Thirty years on, some Russians want to reframe Soviet war in Afghanistan

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thirty years after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, some Russian politicians are calling for a reassessment of the conflict which critics have long cast as a bloody foreign adventure akin to the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Moscow completed the pullout of its troops on Feb. 15, 1989 after a nine-year war that claimed the lives of 14,000 Soviet nationals, many of them repatriated secretly in zinc coffins. Soviet deputies voted in a resolution that same year to formally condemn the intervention.

Thirty years on, with Russia fighting in Syria and the United States moving to withdraw its own troops, Afghanistan is back in focus and Russian lawmakers have called into question the Soviet resolution.

A flurry of diplomacy has also thrust Russia back into Afghanistan as a potential power broker, with Moscow hosting the Taliban and Afghan opposition politicians for its own peace negotiations on the heels of U.S. talks with the Taliban.

Two lawmakers in the Kremlin-dominated parliament have drafted legislation on behalf of veterans groups to overturn the Soviet resolution, arguing that it had fundamentally failed to “correspond with the principles of historical justice”.

The legislation received preliminary backing from a parliamentary commission on defense last month, but was fiercely denounced on Friday as “unacceptable and irresponsible” by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in comments to RIA news agency.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the parliamentary initiative and instead lauded veterans of the campaign.

“For us the most important thing is to remember all the heroes who fulfilled their international duty and did what they had to do. Most important is not to forget these heroes, and no one indeed is forgetting these heroes,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The anniversary was marked by prominent commemorative events broadcast on state television.

India unleashes its military on Pakistan after a terror attack stoked the feud between the nuclear rivals

- Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi on Friday unleashed the country's military against rival Pakistan in response to a terror attack by Muslim separatists that killed 44 on Thursday.

"I know there is deep anger, your blood boils looking at what has happened. At this moment, there are expectations and the feelings of a strong response which is quite natural," Modi said in a speech mourning the police forces killed and those injured.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of training and arming militants and smuggling them across the border into the Indian region of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region on the countries' shared border.

Following the terror attack, where an explosive-laden truck plowed into a bus carrying police forces, India said it had "incontrovertible evidence" of Pakistan's involvement in the attack. Pakistani-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed the attack, but Pakistan quickly denied any official involvement.

North Macedonia notifies the world about its new name

SKOPJE, North Macedonia – The foreign ministry of newly renamed North Macedonia says it has formally informed the United Nations, U.N. member states and international bodies that its new name has come into effect under a historic deal to end a long dispute with neighboring Greece.

The ministry said in a press release late Thursday it submitted relevant notes to "the United Nation's Protocol, member and observer states, and to all international, multilateral and regional organizations."

The country was officially renamed North Macedonia on Tuesday, and as a first move to reflect the change, authorities have replaced road signs on the border with Greece.

The move is a precursor to a series of steps that the renamed country will take as part of the agreement, including changing airport signs, web pages and printed materials.

Eating "ultraprocessed" foods accelerates your risk of early death, study says

ATLANTA (CNN) — The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat.

"Ultraprocessed foods are manufactured industrially from multiple ingredients that usually include additives used for technological and/or cosmetic purposes," wrote the authors of the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. "Ultraprocessed foods are mostly consumed in the form of snacks, desserts, or ready-to-eat or -heat meals," and their consumption "has largely increased during the past several decades."

This trend may drive an increase of early deaths due to chronic illnesses, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, they say.

Horror!: CDC blames spike in teen tobacco use on vaping, popularity of Juul

- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is blaming nicotine vaping devices like Juul for single-handedly driving a spike in tobacco use among teens, threatening to erase years of progress curbing youth use.

Over the course of a year, the number of high school students using tobacco products, which include e-cigarettes, increased by about 38 percent, the CDC found in its annual National Youth Tobacco Survey released Monday. That translates to about 27 percent of high school teens using tobacco products in 2018, the CDC said.

Of all the tobacco products the CDC surveys students about, including cigarettes and hookah, only e-cigarettes saw a meaningful increase in use. Among high school students, e-cigarette use surged nearly 78 percent. In 2018, nearly 21 percent of high school students vaped, up from close to 12 percent in 2017. ContinueReading

Pop music's Katy Perry faces criticism over shoe design resembling blackface

(CNN) First it was Prada. Then Gucci. Now, Katy Perry is being called out for creating fashion that evokes blackface.

The singer's namesake brand faces criticism over two styles of shoes that some say feature racist imagery.

CNN has reached out to Perry for comment. Perry debuted her line of whimsical shoes in 2017. They are available on her website and through retailers around the world including Dillard's and Walmart in the United States.

