PKK leader Ocalan calls on Kurdish separatists in Turkey to lay down arms

The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has urged rebels in Turkey to hold a congress on disarmament. The move is aimed to end 30 years of conflict between Kurds and the Turkish state.

Deutsche Welle, 28 feb 2015

Abdullah Öcalan

The statement from Ocalan was read out by Sirri Sureyya Onder, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) on Saturday, in a press conference held jointly with Turkish authorities.

"I call on the PKK to hold an extraordinary congress in the spring months to take a strategic and historic decision to abandon the armed struggle..." Onder said quoting Ocalan (pictured above) and adding "this statement is a historic declaration of the intention to replace the armed struggle with democratic politics."

The fighting between the PKK and Turkish government has resulted in the killings of more than 40,000 people since 1984.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies including the United States. A ceasefire between the PKK and Turkey was declared in 2013 and negotiations have been ongoing since then, but violence has continued to erupt sporadically since then.

Peace process

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan, who attended the Saturday press conference alongside Onder after the two sides met briefly in Istanbul, emphasized the importance of a ceasefire.

"We have reached an important and historical phase in the peace process," Akdogan said.

Abdullah Ocalan has been in prison since 1999 and in talks with the Turkish government since 2012. His statement also included a list of 10 measures the Kurds want the government to agree on to secure peace, including a new Turkish constitution.

According to HDP chairman Selahattin Demirtas, whose deputies have been attending meetings in Ocalan's island prison near Istanbul and the PKK's headquarters in northern Iraq, the disarmament congress would be held after a consensus was reached on the measures outlined in Ocalan's statement.

Saturday's announcement comes amid fighting in Turkey's parliament over a controversial security law written in the wake of deadly pro-Kurdish demonstrations in October.

An estimated 15 million Kurds live in Turkey.

se/rc (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)

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Archangel Michael: Peace on Earth is Not a Dream

Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, February 13, 2015

Archangel Michael will find a way to get his message out. Linda was not planning on giving a reading today, but a caller begged her. And in the course of the reading, AAM sent a message to all of us. Here it is:

Greetings I am Michael, Archangel of Peace, Warrior of Love, bringer of news.

Our time is at hand and you know this. As we nudge, encourage and conjoin with so many upon the planet to bring forth in form not merely in heart but in form, not only the promise of peace but the actuality of peace.

This is not a dream. This is not an unreality. This is not, as some think, ‘pie in the sky.’

This is what our partnership, our sacred union, our co-creation together, is capable of. And always has been. Only now the human vibration, frequency and knowingness has risen to a level where humans are consciously aware that they are able and capable of anchoring peace on Earth with us right now.

This is not merely an exercise of intent, but of will and action. It is a glorious day. It is not a day of defeat. It is not a day of fear. It is not a day of worry. It is a glorious day!

So I reassure you, my beloved one, and I reassure many, peace is at hand. And I thank you for all the assistance, the diligence, all the consistency that you have offered to and with me – you are cherished.

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”

World leaders condemn killing of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov

World leaders have condemned the killing of Russian top opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down by unknown assailants in Moscow overnight. Putin says he will personally oversee a probe into the murder.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Feb 2015

Flowers at the site where Nemtsov was shot

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she was "shocked by the devious murder" of outspoken opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to "ensure that the murder is investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice."

Nemtsov was fatally shot by assailants driving a white car near the Kremlin in central Moscow late on Friday. He was walking with a Ukrainian woman when he was shot. The 55-year-old former Russian deputy prime minister is the most prominent opposition figure killed during Putin's 15-year rule, and his death has sparked an international outcry.

Chancellor Merkel's spokesman said she paid tribute to the "courage of the former deputy prime minister, who has repeatedly voiced criticism of the government's policies."

French President Francois Hollande also condemned the "hateful murder" and described Nemtsov as "a courageous and tireless defender of democracy who was committed to the fight against corruption."

US President Barack Obama, who had met Nemtsov on a visit to Moscow in 2009, said Russians had lost "one of the most dedicated and eloquent defenders of their rights."

