Gold Medal Game Women's Hockey 

US vs Canada

Tied 3 - 3 

Now in overtime.

US had it won with 3 minutes and 30 seconds to go when Canada scored and tied it.

Canada Gold.

The Eurasian Economic Union is due to be finalized in a constitution in 2015. Currently, the permanent participants are Belarus, Russia and Kazakstan. The other nations here are expected to be a part of of the economic cooperative.

The people of the Ukraine believe the chance of having their 2004 constitution is mostly gone and the chances of it returning to a democracy they wanted is disappearing quickly. It is why the violence is nearly intractable at this point.

The Ukrainian constitution of 2004 is not a threat to the ambitions of the Eurasian Economic Union. When the EU formed no country had to compromise their own constitutions or sovereign status in order to find cooperation with other nations in developing their own currency and stability. 

The Ukrainian people wanted to be a part of Europe and they believe it is being taken away from them. I fear for them. I believe they have reached a tipping point.

Belarus - Ukraine Trains are on schedule

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) - Trains (click here) from Ukraine to Belarus run as scheduled on 20 February, BelTA learnt from the press service of Belarusian Railways.
“There have been no delays in the departure of trains heading for Kyiv,” the company said answering BelTA’s question on possible changes in the timetable in connection with mass riots in Kyiv.
Currently 11 pairs of Belarusian Railways’ international trains are used to service the Belarus-Ukraine line. These trains link Belarus with Kyiv and major administrative and regional centers in Ukraine. Transit trains from Chisinau, Kyiv, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk run through Belarus to St. Petersburg.
On 20 February the Belarusian Embassy recommended that Belarusians in Ukraine abstain from visiting places where protests are being staged. 

20 February 2014
The system of finished product control (click here) is running at full capacity in Belarus. This has been announced at today's press conference by Minister of Agriculture and Food Leonid Zayats. In his opinion, the agricultural industry lacks highly skilled professionals; however, there are educational institutions aimed at raising professional skill levels. It is planned to use new approaches in milk production to reach 10 million tons of milk per year by 2015.
According to the Minister, agro-industrial complex development is a very promising area. Dairy products and meat sold abroad bring tens of percent profit margins.

20.02.14
MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) intends to contact the Eurasian Economic Community Court in view of Russia’s claims concerning the poor quality of Belarusian meat and dairy products, BelTA learned from Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats on 20 February.

Russia’s complaints about the quality of Belarusian agricultural products have been quite frequent in mass media recently. Belarus has repeatedly stated and the Agriculture and Food Minister underlined it one more time on 19 February that Russia’s concerns had been caused by attempts to falsify Belarusian foods. In particular, attempts to falsify tinned meat made by the agricultural company Agrokombinat Snov have been registered. Unprincipled manufacturers make well-known Belarusian brands suffer, discrediting the latter and negatively influencing the trust in Belarus. “We are forced to go to court to protect our manufacturers,” said the Minister....

By EDDIE PELLS 
AP National Writer
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia 
February 17, 2014 (AP) 

This was a high five Anton Kushnir will never forget. (click here)

Five spins into the frosty night air followed by a near-perfect landing gave Kushnir the gold medal Monday and wrapped up a sweep of aerials gold at the Sochi Olympics for Belarus.

He won it three nights after Alla Tsuper, who recently moved to Belarus from Ukraine, took the women's gold.

"We managed to repeat the success," Kushnir said. "I don't know actually how this happened but I got the gold medal."

Kushnir won with the biggest trick going in the game right now — the "back double full-full-double full," which is five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while he soars 50 feet (15 meters) off the ramp.

He earned a score of 134.5 for the trick to beat David Morris of Australia by more than 24 points....

From the Associated Press

February 14, 2014, 11:34 a.m.

SOCHI, Russia — Alla Tsuper of Belarus (click here) pulled off a stunning Olympic gold-medal win in women's aerials.

Tsuper drilled 98.01 in the finals to beat a field that included defending Olympic champion Lydia Lassila of Australia and two-time Olympic medalist Li Nina of China.

Xu Mengtao of China won silver while Lassila earned bronze.

The 34-year-old Tsuper had never finished higher than fifth in four previous Olympics. She plans on retiring after the Games to spend more time with her young daughter and hoped to go out “on a high.” 

Tsuper went first during the four-skier final round and drilled her acrobatic leap. Nina and Lassila both botched their landings and when Mengtao struggled to hold on at the end of her jump, Tsuper began celebratin.


