy will head for Donbas on February 15. The Russian Emergencies Ministry truck convoys have delivered more than 16,000 tonnes of relief cargoes to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions since August last year. LONDON, February 3 -- The Islamic State (ISIS) has published a video that purportedly shows burning of the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassabeh alive. The 26-year-old First Lieutenant was taken hostage in ISIS's stronghold of Raqqa after his F-16 jet crashed. ISIS members have claimed to have shot down Kassasbeh's plane with a heat-seeking missile. The armed group that controls vast swathes of Syria and Iraq has been demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for Kassasbeh's life. Rishawi has been held by Jordanian authorities since 2005, after being arrested and later sentenced to death "for conspiracy to carry out terror acts" after a triple bomb attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in November 2005. Pyongyang, February 1 -- Marshal Kim Jong Un published work "Let Us Expedite the Construction of the Livestock Breeding Base in the Sepho Area and Bring about a New Turn in Developing Animal Husbandry" on Jan. 28. In the work he stressed the need to provide the people, who have overcome all sorts of difficulties and trials together with the party, entrusting everything to it, with an affluent and happy life with no more to desire in the world at an early date. The most important task facing us today is to rapidly improve the standard of people's living, he said, adding to this end it is imperative to solve the food problem by developing stock-breeding and fishery while doing farming well. The Workers' Party of Korea set forth the policy of reclaiming the Sepho tableland to develop stock-breeding and turning it into a large-scale stock-breeding base, he noted. To reclaim the Sepho tableland and turn it into a stock-breeding base is one of the earnest behests of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il, he said. Saying that though we have made big achievements in the construction of the stock-breeding base in Sepho area, we still have huge tasks to do in the future, he clarified tasks to be fulfilled and ways for doing so. The most important issue in building Sepho area into the large-scale stock-breeding base is to improve soil quality and create pasture well, he said, and continued. As Sepho area is exposed to strong wind all the year round, it is necessary to carry out the work for creating windbreaks in a planned and prospective way. Construction projects such as dwelling houses, sheds for domestic animals and public buildings and roads should be stepped up and be completed qualitatively. Oil, building materials, manpower and equipment needed for the construction of the stock-breeding base should be provided on a preferential basis. Good preparations should be made for operating the base. The work of reclaiming the tableland and building a stock-breeding base is a project to be pushed forward with the involvement of all members of the party and the state. It is also important to rapidly develop the nation's overall stock-breeding while stepping up the construction of the stock-breeding base in Sepho area. The party channels efforts into the construction of the base to attain an important objective to bring about a fresh turn in the development of the nation's overall stock-breeding with this construction as a momentum. It is also necessary to put the production at the modern stock-breeding bases that had already been built under the leadership of the party on a regular footing. It is the duty and moral obligation of we, officials who are soldiers and disciples of Kim Jong Il to put the production at the stock-breeding bases that had already been built on a regular footing and make people realize his loving care and solicitude in their actual life. To put production at the stock-breeding bases on a regular footing is not just a business work but an important political work for preserving and glorifying the leadership exploits of Kim Jong Il. The work for boosting the output of livestock products should be pushed forward as an all-people movement. To develop stock-breeding, it is also important to solve the issues of breeds of domestic animals and feed, improve breeding and establish a thorough anti-epizootic measure, he said, elaborating on it. Many domestic animals of good stock should be produced through intensified work for raising domestic animals, he noted, and went on. It is also necessary to conduct brisk scientific and technological exchanges with other countries to introduce into the country domestic animals of superior stock and rear them after going through trial stages. A way of solving the issue of feed for domestic animals is to carry out the party's policy of obtaining meat from grass. To this end it is imperative to create vast pasture in every place. Grain feed needed for stock-breeding should be ensured through good farming. The production of bean cake should be increased by cultivating bean extensively and various protein feed sources including insects rich in protein content be actively explored and put into use. The way of producing feed additives relying on locally available raw materials should be studied and completed to ensure the supply of feed additives necessary for operating the stock-breeding bases. The production of feed for domestic animals should be industrialized by dint of modern science and technology. The raising and tending of domestic animals should be done on a scientific and rational way. The role of stock-breeding scientific research institutions should be enhanced in establishing the scientific way of raising and tending. In order to put the raising and tending of domestic animals on a scientific basis it is necessary for officials and other working people in the field of stock-breeding to acquire professional scientific and technological knowledge and technical skills. The anti-epizootic work is what keeps stock-breeding alive. Not a slightest concession should be allowed in issues concerning anti-epizootic work. Kim Jong Un underlined the need for party organizations to increase their roles in carrying out the party's policy on revitalizing the stocking-breeding and improving the standard of people's living. HONG KONG, February 1 -- Thousands of demonstrators march through the city's main financial district, but turnout is lower than expected. Thousands of protesters carrying yellow umbrellas have marched through Hong Kong's main financial district - the scene of the long-running "Occupy Central" sit-in last year. As demonstrators reached their final destination in one of the richest parts of Hong Kong on Sunday, founder of the Occupy movement Benny Tai spoke to the crowd, quoting the John Lennon lyrics "you may think that I'm a dreamer, but I am not the only one". Student leaders of the movement said there were no plans to mirror the months-long protests of 2014 and that the sit-in would not extend beyond midnight. Police were out in force as the crowds slowly made their way along the 4km route from Victoria Park to Central chanting "we want democracy and the right to choose our own leader". Approximately 10,000 people had turned out by the end of the protest, although no official figures had been announced. The turnout was just a fraction of the 50,000 expected demonstrators, but the range in ages was greater than the original "occupy" protest, an Al Jazeera reporter at the scene said. The march marks the first major gathering since protest sites and a tent city blocking Hong Kong island's main highway were cleared in December. Protesters had been calling for more say in how the city's leaders were chosen and for more free elections. At the peak of the demonstrations, 100,000 people took to the streets amid violent clashes with the police which drew the world's attention. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|