Murder a 'provocation'

Vocal government critic Boris Nemtsov

By Saturday morning there was a mounting pile of flowers at the spot where Nemtsov was gunned down on Moscow's Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge.

Putin said he had taken the investigation into the death under personal control. The Russian president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the murder bore "the hallmarks of a contract killing" and could have been a "provocation," considering that Nemtsov was planning to lead a big protest organized by the opposition in Moscow on Sunday.

The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted by Interfax, also said the killing could have been a provocation, aimed at "destabilizing the situation in the country, at heightening confrontation" with the West.

'A bridge between Ukraine and Russia'

Actvists said they would cancel Sunday's planned opposition demonstration, and would instead hold a memorial march for Nemtsov in the city center.

The march had aimed to protest against the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Kyiv forces has claimed more than 5,600 lives.

Nemtsov frequently attacked Russia's policy on Ukraine and was working on a report about Russia's alleged involvement in the separatist rebellion.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Nemtsov a "bridge between Ukraine and Russia."

"The murderers' shot has destroyed it. I think it is not by accident," he said.

Dangerous climate

Nemtsov, who leaves behind four children and an elderly mother, was also a vocal critic of corruption within the Russian government. Some opposition figures have argued his murder is a clear demonstration of the problems facing dissidents in Putin's Russia.

In Putin's atmosphere of hatred & violence, abroad & in Russia, bloodshed is the prerequisite to show loyalty, that you are on the team.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 27, 2015

Nemtsov began his political career as the governor of Nizhny Novgorod in central Russia and rose to the position of deputy prime minister in the 1990s under Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically elected president.

Nemtsov became a part of the opposition after Putin came to power in 2000, but groups critical of Putin have largely been sidelined since he returned to the presidency after four years as prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev.

nm/kms (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)

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Turkey jails human trafficker for crimes committed in the Netherlands

DutchNews.nl, February 27, 2015

A Turkish national, who fled to Turkey after being convicted of human trafficking in the Netherlands, has been sentenced to seven years and nine months in jail by a Turkish court. 

The court in Istanbul ruled that Baran should be jailed in Turkey for crimes committed in the Netherlands. Turkey does not extradite its own nationals and the decision to jail him there instead is the result of intense pressure from the Dutch public prosecution department, the Telegraaf reports. 

Saban Baran fled the Netherlands while on prison leave to visit his new baby in 2009. At the time he was appealing against an eight year jail sentence for forcing over 100 women into prostitution, together with his brother. 

Baran has been living as a free man in the seaside resort of Antalya, where he ran a discotheque, news agency ANP reported. He will remain out of jail pending an appeal, the Telegraaf says.

Biggest Global Banks Go to Pieces Under Pressure From Regulators

Jakarta Globe - Bloomberg, Michael J. Moore, Yalman Onaran & Nicholas Comfort, Feb 27, 2015

The logo of HSBC Private Bank in Geneva, Switzerland, 18 February 2015.
(EPA Photo/Martial Trezzini)

Global regulators have issued dozens of rules aimed at making the biggest banks safer. That’s leading to another result some wanted: making them shrink.

HSBC Holdings, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, said this week it’s considering “extreme solutions” for some of its units. Royal Bank of Scotland Group is reducing its US trading staff and getting out of two-thirds of the countries where it operates. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is closing branches, raising fees on some institutional deposits and looking for ways to shrink its trading businesses.

Increasingly strict capital rules over the past three years may be forcing the breakup of the financial supermarkets built in the decade before the financial crisis. Lenders, unable to use borrowed money to fund as much of their business as they once did, have cut profitability targets and are weighing more drastic actions to meet them.

“We’re beginning to see discussions that these capital charges are sufficiently large it’s causing those firms to think seriously about whether or not they should spin off some of their enterprises to reduce their systemic footprint,” Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday. “And frankly, that’s exactly what we want to see happen.”

Bank capitulation

Banks have been cutting assets since the financial crisis, selling smaller units and unwinding derivatives that carried high capital charges. The latest moves represent a capitulation in which many of the largest banks may be ending their ambitions of offering all services in all regions.

