Category: Europe

Police raid IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s flat

French police raid IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s flat in Bernard Tapie probe.

French authorities have searched the Paris flat of IMF chief Christine Lagarde as part of an investigation into her handling of a 2008 compensation payment to a businessman supporter of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, her lawyer said.

Police are investigating claims that Lagarde, when French Finance Minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, acted illegally in approving the €285m arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie.

Lagarde denies any wrongdoing.

“This search will help uncover the truth, which will contribute to exonerating my client from any criminal wrongdoing,” Lagarde’s lawyer, Yves Repiquet, told Reuters.

Ms. Lagarde confirmed the decision in a statement but said it was “without basis,” adding she would challenge it with a higher court. She said she was heading back to Washington Wednesday and would brief the IMF board about the latest development.

The investigation is part of a complex, drawn-out probe into the alleged misuse of state funds. The case stems from a decision in the 2008 to use arbitration to settle a dispute with business tycoon Bernard Tapie. The arbitration panel awarded €420 million to Mr. Tapie.

IMF issued a statement after Managing Director Christine Lagarde put under formal investigation for her role in an arbitration case during her time as French finance minister.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice: “She is now on her way back to Washington and will, of course, brief the board as soon as possible. Until then, we have no further comment”

Source: WSJ/Bloomberg

European parliament failed to calculate impact of sanctions

The European parliament seems to be a particulary useless body

The European Parliament did not conduct any of its own official studies on the impact of its sanctions against Russia prior to their implementation or to this day, said Director-General of the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) Anthony Teasdale and Secretary-General of the European Parliament (EP) Klaus Welle on Tuesday.

“On sanctions, no we have not, in the European Parliament Research Service, done any analysis on the financial implications,” said Teasdale in response to a question from RIA Novosti at a Wilson Center event on EU economic integration.

He said there had been no requests from parliamentary committees, noting that “the committees have not been meeting for the last three or four months, because we’ve been having European elections.”

On July 31, the European Commission officially adopted stricter sanctions against Russia. According to the EP officials, this was done without a comprehensive study of the costs to Europeans. The sanctions barred access to secondary capital markets, the arms trade, and trade in technology used in oil exploration and production. Numerous European countries have already argued that the Western countries’ sanctions and the food import ban imposed by Russia on August 7 are damaging the economy.

“I was surprised myself that we hadn’t produced this,” said Welle of an outside study citing the impact, specifically, of the European oil trade with Russia being cut back. “On the question of did we calculate the effect of the sanctions specifically on this end, I am not aware of that.”

On August 7, Russia imposed a ban on food imported from the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway in response to the Western sanctions. The ban targets meat, seafood, dairy products, fruit and vegetables and other food, and is expected to last one year.

Source: RIA Novosti

Rheinmetall seals deal with Algeria

Germany’s Economy Ministry has approved plans by defence group Rheinmetall to deliver an armoured vehicle assembly plant to Algeria, according to a reply sent by the ministry following a request from a member of parliament.

Rheinmetall’s delivery to Algeria includes a production line to assemble the Fuchs armoured vehicle, as well as other parts valued at more than 28 million euros ($37 million), according to the document. German magazine Der Spiegel had earlier reported on the approval, according to Reuters.

The planned factory, located about 400 km east of Algeria’s capital Algiers, is to build nearly 1,000 armoured vehicles, Der Spiegel said, adding parts would be exported to the country, where workers would assemble them. It was earlier reported that 980 Fuchs 2 vehicles will be built as part of a 2.7 billion euro deal. Apparently Algeria has agreed not to sell the vehicles to other countries.

The deal is the result of a visit to Algeria by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008 and was largely approved by the previous government, Der Spiegel said.

Algeria has ordered around ten billion euros worth of military equipment from Germany in the last few years, including two Meko A200 frigates from Thyssen-Drupp and SUVs and trucks from Daimler. Last year Algeria purchased 825 million euros worth of tank parts, SUVs and trucks from Germany.

In 2011 Germany authorised the export of 54 Fuchs vehicles worth 195 million euros to Algeria, as well as other military vehicles worth 286 million euros, according to Der Spiegel.

