World

KIEV — A ceasefire in east Ukraine is being upheld by both government troops and Russia-backed rebels, a senior Ukrainian official said Tuesday, in a first step towards enforcing a truce that has been riddled by repeated violations since it was imposed earlier this month.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, told journalists that the ceasefire had been upheld since late Monday, making it the first night in weeks that there have been no civilians killed or residential buildings shelled.

Lysenko said there also had been no casualties among Ukrainian forces.

Russia-backed rebels in east Ukraine said they were pulling back heavy artillery from frontline positions in response to similar moves by the Ukrainian army. Those manoeuvres are part of a new peace agreement signed Saturday, which requires both sides to remove heavy artillery from the front line, creating a buffer zone that would allow the
ceasefire to be more effectively enforced.

Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told Interfax news agency Tuesday that his forces were withdrawing heavy artillery from certain areas on the front line, but said that "in those places where Ukraine does not withdraw its artillery, we also will not withdraw”.

Despite claims from both sides that the ceasefire was being upheld, the city council of Donetsk said in statements published online that, while the city was calm late on Monday and early on Tuesday, later in the day regular explosions could be heard in the north of the city, where fighting has centred on a government-held airport for weeks.

In Zhdanivka, a village just 35 kilometres northeast of Donetsk, which until recently was under Ukrainian control, residents told The Associated Press that government troops had withdrawn two days ago.

The neighbouring village of Nyzhnya Krynka, which is slightly closer to Donetsk, was still under rebel control, but there was no sign of heavy artillery weapons in the area. The scars of war, however, are still visible in the village, which was caught in the crossfire of heavy shelling between the Ukrainian and rebel sides in recent weeks.

Five bodies could be seen in a mass grave near a local mine.

Another mass grave was dedicated to the rebels: their bodies weren't visible, but four gravestones, wreathed with flowers, were engraved with the epitaph: "They died for Putin's lies." It appeared to be an expression of anger at the Russian government, led by President Vladimir Putin, for not assisting the rebels further.

Ukraine and the West say Russia has provided personnel, arms and expertise to the rebel forces, a claim Moscow denies.

LONDON — New estimates by the World Health Organisation and the US health agency are warning that the number of Ebola cases could soar dramatically — the US says up to 1.4 million by mid-January in two nations alone — unless efforts to curb the outbreak are significantly ramped up.

Since the first cases were reported six months ago, the tally of cases in West Africa has reached an estimated 5,800 illnesses and over 2,800 deaths. But the UN health agency has warned that tallies of recorded cases and deaths are likely to be gross underestimates of the toll that the killer virus is wreaking on West Africa.

The UN health agency said Tuesday that the true death toll for Liberia, the hardest-hit nation in the outbreak, may never be known, since many bodies of Ebola victims in a crowded slum in the capital, Monrovia, have simply been thrown into nearby rivers.

In its new analysis, WHO said Ebola cases are rising exponentially and warned the disease could sicken people for years to come without better control measures. The WHO's calculations are based on reported cases only.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, however, released its own predictions Tuesday for the epidemic's toll, based partly on the assumption that Ebola cases are being underreported.  The report says there could be up to 21,000 reported and unreported cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone by the end of this month and that cases could balloon to as many as 1.4 million by mid-January.

Experts caution those predictions don't take into account response efforts.

The CDC's numbers seem "somewhat pessimistic" and do not account for infection control efforts already under way, said Dr. Richard Wenzel, a Virginia Commonwealth University scientist who formerly led the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

In recent weeks, health officials worldwide have stepped up efforts to provide aid, but the virus is still spreading. There aren't enough hospital beds, health workers or even soap and water in the hardest-hit West African countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Last week, the US announced it would build more than a dozen medical centres in Liberia and send 3,000 troops to help. Britain and France have also pledged to build treatment centres in Sierra Leone and Guinea and the World Bank and UNICEF have sent more than $1 million worth of supplies to the region.

"We're beginning to see some signs in the response that gives us hope this increase in cases won't happen," said Christopher Dye, WHO's director of strategy and co-author of the study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, who acknowledged the predictions come with a lot of uncertainties.

