Former top health official in China gets 19 years prison: media

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The former deputy health commission chief in the Chinese city of Shanghai has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after being found guilty of taking bribes, corruption and embezzlement, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

8,000 Ukrainian Soldiers Fighting For Their Lives In The Debaltseve Pocket

The Telegraph: Surrender or die: Ukrainians trapped in Debaltseve pocket as deadline looms



Dispatch: up to 8,000 Ukrainians fighting for their lives in what the Russian-backed separatists are calling the Debaltseve pocket as a midnight ceasefire deadline passes



It was a little after midday when the volunteer-driven ambulance pulled into the yard of Artemivsk city hospital and disgorged half a dozen wounded soldiers.



Their camouflage stained with blood and their faces caked with the dirt of battle, these were just the latest casualties of a battle that has only grown fiercer since a peace agreement was signed in Minsk this week.



Thirty miles to the south-east, up to 8,000 Ukrainians were fighting for their lives in what the Russian-backed separatists are calling the Debaltseve pocket.

More News On The Battle For Debaltseve

'Carry on if You Want to Die': Ukraine's Battleground Town Debaltseve -- NDTV/AFP

Debaltseve Under Fire -- Huffington Post

Ukraine Cease-Fire Goes Into Effect, but Rebel Leader in Key Town Repudiates Accord -- NYT

Kiev Betrayed 5,000 Soldiers Encircled in Debaltseve - Donetsk Leader -- Sputnik

Fire ceased everywhere except Debaltseve, separatists say -- Kyiv Post

Fears for Ukraine’s ceasefire as clashes with Russia-backed rebels intensify -- The Guardian

Kiev Has Lost The 'Hearts And Minds' Of Eastern Ukraine

Max Avdeev for BuzzFeed News

Max Seddon, BuzzFeed: The Government Is Losing Territory In Eastern Ukrainians’ Hearts And Minds



Ukraine’s 10-month attempt to reclaim its easternmost provinces has only made locals there hate the central government even more. BuzzFeed News’ Max Seddon reports from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.



KHANZHONKOVE, Ukraine — School was out for summer, and Ukrainian artillery fire was creeping ever closer, so, after lengthy deliberations with his parents, Sasha Vasin joined the rebel militia. He was 15 years old. “I wanted to do it from the first day. I couldn’t look at people dying anymore,” he said.



WNU Editor: When you have kids, teachers, miners, men in their fifties, even housewives taking up arms .... you have lost the war. I must confess that this is something that is very hard for me to accept .... I always believed that a solution was possible in the Ukraine conflict .... no more now.

'Nut rage' prompts South Korea to consider law against high-handed conduct

SEOUL (Reuters) - Resentment has mounted so much in South Korea against what has come to be known as "gabjil", high-handedness by the rich and powerful, that parliamentarians are proposing legislation to punish some of the worst abuses.

'Misfits' plotted Valentine's Day murders in Canada mall: minister

TORONTO (Reuters) - A group of "murderous misfits" planned a massacre on Valentine's Day in Atlantic Canada's largest regional shopping mall but the alleged plot was foiled by police after an anonymous tip-off, the justice minister said on Saturday.

One dead in shooting at Danish meeting with artist who drew Mohammad

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A civilian was killed and three police wounded on Saturday when a masked gunman sprayed bullets at a Copenhagen venue holding a meeting attended by a Swedish artist threatened with death for his cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

Italian coastguard goes to rescue of at least 600 migrants

ROME (Reuters) - Two merchant ships and an Italian coast guard vessel went to the rescue of more than 600 migrants who sent emergency calls for help from their packed rubber boats near the Libyan coast on Saturday.

Shots fired at Copenhagen synagogue: Danish police

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - One person was shot in the head and two police were wounded in an attack on a synagogue in central Copenhagen, Danish police said, adding that it was too early to say whether the incident was connected to an earlier one at an arts cafe.

Shelling halts in Ukraine's Donetsk as Poroshenko orders ceasefire

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Shelling suddenly stopped at midnight in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk after President Petro Poroshenko gave the order to government forces to halt firing in line with a ceasefire agreement reached last Thursday.