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Ukraine President Pledges Ceasefire In Separatist East

Ukraine President Pledges Ceasefire In Separatist East

Kiev (AFP) – Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko announced on Wednesday that he would soon order a unilateral ceasefire in the separatist east to help end the 10-week pro-Russian insurgency.

He took a further step toward relieving tensions with Russia by deciding to replace acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya — a hate figure in Moscow — with his current envoy to ongoing OSCE-mediate negotiations with the Kremlin.

But the Western-backed leader also appealed for U.S. and EU help to secure his crisis-torn country’s porous border with Russia and stem the influx of arms and militants into the conflict zone.

“The peace plan begins with my order for a unilateral ceasefire,” the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Poroshenko as saying.

“Immediately after that, we must receive support for the presidential peace plan from all sides involved (in the conflict). This should happen very shortly.”

Ukraine’s acting Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval added that the ceasefire order would be issued “literally within days.”

Poroshenko’s comments followed a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in which the two discussed a long-term solution to the pro-Kremlin uprising gripping Ukraine’s eastern rustbelt.

The Ukrainian leader’s office said the two presidents “discussed a series of priority measures that must be undertaken to implement a ceasefire, as well as the most efficient ways to monitor it.”

The Kremlin confirmed that “the issue of a possible ceasefire in the area of the military operation in Ukraine’s southeast had been touched upon.”

Poroshenko’s peace initiative calls for an end to hostilities and for Putin to formally recognize the new leadership in Ukraine that rose to power following the ouster of a pro-Russian administration in February after months of pro-EU protests.

The 48-year-old confectionery tycoon won Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election on a promise to quickly end the country’s worst crisis since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Interfax-Ukraine said Poroshenko told reporters in Kiev that the ceasefire was meant to be a temporary measure to give the pro-Russian militants a chance to disarm.

The rebels have previously rejected similar calls and vowed to continue a campaign to join Russia that has killed more than 325 civilians and fighters on both sides.

Poroshenko’s decision to tap 46-year-old Pavlo Klimkin to replace Deshchytsya as foreign minister will help address one of the biggest irritants in relations with Moscow.

Klimkin is a veteran diplomat who recently served as Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany and is now Poroshenko’s personal representative at talks with Moscow that were launched on June 8 by the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Deshchytsya became embroiled in controversy at the weekend when he called Putin “a prick” while trying to restrain protesters who attacked Moscow’s embassy compound in Kiev.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded by saying that he had no intention of speaking to Deshchytsya again.

Ukraine’s parliament is largely expected to approve Klimkin’s candidacy in a vote later this week.

Poroshenko’s talks with Putin and nomination as foreign minister of a figure who has already won a degree of trust from Moscow come in sharp contrast to the freeze in the two sides’ relations that followed Russia’s annexation of Crimea in march.

But Poroshenko has stressed that he will be unable to put an end to the fighting until Ukraine regains complete control of its 1,230-mile land border with Russia.

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday once again expressed concern about “the movement of military tanks and other equipment across the border” into eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko’s office said he told German Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone on Tuesday that Ukraine needed Western help sealing the frontier.

“Petro Poroshenko noted that EU and U.S. assistance was essential for stepping up the state border’s control,” his office said in a statement.

The United States has pledged “non-lethal military aid” such as helmets and medical supplies for Ukraine’s underfunded armed forced.

But Washington has refused to provide any combat equipment and rejects the idea of deploying ground forces in Ukraine.

©afp.com / Alexander Zemlianichenko

Tornadoes Kill 34 As Storm System Heads East

Tornadoes Kill 34 As Storm System Heads East

By Michael Muskal and Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

As a deadly storm system continued its eastward trek Tuesday, the South began tallying its losses from a tornado outbreak that killed at least 34 people in a swath from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Iowa to Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

The harsh weather carved a wound from the Midwest and eastward, bringing severe thunderstorms, fierce winds and large hail, with the latest tornadoes damaging homes in North Carolina on Tuesday evening. Significant portions of Alabama and Mississippi remained under tornado watch.

Hundreds of injuries have been reported since Sunday as homes and buildings toppled, mobile homes were tossed like toys and heavy vehicles twisted in the wind.

