The Raw Story

Sunday, 15 February 2015

Ukraine truce being observed 'in general'

A ceasefire that came into force midnight Sunday in Eastern Ukraine is holding in most places but not all, with both sides playing the blame game. But the city of Donetsk has had its first night without shelling in months.

The spokesperson of Ukraine's Joint Staff, Vladislav Seleznev, has confirmed that all shelling of Ukrainian positions has stopped at 3 AM local time.

"The military posture is fairly stable," reported Donetsk region's police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin.

According to the Donetsk militia representative Eduard Basurin, Donbass self-defense forces 'selectively' taped the enemy batteries without a second thought and in full conformity with previous statements of Donbass leadership.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has confirmed that ceasefire in Ukraine is "generally respected".

"We can say that in whole the truce is observed, though some ceasefire agreement violations have been registered here and there," Fabius said.

The ceasefire has been substantially implemented in eastern Ukraine in the last 12 hours, with the exception of certain areas in Debaltsevo and Lugansk, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Ertuğrul Apakan said on Sunday afternoon.

Apakan added that the OSCE monitors failed to enter Debaltsevo, and called on both sides of the conflict to enable OSCE access to all territories in eastern Ukraine. Donetsk officials have denied receiving requests from OSCE to enter the Debaltsevo area, said Denis Pushilin, the Donetsk representative at the Minsk ceasefire talks.

The number of OSCE monitors will be increased to 350, according to the OSCE spokesman for the monitoring mission in Ukraine, Michael Botsurkiv. He added that the mission will also use drones and satellite images to monitor the holding of the ceasefire.

A bad peace is better than the best of wars - this notion is fully applicable to the situation with ceasefire in Ukraine's rebellious east. As observers on the ground witnessed, when the time has come at midnight, it became unusually quiet along the frontline.

Residents of Kramatorsk feel relieved with the coming of the ceasefire, said journalist Kerstin Kronwall, who is in the city reporting for Yle. "I cannot say that optimism prevails... At least there are no sounds of shooting now," he commented.

The blissful silence, according to the rebels, lasted for less than an hour, as Ukrainian troops inflicted several mortar and artillery strikes on rebel forces guarding the perimeter of Debaltsevo mousetrap, where an estimated 5,000 Ukrainian task force is running out of munitions and ordnance while making attempts to break out.

[embedded content]

Debaltsevo trap

Ukrainian troops locked up in Debaltsevo reportedly shelled settlements of Yenakievo and Gorlovka, as well as the territory of Donetsk airport, no so long ago handed over to the militia forces after months of severe firefight. But the living quarters of the city of Donetsk this time remained intact.

Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) head Aleksandr Zakharchenko said on the eve of the ceasefire that the entrapment near Debaltsevo is situated on the territory fully controlled by the rebel forces. This is interpreted that Minsk agreements on separation of the warring parties do not apply to the encircled Ukrainian servicemen.

"Please pay attention to the fact that there isn't a word about Debaltsevo [entrapment] in Minsk agreements. That means that Ukraine has simply betrayed those 5,000 people in Debaltsevo trap," Zakharchenko said, stressing that no negotiations about the entrapment is currently underway with Kiev.

The blockaded Ukrainian troops have been offered to turn in their weapons and surrender, but very littler number of servicemen has followed the call due to retreat-blocking detachments of Ukrainian nationalists guarding the troops in the rear of their positions.

Commenting on the remark made by Zakharchenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said that the accords underpinning Ukraine truce must be "unconditionally observed." "All the sequences of actions have been mentioned in the package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreement. All those terms have to be observed unconditionally," Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The news about all Ukrainian troops to be let out of the entrapment when the ceasefire agreement comes into force has been labeled by Zakharchenko as groundless.

"Any attempt of the Ukrainian armed forces to unblock Debaltsevo will be regarded as violation of the Minsk agreements, such attempts will be suppressed, adversaries will be eliminated," Zakharchenko said.

Kiev authorities have been consistently denying the very existence of the Debaltsevo entrapment. Yet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has told Ukrainian Joint Staff that the peace process is under the threat of failure because of the situation at Debaltsevo.

"I've warned you on that," Poroshenko stressed.

Will ceasefire hold?

In the meantime France's TV5 Monde aired the disastrous humanitarian catastrophe the Donbass locals find themselves in. The people there trust no one and do not believe a peace with Kiev is tangible.