Algeria is greatly expanding its military and just this year ordered two Kilo class diesel electric submarines from Russia, and in 2015 the Algerian Navy will take delivery of the landing and logistic support ship Kalaat Beni-Abbes. 42 Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters and six Mi-26T2 cargo helicopters were ordered this year in a nearly $3 billion deal from Russia. Also this year it emerged that Algeria’s military has acquired self-propelled artillery from China.

Earlier this year, Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he would tighten rules on arms exports, curbing sales to states such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, whose purchases had previously helped make Germany the world’s third largest arms exporter, Reuters reported.

Germany earlier this month permanently halted Rheinmetall’s planned export of combat simulation equipment to Russia, going beyond recently imposed European Union sanctions which block future defence contracts.

As a result, Rheinmetall cut its 2014 operating profit aim, and now expects group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of between 200 million euros and 220 million euros, down from a previous target range of 230 million to 250 million.

Source: defenceweb.co.za

French government resigns

France’s government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls has resigned; after senior ministers slammed President Francois Hollande’s plans for taxation and spending cuts, and called for alternative ways to Germany-led austerity to exit the crisis.

The statement published Monday said the new office would be formed on Tuesday and would be in the “direction he (the president) has defined for our country.”

Economic Minister Arnaud Montebourg said it was time to resist Germany’s “obsession” with austerity and work out some alternative ways to promote household consumption. He said that measures that had been introduced since the 2008 financial crisis were not doing anything to help the country’s economy grow.

“You have to raise your voice. Germany is trapped in an austerity policy that it imposed across Europe,” the Socialist minister said in the interview.

“France is the eurozone’s second-biggest economy, the world’s fifth-greatest power, and it does not intend to align itself, ladies and gentlemen, with the excessive obsessions of Germany’s conservatives,” the Economic Minister added.

The announcement comes after the country’s Education Minister Benoît Hamon criticized Hollande’s economic policy, calling to shift the focus form the deficit-reduction measures.

“The priority must be exiting crisis and the dogmatic reduction of deficits should come second,” Mr. Montebourg said in an interview with Le Monde published ahead of the annual Fête de la Rose meeting of Socialist Party activists at Frangy-en-Bresse in eastern France.

Finance Minister Michel Sapin said this month that if the economy did not pick up, France would miss its deficit-reduction target for this year. However, he stressed that there was no need to panic and that the government would continue cutting the deficit “at an appropriate pace”.

The Ministers reminded that the economic weakness was causing political extremism and could turn into recession.

Hollande is facing a lot of domestic pressure, due to his failure to get the economy moving in the right direction.

An Ifop poll on Sunday showed he was the most unpopular president in France in more than 50 years. Meanwhile, Valls, who was appointed to the position of Prime Minister in March, had an approval rating of just 36 percent.

Source: RT

German Vice Chancellor urges federalization of Ukraine

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Saturday said that federalization of Ukraine was the only viable solution to the crisis that has engulfed this East European country.

Speaking in an interview with the German weekly Welt am Sonntag, Sigmar Gabriel said that, “A smart concept of federalization seems to me the only viable solution.”

Gabriel, who also serves as Germany’s minister for economic affairs and energy, added that “an offer” has to be made to those regions in Ukraine where populations are predominantly ethnic Russian.

“Ukraine’s territorial integrity can only be preserved if an offer is made to regions with majority Russian population,” he stressed in an interview to appear on Sunday.

The vice chancellor said that Germany’s ultimate goal in Ukraine was “to prevent by any possible means a direct military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia.”

Excerpts from this interview appeared in the weekly hours before Chancellor Merkel’s official visit to Kiev on Saturday.

Ukraine’s southeast has been under fire since mid-April, when Kiev launched a special military operation aimed at suppressing the pro-federalism movement in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev’s military campaign against the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country and urged for an immediate stop to the punitive operation, advocating a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Over 2,000 people have been killed and more than 5,000 injured since the start of Kiev’s military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine in mid-April, according to the United Nations.