This week’s tornadoes occurred near the anniversary of a 2011 outbreak that left more than 350 people dead across the South. In Alabama, more than 250 people died April 27, 2011, from more than 60 twisters.

This year’s tornado season had a much less severe start but it was still deadly. Dozens of tornadoes have touched down in recent days, with the majority scouring central Mississippi and northern Alabama on Monday.

Arkansas, especially in the Little Rock-area towns of Vilonia and Mayflower, was especially hard hit Sunday with 15 deaths in three counties. A sequence of at least two tornadoes scoured a nearly straight line of damage through the central part of the state, bringing winds in excess of 136 mph and carving a track more than half a mile wide in places.

Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack said: “The state’s in a state of shock right now.” Womack, whose district northwest of Little Rock was spared much of the damage, added: “These will try your souls.”

The dangerous storms moved through Mississippi, where tornadoes began to strike Monday afternoon through the evening. Tupelo, a community of about 35,000 people in northeastern Mississippi, was hard hit and every building in a two-block area was damaged, officials told television reporters.

Officials said nine people died in Mississippi’s Winston County, where Louisville is the county seat, with about 6,600 people. An apparent EF-4 tornado with winds stronger than 160 mph swept the area, severely damaging a medical center and a nursing home.

As of Tuesday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed at least 12 deaths across the state.

Ruth Bennett, 53, died saving a child at her Ruth’s Child Care Center when the tornado hit Louisville. A firefighter who came upon her body gently pulled the toddler from her arms, according to The Associated Press.

“It makes you just take a breath now,” said next-door neighbor Kenneth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left of the center. “It makes you pay attention to life.”

Bennett’s niece, Tanisha Lockett, said she had worked at Ruth’s Child Care since it opened seven years ago. She said that all but the one child had been picked up before the storm. The 4-year-old, whose name was not released, was taken to a Jackson hospital.

“We’re just trying to keep a smile on our faces,” said Jackie Ivy, an employee who was helping with the cleanup Tuesday. “I cried all last night.”

Mississippi Republican state Sen. Giles Ward huddled in a bathroom with his wife, four other family members and their dog Monday as a tornado destroyed his two-story brick house and flipped his son-in-law’s SUV upside-down onto the patio in Louisville.

“For about 30 seconds, it was unbelievable,” Ward told reporters. “It’s about as awful as anything we’ve gone through.”

Another person died in Mississippi when her car either hydroplaned or was blown off a road during the storm in Verona, south of Tupelo.

Three weather-related deaths were confirmed in Alabama, with 19 counties reporting storm damage. One of those tornadoes destroyed the Kimberly Church of God in Kimberly, Ala. Pastor Stan Cooke was using the church as a community shelter, keeping about 25 people safe underground.

“I cried. I cried,” Cooke said to television reporters. “The church is not the people; the people are the church.”

In southern Tennessee, two people were killed in a home when a suspected tornado hit Monday night, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Mike Hall told The Associated Press. The winds destroyed several other homes as well as a middle school in the county that borders Alabama, Hall said.

The storm even sent the staff at a TV news station running for cover. Chief meteorologist Matt Laubhan at NBC affiliate WTVA-TV in Tupelo, Miss., was reporting live on the air about 3 p.m. when he realized that the twister was approaching. He warned viewers and his 35 co-workers to get to safety.

“This is a tornado ripping through the city of Tupelo as we speak. And this could be deadly,” he said in a video widely tweeted and broadcast on YouTube.

Moments later he added, “A damaging tornado. On the ground. Right now.”

“Basement, now!” he yelled to the staff before disappearing off camera.

AFP Photo/Tasos Katopodis

Death Toll Climbs To At Least 30 As Deadly Storms Move Through The South

Death Toll Climbs To At Least 30 As Deadly Storms Move Through The South

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

After leaving a trail of death and destruction across at least six states, a series of violent storms that spawned dozens of tornadoes continued to move through the South on Tuesday morning.

It was the third day of deadly weather to rip from the Midwest through the eastern portion of the nation, bringing severe thunderstorms, fierce winds and large hail. In all, at least 30 deaths have been reported since Sunday in a swath from Oklahoma and Iowa to Alabama and including Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Hundreds of injuries have been reported as homes and buildings toppled, mobile homes were tossed like confetti and heavy vehicles twisted in the wind.