"They have proclaimed ceasefire many times but never respected it," a local woman told French reporters.

That was exactly the case with Ukraine's Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh, who said his radical movement rejects the Minsk peace deal and that their paramilitary units in eastern Ukraine will continue "active fighting" according to their "own plans."

After the truce came into force at 2:00 GMT, Yarosh made a statement of National Guards official website, saying "Two of mine finely armed and equipped battalions continue offensive near Debaltsevo and have serious achievements militarily."

Several hours later the statement was deleted from the website.

Screenshot from vv.gov.ua

The rebels have informed that they need all of the territory of the Donetsk region under their control, not just the area they fully control right now.

DPR's head Aleksandr Zakharchenko said that the rest of the region is regarded as "temporarily occupied" and will be liberated politically or militarily. Political way is preferable as it helps save human lives, but if politics does not succeed, "we've already drawn attention to our capability to solve issues militarily, and not once for that matter," Zakharchenko said.

Germany, Russia send humanitarian aid to E.Ukraine

In the meantime two convoys with humanitarian aid from Russia are under customs clearance right now on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Once cleared, the white trucks of Russia's Emergency Ministry will go on two routes: to Donetsk and to Lugansk, delivering food and medical supplies to citizens of the besieged cities.

Simultaneously with this, a shipment of 28 tons of medical supplies has arrived to Donetsk from Germany. The supplies were bought using donations collected in Germany by initiative of a group of German MPs and the shipment became the very first humanitarian aid delivered to Donbass from the EU.

The delivery was made through the Russian territory because Kiev failed to provide Berlin with transit authorization. Four trucks from Germany delivered medical supplies to Donetsk, Lugansk and Gorlovka.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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MPs in Kiev hoodwinked a US senator, presenting his office with photos of columns of Russian military hardware allegedly roaming Ukrainian territory. The photos turned out to have been taken during the conflict in South Ossetia back in 2008.

The photos were told The Washington Free Beacon Senator Jim Inhofe's communications director Donelle Harder.

The Americans planned to publish the photos with credits to the Ukrainian MPs, and the spokesperson said.

Yet, after thorough checking, images of the Russian convoys turned to be taken years ago, in 2008 during Georgia - South Ossetia war.

Harder said.

gave us these photos in print form as if it came directly from a camera really did themselves a disservice," Senator Inhofe said in a statement.

the lawmaker wrote.

At the same time the revealed forgery the US senator maintains.

The list of members of the Ukrainian delegation that attempted to fool Senator Jim Inhofe does not include high-ranking Ukrainian officials, with probably the sole exception of the commander of the Donbass volunteer battalion Semyon Semenchenko, who visited Washington demanding arms and training for his servicemen.

The Washington Free Beacon said it "regrets the error," and claims it has obtained new "exclusive" photos of of the eastern Ukraine self-defense militia. The new photos, allegedly

Senator Inhofe expressed the hope that the new, particularly graphic images, could and push the US Congress to back up Senator Inhofe's bill to supply the Ukrainians with American lethal aid.

Russian tanks, soldiers / Photo provided by Sen. Inhofe, Feb 2015

Russian Army BMP-2 infantry armored fighting vehicle, Georgia - South Ossetia war. Published in here 18 August 2008 and here August 9, 2008.

Having compared Russians with Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), Senator Inhofe said that Ukrainian troops

and identify the problems Inhofe said. he acknowledged, adding:

Writer and journalist John Wight has told RT that the West has to ramp up the demonization of Russia to influence public opinion.

and everything is tailored to fit that policy agenda, including the truth. So anything that can be done to enlist support, the key determining factor of course is public opinion both in the UK and the US in particular, which has just had a decade of war. The public is war weary. So they have to ramp up the demonization of Russia. They have to fabricate Russia's intentions and Russia's actions in order to enlist that support of public opinion when it comes to possibly intensifying the conflict, which I fear we are in danger of seeing happen."

[embedded content]

EU-report: A column of Russian armoured vehicles moves along a road in South Ossetia, near the border with North Ossetia August 23 2008.

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) is one of the corporate front groups suing Vermont in an attempt to block the state's GMO labeling law. The trade group is also lobbying for H.R. 4432, an anti-consumer, anti-states' rights bill, introduced in April (2014) in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). The bill, dubbed by consumers as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, would preempt all state GMO labeling laws. HR 4432 would also legalize the use of the word "natural" on products that contain GMOs.