The Ora Face Block Heel and Rue Face Slip-On Loafers come in black and beige. The vamps in both styles include the same protruding eyes, nose and full red lips. They were released in 9 colors last summer, according to Katy Perry Collections account director Brittany Clarke, and were "envisioned as a nod to modern art and surrealism."

Mass insect extinction within a century threatens 'catastrophic' collapse of nature’s ecosystems, scientists warn

- Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned.

More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review.

Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Strong, Independent modern Iran marks 40th anniversary of Iranian revolution

washingtonpost . com - At a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the revolution that transformed Iran into an Islamic republic, President Hassan Rouhani boasted about the country’s military strength and told a large crowd that foreign powers would never dominate Iran again.

“We have not — and will not — ask for permission from anybody for improving our defensive power,” Rouhani said, according to a transcript released by his office. “We will continue this path, and I say this clearly to the people of Iran that Iran’s military power in the past 40 years, especially in the recent five years, has amazed the entire world.”

Rouhani’s speech Monday marked the anniversary the date when followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled the shah of Iran, allowing the Shiite cleric to take control of the country and set up a theocracy that has endured for four decades. But relations with the wider world have frequently been strained.

Last year, President Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 deal reached between Iran and six world powers that sought to curtail Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from crippling nuclear-related sanctions. Since then, the U.S. government has reimposed a number of economic sanctions on the country, squeezing the nation toward an economic crisis.

Luxury Brand Gucci Pulls 'Black Balaclava' After Blackface Comparisons

TIME .com - Gucci has withdrawn a black balaclava sweater from its stores after it drew backlash on social media where people compared it to blackface imagery.

The sweater was a $890 “knit top” from Gucci’s 2018 “Fall Winter” collection featuring a black roll neck with large red lips encircling a hole for the mouth.

The garment first debuted during the Fall/Winter 2018 runway show was widely derided, with many pointing to the fact that it was released during Black History Month. According to product information archived online, it drew inspiration from “vintage ski masks, multicolored knitted balaclavas walked the runway, adding a mysterious feel to this collection.”

“Fashion can’t seem to learn from its mistakes,” the popular Instagram account Diet Prada wrote. “If these global brands are serious about their commitment to increasing corporate diversity, it needs to happen at all levels and departments, not just the creative teams.”

The Italian fashion house has since apologized on Wednesday (Feb 7)

“Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper,” the company wrote in a statement. “We can confirm that the item has been immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores.” ContinueReading

DRAMA:France recalls Italy ambassador after worst verbal onslaught 'since the war'

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron’s government recalled its ambassador to Rome on Thursday in a move unprecedented since World War Two, saying it was fed up with “repeated, baseless” attacks by Italian political leaders against France.

The diplomatic blow, highly unusual among fellow members of the European Union, was announced by the foreign ministry in a statement. Diplomatic sources said Paris acted after a series of verbal assaults from Italy’s deputy prime ministers, capped by Luigi di Maio, head of the anti-establishment 5-Star movement, meeting this week with France’s “yellow vest” protesters, who have mounted a months-long anti-Macron campaign.

“France has been, for several months, the target of repeated, baseless attacks and outrageous statements,” the foreign ministry said.

“Having disagreements is one thing, but manipulating the relationship for electoral aims is another,” it added, calling Italy’s behaviour the worst of its kind since World War Two, when Benito Mussolini declared war on France in 1940.

El Salvador votes for president as the country seeks a new way to deal with gangs

SAN SALVADOR — Salvadorans went to the polls Sunday after a hard-fought presidential campaign featuring three main candidates. But voters are most worried about a political force that won’t be on the ballot: the gangs blamed for horrific bloodshed in this Central American nation.

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, with more than 3,300 homicides last year in a nation of roughly 6.5 million residents. Although murder rates have been decreasing from a peak in 2015, about 57 percent of Salvadorans see insecurity as the country’s biggest problem, according to a recent survey by the polling institute at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas. The presidential candidates have pledged to find new ways to reduce the violence, offering crime-prevention programs instead of an iron-fisted approach. But they have provided few details.

Three pre-election polls indicated that more than half of possible voters support Nayib Bukele, a businessman and former mayor of San Salvador, who is running for the center-right party GANA, which stands for Grand Alliance for National Unity. The right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, known as ARENA, finished first in legislative elections last year, but its candidate, supermarket mogul Carlos Calleja, is running second in the polls. Hugo Martínez, the former foreign minister and a member of the left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, is predicted to receive less than 20 percent of the vote. President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the FMLN is limited to one term.

Since the end of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war in 1992, two parties have dominated the country’s political system: ARENA and the FMLN. But Salvadorans are looking for a new option after major corruption scandals and what many voters see as a lack of progress in tackling crime.