[VIDEO] Fistfight! Ukrainian Parliament
Posted: December 11, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Crimea, English Language, EUROPE, European Union, Government of Ukraine, KIEV, Mustafa Abdülcemil Qırımoğlu, Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, RUSSIA, The Daily Beast, Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada 2 Comments
Brawl erupted in Ukraine’s upper house of parliament when a member of the legislature attempted to drag prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk from the floor’s podium.
From The Daily Beast:
The Ukrainian parliament on Friday broke out into a brawl after one member approached Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, handed him a bouquet of roses, and then forcefully picked him up by the crotch, and removed him from the podium. Mayhem ensued, with members rushing toward the two men. The prime minister had been defending his embattled government.
Bravoure Américaine: Two U.S. Military Men Praised for Actions on French Train
Posted: August 22, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Airman First Class, AK-47, Amsterdam, Élysée Palace, Belgium, Chris Norman, François Hollande, France, Media of France, Moscow, Oregon Military Department, Paris, Petro Poroshenko, President of France, RUSSIA, Vladimir Putin Leave a commentMembers of Air Force and Oregon National Guard subdued a gunman loaded with weapons
“All three made a show of courage—full of bravery—that everyone recognizes.”
— French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
The three Americans were seated on the train when they heard a gunshot and breaking glass, according to accounts from one of the men and a U.S. official briefed on the attack.
Crouching behind their seats, the Americans, who are childhood friends, decided they had to act. Airman First Class Spencer Stone, 23 years old, ran toward the gunman and tackled him.
“I told him to go, and he went,” Alek Skarlatos, 22, a member of the Oregon National Guard who had been deployed in Afghanistan, said Saturday.
“Spencer ran a good 10 meters to get to the guy. And we didn’t know that his gun wasn’t working or anything like that,” he added. Mr. Skarlatos then said he ran up behind and grabbed the assailant’s AK-47 rifle, and then their friend, student Anthony Sadler, 23, came to help.

Airman First Class Spencer Stone, left, one of the American men who overpowered the gunman on a high-speed train, gestures as he left the hospital in Lesquin, France, on Saturday. Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS/GETTY IMAGES
Investigators on Saturday used fingerprint analysis to identify the gunman as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a French official said. Mr. El-Khazzani, a 26-year-old Moroccan national, had been flagged last year by intelligence services as belonging to the “radical Islamist movement,” officials said.
“While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy.”
— statement from the White House
Officials said Spanish officials flagged him to French authorities in February 2014, when he was living in Spain. In 2015, he lived in Belgium, French officials added.
Mr. El-Khazzani attempted to reach Syria in May, taking a flight from Berlin to Istanbul, according to French and German security officials. But the officials said that it wasn’t immediately clear if the suspect made it to Syria.
Belgium, which the French official said had been notified of the suspect’s departure for Turkey, has opened its own criminal investigation into the attack.

Police detaining the suspect at the main train station in Arras, northern France, Friday. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
French officials praised the Americans’ bravery, as well as that of an unnamed Frenchman who initially confronted the man. The office of French President François Hollande said he had spoken by phone with those who had subdued the attacker, and would invite them shortly to the Élysée Palace to thank them personally. The French president also said he had thanked U.S. President Barack Obama by phone.
“All three made a show of courage—full of bravery—that everyone recognizes,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Putin Announces Ukraine Ceasefire
Posted: February 12, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Russia, War Room | Tags: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, François Hollande, Minsk, Petro Poroshenko, President of France, President of Ukraine, Russophilia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin 3 CommentsA ceasefire will begin in eastern Ukraine on 15 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced.
“We have managed to agree on the main issues,” he said following marathon talks involving Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as well the leaders of France and Germany.
French President Francois Hollande said it was a “serious deal” but not everything had been agreed.
Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting in the east of Ukraine.
via BBC News
The Provocations of Putin: Russian Nuclear Bombers Buzz Alaska, Northern Europe
Posted: September 19, 2014 Filed under: Russia, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Alaska, Beaufort Sea, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Petro Poroshenko, RUSSIA, Ukraine, United States, Washington Free Beacon 1 CommentWeakness Invites Aggression. Putin’s Only Responding to Passive U.S. Leadership, Happily Accepting the Invitation
Update 5:50 P.M.: This story has been updated to include developing information about the Russian incursion off the coast of Alaska
Bill Gertz reports: Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out air defense zone incursions near Alaska and across Northern Europe this week in the latest nuclear saber rattling by Moscow.
“They are having a very aggressive nuclear readiness exercise now as a show of force. Whereas the U.S. has been on a path of nuclear zero which they think is ridiculous.”
Six Russian aircraft, including two Bear H nuclear bombers, two MiG-31 fighter jets and two IL-78 refueling tankers were intercepted by F-22 fighters on Wednesday west and north of Alaska in air defense identification zones, said Navy Capt. Jeff A. Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. Two other Bears were intercepted by Canadian jets on Thursday.
Russia, under Putin, is engaged in a large-scale nuclear buildup that includes new missiles, submarines, and a new bomber.
A day later two more Bear bombers were intercepted by Canadian CF-18 jets in the western area of the Canadian air defense identification zone near the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Russian Troops ‘Directly Involved’ in Ukraine Conflict
Posted: August 28, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Russia, War Room | Tags: AFP, Agence France-Presse, KIEV, Moscow, Petro Poroshenko, RUSSIA, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin 1 CommentRussian troops ‘directly involved’ in Ukraine conflict http://t.co/HFDMNmPzKG via @YahooNews pic.twitter.com/EuIbbNWmMo
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) August 28, 2014
Ukraine Strikes Russian Convoy, Scores
Posted: August 15, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Russia, War Room | Tags: European Union, Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, KIEV, Moscow, Petro Poroshenko, RUSSIA, Russian Armed Forces, Ukraine, United States 2 CommentsKiev (AFP) – Max Delany with Anais Llobet in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russia reporting: Ukraine said on Friday it had destroyed part of a Russian military convoy that entered onto its territory in an incursion that has sent cross-border tensions rocketing.
NATO accused Russia of active involvement in the “destabilisation” of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin separatists have been fighting against Kiev for four months.
The two countries have also been wrangling for days over a Russian convoy that Moscow says is carrying humanitarian aid for besieged rebel-held cities but which Kiev suspects could be a “Trojan horse” to provide military help to the insurgents.
Fears that the border clash could spill into all-out war between Kiev and Moscow sent major share markets tumbling across Europe and the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
REWIND: NEWSWEEK Cover Sept 17, 1983
Posted: July 17, 2014 Filed under: History, War Room | Tags: Korean Air, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Korean Air Lines Flight 902, Malaysia Airlines, Newsweek, Petro Poroshenko, Soviet Union, Ukraine Leave a commentIf it turns out that the Malaysia Airlines 777 that crashed in Ukraine was indeed shot down, it won’t be the first time a commercial airliner was downed by military action. The most infamous instance occurred in 1983: Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a jumbo jet carrying 269 people, was gunned down by a Sukhoi Su-15 fighter jet after straying into Soviet airspace.
The shock and outrage the rest of the world felt after that plane went down was captured on the September 12, 1983 cover of Newsweek: It shows a Korean Air Lines 747 with a bullseye over it; with “Murder in the Air” in large letters…(read more)