"This is a bit like weather forecasting. We can do it a few days in advance, but looking a few weeks or months ahead is very difficult."

WHO also calculated the death rate to be about 70 per cent among hospitalised patients but noted many Ebola cases were only identified after they died.  Dye said there was no proof Ebola was more infectious or deadly than in previous outbreaks.

Outside experts questioned WHO's projections and said Ebola's spread would ultimately be slowed not only by containment measures but by changes in people's behaviour.

"It's a big assumption that nothing will change in the current outbreak response," said Dr. Armand Sprecher, an infectious diseases specialist at Doctors Without Borders.

"Ebola outbreaks usually end when people stop touching the sick," he said. "The outbreak is not going to end tomorrow but there are things we can do to reduce the case count."

Local health officials have launched campaigns to educate people about the symptoms of Ebola and not to touch the sick or the dead.

Sprecher was also unconvinced that Ebola could continue causing cases for years. He said diseases that persist for years usually undergo significant changes to become less deadly or transmissible.

Dye and colleagues wrote they expected the numbers of cases and deaths from Ebola to continue rising from hundreds to thousands of cases per week in the coming months — and reach 21,000 by early November. He said it was worrisome that new cases were popping up in areas that hadn't previously reported Ebola, like in parts of Guinea.

Scientists said the response to Ebola in the next few months would be crucial.

"The window for controlling this outbreak is closing," said Adam Kucharski, a research fellow in infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong students on Monday began a week-long boycott of classes, gathering in their thousands for what democracy activists say will be a wider campaign of civil disobedience against China's refusal to grant the city unfettered democracy.

Student activists crowded onto a campus on the northern outskirts of the city, many sheltering from the hot summer sun under umbrellas and waving their faculty flags, as their leaders vowed to ratchet up their campaign if their demands were not met.

Democracy campaigners are locked in a showdown with authorities on the mainland after the former British colony's hopes for full universal suffrage were dashed by Beijing's plans to vet nominees who want to stand as its next leader.

A coalition of pro-democracy groups in the semiautonomous Chinese city, led by Occupy Central, have labelled the restrictions a "fake democracy". They have vowed a series of actions including a blockade of the central financial district.

The city's vocal student community on Monday became the first wing of that coalition to move from protests to direct action — starting a week of class boycotts designed to capture the public's imagination and bolster the pro-democracy fight.

"I don't think the Chinese government is trying to protect our rights so now we are coming out to fight for our basic needs," 20-year-old architecture student Wu Tsz-wing told AFP as she gathered with what organisers said were 13,000 others on the leafy campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

There was no estimate given by police, who usually quote much lower numbers during similar protests.

Arika Ho, a second-year Hong Kong University journalism student, added: "I want this place [Hong Kong] to be a better place, so I want to stand up and join with others collectively to force some changes."

Alex Chow, chairman of the influential Hong Kong Federation of Students, said student groups would intensify their protests if their call for Hong Kongers to nominate their own candidate to lead the city is ignored.

"We demand the government to respond to our call to endorse civil nominations," he told the crowd.

"If we hear nothing from them, the students, the people will definitely upgrade the movement to another level," Chow shouted.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong has become a regular gathering point for students agitating for greater democratic freedoms in the city.

The campus boasts a replica of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue which students gathered around during the 1989 Tiananmen protests in Beijing that were brutally crushed by the state.

The Hong Kong strike could breathe new life into the democracy campaign, which recently lost some steam after its senior leaders conceded that Beijing is highly unlikely to change its mind whatever they do.

Leaders from Occupy on Monday said they were encouraged by the student turnout.

"The future belongs to them [the students]," co-founder Benny Tai told AFP.

"I think that if they can stand up and demonstrate determination in wanting democracy in Hong Kong, I think that will be a clear message to Beijing and the government."

Some considering emigration 

But in Beijing, the rhetoric in official media has remained unrelenting against any concessions to the Hong Kong democracy movement, which some in the Communist regime see as an insidious threat to their rule of the country as a whole.

