Residents in shell-shocked east Ukrainian city start returning to daily life ADVERTISING Residents in shell-shocked east Ukrainian city start returning to daily life LUHANSK, Ukraine — Months of daily shelling reduced the east Ukraine city of Luhansk to a ghost
Residents in shell-shocked east Ukrainian city start returning to daily life
LUHANSK, Ukraine — Months of daily shelling reduced the east Ukraine city of Luhansk to a ghost town, silent but for the explosions.
On Sunday, following a cease-fire agreement signed Sept. 5, residents in the second-largest city held by pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine emerged in a rare show of jubilation that was half celebration, half simply relief at the reprieve in the violence.
The same wasn’t true of the largest rebel stronghold of Donetsk, where fighting around the government-held airport has caught many residential neighborhoods in the crossfire. The city council of Donetsk confirmed in a statement Sunday that there were civilian casualties, but couldn’t specify how many.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Volodymyr Polyovyi told journalists that government troops had repelled an attack on the airport by about 200 fighters.
The cease-fire deal has been riddled by violations from the start, and both sides have made it clear that they are regrouping and rearming in case the fighting starts anew.
When life gives you tomatoes — throw them; Dutch stage tomato fight against Russian sanctions
AMSTERDAM — Hundreds of young Dutch men and women turned Amsterdam’s central Dam square into a blizzard of red goop on Sunday, as they pelted each other mercilessly with overripe tomatoes.
In theory, the event was set up as a protest against Russian sanctions blocking imports of European fresh produce. In practice, most participants turned out to experience the joy of smacking a loved one — or total stranger — with tomato pulp at close range.
The idea was lifted from Spain’s famed annual “La Tomatina” festival in Bunol.
“It was hard in there. It was mean. But it was fun,” said a beaming Lois Bloedjes, who came with her sister Sil. “Everything became one big pile of mush. There were people swimming in it on the ground.” Sil described the smell in the mush pit as “awful” and “somewhat like beer,” but the tomatoes that actually got in her mouth — “the taste was actually not bad.”
Swedish prime minister resigns as country shifts left in election
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s Social Democrats were poised to return to power after a left-leaning bloc defeated the center-right government in a parliamentary election Sunday that also saw strong gains by an anti-immigration party.
With more than 99 percent of districts counted, the Social Democrat-led Red-Green bloc had 43.7 percent of the votes Sunday while the governing coalition got 39.3 percent, official preliminary results showed.
The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party more than doubled its support to 13 percent, leaving it with the balance of power in Parliament.
The result marks the end of an eight-year era of tax cuts and pro-market policies under Reinfeldt, who said he would also resign as leader of the conservative party.
Clinton’s first Iowa trip since 2008 kicks 2016 run speculation into overdrive
INDIANOLA, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton, making her return to Iowa for the first time since the 2008 presidential campaign, implored Democrats on Sunday to choose shared economic opportunity over “the guardians of gridlock” in an high-profile appearance that drove speculation about another White House bid into overdrive.
“Hello Iowa. I’m back!” Clinton declared as she took the podium at retiring Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry fundraiser, a fixture on the political calendar in the home of the nation’s first presidential caucus. Clinton joined her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in a tribute to Harkin that brought them before about 10,000 party activists who form the backbone of Iowa’s presidential campaigns every four years.
The former New York senator and first lady did not directly address a potential campaign but said she was “thinking about it” and joked that she was “here for the steak.”
By wire sources
