TRUNEWS:3-Minute Headline News 9/5/14

TRUNEWS Headlines for 9/5/14

Ukraine signs cease-fire with pro-Russian rebels

Ukraine and the Russian-backed rebels have signed a cease-fire deal that starts today.

The announcement came as representatives of Ukraine, Russia, pro-Russian rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe met in Minsk.

Since mid-April, Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine in a conflict the U.N. estimates has killed nearly 2,600 people.

NATO to boost presence in east, approves rapid response force

NATO leaders agreed today to set up a new rapid reaction force and to maintain a “continuous” presence in an eastern Europe rattled by Russian moves in Ukraine.

The new “spearhead” force, comprising several thousand troops and ready to deploy in a few days, means “we can deal swiftly and firmly with any threat,” NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

“This decision sends a clear message — NATO protects all allies, at all times,” he said.

At the same time, NATO’s 28 leaders adopted a Readiness Action Plan to strengthen collective defence, he said on the second day of a NATO summit.

U.S. employment growth smallest in eight months, labor force shrinks

U.S. job growth slowed down sharply in August and more Americans gave up the hunt for work, giving a cautious Federal Reserve more reasons to wait a bit longer before raising interest rates.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 142,000 last month, the smallest increase in eight months, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.1 percent as people dropped out of the labor force.

However there are fewer people employed now than 7 years ago.

US DOCTOR INFECTED WITH EBOLA ARRIVES IN NEBRASKA

The third American doctor who became infected with Ebola while working in Liberia – has arrived at a Nebraska hospital for treatment.

Officials at the Nebraska Medical Center said Dr. Rick Sacra, will be treated at the hospital’s 10-bed special isolation unit on the seventh floor, the largest of four such units in the U.S.

Sacra, from Boston, delivered babies but was not involved in the treatment of Ebola patients, so it’s unclear how he became infected with the virus that has killed about 1,900 people.

SOME CHRISTIANS ARM – AS MIDEAST PERILS MOUNT

Every day around sunset, dozens of residents of this small Lebanese Christian village on the border carry their automatic rifles and deploy on surrounding hills, taking up positions and laying ambushes in case Muslim extremists from neighboring Syria attack.

“We all know that if they come, they will slit our throats for no reason,” said one villager as he drove through the streets of Qaa, an assault rifle resting next to him.

For months, Lebanese Christians have watched with dread as other Christians flee Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, fearing their turn will come next. Fears multiplied after militants from Syria overran a border town last month, clashing with security forces for days and killing and kidnapping Lebanese soldiers and policemen.

Read all of Lee Knight’s submissions HERE:  /contributor/pages/347/138/stories.html