World

BEIJING, (Reuters) – China will “declare war” on pollution, Premier Li Keqiang said yesterday at the start of the annual meeting of parliament, with the government unveiling detailed measures to tackle what has become a hot-button social issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has a number of economic weapons to punish Russia for its military intervention in Ukraine, ranging from asset freezes to kicking Moscow out of the exclusive G8 group of countries, and President Barack Obama is focusing first on measures that would not require congressional action.

OSLO (Reuters) – Increasing similarity in diets worldwide is a threat to health and food security with many people forsaking traditional crops such as cassava, sorghum or millet, an international study showed yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration yesterday announced new fuel and automobile rules to cut soot, smog and toxic emissions, which it says will reduce asthma and heart attacks in the United States.

LONDON (Reuters) – An independent Scotland would be a prosperous country that would retain close ties with the United Kingdom if voters choose to go it alone in the September 18 referendum, Scottish leader Alex Salmond will say today.

ISLAMABAD,  (Reuters) – Gunmen burst into a court in a busy shopping area in the heart of Pakistan’s capital today, killing at least 11 people in a suicide-bomb and gun attack likely to shatter any prospect of meaningful peace talks with Taliban insurgents.

KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine, (Reuters) – Ukraine mobilised for war yesterday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow’s biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine,  (Reuters) – Ukraine mobilised today for war and called up its reserves, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded and won his parliament’s approval yesterday to invade Ukraine, where the new government warned of war, put its troops on high alert and appealed to NATO for help.

BEIJING (Reuters) – At least 28 people were killed by knife-wielding attackers in a “violent terrorist attack” at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, and police shot dead five of the assailants, state media said today.

UNITED NATIONS,  (Reuters) – Ukraine today asked the United States and other key members of the U.N.

BEIJING, (Reuters) – At least 28 people were killed in a “violent terrorist attack” at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming by a group of unidentified people brandishing knives, five of whom were shot dead, state media said on Sunday.

KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine, (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin wrested control of the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea from Kiev today citing a threat to Russian citizens and servicemen of the Russian Black Sea fleet based there.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned Russia yesterday that military intervention in Ukraine would lead to “costs,” as tension with old foe President Vladimir Putin rose in a Cold War-style crisis.

BANGUI,  (Reuters) – French President Francois Hollande told the Central African Republic yesterday that his troops would work to stop the country splitting in two and endeavour to disarm rival fighters engaged in months of inter-religious killing.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine,  (Reuters) – Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region yesterday in what the new Ukrainian leadership described as an invasion by Moscow’s forces, and ousted President Viktor Yanukovich surfaced in Russia after a week on the run.

PANAMA CITY,  (Reuters) – The Panama Canal Authority said on Friday it expects to sign a financing deal next week to finish work on expanding the waterway and end a dispute over cost overruns that has held up the multibillion-dollar project.

TOKYO, (Reuters) – Mt. Gox, once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan on Friday, saying it may have lost nearly half a billion dollars worth of the virtual coins due to hacking into its faulty computer system.

SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) – Google Inc yesterday lost its bid to keep an anti-Islamic film on its YouTube video sharing website while it appealed a federal appeals court order that the company said would have “devastating effects” if allowed to stand.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine,  (Reuters) – The United States told Russia to demonstrate in coming days that it was sincere about its promise not to intervene in Ukraine as armed men stormed the regional parliament and hours later others seized the airport in a mainly ethnic Russian region.