Catholic News 2
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) -- In the wake of another missile launch, President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to work with the United Nations to tighten sanctions against North Korea, but added that the U.S. was still open to dialogue if the government changes its course....
(Vatican Radio) Moscow has launched large-scale military drills on Ukraine's eastern border and around Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, despite international concerns it could lead to a further escalation of tensions between the two neighbors. Listen to Stefan Bos' report: Russia's Defence Ministry said some 12,500 servicemen are taking part in drills across its southern military region. It added that the Russian Navy in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea are involved in the exercises and that planes are also being used.The Ministry explained that the six-day exercises would "test the army's ability to plan, prepare, and carry out military actions."These latest military movements come just shortly after Russia last month conducted a large-scale snap drill, putting its troops on full combat readiness in military districts bordering Ukraine and the Baltic states.It has underscored mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow h...
(Vatican Radio) Moscow has launched large-scale military drills on Ukraine's eastern border and around Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, despite international concerns it could lead to a further escalation of tensions between the two neighbors.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
Russia's Defence Ministry said some 12,500 servicemen are taking part in drills across its southern military region. It added that the Russian Navy in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea are involved in the exercises and that planes are also being used.
The Ministry explained that the six-day exercises would "test the army's ability to plan, prepare, and carry out military actions."
These latest military movements come just shortly after Russia last month conducted a large-scale snap drill, putting its troops on full combat readiness in military districts bordering Ukraine and the Baltic states.
It has underscored mounting tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow has accused Kiev in recent weeks of attempting armed incursions into Crimea, which Russia-annexed in 2014. Kiev denies the allegations and is angry about Russian military drills.
Kiev angry
And Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned that Ukraine wants Crimea back as well as areas in eastern Ukraine that are now controlled by pro-Russian separatists. "The most important and difficult goal for us is to make our flag rise again over Donetsk, Luhansk, Simferopol and Sevastopol," he said.
As part of that effort, Kiev already received military support. On Monday Lithuania confirmed it had delivered 150 tons of Soviet-era ammunition, mainly AK-47 cartridges from its old munitions stocks to Ukraine.
Poroshenko spoke during the annual flag-raising ceremony in Kiev at a time when the country remembered its 25th anniversary of independence from what was the Soviet Union.
He stood alongside a daughter of Ukrainian politician Volodymyr Rybak who was attacked by a pro-Russian mob and apparently tortured and murdered by masked militia.
The apparent murder of Rybak and a second man in 2014 prompted the European Union to urge Russia to use its influence to stop kidnappings and killings in mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
But more than two years later Kiev claims Moscow just wants to further destabilize Ukraine with weapons and troops and make the nation part of what it calls "the Russian empire".
The Kremlin denies the charges.
Yet with thousands of Russian troops now inside Crimea and elsewhere near Ukraine's borders, it has become clear that the standoff between Kiev and Moscow is far from over. That has raised Western concerns about a possible wider military confrontation between the two neighbors.
(Vatican Radio) US President Barack Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte who earlier used coarse language to describe the American leader.It came after Mr. Obama had said he would raise the issue of drug related murders with Mr. Duterte, whose crackdown has led to the unregulated killings of nearly two and a half thousand suspected drug dealers and users since he took office in June.In a statement issued this morning Mr Duterte expressed regret over the remark in a rare display of contrition by the politician.Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama arrived in Laos for a three day visit meant to rebuild trust between the two nations.This was the first time a sitting US president has set foot in the isolated southeast Asian nation of Laos.Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the communist country of nearly 7 million people, which is hosting the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
(Vatican Radio) US President Barack Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte who earlier used coarse language to describe the American leader.
It came after Mr. Obama had said he would raise the issue of drug related murders with Mr. Duterte, whose crackdown has led to the unregulated killings of nearly two and a half thousand suspected drug dealers and users since he took office in June.
In a statement issued this morning Mr Duterte expressed regret over the remark in a rare display of contrition by the politician.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama arrived in Laos for a three day visit meant to rebuild trust between the two nations.
This was the first time a sitting US president has set foot in the isolated southeast Asian nation of Laos.
Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the communist country of nearly 7 million people, which is hosting the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
NEW YORK (AP) -- It turns out some wealthy companies are just like some wealthy hedge fund managers: They're taxed at far lower rates than nearly everyone else....
SHAAR-I-SHALLI, India (AP) -- Go to the villages of south Kashmir and they'll tell you stories about Burhan Wani, the militant commander shot by security forces as he tried to escape through the back door of an isolated hideout....
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) -- Authorities in the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning....
NEW YORK (AP) -- For a time, it felt like the attack that shattered America had also brought it together....
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Black Lives Matter, which two years ago grew out of street protests and a social-media hashtag, has quietly established a legal partnership with a California charity in a sign of the movement's growth and expanding ambition, The Associated Press has learned....
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) -- Consider Waukegan and Stevenson, two Illinois school districts separated by 20 miles - and an enormous financial gulf....
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- With Labor Day behind them, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are pushing ahead in top presidential battlegrounds in the South....