US, EU have yet to answer questions on how MH17 led to sanctions

Russia released military monitoring data in late July, which shows Kiev military jets tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash – and posed yet another set of questions to Ukraine and the US over the circumstances of the tragedy.

The plane crash has led to a series of sanctions against Russia from the US and the EU, but disconcerting details of how the the accident occured have yet to be answered.

Military officials – chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Andrey Kartopolov and chief of the Air Force Main Staff Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev – posed a number of questions to Kiev and Washington concerning the possible causes of the catastrophe in Eastern Ukraine that killed almost 300 people.

1. Why did the MH17 plane leave the international corridor?

“Please note that the plane stayed within the corridor until it reached Donetsk but then it deviated from the route to the north,” said Kartopolov.

2. Was MH17 leaving the route a navigation mistake or was the crew following instructions by Ukrainian air traffic controllers in Dnepropetrovsk?

“The maximum deviation from the left border of the corridor was 14 km. Following that, we can see the plane maneuvering to return to the corridor, yet the Malaysian crew did not get a chance to complete the maneuver. At 17.20, the plane began to lose speed, and at 17.23 it disappeared from Russian radars.”

3. Why was a large group of air defense systems deployed to the militia-held area if the self-defense forces have no planes?

“As far as we know, the Ukrainian military had three or four air defense battalions equipped with Buk-M1 SAM systems deployed in the vicinity of Donetsk on the day of the crash. This system is capable of hitting targets within the range of 35 km at the altitude of up to 22 km.”

4. Why did Kiev deploy BUK missile systems on the edge of militia-controlled zones directly before the tragedy?

“We have satellite photos of the places where Ukraine had its air defense units deployed in the southeastern parts of the country. The first three photos were made on July 14. The first photo shows Buk launchers 8 km northwest of Lugansk. You can clearly see a TELAR and two TELs. The second photo shows radars 5 km north of Donetsk. You can see two TARs along with other equipment and technical structures. The third photo shows air defense systems north of Donetsk. You can clearly see a TELAR launcher and about 60 military and auxiliary vehicles, tents for vehicles and other structures.

“Here’s a photo of the same area made on July 17. Please note that the launcher has disappeared. The fifth photo shows a battery of Buk missiles at the village of Zaroshchenskoye 50 km east of Donetsk and 8 km south of Shakhtyorsk on the morning of the same day. The sixth photo shows the same area on July 18. As you can see, the battery has left.”

No Buk missile defense units in Donetsk Region, 5km north of Donetsk city, on July 17, 2014.

5. On the day of the crash Kiev intensified Kupol-M1 9S18 radar activity, key BUK system components. Why?

“Also, July 17 saw increased activity on the part of Ukraine’s Kupol-M1 9S18 radars, which are part of the Buk system. Here on this chart you see that there were seven radars operating on July 15, eight radars operating on July 16, and nine radars operating on July 17 in the area. Then, starting with July 18, the intensity of radar activities radically decreased, and now there are no more than two or three radars operating a day. The reason behind this is yet to be found.”

6. What was a military plane doing on the route intended for civilian flights?

“There were three civilian planes in the area performing their regular flights at this time. There was a flight from Copenhagen to Singapore at 17:17, there was a flight from Paris to Taipei at 17:24, and then there was the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.”

“Also, Russian monitoring systems registered that there was a Ukrainian Air Force jet, probably Su-25, climbing and approaching the Malaysian Boeing.”

“The Su-25 was 3-5 km away from the Malaysian plane. Su-25 is capable of climbing to the altitude of 10,000 meters for a short period of time. Its standard armament includes R60 air-to-air missiles, which are capable of locking and hitting targets from 12 km and which are guaranteed to hit the target from the distance of 5 km.”

7. Why was the military jet flying at so close to a passenger plane?

“At 17:21’35, with [the Boeing’s] velocity having dropped to 200 kilometers per hour, a new mark detecting an airborne object appears at the spot of the Boeing’s destruction. This new airborne object was continuously detected for the duration of four minutes by the radar stations Ust-Donetsk and Buturinskaya. An air traffic controller requested the characteristics of the new airborne object, but was unable to get any readings on its parameters – most likely due to the fact that the new aircraft was not equipped with a secondary surveillance radar transponder, which is a distinctive feature of military aircraft,” said Makushev.

