.png)
EU calls for reforms, elections in Ukraine
BRUSSELS – In a sharp rebuke to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the European Union on Monday called for the formation of a new, inclusive government and constitutional reforms that would pave the way to “free and fair presidential elections.”
The bloc’s 28 foreign ministers said in a joint statement they were “alarmed by the human rights situation, including violence, cases of missing persons, torture and intimidation” as part of the authorities’ crackdown against the ongoing protests, reflecting an “atmosphere of impunity.”
Ukraine has been rocked by nearly three months of anti-government protests sparked by Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an agreement with the EU and accept a $15 billion loan package from Russia instead.
Accidental bombing kills 21 militants in Iraq
BAGHDAD – An instructor teaching his militant recruits how to make car bombs accidentally set off explosives in his demonstration Monday, killing 21 of them in a huge blast that alerted authorities to the existence of the rural training camp in an orchard north of Baghdad. Nearly two dozen people were arrested, including wounded insurgents trying to hobble away from the scene.
The fatal goof by the al-Qaida breakaway group that dominates the Sunni insurgency in Iraq happened on the same day that the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, a prominent Sunni whom the militants consider a traitor, escaped unhurt from a roadside bomb attack on his motorcade in the northern city of Mosul.
Associated Press