"The basic policy of the Chinese government on Hong Kong hasn't changed and will not change," Chinese president Xi Jinping told Hong Kong business delegates, including Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, on a visit to Beijing Monday.

But he added that the "one country, two systems" deal, which guarantees greater freedoms for Hong Kong than seen on the mainland, was not under threat as it meets "the interest of the country and Hong Kong, and also the interest of foreign investors".

Tensions in the southern Chinese city are at their highest in years over rising inequality and Beijing's perceived political interference.

More than one in five Hong Kongers are considering emigrating because of the political climate, according to a poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong released Sunday.

The poll also revealed widespread pessimism over the city's political future. On a scale of zero to 10, with zero being "extremely pessimistic", the average response was 4.22.

KIEV — The Ukrainian military said Monday it was preparing to pull back its guns from the frontline in the separatist east as a fragile truce with pro-Russian insurgents appeared to be taking hold.

Rebel leaders also said they were ready to give peace a chance after five months of bloodletting that set off the most serious East-West crisis since the Cold War.

Across the rebel-held regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, the level of violence appears to have subsided although Kiev said it lost two soldiers in overnight raids by "armed gangs".

The deaths bring to 39 the number of Ukrainian troops and civilians killed since the warring sides signed a September 5 truce that NATO's top military commander warned at the weekend was holding "in name only".

But hopes of peace gathered pace after the ceasefire was reinforced Saturday by another deal signed in Minsk calling for the withdrawal of fighters to allow the creation of a 30-kilometre buffer zone.

"We are making preparations to move back our heavy weapons 15 kilometres from the frontline," said Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko.

'There is a chance' 

The "deputy prime minister" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Andrei Purgin, said the rebels were ready to carry out their side of the bargain even if it was "with great difficulty".

"Show me a conflict that stopped simply because some document was signed. That just doesn't happen," he told AFP, but added that there was progress.

"There is a chance. We need to work on it and then there will be an even greater chance."

President Petro Poroshenko also remarked Sunday on the apparent "de-escalation" but warned that Ukraine would defend itself with renewed vigour should the nine-point Minsk plan collapse.

The OSCE pan-European security group has 80 observers on the ground to check compliance with the truce on the frontline and Ukraine's porous border with Russia.

But the Donetsk city government said the coal mining hub — abandoned by nearly half its 1 million residents since hostilities first erupted in April — experienced "no active combat" for the second day running.

And in another sign of easing tensions, the overnight passenger train service between Kiev and Lugansk resumed after a two-month rupture, with the number of carriages almost doubled because of high demand.

The Minsk deal however puts on the back burner all issues concerning the claims by the separatist regions for full independence from Kiev.

Lawmakers last week backed Poroshenko's decision to hand the war-scarred territory three years of effective autonomy, and grant amnesty to fighters on both sides.

Poroshenko said the "special status" was the only way out of bloodshed that has killed nearly 3,000 people and threatened Ukraine's survival in the face of what Kiev views as Russia's expansionist threat.

The war "cannot be won by military means alone”, Poroshenko told the nation in a televised interview Sunday.

NATO says Russia still has troops in Ukraine, although Moscow denies ever sending forces across the border.

But the self-rule law has been pilloried by nationalist Ukrainian politicians jockeying for position ahead of October 26 parliamentary elections.

Their fear that Poroshenko essentially conceded defeat to the Kremlin has been reinforced by rebels who claim they are no longer bound to Kiev and are free to govern their regions as independent states.

"Let them call this a 'special status' if they wish. But if the laws of Ukraine do not cover a particular region, that effectively recognises its independence — only in more veiled terms," Lugansk separatist "prime minister" Igor Plotnitsky said.

Army discontent

The Kremlin has signalled it is satisfied with ambiguities surrounding the long-term status of the east and is treating Poroshenko as a leader who has lost the will to fight.

Poroshenko "has started to realise he does not need a war to the bitter end — in other words, until there are no more Ukrainians left standing", Kremlin Chief-of-Staff Sergei Ivanov told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta government daily.