Regulators’ tools have included minimum capital ratios, stress tests and demands that more bank assets be the types that are easy to sell in a crisis. That combination, along with tepid economic growth and low trading levels, drove return on equity, a measure of profitability, to an average of 3.3 percent last year at 10 of the largest banks from 17 percent in 2006.

“Banks certainly anticipated the direction of travel on capital rules, but with hindsight not the severity, which is why combined with low economic growth we are seeing repeated changes to strategies to try to improve return on equity,” Jon Peace, an analyst at Nomura Holdings, wrote in an e-mail.

While RBS’s decisions were driven by seven straight annual losses, other banks may face pressure to downsize based on profits that aren’t high enough to meet investors’ demands. Bank of America and Citigroup, each with more than $1.8 trillion in assets, haven’t topped a 7 percent return on equity since the financial crisis.

‘Intense pressure’

Deutsche Bank is weighing job cuts, winding down business lines at its investment bank and selling assets, including consumer-lending unit Postbank in Germany, as part of a strategy review at the Frankfurt-based lender, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month.

“In 18 to 36 months, there will be a much more intense pressure on some number of banks to break up,” Lazard Vice Chairman Gary Parr said in an interview last month with Bloomberg TV. “It’s a Darwinian exercise, and what’s fascinating to me is how slowly it’s going.”

JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who runs the most profitable of the 10 banks, has taken the strongest stand against radical change. Dimon has defended his bank against analysts’ suggestions that it would be worth more broken up, saying the lender’s structure is what clients want and offers $18 billion in additional revenue and cost savings.

Black knight

A year ago, JPMorgan said it could earn a 15 percent return on tangible equity, which excludes items such as goodwill, even though it would have to maintain a 10 percent common-equity ratio. In December, the Fed proposed stricter capital rules for the biggest banks. JPMorgan said this week that it will cut more costs and earn 15 percent with a 12 percent common-equity ratio.

“Jamie Dimon is playing the role of the Black Knight in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’: He’s saying it’s just a flesh wound,” said Mike Mayo, an analyst at CLSA, referring to the 1975 British film in which the knight loses his limbs. “If this is just a flesh wound and they can get a 15 percent ROE with all the additional regulatory impediments, then the call from investors to break up subsides.”

Still, JPMorgan acknowledged at its annual investor day this week that it’s trading at the biggest discount among the eight largest US banks relative to analysts’ estimates of future profitability. Glenn Schorr, an analyst at Evercore ISI in New York, asked if tinkering at the margins failed to grasp the message regulators are sending.

“Are we missing the forest for the trees?” Schorr asked JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake. “You’re optimizing, but is the Fed going to look at that and say, ‘I don’t get it, how many ways do we need to tell you you need to shrink, both in size and complexity?’”

Onerous rules

It isn’t only the rules forcing banks to cut their reliance on borrowing that have limited profitability. So-called return on assets, which measures how much profit a bank can make for every dollar of assets it holds, has also fallen.

For 10 of the largest European and US banks, profit on each $100 of assets on the balance sheet fell to 22 cents last year from 81 cents in 2006.

With all the capital rules, banking is still highly leveraged compared with other industries. The risk arising from that model has led regulators to attempt to ensure that banks can be wound down in a crisis.

‘Safer system’

“They are saying we’ve got to go back to a much safer system and that means everyone needs to shrink,” said David Ellison, a Boston-based money manager at Hennessy Advisors, which oversaw $5.9 billion at year-end. “They are using Basel, the CCAR stress test, to say this is what we want you to do. They have effectively nationalized the banking system.”

At first, it looked as if the rules wouldn’t be that onerous. Capital requirements revised in 2010 after the crisis were watered down under pressure from some European governments. So were the harshest elements of the US Dodd-Frank Act the same year after intense industry lobbying.

The failure of more European banks and the emergence of scandals that revealed rate-rigging and tax-dodging by others changed the political climate, leading to increased desire for stiffer measures. Global regulators added capital surcharges for the largest institutions. US supervisors almost doubled those.

Winding down

There’s nothing in Dodd-Frank or the global capital rules that tells banks to break up, according to Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the US Federal Deposit Insurance. The law says they should be capable of being wound down in a crisis, which is pushing some firms to shrink, he said.