More than 70 million people live in the area identified by the National Weather Service, but the number in the prime danger zones were about a fifth of that.

“The NWS Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a risk of severe weather Tuesday afternoon and into Tuesday from the Great Lakes southward to the central and eastern Gulf Coast and eastward to the Carolinas and Virginia,” the National Weather Service warned. “The greatest risk is from eastern Mississippi to central Alabama, where a Moderate Risk is in place. Several tornadoes, large hail and straight line damaging winds are likely.”

This week’s tornadoes come near the anniversary of the 2011 outbreak that left more than 350 people dead across the South over several days beginning on April 25 during the annual tornado season. More than 250 people died in Alabama alone on April 27, 2011, when more than 60 tornadoes crisscrossed the state.

This year’s tornado season has been much less severe but still deadly for some. Hundreds of tornadoes have touched down in recent days, including 13 reported in Alabama in the last 24 hours.

Arkansas — especially in Vilonia and Mayflower — was especially hard hit on Sunday, with 15 deaths in three counties.

“The state’s in a state of shock right now,” Republican Rep. Steve Womack, whose Arkansas district northwest of Little Rock was spared much of the damage, said in Washington on Tuesday. “These will try your souls.”

The dangerous storms moved through Mississippi, where tornadoes began to strike Monday afternoon through the evening. Tupelo, a community of about 35,000 in northeastern Mississippi, was hard hit and every building in a two-block area was damaged, officials told television reporters.

Officials said seven people died in Mississippi’s Winston County, where Louisville is the county seat, with about 6,600 people. Another person died in Mississippi when her car either hydroplaned or was blown off a road during the storm in Verona, south of Tupelo. As of Tuesday morning, Mississippi Emergency Management confirmed at least nine deaths across the state.

In Mississippi, Republican state Sen. Giles Ward huddled in a bathroom with his wife, four other family members and their dog Monday as a tornado destroyed his two-story brick house and flipped his son-in-law’s SUV upside down onto the patio in Louisville.

“For about 30 seconds, it was unbelievable,” Ward told reporters. “It’s about as awful as anything we’ve gone through.”

Two weather-related deaths were confirmed in Alabama. One of those tornadoes destroyed the Kimberly Church of God in Kimberly, Ala. Pastor Stan Cooke was using the church as a community shelter, keeping about 25 people safe underground.

“I cried. I cried,” Cooke said to television reporters. “The church is not the people, the people are the church.”

In southern Tennessee, two people were killed in a home when a suspected tornado hit Monday night, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Mike Hall told The Associated Press. The winds destroyed several other homes as well as a middle school in the county that borders Alabama, Hall said.

The storm even sent the staff at a TV news station running for cover. NBC affiliate WTVA-TV chief meteorologist Matt Laubhan in Tupelo, Miss., was reporting live on the air at around 3 p.m. when he realized the twister was approaching. He warned not only viewers but his 35 co-workers to get to safety.

“This is a tornado ripping through the city of Tupelo as we speak. And this could be deadly,” he said in a video widely tweeted and broadcast on YouTube.

Moments later he added, “A damaging tornado. On the ground. Right now.”

The video showed Laubhan peeking in from the side to see if he was still live on the air before yelling to staff off-camera to get down in the basement.

“Basement, now!” he yelled, before disappearing off camera.

Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal/MCT

Arkansas Assesses Tornado Damage As Storms Keep Moving East

Arkansas Assesses Tornado Damage As Storms Keep Moving East

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Michael Muskal and Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

VILONIA, Ark. — Parkwood Meadows subdivision is the sort of place where neighbors know each other. Their children play together at a communal basketball hoop set up in the street.

But on Sunday, a fierce tornado leveled more than three dozen of its single-story brick homes. The wind blew belongings into surrounding fields and dense woods. Roofs were ripped off, walls toppled, garages imploded. Eight of about 50 homes remained standing, but the subdivision’s brick sign survived unscathed — as pristine as the pair of brown cowboy boots propped against it.

Linda Mulligan, 42, weathered the tornado in a closet with her husband and two stepdaughters, ages 18 and 10.

“It lifted us about 30 feet,” said Mulligan, field coordinator for an elevator company. “If it wasn’t for my husband holding everyone’s hands and praying, we wouldn’t have made it.”