IDFA President and CEO Connie Tipton has been an outspoken opponent of consumers' right to know. In her address to this year's Dairy Forum, she noted that consumers "can be harsh critics on topics such as genetically modified organisms," and then went on to criticize "restrictive labeling requirements" as "a straightjacket on innovation and marketing."

Tipton has also made it clear that not only does the IDFA oppose mandatory GMO labeling laws, the trade group also opposes retailers' efforts to label voluntarily. For instance, when Walmart considered labeling the GMO sweet corn it sells (a promise that remains unfulfilled), Tipton went on the attack:

[Walmart] announced this past summer it planned to sell a new crop of genetically modified sweet corn created by Monsanto. Nothing wrong with that, but a lot of us were scratching our heads when Wal-Mart added that it would label the product as containing GMO ingredients - even though the Food and Drug Administration has already said the product is safe. Given Wal-Mart's size and market share, there are legitimate concerns that its decision on GMO labeling will force other retailers to march in lockstep behind the industry giant.

Why would the IDFA spend millions to defeat GMO labeling laws, including launching a lawsuit against Vermont?

Isn't the dairy industry the "Got Milk?" people, the ones who wear milk mustaches to get kids to drink what the industry promotes as healthy whole food? Doesn't the IDFA represent the family farmers whose black-and-white cows graze happily on green grass outside picturesque red barns?

Truth be told, those idyllic images have nothing to do with reality. They're part of a carefully orchestrated, and very expensive public relations campaign aimed at fostering the illusion that milk and other dairy products originate from small family farms—illusions that couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, the IDFA is just another wing of the processed food industry. And like the rest of the processed food industry, IDFA members have a lot to hide, where their products come from, and what's in them.

Dairy products as delivery systems for GMO sweeteners

Milk consumption has been on the decline for some time now. Today, less than a third of dairy production goes toward making milk that people drink.

To compensate, the industry pushes processed, dairy-based foods that contain a lot of decidedly non-dairy ingredients, including many that are genetically engineered.

Yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese, and flavored milk have become delivery systems for genetically modified sweeteners, especially high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

HFCS is made from corn that has been genetically engineered by Monsanto to absorb Roundup herbicide and produce the Bt toxin. It is more toxic than regular sugar.

A recent study compared two groups of rats, one fed HFCS and the other table sugar, both in doses equal to what many people eat. The rats fed HFCS had death rates 1.87 times higher than females on the sucrose diet. They also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring.

Previous studies on rodents and humans tied HFCS consumption to metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, obesity and abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

HFCS is used by some of the most powerful brands in the IDFA leadership, including:

Skinny Cow , the low-fat ice cream brand of Nestle USA, which is represented on the IDFA board by Patricia Stroup, chair.

Blue Bunny , the flagship brand of Wells Enterprises, Inc., represented by Michael Wells, vice-chair.

Hood , represented by Jeffrey Kaneb, treasurer.

Consumer demand is pushing many food companies to remove HFCS from dairy products. For instance, IDFA member Yoplait has gone HFCS-free. But Yoplait still contains sugar, which likely comes from sugar beets that have been genetically engineered to absorb Roundup herbicide, and GMO corn starch.

Do you want GMO trans fat-laden cheese on that?

If you add non-dairy ingredients to cheese, it no longer meets the legal definition of cheese. So how is it that as much as one-fifth of what people think of as "cheese" contains genetically engineered vegetable oils (corn, soy, cottonseed or canola), including trans fats (partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, usually made from GMO oils)?

By creating multiple definitions of "cheese," regulators have created a system that allows the dairy industry to load up cheese with non-dairy products by renaming their products "processed cheese food" or "processed cheese product." A product containing at least 51 percent cheese can be called a "processed cheese food." Products that contain less than 51 percent real cheese must be labeled a "processed cheese product."

Prior to 2006, many of these cheese "foods" and "products" sold in grocery stores contained trans fats. But once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring packaged food makers to list trans fat content as a separate line item on the labels of foods sold in stores, most of the cheese made with trans fats has been sold through restaurants where it doesn't have to be labeled.

That means consumers who frequently eat out are still eating a lot of trans fats with their cheese—they just don't know it. (As this article notes, however, consumers can still buy products at the grocery store that contain trans fats without knowing it—because food makers are allowed to claim "no trans fats" on the front of their package as long as the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, an amount even the FDA admits can be dangerous because of the cumulative effect).