“Detecting the new aircraft became possible as it started to ascend. Further changes in the airborne object’s coordinates suggest that it was hovering above the Boeing 777’s crash site, monitoring of the situation.

“Ukrainian officials earlier claimed that there were no Ukrainian military aircraft in the area of the crash that day. As you can see, that is not true.”

8. Where did the launcher – from the video circulated by Western media and showing a Buk system being moved allegedly from Ukraine to Russia – come from? As the video was made on the territory controlled by Kiev, where was the launcher being transported?

“I’d like to say that the information we have presented here is based on objective and reliable data from various technical systems – unlike the groundless accusations made against Russia,” said Kartopolov.

“For example, media circulated a video supposedly showing a Buk system being moved from Ukraine to Russia. This is clearly a fabrication. This video was made in the town of Krasnoarmeisk, as evidenced by the billboard you see in the background, advertising a car dealership at 34 Dnepropetrovsk Street. Krasnoarmeysk has been controlled by the Ukrainian military since May 11.”

9. Where is it right now? Why are some of the missiles missing on the launcher? When was the last time a missile was launched from it?

Screenshot from video posted on Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior account, showing a Buk system supposedly being moved from Ukraine to Russia with two out of three missiles.Screenshot from video posted on Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior account, showing a Buk system supposedly being moved from Ukraine to Russia with two out of three missiles.

10. Why haven’t US officials revealed the evidence supporting claims that the MH17 was shot down by a missile launched by the militia?

“US officials claim they have satellite photographs proving the Malaysian airliner was shot down by a missile launched by the militia. But no one has seen these photographs so far. As far as we know, there was indeed a US satellite flying over southeastern Ukraine on July 17 from 17:06 to 17:21 Moscow time.

“This satellite is part of an experimental system designed to track and monitor the launches of missiles of various ranges. If our US colleagues have imagery from this satellite, they should release it for the international community to examine it in detail. This may be a coincidence, but the US satellite flew over Ukraine at exactly the same time when the Malaysian airliner crashed.”

Buk missile defense units in Zaroschinskoe, 50km south of Donetsk city and 8km south of Shakhtyorsk, on July 17, 2014.Photo courtesy of the Russian Defense MinistryBuk missile defense units in Zaroschinskoe, 50km south of Donetsk city and 8km south of Shakhtyorsk, on July 17, 2014.Photo courtesy of the Russian Defense Ministry

This is not the first time Russia asks questions about the plane crash. No explanations have followed with Kiev insisting they have full evidence of Russia being behind the attack, but so far only releasing fake tapes.

The USA, putting the blame on the self-defense forces and Russia, has refused to release any intelligence material.

So far the US and the EU has been backing its statements and sanctions by social media and “common sense.”

Source: RT

Russia reminds UN that Ukraine agreed on Russian aid on August 12

Russia has sent a humanitarian convoy to the east of Ukraine, considering that it has received official authorization of Kiev government, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said.

The corresponding note was received on August 12, Churkin said, noting that the humanitarian aid to Syria was delivered without the consent of the authorities of the country.

“If we are talking about respect for sovereignty, we have received a formal agreement from them [the Ukrainian authorities]. We have discussed this issue with them, and if they decided to cheat, then it’s their problem,” Churkin told Russian reporters after the closed meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine on Friday.

The note that gave consent for the passage of the humanitarian convoy through the Ukrainian border was received on 12 August, Churkin said.

Meanwhile both President Obama and Angela Merkel condemned Russia for an “incursion” into Ukraine.

“And the fact that they have people saying they received no orders, while firing at Luhansk, is just unfair. We cannot tolerate this and so we’ve made a statement,” the permanent representative said.

Churkin also recalled that the UN Security Council had recently created “a legal innovation,” when it had adopted a resolution on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria without the consent of the government in Damascus.

“There is a certain political innovation that cannot be ignored, but in this case, we believe that we have received the official consent of the Ukrainian government,” Churkin explained.