Analysts warned that Poroshenko's vow to call off the truce if there was a spike in rebel activity had failed to convince many soldiers who had lost their comrades in battle and now felt betrayed by Kiev.

"Our troops view the ceasefire as a concession to the separatists," Ukrainian military analyst Sergiy Zgurec said.

"This is causing discontent in the military's rank and file."

KABUL — Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah believes the title of president of Afghanistan has been stolen from him twice — but this time he has secured a compromise role which will give him a hand on the tiller.

Abdullah, 54, has wanted revenge since the 2009 election, when he came second to Hamid Karzai in the first-round vote and then pulled out of the run-off, alleging that fraud would be used to fix the result.

This year, he again believes that massive fraud denied him victory in the June 14 run-off election after he finished comfortably ahead of his rival Ashraf Ghani in the first round.

But Sunday's final results confirmed Ghani had won the presidency, hours after Abdullah signed up to a "national unity government".

The price he exacted for accepting defeat was the right to nominate a chief executive officer (CEO) — effectively a prime minister, who will serve under the president.

A pro-Western, religiously moderate politician, Abdullah has spent recent years building ties with tribal leaders who hold the key to power, as well as staying close to the US and other major donor nations.

Abdullah, who started off as an eye doctor in Kabul, was a member of Burhanuddin Rabbani's government during Afghanistan's 1992-1996 civil war, and made a name for himself abroad for his fluent English and courtly manner.

His formative political experience was as the right-hand man to Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Tajik commander who led resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and to the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

Massoud was killed two days before the 9/11 attacks on the United States, leaving Abdullah fearing that the anti-Taliban resistance would collapse.

But the US reaction to the strikes on New York and Washington transformed the landscape overnight, with the Taliban soon ousted and Abdullah emerging as foreign minister in the new government under Karzai.

Abdullah used the post to give early warning to Washington that Taliban leaders ran the growing Afghan insurgency from neighbouring Pakistan — an issue that was dismissed until it became central to US foreign policy years later.

Mixed ethnic background

Born to a Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, Abdullah has long taken a strong stance promoting reconciliation between Tajiks and their traditional rivals the Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

However, due to his closeness to Massoud, much of his core support still comes from Tajik and other Dari-speaking ethnic groups in the north.

He often said that he would refuse to again "swallow the bitter pill" of an unfair defeat, and he insisted until the last moment that he was the rightful president.

"We were the winner of the elections, we are the winner of elections based on the real and clean votes of the people," Abdullah said in a speech two weeks ago, his voice choking with emotion.

"We do not accept fraudulent election results, and we will not accept a fraudulent government for even one day."

Abdullah, a persuasive talker and elegant dresser, is married with three children.

On the campaign trail, he delivered scores of professional — if dry — speeches at rallies and meetings, often raising the spectre of electoral fraud.

His double name reportedly emerged to placate Westerners confused by his single moniker "Abdullah".

He may take up the new CEO role himself, but is seen as more likely to nominate a close ally to the key role.

KABUL — Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani was named Afghanistan's president-elect on Sunday after he signed a deal to share power with his opponent, ending months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilised the nation as most foreign troops prepare to leave.

The announcement withheld the final election numbers, apparently as part of the political deal between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who claimed the process was rigged against him.

"The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan declares Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the president of Afghanistan," commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said.

The full results would be provided at a later date, Nuristani said, but did not say when. He acknowledged deep flaws in the June 14 run-off vote and said a UN-supervised audit was not adequate to weed out all the vote-rigging.

"Although the audit was comprehensive... [it] could not detect or throw out fraud completely," Nuristani said, without taking further questions.

Under the terms of the unity government deal signed on Sunday, Ghani will share power with a chief executive proposed by Abdullah. The two will share control over who leads key institutions such as the Afghan army and other executive decisions.

The new administration faces huge challenges in fighting an emboldened Taliban-led insurgency and paying its bills amid plummeting tax revenue.

It will also face significant difficulty in improving the lives of Afghans who face hard times as aid flows fall and as contracts with the NATO-led coalition dry up as most foreign troops leave by the end of the year.

The accord signed on Sunday was the finalisation of a broader power-sharing structure brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who swiftly welcomed its signing.