Trans fat is the worst type of dietary fat. Trans fats create inflammation, which is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic conditions. They contribute to insulin resistance, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Trans fats can harm health in even small amounts: for every 2 percent of calories from trans fat consumed daily, the risk of heart disease rises by 23 percent. There is no safe level of consumption.

Kraft, the nation's largest manufacturer of cheese, has largely phased out trans fats, but it hasn't dropped the GMOs.

When Kraft reformulated Cheez Wiz, the company removed the cheese, leaving a taste of "axle grease." (Those are the words of a former Kraft food scientist who helped invent the original product.) But Cheez Wiz still contains GMOs, in the form of canola oil and corn syrup.

Kraft is represented on the IDFA executive committee by Howard Friedman.

Stretching the limits of what 'dairy' means

Genetically modified ingredients like HFCS and trans fats are super cheap. This has pushed the dairy foods industry to use such ingredients to the point of stretching the limits of consumers' understanding of what's actually a dairy product.

Enter government regulators, who have had to step in to define just exactly what is—and isn't—a legitimate "dairy" product.

A "Frozen Dairy Dessert" can't be called "ice cream" if it contains less than 10 percent milk fat. Statistics on the market share of "dairy desserts" versus ice cream is unavailable, but even Breyer's, known for its "all natural" ice cream has converted about 40 percent of its ice creams to "dairy desserts."

Why would the dairy industry embrace a declining amount of milk in dairy foods?

As it turns out, breaking milk into its constituent parts and selling them separately has been an efficient way for the industry to eliminate waste and increase profits, even if there might be less actual milk in any one particular product.

Skim milk used to be a waste product that was either discarded or fed to farm animals. Now it's sold as skim milk and fat-free dairy products (even though there's little evidence dairy is the best diet food).

Once the dairy industry had successfully created a market for skim milk, it realized it had another problem on its hands: what to do with the glut of whole milk and extracted milk fat created by soaring sales of skim milk.

The solution? Make more "cheese foods" and "cheese products." But that led to a new problem—what to do with all that cheese?

For a time, the federal government bought the industry's excess cheese and butter, packing away a stockpile valued at more than $4 billion by 1983. Then, in 1995, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created Dairy Management Inc., a nonprofit corporation, partially funded by the USDA (and your tax dollars), that defines its mission as increasing dairy consumption. Dairy Management teamed up with restaurant chains like Domino's and Pizza Hut to launch a $12-million marketing campaign promoting pizza with extra cheese. (Remember, restaurants don't have to label their cheese as containing GMO-laden trans fats).

The Dairy Management's program directly benefitted Leprino Foods Company, supplier of cheese to both Domino's and Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut lists "modifed food starch" among the ingredients in its cheese. Modified food starch is another name for modified corn starch, which is most always made with GMO corn.

Leprino Foods is represented on IDFA's board by Mike Reidy, who serves as secretary.

As long as the dairy industry's fortunes continue to be built upon the sales of GMO-containing "dairy products" and "cheese foods," its principle lobbying group, the IDFA, will continue to spend millions to keep consumers from knowing what's really in those foods.

This is not an industry that cares about farmers, or wholesome, healthy foods. What used to be a community of farmers selling real, whole foods has long since morphed into a processed food industry. And as such, the industry, represented by the IDFA, will continue to fight tooth-and-nail against what they portray as "restrictive labeling requirements" that create "a straightjacket on innovation and marketing."

Recommended article: Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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© Associated Press

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres speaks during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2014.

Economic Systems:The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man's stewardship of the environment. But we know that's not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this.

At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.

"This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution," she said.

Referring to a new international treaty environmentalists hope will be adopted at the Paris climate change conference later this year, she added: "This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history."

The only economic model in the last 150 years that has ever worked at all is capitalism. The evidence is From a feudal order that lasted a thousand years, produced zero growth and kept workdays long and lifespans short, the countries that have embraced free-market capitalism have enjoyed a system in which output has increased 70-fold, work days have been halved and lifespans doubled.

Figueres is perhaps the perfect person for the job of transforming "the economic development model" because she's really never seen it work. "If you look at Ms. Figueres' Wikipedia page," notes Cato economist Dan Mitchell: Making the world look at their right hand while they choke developed economies with their left.

