International

Struggling to defuse the persistent crisis in Ukraine, both the U.S. and European Union imposed new economic sanctions on Russia Wednesday, with President Barack Obama declaring that Russian leaders must see that their actions supporting rebels "have consequences."

Four children were killed in Gaza City on Wednesday by Israeli shelling, according to reports, the latest civilian victims of a military assault on the sealed-off Palestinian territory that has lasted more than a week.

The fate of a possible landmark nuclear deal with Iran sank further into limbo Tuesday, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noting "very real gaps" ahead of a July 20 target date for a deal meant to put firm curbs on Tehran's atomic program.

With the death toll of Palestinians at 100 and rising fast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to back off his offensive in Gaza. World leaders are pleading with Israel to tamp down or stop the bombing, but to no avail.

Russia is harboring Ukrainian separatists, and allowing attacks from their side of the border, a Ukraine government official claimed Friday. There are also reports of Russian troops massing just outside Ukraine's border.

Israeli police and Palestinian attendees of a slain teenager's funeral clashed on the streets of the Gaza Strip. Shelling from the Palestinians and brutal retaliatory strikes from the Israeli military have once again made the area into a tinderbox.

Patients were shot in their hospital beds, medical and humanitarian staff killed, and medical facilities were destroyed in fighting in South Sudan since December in actions that breach international law, an aid group said in a report released Tuesday. Doctors Without Borders said the attacks on health facilities are denying medical assistance to hundreds of thousands. The group said of 58 killed in four hospitals, 25 were patients, 27 had sought shelter, four remain unidentified and two are government officials. Hospitals have also been looted.

The Obama administration plans to join an international treaty against the proliferation of land mines by first banning the production and purchase of them here in the US.

The Vatican's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted by a church tribunal of sex abuse and has been defrocked, the first such sentence handed down against a top papal representative.

The Obama's administration's lethal drone program threatens to set a "dangerous precedent" for other nations to follow and to put the United States on a "slippery slope" toward perpetual war, according to a bipartisan panel that includes former military leaders and national security officials.