“Some members of the organization were not interested neither in the fact that civilians are being killed in the eastern Ukraine, nor in the fact that there is a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. They were worried by the fact that Russia is providing humanitarian assistance to the people who are under fire,” the Russian envoy to UN said.

“But we explained that we are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities and hope that there will be no problems with humanitarian aid and its delivery. The situation in the Security Council around this matter has then calmed down,” Churkin said.

A convoy of 280 trucks carrying food, medicine and other essentials for people in eastern Ukraine set out from near Moscow on August 12. It had been stranded at the border with Ukraine for more than a week.

The humanitarian disaster in Lugansk occurred after the Ukrainian army had blocked approaches to the city. All food supplies to Lugansk were interrupted. The local people were left without drinking water or electricity. Power supply to social facilities had to be urgently restored after artillery shelling.

German economy shrinks as result of Russian sanctions

Germany’s sudden second-quarter economic contraction was probably due to Russian sanctions and confidence eroded by the crisis in Ukraine, Reuters news agency quoted the finance ministry as saying on Friday.

The ministry’s monthly report obtained by Reuters shows that Europe’s largest economy shrank by 0.2% between April and June after growing 0.7% in the first quarter thanks largely to an unusually mild winter that gave a boost to construction activity at the start of the year.

“The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) goes beyond the expected counter-effect to the very strong weather-related performance in the previous quarter,” the finance ministry said in its report, attributing this “to the effect of sanctions and negative effects on confidence due to the Ukraine crisis”.

Uncertainty over Ukraine was likely to have resulted in the dampening of industrial activity in the second quarter, it said, adding that “other geopolitical tensions” and “weaker economic development in the euro zone” had also contributed to the contraction.

“If the Ukraine crisis does not escalate further and no further serious stages of sanctions are imposed, it is to be expected that the current economic slowdown is only temporary,” the finance ministry said, noting that if this was the case, investment was likely to pick up as the year progressed.

China says sanctions could aggravate Ukrainian crisis

Ukraine’s crisis can only be settled politically, and sanctions might only aggravate the situation, Chinese diplomats told ITAR-TASS on Friday.

Earlier, US Department of State coordinator for policy issues Daniel Fried said in an interview with Lithuanian media that the USA was urging different countries to join sanctions against Russia over Ukrainian events.

“The Ukrainian crisis requires a political solution. In a real situation, sanctions do not solve the problem; on the contrary, they might cause new problems which do not meet the interests of all sides and the initial intention to resolve the crisis,” the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a written response to the ITAR-TASS request to comment on Fried’s remarks.

“China calls upon all the parties to keep calm and exercise restraint, helping to promote peace talks, seek a political solution of the existing problems, and avoid the actions fraught with aggravation of contradictions and escalation of tensions, in order to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

British man called John beheaded American journalist Foley

The jihadist who beheaded the American journalist James Foley is believed to be British born militant from London who calls himself John, it can be revealed.

John spoke English with an accent identified as southern British by a linguistic expert, interviewed by The Guardian.

Intelligence agents in the UK and United States are urgently looking into reports that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighter, whose brutal actions shocked the world, is the ringleader of group of British jihadists who have specialised in hostage taking.

Based in the Isil stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, ‘John’, is described as a well-educated, intelligent, but highly committed member of the extremist terror group.

Operating closely with two other British born militants, the group have been dubbed ‘The Beatles’, by fellow jihadists because of their nationality.

Some have boasted on Twitter and Facebook about their involvement, and the security services were last night examining pictures of known fighters as part of the process of identifying Mr Foley’s killer. They include boys and girls as young as 16, a medical student and a Primark shop assistant.

Source: The Telegraph

Pentagon bolstering weapons arsenal in Norway, Bulgaria

In the heart of Norway’s countryside, the U.S. military is bolstering its arsenal of weapons with tanks, gun trucks and other armored vehicles along with hundreds of containers of equipment.

The Marine Corps is overseeing the effort, which expands the existing Marine Corps Prepositioning Program. It stashes weapons, vehicle and armor in several locations across the world, including Norway, which first signed an agreement with the United States to do so in 1981, Marine officials said.