The eastern Ukrainian militias have stopped all military action in accordance with the Minsk peace deal. They will suppress any provocations that may be organized by Kiev forces, said Aleksandr Zakharchenko, head of Donetsk People's Republic.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered troops to cease fire at Sunday midnight local time (22:00 GMT) in line with the Thursday Minsk agreement. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that "all National Guard and Interior Ministry units will halt fire at midnight."

Meanwhile, Defense Ministry spokesman of Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin, has ordered that all eastern Ukrainian militia units halt fighting "on the entire line of contact," RIA Novosti reports. A similar statement has come out of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, saying that local militia are to stop all combat actions at midnight.

RT's correspondent Murad Gazdiev reported from Donetsk that it felt "eerily calm" after the intense shelling gradually ceased after midnight.

Earlier, leaders of the restive Ukrainian republics said their regions have ratified the peace deal. The militias will stop all military action outside the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, Zakharchenko said. However, he said that the self-defense forces will reply to any provocative actions by the Kiev troops, including assaults and precision fire.

The DPR leader also said that rebels won't release a large group of Ukrainian troops, who have been entrapped near the village of Debaltsevo since early February.

"Their every attempt to break out will be suppressed," Zakharchenko is cited by RIA-Novosti news agency.

The rebels' leader reminded that "there wasn't a word mentioning Debaltsevo in the agreements" signed in Minsk on February 12, which means that "Ukraine simply betrayed the 5,000 people trapped in the Debaltsevo 'cauldron'."

Earlier, Basurin said that the Ukrainian troops near Debaltsevo won't be shelled, but won't be released as well, with surrender being the only option.

Zakharchenko has put his signature under a decree, which foresees the beginning of the ceasefire at 01:00 AM local time on Sunday - midnight for Kiev and 2200 GMT.

The DPR head also said that the Donetsk People's Republic won't grant control over its border with Russia to Ukrainian border guards: "Today an order will be issued to create the border guard service. Not a single Ukrainian soldier will enter our territory."

Poroshenko warns of martial law

Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has once again warned that Ukraine if the Minsk agreements fail, "martial law will be implemented not only in Donetsk and Lugansk, but in the whole country".

Moscow has expressed hopes Kiev and the rebels, as well as all the sides, which supported the Minsk peace deal, including France and Germany, "will do everything for the signed agreements to be scrupulously implemented," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Ukraine's official representatives...as well as those of several Western countries, the US in particular, have essentially expressed solidarity with the opinion of radical nationalists in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) and have began distorting the contents of the Minsk agreements," the ministry said.

On Saturday, Poroshenko spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on the phone, with the three heads of state stressing that all sides must fulfill the obligations they've taken according to Minsk agreements, first of all, those concerning the ceasefire.

The Ukrainian president also had a telephone conversation with US president Barack Obama, during which the two leaders "agreed on the further coordination of efforts in the event of an escalation" in Ukraine's southeast.

Poroshenko and Obama "discussed the situation in Donbass and expressed concerns about the situation in Debaltsevo," according to the Ukrainian president's website.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart, John Kerry, also discussed the situation in southeastern Ukraine on the phone, and stressed "the importance of strict implementation of the ceasefire regime by the conflicting sides."

Lavrov also emphasized that the Minsk peace deal "also includes obligations by Kiev to remove the financial and economic blockade of the [Ukrainian] southeast; to provide an amnesty; to stage a constitutional reform by the end of the year and adopt legislation on the special status of Donbass," Russia's Foreign Ministry said on its Facebook page.

The contact group, which includes representatives from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, held video consultations on Saturday, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said.

According to the OSCE, all parties agreed to take necessary measures to establish the agreed truce and de-escalation of the conflict, including in the areas of Debaltsevo and Mariupol.

The contact group will continue holding consultations on a regular basis to ensure the implementation of the Minsk agreements, a statement from the watchdog added.

Constitutional change

The Minsk agreement provides for a security zone separating the Kiev forces and the rebels, a ceasefire beginning on Sunday and a heavy weapons pullout to be completed in 14 days. The deal was signed by the contact group, which includes the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, a representative of the OSCE, Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma, and the Russian ambassador to Ukraine,

A separate declaration supporting the deal was agreed upon by the so-called "Normandy Four" leaders - French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who also gathered in Belarusian capital.