"These two men have put the people of Afghanistan first, and they've ensured that the first peaceful democratic transition in the history of their country begins with national unity."

One of Ghani's first acts would be to sign a long-delayed bilateral security agreement with the United States, as he has previously declared support for the pact to allow a small force of foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.

There is a risk that any instability could be exploited by neighbours, like Pakistan, whose past involvement in Afghan affairs have played a part in the conflicts that have dogged Afghanistan for decades.

"A difficult and challenged unity structure is still preferable to conflict between these two groups," said a US official in Kabul.

"Having them both working together within the government and direct their energies towards positive reform is again preferable to some of the alternatives."

Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, and Abdullah, whose main support comes from the country's second largest ethnic group, the Tajiks, face a difficult task forging unity in a country riven by ethnic and tribal rivalries.

Abdullah's accusations that the run-off election was rigged in Ghani's favour had raised fears of ethnic violence, which could have ignited a broader conflict.

"A spark could have dealt a strong blow to the political process, if today's deal had not happened," commented Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Centre for Strategic Studies. "But, we have crossed that moment."

Ghani is expected to be sworn in as president in about a week, according to Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi.

The settlement will also come as a relief for Afghans, who have watched the tortuous process play out since they first voted in April.

EDINBURGH — Having rejected independence and lost First Minister Alex Salmond, Scotland woke up to an unsettled future Saturday as fears grew that new powers promised by London will prove a disappointment.

Violent scenes in Glasgow's main square on Friday night may not been repeated elsewhere but many Scots see their nation as divided and are looking to the next few months with uncertainty.

A key question is what fresh powers Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Britain's other main parties will now hand to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

Many people do not trust a Westminster elite preoccupied by a general election in May to honour a pledge of accelerated devolution made in the heat of the campaign.

Salmond said Friday that the proposed timetable already showed signs of slipping and warned that "some of the people who voted 'No' will be incandescent" if it is not delivered.

"All these promises were made — it's as if they were dangling a carrot and he [Cameron] has taken that away now he's got the vote he wanted," said Louise Roberts, an unemployed 27-year-old who voted for independence.

"I can't believe that everybody has given the chance for freedom away."

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, who is credited with helping push the pro-union camp to victory, said Saturday that "the eyes of the world" were now on London's political leaders.

In a passionate speech in Fife, the Scot vowed to personally keep up the pressure and said a date had already been set for the British parliament to discuss a new Scottish settlement on October 16.

"These are men who have been promise makers and they will not be promise breakers," he said.

'Divided country' 

This uncertainty comes as Scotland tries to unite after a passionate and sometimes fractious referendum campaign which left more than 4 out of 10 in a nation of 5.2 million disappointed with the result.

Politics has, unusually, been the talk of Scotland's homes, pubs and cafes in recent weeks and Thursday's referendum attracted an unprecedented 85 per cent turnout.

Although Scots rejected independence by over 10 percentage points, many "No" voters did so on the basis that they had been promised fresh powers for Scotland.

"It's a very divided country at the moment, but if the powers come into play I think it will be fine for us," said Adam Stevenson, a 22-year-old hospitality worker.

He said the Westminster parties would be "stupid" not to honour their commitments.

"I thought it was going to be a 'Yes' and I think they will follow through because that's why a lot of people went 'No' in the end," he said.

Queen Elizabeth II has led calls for unity, and voters from both sides are now being urged to display a "One Scotland" picture on their Twitter and Facebook pages.

The Church of Scotland is also holding a service of reconciliation in Edinburgh on Sunday.

Westminster wrangling 

Edinburgh already has control over some domestic policies such as health and education but has been promised new powers over tax and welfare.

The pro-union camp outlined a timetable for greater powers in the final days of the campaign after opinion polls suggested "Yes" could snatch a surprise victory.

However, there are concerns that the deal could be derailed by wrangling at Westminster.

Cameron wants to include the new Scottish settlement in a wider package that would also give England new powers.

But the opposition Labour party worries the changes could blunt the influence of their 40 Scottish lawmakers.