As they looked at the damage on Monday, they took comfort in just being alive. “They carried one out today,” she said of a body. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing.”

Police Chief Brad McNew said eight people had been killed in Vilonia, but he couldn’t be sure how many were from Parkwood Meadows.

According to Kathy Wright, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, 15 people died statewide — 11 in Faulkner County, three in Pulaski County and one in White County. At least two other weather-related deaths, one in Oklahoma and the other in Iowa, were also reported, bringing Sunday’s toll to 17.

Even as Arkansas continued its cleanup efforts, tornadoes spread Monday afternoon to Mississippi, where a severe weather system brought “significant damage to some businesses and hotels” in northwestern Tupelo. About 100 miles to the south, the Winston Medical Center in Louisville, Miss., was damaged.

In Alabama, the coroner’s office confirmed two deaths west of Athens, Limestone County Emergency Director Rita White told The Associated Press.

Tornado watches were also in place for Tennessee.

Earlier Monday, Arkansas officials had put the state’s death total at 16, but revised it downward by two because some people had been counted twice. Then another confirmed death brought the tally to 15. The final toll is still a question mark, however.

“We don’t have a count on injuries or missing. We’re trying to get a handle on the missing part,” Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said at a news conference. “Just looking at the damage, this may be one of the strongest we have seen.”

About 120 injuries of varying severity were reported in Arkansas alone. At least nine people remained hospitalized Monday at the Conway Regional Medical Center, with several in serious condition, spokeswoman Lori Ross said.

Early reports said the tornado that touched down in Arkansas on Sunday was at least half a mile wide and cut a swath as much as 80 miles long. The twister could have carried winds of more than 136 mph, which would make it an EF-3, one of the strongest measured. But weather officials warned that a final determination will require analysis of the damage.

President Barack Obama, who is traveling in Asia, called Beebe to express his condolences. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate was traveling to Arkansas on Monday to ensure the appropriate federal resources were available, the agency announced.

FEMA said it was preparing for widespread, severe storms — including tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail — through Monday night over parts of the eastern United States from the Mississippi Valley to the Appalachians.

In southeastern Iowa, a woman was killed Sunday when a tornado or powerful straight-line winds caused a farm building to collapse. Another tornado was blamed for one death in Quapaw, Okla., before the twister crossed into Kansas, where it destroyed more than 100 homes and businesses and injured 25 people in the city of Baxter Springs, according to Kansas authorities.

But Arkansas remained the hardest hit. Rescuers continued looking for people and trying to assess the damage. Among the ruins in Vilonia was a new intermediate school that was to open this fall — built to replace the school destroyed by a 2011 tornado.

“There’s just really nothing there anymore. We’re probably going to have to start all over again,” Vilonia Schools Superintendent Frank Mitchell told reporters after surveying what was left of the building.

The weekend was the third anniversary of a tornado outbreak that struck from April 25 to 28, 2011, when parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia were hit by 358 tornadoes. More than 300 were killed then, including five in Arkansas, with four of those in Vilonia.

On Sunday, Dawn Neely, 41, weathered the Vilonia twister at her home in the Parkwood Meadows subdivision.

Neely, a house cleaner with two children who were not at home, said she hid in a 3-foot-square bathroom closet, her two dogs on the floor outside.

After the twister passed, she couldn’t get out until a neighbor cleared away debris from the closet door.

When Neely emerged, her bathroom ceiling was gone and so were most of the walls. One of her dogs was trapped under debris. The other was missing.

She freed the first dog, which was unharmed. Monday morning she got a call: The second dog, a Labrador mix named Georgia Belle, had been found about a mile away, alive.

Her husband, an airman deployed in the Middle East, was due home Tuesday. Some of his colleagues helped her search the rubble for valuables. Monday morning, they found her wedding ring. By evening, they had found his, a gold band sparkling with diamonds.

Neely held the ring up to the hot afternoon sun like a prize, smiling. Then her face crumpled. In front of her sat the skeleton of her home.

“That will make you cry,” she said, slipping the oversized ring on a slim finger. “That will get you.”

She has not allowed her children, ages 14 and 10, to see the house, she said. It’s just too much.

AFP Photo/Tasos Katopodis