The equipment is kept in climate-controlled caves in central Norway, giving the Marines equipment that is closer than the East Coast to use in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Much of what stored in the caves was pulled out and sent to the Middle East ahead of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It also bolsters the amount of military equipment in Norway as the U.S. tries to inflate tensions with Russia.

The planned U.S. military expansion in Norway has been under discussion since 2013, Marine officials said. That’s before U.S.-backed operators installed a junta in Ukraine in February, and Putin declared Crimea to be part of Russia in March.

The Marine Corps will soon begin adding M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, armored amphibious assault vehicles that can swim from Navy ships to shore, armored Humvee gun trucks and other vehicles in Norway, Marine officials said. Doing so will “greatly increase the program’s readiness,” Marine officials said in a news release.

One source told Checkpoint that it will mark the first time that the tanks and several other kinds of vehicles will be allowed in the caves. That includes the Marine Corps’ Assault Breacher Vehicle, a 72-ton vehicle that has a tank chassis, but has been outfitted to clear improvised explosive devices with a plow and line that can be shot 150 yards ahead of the vehicle with explosives on it.

The cave facility the U.S. military uses is in the Trondheim region of central Norway. trondheim

The U.S. military has more than 700,000 square feet of facilities in Norway, including six climate-controlled caves and two airfields. The Norwegians have maintained the equipment there with the understanding that if they were invaded, U.S. troops will defend them using it.

The Pentagon is also sending a dozen fighter planes and nearly 200 personnel to Bulgaria for a training exercise as violence in Ukraine continues.

The 493rd Fighter Squadron out of Lakenheath, England, will be going to Bulgaria for training exercises starting Sept. 1. The unit will deploy with 12 F-15 Eagles and 180 personnel, Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, dozens of civilians were killed Monday when separatist rebels shelled a convoy of refugees trying to flee war-torn eastern Ukraine, a top Ukrainian official said.

The barrage took place Monday morning between the towns of Khryashchuvate and Novosvitlivka, which lie on the main road leading to Russia from the besieged rebel-held city of Luhansk, according to Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council.

“Many people were killed, among them women and children,” Lysenko said. “We are not able to count the death toll at this point.”

Pentagon’s officials stressed that the 493rd’s deployment was planned before Ukraine crisis but also “reflects our steadfast commitment to regional security” in Europe, Warren said.

Tens of people die in Ukraine urban warfare

Heavy shelling hit residential neighborhoods in Ukraine’s rebel stronghold of Donetsk and government forces fought street battles in other towns on Wednesday as they sought to crush a four-month-old separatist rebellion

The forces of the Western-backed Kiev government are steadily gaining the upper hand over the self-defence groups in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine and are tightening the noose around the main rebel bastions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Reuters reporters in Donetsk said mortar bombs had struck Chelyuskintsev Street in the north of the city, a few km from the frontline of the conflict, shattering the windows of several five-floor apartment buildings and shearing off the branches of trees and downing power lines.

The attack left large craters in the street and a meter-wide hole in the first floor of one of the apartment buildings.

“The Ukrainian army or whoever they are – they’re bombing us again. I’ve lived in the apartment building my entire life and now they want to take everything I have. There is nothing left to lose here in this city,” said Nina, 52.

The Donetsk city administration, controlled by the separatists, said nine residents had been killed in shelling on Wednesday. The Ukrainian government denies that its forces are targeting civilian areas.

Another nine people, pro-Ukrainian volunteer fighters supporting Kiev’s forces, were killed overnight in separate clashes near Donetsk, Ukrainian officials said.

The government in Kiev and its allies have accused Moscow of orchestrating the separatist rebellion and equipping the rebels with tanks, missiles and other heavy weaponry.

Moscow denies this and accuses Kiev of waging a war against its own people and shelling civilians.

The United Nations puts the death toll in the conflict at 2,086, including civilians and combatants. That figure has nearly doubled since late July, when Ukrainian forces stepped up their offensive and the fighting spread to major urban areas.

Another Donetsk resident, Lidia, recounted how shelling had hit the shop where she works.