"They must deliver. If they do not, then the clamour will grow for another referendum," Scotland's Herald newspaper said in an editorial Saturday.

Salmond, who led the campaign for independence, announced Friday that he will step down in November after seven years as first minister.

But he insisted Scotland would continue to hold London's "feet to the fire" to ensure they devolve further meaningful authority to Scotland.

"The real guardians of progress are not the politicians at Westminster but the energised activism of tens of thousands of people who I predict will refuse meekly to go back into the political shadows," he said.

FREETOWN — Sierra Leone began the second day of a 72-hour nationwide shutdown aimed at containing the spread of the deadly Ebola virus on Saturday amid criticism that the action was a poorly planned publicity stunt.

Most of Sierra Leone's 6 million people have been confined to their homes from midnight (0000 GMT) on Friday, with only essential workers such as health professionals and security forces exempt.

Almost 30,000 volunteers are going door-to-door to educate locals and hand out soap, in an exercise expected to lead to scores more patients and bodies being discovered in homes.

But independent observers have voiced concerns over the quality of advice being given out, deeming the shutdown a "mixed success" in the Western Area, the region that includes the capital Freetown.

"While the supervisors were well trained, the visiting teams to families in some parts in the Western Area had poor training and could not deliver the information properly," said Abubakarr Kamara, from the Health for All Coalition, a local charity.

"From my observation, many of them were too young to be involved in the exercise and in one or two households where I witnessed their intervention, there were hardly messages given to the families which were beneficial to the households."

Ebola fever can fell its victims within days, causing severe muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and — in some cases — unstoppable internal and external bleeding.

The outbreak has killed more than 2,600 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year, cutting a swathe through entire villages at the epicentre and prompting warnings over possible economic catastrophe from the World Bank.

"Ose to Ose Ebola Tok" — "House-to-House Ebola Talk" in the widely-spoken Krio language — will see more than 7,000 volunteer teams of four attempting to reach the country's 1.5 million homes before the end of Sunday.

Joe Amon, health and human rights director at New York-based advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch, described the shutdown as "more of a publicity stunt than a health intervention".

"Publicity — or really crisis communication — is what is urgently needed in this epidemic, but it should focus on spreading information and building trust with the government. The shutdown is the wrong approach," he told AFP.

Steven Gaoja, head of the government's emergency Ebola operation centre, admitted the first day was "really very rocky" at the start, but said organisation had improved throughout the day.

"On the whole we came out successful. We feel confident that the initial problems we encountered have been slashed," he said.

He said the centre had received 886 calls on a variety of Ebola-related issues by 3:00 pm, 102 reporting suspected cases but 238 of which were pranks.

"We have a target to reach every household in the country and the goal is to ensure that families have the right information about Ebola," said ministry of health spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis.

"We are certain we will reach the target so people have to be a little patient."

Some complaints continued into Saturday, although there was also praise for the campaign.

"The campaign teams are not being rapid in their calls. They kept my family of six sitting the whole of yesterday and didn't show up," said Ghanaian fisherman Kwaku Adophy in Goderich, an affluent seaside suburb of 3,000 in the west end of Freetown.

"When they came this morning, nobody entered the compound but one member stood at the gate, and shouted for us to come out and receive a bar of soap. No other information was given to us. We are very disappointed."

Isatu Koroma, a resident of Hill Station some six kilometres away, said however that a door-to-door team had spent "a useful 30 minutes giving my family much needed information".

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation said on Friday a contingent of Cuban doctors and nurses from a 165-strong delegation expected in Sierra Leone would be arriving over the weekend.

From the first week of October, the doctors and nurses would remain for six months.

ANKARA — Turkey said on Thursday crises in the Middle East and elsewhere made closer cooperation between Ankara and the European Union essential, and announced a new programme to revive the country’s stalled drive for EU membership.

A document released by the EU Affairs Ministry described the accession process as “the most important modernisation project after the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey”.

The document highlights a substantial shift in tone on the part of the Turkish authorities, who have reacted angrily to criticisms from European officials since last year over their handling of anti-government protests and a widespread corruption scandal.