 

By DAVID PACE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 17, 2014, 11:28 AM

SOCHI, Russia — It was Belarus (click here) day Monday at the Sochi Olympics.
A Belarussian woman made Olympic history by becoming the first female ever to win three biathlon titles at the same games, and one of her teammates captured the men's freestyle skiing aerials competition to complete a gold-medal sweep on the event.
Anton Kushnir nailed a near-perfect landing after a "back double full-full-double full" jump — five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while soaring 50 feet off the ramp and into the night sky.


MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – The registration (click here) of local election candidates is finishing in Belarus on 20 February, BelTA has learnt.
A total of 22,784 candidates have joined the race for 18,816 seats at the local councils of deputies. The candidates were nominated by political parties, labor collectives and by means of signature collection. The average competition in a constituency is 1.2. The competition for the seats in the Minsk City Council of Deputies will be the toughest with the average of 4.7 potential candidates seeking a seat there.
Candidates will be able to start campaigning from the moment of registration up to 22 March. The early elections will take place on 18-22 March. The election day is scheduled for 23 March. 

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) is expanding the network of emergency or temporary accommodation for people whose personal safety is threatened (like domestic violence victims or human trafficking victims), BelTA learnt from the Labor and Social Security Ministry of Belarus.
 
There are 148 regional social services centers in Belarus, including two municipal social support centers for families and children in Minsk and Gomel. As of 1 January 2014, these centers operated 133 social adaptation and rehabilitation facilities and 74 shelters. There were 31 shelters in Belarus as of 1 January 2011, 41 shelters as of 1 January 2012 and 50 shelters as of 1 January 2013. Thus, the number of shelters is increasing year to year. As for the regional distribution of shelters, Mogilev Oblast used to have the biggest number of temporary housing. Now Vitebsk Oblast has as many temporary and emergency accommodation facilities. Shelters were opened in all the districts (25 in each region). Last year 150 people approached these facilities for assistance (124 people in 2012)....

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – In January 2014 (click here) Belarus’ GDP totaled Br49,851.7 billion, 1.1% down from January 2013, BelTA learned from the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.
In January 2014 the industrial output dropped by 7.1% to Br52.23 trillion. The share of innovative products in the total volume of shipped products amounted to 15.1%.
In January 2014 the fixed-capital investments stood at Br9.17 trillion, 99.6% as against January 2013.
In 2013 Belarus’ GDP reached Br636.8 trillion, 0.9% up from 2012.
As of 1 February 2014 the finished goods inventory amounted to Br31.84 trillion, 78.2% of the average monthly industrial output.
In January 2014 Belarus’ agricultural output lost 2.8% in comparison with January 2013 to land at Br5.16 trillion.
In January 2014 the wholesale trade turnover rose by 3.4% to Br36.8 trillion. The retail trade turnover gained 13.6% to reach Br21.6 trillion. 

MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – It is important to prepare (click here) the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty on time. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement as he met with members of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Chairman of the EEC Board on 19 February, BelTA has learned.

In line with the agreement reached by the presidents of the Customs Union member states the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty is supposed to be ready by 1 May 2014. The Union itself should become operational as from 1 January 2015. “Concrete deadlines have been set and I wouldn’t like breaking them,” noted the Belarusian head of state.

“It is very important because once due to the work to establish the Union State of Belarus and Russia, even more so, the Commonwealth of Independent States our peoples had inflated expectations or maybe normal ones but we failed to meet these expectations. Therefore, people are now concerned about the possibility of our failing of the project. If we shift the timeframe, if we fail to meet the deadlines, the people will not be happy about it,” said the Belarus President....

Hungary prepares for Ukraine refugees.

February 19th, 2014

Members of the Visegrad Four grouping, (click here) including Hungarian authorities, are monitoring the situation in Ukraine, with special regard to the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia, Andras Giro-Szasz, the government spokesman, told MTI on Wednesday.

Hungary is prepared both in terms of health-care and refugee services, to deal with a potential inflow of refugees in light of the violence in Ukraine, he said.
At least 25 people died and hundreds were injured in clashes between the police and anti-government demonstrators in Kiev by Wednesday morning.

The Ukrainian people know, understand and seek a return of the democracy they established in 2004. It is too late for old world oppression. The Ukraine government has to realize they do not have the support of the people of their nation. The government troops are Ukrainian, too. They can't possibly be expected to continuously kill their fellow citizens. The people want government, they don't want oppression. There is no going back for many of them and carnage is nothing more than killing innocent people that believe their lives are over in profound ways if oppression were to return to them.