“We’re not going to break you up, but we want you to structure yourself so that your failure doesn’t bring the economy down next time,” Hoenig said. “If you can’t get to that point with your current organization structure, then you should sell assets to get to that state.”

That message is finally getting through.

“Everybody knew capital levels would have to rise, but the magnitude of what regulators plan now probably exceeds most people’s expectations,” said Carola Schuler, co-head of European bank ratings at Moody’s Investors Service. “These higher capital requirements could be interpreted as an acknowledgment that the too-big-to-fail containment framework that was in place isn’t working properly.”

Bloomberg

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy,Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) -(Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Coutts' Swiss operation faces German investigation over tax evasion claims

Bank’s subsidiary in Switzerland is already being investigated by the US authorities about whether it helped American citizens evade tax

The Guardian, Angela Monaghan and Jill Treanor, 26 February 2015

The clients’ entrance of Coutts in Zurich. Parent RBS has put Coutts’ international
operations up for sale and will indemnify any buyer of the business against regulatory
action. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

The Swiss operation of Coutts is under investigation by the German authorities for allegedly helping clients to evade tax.

Coutts is one of Britain’s most venerable banks, with a clients list that includes the Queen.

The bank’s Swiss operation is already under investigation by the US authorities about whether it helped American citizens evade tax.

But the parent of Coutts, Royal Bank of Scotland, said the investigation into the Swiss arm of Coutts had now widened to Germany. The activities of Swiss banking operations have come under intense scrutiny following the revelations about HSBC and the leak of 100,000 account details of its subsidiary in Switzerland, which showed it helped clients avoid tax. In order to become a client of Coutts, customers must have more than £1m in investable assets.

In the pages of legal warnings attached to RBS’s annual report, RBS said: “A prosecuting authority in Germany is undertaking an investigation into Coutts & Co Ltd in Switzerland, and current and former employees, for alleged aiding and abetting of tax evasion by certain Coutts & Co Ltd clients. Coutts & Co Ltd is cooperating with the authority.”

RBS – which is 79% owned by the taxpayer – had already put the international operations of Coutts up for sale and will indemnify any buyer of the business against any regulatory action.

Ross McEwan, the chief executive of RBS, said on Thursday that the business was being sold because it did not make money and that private banks had taken too long to clean up their activities.

“I want to be very clear if we find anything that has evidence of wrongdoing we will come down incredibly hard on any of those issues,” he said. “Any situation like this we take seriously … it is the reputation of our business. This is what has tarnished the banking industry and in my view private banks have taken far too long to catch up with the public’s expectations.”

Related Article:

Money 'laundering' at the Queen's bank: Coutts fined £8.75m for taking despots' millions

First death-free day of Ukraine ceasefire, US sees no compliance

Yahoo – AFP, Marc Burleigh with Jo Biddle in Washington, 25 February 2015

Ukrainian servicemen check documents of a local resident at a checkpoint 

near Slavyanoserbsk, in the region of Lugansk on February 25, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Kiev (AFP) - A UN-backed ceasefire showed signs of finally taking hold in Ukraine on Wednesday, with no deaths reported on the front for the first time since the truce took effect 10 days ago.

However, Secretary of State John Kerry told US lawmakers: "To date, neither Russia nor the forces it is supporting have come close to complying with their commitments," renewing warnings that Moscow would face further sanctions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks 

during a hearing of the House Foreign

Affairs Committee on February 25, 2015

in Washington,DC (AFP Photo/Brendan 

Smialowski)

A day earlier, Kerry had said the Russians were persisting in "lies... to my face" about their activities in Ukraine. The US dismisses Moscow's denials about giving military backing to the separatists in east Ukraine.

Russia has in turn warned it could cut off gas supplies to Ukraine within days -- and, by extension, to parts of the European Union.

The geopolitical tensions between the old Cold War foes overshadowed a lull in fighting that produced the first day without fatalities since the ceasefire came into effect on February 15.

"Over the past day, one soldier was wounded but there were no dead," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev. The rebels also reported no deaths on their side.

There was still no confirmation, though, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of a pull-back of heavy weapons from the frontline -- the other key plank of the truce.