Despite tensions, relations between Ankara and its European partners have apparently been cemented in recent months over efforts to tackle the flow of so-called “foreign fighters” heading to and from Europe to join militant groups such as Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

“The recent dramatic changes, from Syria to Ukraine and Middle East to North Africa, require Turkey and the EU to act jointly against the global and regional threats,” the 12-page document laying out Turkey’s strategy, stated.

The programme is due to come into operation in November and will focus on “Political Reform Process, Socio-Economic Transformation in the Accession Process and EU Communication Strategy”, the document said.

The strategy targets a change of the constitution, better implementation of existing laws, as well as a drive to drum up public support for the EU and will be part of the government’s “action plan”, due to run until 2019.

Turkey has struggled to fall into line with the EU on issues including human rights and rule of law. Countries like France and Germany remain concerned about the accession of the 74 million Muslim majority nation.

Others, including Britain and Sweden, are vocal supporters of Turkey’s eventual membership.

WASHINGTON — The United States will provide $46 million in new security assistance to Ukraine’s military, but stop short of fulfilling an urgent request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for lethal aid to help his country fight against Russian-backed separatists.

Poroshenko pleaded his case during remarks Thursday to a rare joint meeting of Congress. 

While he thanked the US for the non-lethal equipment it is providing his country’s beleaguered military, he said more was needed to stop the provocations near the Russian border.

“Blankets and night vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with a blanket,” he said during a 40-minute address that was repeatedly interrupted by applause from lawmakers.

Poroshenko was due to hold talks with President Barack Obama at the White House later Thursday, a meeting that sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the West’s support for Ukraine.

“The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words — both in English and Russian,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said.

Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists have been locked in a months-long fight for control of eastern Ukrainian cities that sit on Russia’s border, aggression that followed Russia’s annexation of the strategically important Crimean Peninsula.

Ahead of Thursday’s White House meeting, US officials said Obama would announce a security assistance packages that will provide Ukrainian forces with counter-mortar radar to help detect incoming artillery fire. The US also will provide vehicles and patrol boats, body armour and heavy engineering equipment.

Despite some support for Poroshenko’s request within the Obama administration, officials said the president continues to oppose lethal assistance and does not envision directly arming the Ukrainian military as an effective way to end the conflict.

Lawmakers have also pressed Obama to ramp up military aid to Ukraine. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was expected to vote Thursday on bipartisan legislation that would increase military and non-military assistance, as well as impose broad sanctions on Russia’s defence, energy and financial sectors.

“[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has upended the international order and a slap on the wrist will not deter future Russian provocations,” Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. 

“In the face of Russian aggression, Ukraine needs our steadfast and determined support, not an ambiguous response. We are left with no choice but to apply tough sanctions against Russia, coupled with military assistance to Ukraine.”

The legislation would authorise $350 million in fiscal 2015 for military assistance, including anti-tank and anti-armour weapons, ammunition, counter-artillery radars and surveillance drones.

The US and Western allies have condemned Russia’s provocations in Ukraine, levying a series of economic sanctions and restricting Putin’s involvement in some international organisations. But the penalties have done little to shift Putin’s calculus. In recent weeks, the West has accused Russia of moving troops and equipment across its border with Ukraine, though the Kremlin denies such involvement.

Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists inked a ceasefire agreement September 5.

The ceasefire appeared largely to be holding, with one killing reported in the last two days in Donetsk, one of the hardest-hit cities in the conflict, officials said Thursday.

The city council in Donetsk said no deaths were reported in fighting overnight on Wednesday, one of the quietest nights recently in eastern Ukraine.  

However, Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, told journalists on Thursday that an  emergency worker was killed by fighting near Donetsk’s airport.

The city council of Donetsk said in a statement published online that the situation in much of the city was calm, although occasional explosions could still be heard in a neighbourhood in the north, near the government-held airport.

On Thursday, the Belarusian foreign ministry confirmed that peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the rebels would continue Friday in Minsk under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told ITAR TASS news agency that Moscow expects Friday’s meeting of the Contact Group will “help further movement forward”.