1. Russia’s Putin calls for compromise in Ukraine
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed support Sunday for Ukraine’s declaration of a cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and called on both sides to negotiate a compromise.
Putin said such a compromise must guarantee the rights of the Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine, who must feel like they are “an integral part” of their own country. Putin’s statement appeared to signal that he sees their future in Ukraine.
Separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions have declared independence and asked to join Russia. Moscow has rebuffed their appeals, but is seen by Ukraine and the West as actively supporting the insurgency. Putin’s conciliatory words came as Russia began large-scale military exercises and after NATO accused Russia of moving troops back toward the Ukrainian border.
Putin appears determined to keep up the pressure to force the Kiev government to give the eastern industrial regions more powers and to prevent Ukraine from moving too close to the European Union or NATO. But he also wants to avoid more punishing sanctions from the U.S. and particularly from the E.U., whose leaders will meet Friday in Brussels, and therefore needs to be seen as cooperating with efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
The Kremlin initially dismissed the peace plan that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko laid out Friday. But in a statement issued late Saturday, Putin said he welcomed the cease-fire and Poroshenko’s “intention to take other concrete steps to reach a peaceful settlement.”
2. Iraqi militants seize 2 more border crossings
BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni militants on Sunday captured two border crossings, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria, security and military officials said, as they pressed on with their offensive in one of Iraq’s most restive regions.
The fall dealt Iraq’s embattled Shiite prime minister a further blow and brought the war to the doorstep of Jordan, a key ally of the United States that also borders embattled Syria to its north.
The blitz by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq’s vast western desert takes the al-Qaida-breakaway group closer to its dream of carving out a purist Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq.
Controlling the borders with Syria will also help it supply fellow fighters in Syria with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, significantly reinforcing its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.
If they succeed in their quest, they could further unsettle the already volatile Middle East and serve as a magnet for Jihadists from across the world — much like al-Qaida attracted extremists in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The Iraqi officials said the militants of the Islamic State took over the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the al-Walid crossing with Syria after government forces there pulled out.
1. VA falls short on female medical issues
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Already pilloried for long wait times for medical appointments, the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs has fallen short of another commitment: to attend to the needs of the rising ranks of female veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of them of child-bearing age.
Even the head of the VA’s office of women’s health acknowledges that persistent shortcomings remain in caring for the 390,000 female vets seen last year at its hospitals and clinics — despite an investment of more than $1.3 billion since 2008, including the training of hundreds of medical professionals in the fundamentals of treating the female body.
Nationwide, nearly one in four VA hospitals does not have a fulltime gynecologist on staff. And about 140 of the 920 community-based clinics serving veterans in rural areas do not have a designated women’s health provider, despite the goal that every clinic would have one.
“Are there problems? Yes,” said Dr. Patricia Hayes, the VA’s chief consultant for women’s health in an AP interview. “The good news for our health care system is that as the number of women increases dramatically, we are going to continue to be able to adjust to these circumstances quickly.”
The tens of thousands of predominantly young, female veterans returning home has dramatically changed the VA’s patient load, and the system has yet to fully catch up. Also, as the total veteran population continues to decrease, the female veteran population has been increasing year after year, according to a 2013 VA report.
4. ABA: Lawyers can scour jurors’ social media sites
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lawyers have been given the green light to scan the social media sites of jurors.
The American Bar Association said it’s ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service — and even jurors in deliberations.
Though judges now universally admonish jurors to refrain from discussing trials on social media, the nationwide lawyers group for the first time is addressing how deeply attorneys, their investigators and their consultants can probe for information that might signal leanings of potential jurors or unearth juror misconduct during trials.
Jurors’ online postings have disrupted many legal proceedings over the years, causing mistrials and special hearings over the effects of Facebook musings, tweets and blog writings about their trial experiences.
The ABA’s ethics committee began reviewing the issue about two years ago and concluded in April that looking at Facebook posts, Twitter tweets and other information gathered passively is ethical research.
“It’s like any other publicly available information,” said Donald Lundberg, an Indianapolis attorney who helped draft the ABA’s opinion as an ethics committee member.
5. Lawyer: Hope Solo did not assault sister, nephew
SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. women’s soccer star goalkeeper Hope Solo was arrested at a suburban Seattle home on suspicion of assaulting her sister and 17-year-old nephew, but her attorney insisted that Solo herself was a victim in the altercation.
“Hope is not guilty of any crime,” attorney Todd Maybrown said in an email to The Associated Press. “In fact, our investigation reveals that Hope was assaulted and injured during this unfortunate incident. We look forward to the opportunity to present the true facts in court and to having this matter behind Hope very soon.”
Officers responded to her sister’s home just before 1 a.m. Saturday after receiving a 911 call that a woman at the Kirkland residence was hitting people and that she refused to stop or leave, the Kirkland Police Department said in a news release.
They found Solo intoxicated and upset, saw injuries on her nephew and her sister and arrested her after speaking with those present and determining that she was the primary aggressor, the release said.
She was booked into jail for investigation of two counts of fourth-degree domestic violence assault, and she was expected to remain in custody until an appearance today at Kirkland Municipal Court.
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