Spartan Echo

  BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government has agreed to attend a conference proposed by Russia and the United States on ending the country’s civil war, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday, the first sign that President Bashar Assad’s regime would be willing to take part in the talks with the opposition. Assad’s government has [...]

  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Thursday May 23, banned what would have been Ukraine’s first-ever gay pride demonstration, upholding a suit by city authorities, who argued the rally would disturb annual Kiev Day celebrations and could spark violence. The ruling dashed the hopes of Ukraine’s gay and lesbian community, who planned [...]

    SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The cost of the 2014 Winter Games in the Russian city of Sochi now stands at $51 billion, making it the most expensive Olympics in history. More than half of the bill is being footed by Russian state-controlled companies and business tycoons. A look at what the major players [...]

  CANNES, France (AP) — Robert Redford makes actions speak louder than words in shipwreck drama “All Is Lost.” He doesn’t have much choice. A man-versus-nature tale about a lone sailor adrift on the Indian Ocean, J.C. Chandor’s movie has no dialogue, just a few lines of voiceover at the start and a couple of [...]

    WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation. Face transplants are extraordinarily complicated, relatively rare procedures that usually require extensive preparation, typically [...]

  ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined. Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar [...]

  PRADLO DISTILLERY, Czech Republic (AP) — The Scottish peat was put on trucks and trains. The destination was Communist-era Czechoslovakia. The recipient: apparatchiks desperate for a decent whisky. The journey beyond the Iron Curtain during the Cold War turned out to be the easy part. When the batch arrived, the Czech distillers had only [...]

  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban took 11 civilians prisoner, including eight Turks and a Russian, after their cargo helicopter made an emergency landing in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Monday, in the first large scale capture of foreigners there in nearly six years. Security forces dispatched to the remote area retreated after engaging in [...]

MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities say a man opened fire while attempting to rob a gun store in a southwestern Russian town, killing at least six people before fleeing. Officials said Monday that the man, Sergei Pomyazun, opened fire in the store, killing four employees. Pomyazun then started shooting on the street outside, killing a 14-year-old [...]

    MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — The parents of Tamerlan Tsarnaev insisted Sunday that he came to Dagestan and Chechnya last year to visit relatives and had nothing to do with the militants operating in the volatile part of Russia, with his father saying he slept a lot of the time. But the Boston bombing [...]

  MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities say a man opened fire while attempting to rob a gun store in a southwestern Russian town, killing at least six people before fleeing. Officials said Monday, Apr. 22, that the man, Sergei Pomyazun, opened fire in the store, killing four employees. Pomyazun then started shooting on the street outside, killing a [...]