BERLIN — Investigators are still far from an official judgment of what brought down a Malaysia Airlines flight in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew onboard. But in the global court of public opinion, the verdict appears to be rendered.
All of them got on the Boeing 777: the world renowned AIDS researcher, the 77-year-old nun, the aspiring chemist who rowed crew for Indiana University – Dutch by birth but who showed her affection for her Midwest U.S. campus by once showing up to a costume party dressed as an ear of corn. A grandfather shepherding his three young grandchildren back to Australia. A 19-year-old U.S. citizen traveling to meet his family for a Malaysian vacation. Eighty children, three of them infants.
KIEV, Ukraine – Pro-Russian rebels downed a military helicopter in eastern Ukraine, killing 13 troops and a general, as an adviser to President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of pushing the world toward war through proxies in Kiev.
Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and EU reached a surprise deal Thursday on de-escalating the worsening Ukrainian crisis, in a ray of hope for the former Soviet republic that has plunged into chaos.
The international crisis over Ukraine escalated sharply Monday as the United States and Europe imposed sanctions on senior Russian political and military figures, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the Ukrainian region of Crimea as an independent state.
Kudos to Oscar-winner Jared Leto for reminding us that democratic revolutions are occurring in two hemispheres, not one. Sadly, U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, focusing on other important issues, ignored both for weeks.
