The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-19
Summary of News From All War Fronts and Capitals
By the Associated Pres.


 With Russia in the grip of, internal strife and her battle line denuded of men as result of the peace declaration, Germany Ass already begun the carry' ing out of her thesat of an invasion be- cause of the failure of the bolshevik' to sign a peace compact with the central powers.
 Reports emanating from Sweden say , that the Germans have begun pushine forward their troops into ~Russia's two remaining Baltic provinces Esthonia and Livonia-the taking of which com pletetly isolated Russia from the shores of the Baltic and give the enemy, in ad- dition to the port of Riga, the city ol opposite Helsingofors, whence they easily might operate against Petrograc zy sea.
 Although Austria-Hungary had shown dissatisfaction over the stand that Ger, many has taken toward Russia. the dual monarchy evidently has been pIa- cated by promise of Germany that any German military activity will be com fined to northern Russia and Austria Hungary left to deal with whatever other problems may arise in the terril- tory adjacent to her borders.
 Related dispatches from Petrograd tell of the capture of Kiev. the new capita; of Ukraine, by the bolsheviki. The fight ing is described as having been of an extremely sanguinary character, 4cUl persons having been killed and several thousand wounded Great destructio:, was wrought in the town by sheli5 and explosives dropped by aviators.
 At Odessa another big battle has been fought between the bolsheviki and the Moderates, during which warships in the harbor bombarded the city Polish le- gions at Minsk are declared to have been sanguinarily defeated and put to rout. while the bolsheviki also are reported to have captured Tongorod, on the Black sea. and voronezh, the capital of the province of the same name.
 On the battle front in France and Flanders the operations continue of d minor character, except for artillery duels on isolated sectors and here and there raids of more than the usual vfo- lence. The only attack of importance along the entire front has been in Cham pagne on the sector by which the French, aided by American gunners. captured German positions last Tues day.
 At this point, which is situated south west of the Butte Du Meshil. the Ger mans. after heavy artillery preparation. attacked and gained footing in French trenches. Later. however, they were elected. and in addition the French took prisoners.
 On the American sector near St. Mi- hiel the Germans have increased their aerial reconnaissances and bomb drop- ping expeditions. The American antl- aircraft guns are forcing the enemy planes to keep at high attitudes. One of them has been driven down, damaged by an American aviator.
 Twenty seven persons were killed ant fl injured in the air raids made by the Germans on London Saturday and sun- day nights. As on Saturday night. only one of the six or seven enemy machines which attempted to penetrate the de- fensive barrase of the British, reached London in Sunday nights attack. \ third raid was attempted against the capital Monday night.
 x The British casualties during the last week were the lowest in many months. lo<3 officers anu men hsvlng been Killed Ths wounded and minsinS totalled acsz