By: Anna-Lysa Gayle
Updated: Thu 12:19 AM, Feb 20, 2014

The protests in the Ukraine (click here) is just one example of how refugees end up in the United States and for Viktor Sokolyuk it brings back sad memories.
"You do whatever you're told, you can't say anything against the regime," said Sokolyuk, who entered the United States as a refugee, during the time the Ukraine was under the Soviet Union's control.
He said it seems little has changed in the country.
He describes today's leaders in the Ukraine like this.
"They still have that old Soviet society mentality. It's either my way or there is no way," said Sokolyuk.
Under the soviet regime he was persecuted for being a Christian.
Now a citizen of the United States, he works to help refugees coming to America, who were once like him....

Lee Young-sil, 87, right, (click here) and her sister Ri Jeong-sil, 84, now living in North Korea, shed tears as they met each other during inter-Korean family reunions held at the Geumgangsan Hotel in North Korea, Thursday./ Yonhap

By Kim Kwang-tae
Joint Press Corps

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- Kang Neung-hwan, (click here) a 93-year-old South Korean, wept and hugged his son from North Korea on Thursday as they reunited at a North Korean mountain resort along with dozens of other families, in an emotional event that underscored the painful separation of people after the Korean War.

Kang did not knew that his wife -- with whom he had been married for less than four months -- was pregnant when he fled to South Korea during the chaotic days of the 1950-1953 war. The war ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, keeping ordinary people from the rival Koreas from contacting each other for decades....

They ever have training at FOX? Seriously. The American people are used to tabloid journalism to promote power.

Egypt needs to deport them, remove their visas or tell them to find another country or island to live on.

Why do through a trail, it will only upset everyone. Tell them to get out of the country and if they come back it is at their own risk. Look, you know China once told Nick Kristof not to ever enter the country where his in-laws live. It happens. 

This is not that big of a deal. Countries do this all the time, the journalists are used to it. Tell them there is more news in Beirut. News gets that way. Everyone fighting for the next headline and it reads really lousy when one realizes it is the same story as the next one only with a twist. All those journalists trying to cover different sides of the mess get confused themselves.

This stuff is not worth the time of the Egyptian government. It just isn't. Put them out of the country. Something tells me these journalists are not bringing people together. That is the issue here. They are doing a really lousy job in Egypt and the government wants it to end. They need reassignment, that is all this is.
 
Ahram Online
Thursday 20 Feb 2014

The trial of 20 journalists (click here) working for Al Jazeera, including four foreigners, has been adjourned until 5 March.

Representatives from the Australian and Canadian embassies were in court to support their citizens.
There was a heavy presence of foreign media outlets in the courtroom.

The 16 Egyptians are charged with joining a terrorist organisation – a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, officially designated a terrorist group in December – harming national unity and social peace.
The foreigners – an Australian, two Britons and one Dutch – are accused of "airing false news" in order to "undermine the state's status and disrupt public security."...

Germany finds humility as Norway takes the lead with the USA hot on both heels.

The ski slopes are rough. It is amazing how these slopes carve out the expertise of the athletes. They allow for very little mistakes. Exactly when I thought the slopes were simply impossible along would come the one athlete putting in a perfect run.  

This Olympics is finding a focus on women, too. It is refreshing. They are great athletes.

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer

...They shared a coach. (click here) They shared philosophies. They shared knowledge.
They could not share the Olympic gold medal.
It belongs to Humphries.
Canada's team of Humphries and Heather Moyse are again queens of Olympic women's bobsledding, rallying past the U.S. duo of Meyers and Lauryn Williams on Wednesday night to win gold at the Sochi Games.
It's the second straight Olympic title for Humphries and Moyse, and it wasn't decided until the final moment of the competition — then only by a tenth of a second.
"We knew it was going to be this way," Humphries said after becoming the first women's bobsledder to drive to back-to-back Olympic golds....

In winning a silver in the Bobsled, Lauryn Williams was the seventh American to win medals in both Summer and Winter Olympics. Lauryn missed being the first athlete to win Gold in both summer and winter olympics by 0.23 seconds. It was heartbreaking, but, she took it in stride as any great athlete does. Perhaps she many try again.

8:09 PM, February 19, 2014 
KRASNAYA POLYANA, RUSSIA — As the last few teams (click here) competed in the bobsled on Wednesday — and former Detroiter Lauryn Williams tried to make Olympic history by becoming the first woman to win gold medals in the Winter and Summer Games — fireworks shot into the air....

Ted Ligety takes the Gold.