“I hid behind the counter and closed my eyes. When I opened them everything was dark, full of dust and smoke,” she said.

“How can we live like this being bombed by the leaders of our own country?”

Six military trucks rumbled past the wreckage of the house, including one equipped with an anti-tank machine gun and a mobile Grad rocket system. Self-defence units, wearing green camouflage and sunglasses, looked over the wreckage as they passed.

Elsewhere in the region, Ukrainian forces fought street battles with locals in the town of Ilovaisk overnight into Wednesday, Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko said.

The nine Ukrainian volunteer fighters were killed in those clashes.

“The enemy can come up to you from wherever he wants and shoot from an attic, a basement or from a children’s nursery,” Gerashchenko said.

Separately, health authorities said 34 civilians had been killed as a result of fighting in the 24 hours up to noon Wednesday in the wider Donetsk region.

Authorities in Luhansk, the other big separatist stronghold, also reported artillery fire and heavy automatic fire on Wednesday as government forces kept up their assault on rebel positions there.

Luhansk has been largely cut off for weeks and is without water and regular supplies of electricity which have hit mobile and landline phone connections.

Only vital foodstuffs are on sale while long queues form for bread being distributed from vans.

There is no electricity, so people have to cook on open-air fires.

As well as worsening conditions for people on the ground, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the fighting was draining the potential of the economy by the day, with attacks damaging mines, power stations, rail lines and bridges.

“Russia is aware that rebuilding the Donbass (the industrial east) will cost not millions but billions of hryvnia,” he said.

Research shows Neanderthals’ coexistence with humans from Africa

Neanderthals were extremely advanced for their time

Neanderthals coexisted with early modern humans in Europe for up to 5,400 years, according to researchers from Oxford university who used new techniques to pinpoint when the early cousins of Homo sapiens became extinct.

Scientists used radiocarbon dating evidence for 200 bone, charcoal and shell samples from 40 European archaeological sites to show that the two human groups overlapped for a significant period of time.

It took 300,000 more years for classic Neanderthals with larger brains to evolve. They dominated human life in Eurasia until Homo sapiens, our ancestors, swept in from Africa less than 80,000 years ago. The last Neanderthals died out 20,000 to 30,000 years ago in the Iberian peninsula, their last refuge.

Scientists used radiocarbon dating evidence for 200 bone, charcoal and shell samples from 40 European archaeological sites to show that the two human groups overlapped for a significant period of time.

They also concluded that Neanderthals disappeared gradually at different times in different locations, rather than undergoing rapid extinction.

It was already known that there was some contact and interbreeding between the two groups because research has shown that about 1.5-2.1 per cent of the DNA of modern non-African humans originates from Neanderthals.

However, the Oxford research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday provides the most detailed timeline so far of how this process unfolded.

Neanderthals – a human subspecies related to, but genetically different from Homo sapiens – had lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years when the first modern humans migrated out of Africa.

Using the latest carbon dating techniques, researchers were able to establish that the Mousterian toolmaking industry attributed to Neanderthals ended between 39,260 and 41,030 years ago.

Based on the latest evidence of when modern humans arrived in Europe, this suggested the two groups overlapped for between 2,600 and 5,400 years.

It is thought they died out because they were unable to compete with modern humans for food and resources but pinpointing the precise time when this happened has been difficult.

Source: FT

Finland, Estonia files for EU funding on gas pipeline

Finland and Estonia have filed a joint application to the European Union for funding research on the Balticconnector gas pipeline route, which would connect Finland with the gas networks of Baltic states, Estonian newspaper Postimees reported Tuesday.

Balticconnector is a joint project of the Gasum company, which is importing Russian natural gas to Finland, and the Estonian company EG Vorguteenus, which services gas networks.

The total project cost exceeds 110 million euros ($147 million). The pipeline will work in both directions and the total volume of gas transfer is expected to be about 3 million cubic meters per hour. A liquefied natural gas terminal is planned to be constructed in Finland along with the merging of gas networks.

The data collected during the research will be used to optimize the route of the pipeline, especially its underwater part under the Gulf of Finland, and to ensure environmental safety during the pipe-laying process.

Source: RIA Novosti