Rebels insisted they were withdrawing artillery, rocket launchers and tanks from some areas, and journalists saw a column of howitzer guns being driven along a road near the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.

But the OSCE mission in Ukraine said the warring sides had not provided the information needed to determine what, if any, arms withdrawals have occurred.

Kiev says it will not carry out an arms pull-back until a full and "comprehensive" ceasefire is observed and has accused Russia of continuing to send military hardware in to bolster the rebels.

Exasperation with Russia

Pro-Russian rebels move heavy-artillery

 from close the eastern Ukrainian town of 

Starobecheve, on February 25, 2015

 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)

The West has thrown its hopes of finding a negotiated solution to the 10-month conflict fully behind the truce, which last week won unanimous backing from the UN Security Council.

But continued breaches by rebel forces -- especially their assault on Debaltseve, a strategic transport hub, and attacks on Ukrainian army positions near the port city of Mariupol -- have exasperated the EU and US.

British Prime Minister David Cameron this week announced his country will send up to 75 soldiers to Ukraine on a "training mission". He said they would not be sent to the conflict zone.

Poland on Wednesday announced its own plans to send a small contingent of troops to Ukraine to help train Kiev's military officers.

Cameron urged the EU to look at wide-ranging sanctions on Russia's economy, which is already toppling into recession because of a drop in oil prices.

View galleryThe key industrial hub of Mariupol has become the latest …

The key industrial hub of Mariupol has become the latest hotspot in the conflict in east Ukraine, st …

Russia, though, is flexing its muscles in readiness for any additional sanctions.

Its state-run gas giant Gazprom has warned it could cut off supplies to Ukraine, amid a dispute over payment.

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine had paid only enough "for three or four days' gas supplies. Unless there is a prepayment, Gazprom... will terminate the supply," according to the Interfax news agency.

Much of the gas that flows through Ukraine goes on to supply the EU market.

Putin, in televised comments, also claimed Ukraine had cut off gas supplies to separatist-held territories in the east in what "smacks of genocide."

Workers of the Separate Repair - Recovery Battalion restore tanks, armored personel 

carriers and other heavy weapons in a factory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk 

on February 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/Andrey Borodulin)

Russian drill

The instability is torpedoing Ukraine's fragile economy. The country's central bank on Wednesday increased currency controls in a bid to stop a free-fall of the hryvnia.

Also of concern to EU neighbours is a Russian military drill launched near the borders with Estonia and Latvia.

Some 1,500 Russian paratroopers were to descend from the skies en masse in an exercise to capture and destroy an enemy's airfield, defence ministry spokeswoman Irina Kruglova told AFP. She said the drill was to continue into Saturday.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, Russia has staged a series of wargames that have alarmed its post-Soviet neighbours and the West.

Lithuania said on Tuesday it would return to limited conscription later this year because of "the current geopolitical environment".

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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a cabinet meeting outside 

Moscow, on February 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Michael Klimentyev)

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Feb 8, 2015)

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Aug 3, 2014)

Archangel Michael: Peace on Earth is Not a Dream

Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, February 13, 2015

Archangel Michael will find a way to get his message out. Linda was not planning on giving a reading today, but a caller begged her. And in the course of the reading, AAM sent a message to all of us. Here it is:

Greetings I am Michael, Archangel of Peace, Warrior of Love, bringer of news.

Our time is at hand and you know this. As we nudge, encourage and conjoin with so many upon the planet to bring forth in form not merely in heart but in form, not only the promise of peace but the actuality of peace.

This is not a dream. This is not an unreality. This is not, as some think, ‘pie in the sky.’

This is what our partnership, our sacred union, our co-creation together, is capable of. And always has been. Only now the human vibration, frequency and knowingness has risen to a level where humans are consciously aware that they are able and capable of anchoring peace on Earth with us right now.

This is not merely an exercise of intent, but of will and action. It is a glorious day. It is not a day of defeat. It is not a day of fear. It is not a day of worry. It is a glorious day!

So I reassure you, my beloved one, and I reassure many, peace is at hand. And I thank you for all the assistance, the diligence, all the consistency that you have offered to and with me – you are cherished.

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”