In accordance with the deal, on Saturday the eastern Ukrainian republics also proposed amendments to the constitution. One of the key demands is to grant certain regions the right to define and form the structure of local governments themselves, Denis Pushilin, DPR representative at the Minsk talks, said.

The rebels also want the official status for the Russian language and other minority languages, spoken in Ukraine's central regions, he said. Another proposed amendment foresees the decentralization of fiscal and tax systems, "up to the possibility of creating in free economic zones and other special economic regimes on certain territories," Pushilin is cited by TASS news agency.

While the Minsk deal is hoped to secure an end to the bloody and devastating internal conflict that has taken the lives of over 5,300 people in the UN's estimates since last April, shelling in Donetsk was reported throughout the whole of Saturday.

Hours after the beginning of the ceasefire between the Kiev forces and the independence supporters of Donbas, conflicting parties accuse each other of violating the truce.

"As of 02:30 [00:30 GMT] the shelling of the ATO [the Kiev-led anti-terrorist operation] forces continues. As of now, our positions have been shelled 9 times," the ATO spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said Sunday on Facebook, adding that the positions of Kiev forces are being shelled near the villages Zolotoye, Popasnaya and Toshkovka in Luhansk region and Chernukhino and Sanzharovka in Donetsk region.

According to Seleznyov, Ukrainian troops adhere strictly to the ceasefire regime.

The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko has called an emergency meeting Sunday regarding the violation of silence regime in Donbas by Kiev forces, the deputy head of DPR militia said.

[embedded content]

"The head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko has called an emergency meeting at which the current situation is being discussed," Eduard Basurin said.

Despite the official beginning of a ceasefire in Donbas, Kiev forces started firing mortars and shelling the positions of the independence supporters of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR).

Eduard Basurin said that at 02:00 (February 14, 23:00 GMT) armed groups of Kiev militants in the town of Debaltseve have opened fire targeting the positions of LPR and DPR.

"In order to avoid civilian casualties, the units of DPR are targeting enemy's weaponry," Basurin said.

The independence supporters of Ukraine's self-proclaimed Donetsk people's republic are being forced to open fire in return to continuing shelling by Kiev forces he added.

"The units of the DPR armed forces are forced to open selective fire to suppress hostilities by Kiev nationalists and saboteurs," deputy head of the DPR militia Eduard Basurin said, adding that Kiev troops continue violating ceasefire in east Ukraine's Debaltseve area.

According to the DPR militia press service, Kiev forces are currently also shelling the areas around the towns of Yenakiyevo and Horlivka in the Donetsk region and the areas around the Donetsk airport.

In accordance with the new Minsk agreements, the ceasefire between Kiev forces and independence supporters of Donbas came in force at midnight, local time on February 15 (February 14, 10:00 p.m. GMT).

Minutes before midnight, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered Kiev forces to cease fire in Ukraine's southeast.

Earlier on Sunday, Eduard Basurin announced that at midnight all the units of the DPR militia have ceased hostilities along the contact line in Donbas.

Justin Smith

Youtube

Sun, 15 Feb 2015 16:50 CET

This is a short clip from the upcoming film STATIN NATION II.

[embedded content]

Comment: You can read the report here: Vascular surgeons write a damning report about lowering cholesterol drugs. In summary:

Not only are statin medications failing to impact on our most prevalent disease, but they are causing more harm than good.

Cholesterol is crucial for energy, immunity, fat metabolism, leptin, thyroid hormone activity, liver related synthesis, protection from stress, adrenal function, sex hormone syntheses and brain function.

Only middle aged men with coronary heart disease benefit from taking statins, but even in these cases statins may only work in the short term and should be stopped before adverse effects can take hold.

High cholesterol levels have been found to be protective in elderly and heart failure patients.

The statin industry is the utmost medical tragedy of all times.

A government report in Canada found an overestimation of benefit and underestimation of harm where statins are concerned.

Statins are associated with triple the risk of coronary artery and aortic calcification.

The Raw Story

Focused on providing independent journalism.

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Sunday, 15 February 2015

Ukraine truce being observed 'in general'

Busted: Kiev MPs try to fool US senator with 'proof' of Russian tanks in Ukraine

The Dairy industry opposing GMO labels? Why?

U.N. official reveals real reason behind warming scare

Ceasefire orders given in Novorossiya and Ukraine

Shaky ceasefire: Kiev violates truce in Debaltsevo, rebels suppress fire

Professor of Vascular Surgery exposes cholesterol myth

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