Section: Macleans (Canada)
Rebels and Ukrainian authorities agree on humanitarian corridor
DONETSK, Ukraine – The pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine say they have reached agreement with government forces on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the epicenter of fighting. The move comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are set to leave for Moscow to talk with Russian President Vladimir...
Mayday call issued just moments before deadly Taiwan plane crash
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Moments before the TransAsia Airways propjet banked sharply and crashed into a river, one of its pilots said, “Mayday, mayday, engine flameout,” according to a Taiwanese aviation official. “Engine flameout” refers to flames being extinguished in the combustion chamber of the engine, so that it shuts down and no longer drives the...
John Baird: A man for all questions
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (Canadian Press) John Baird will go down as a man who never held a job too long. He’d already had plenty before he came to Ottawa in 2006, thanks to a decade on the Tory benches at Queen’s Park. Then, on Parliament Hill, Baird was Stephen Harper’s first president of the Treasury Board, twice...
Exit John Baird, stage right
From left, U.S. Naval Attache, Capt. Charles J. Cassidy, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, and Secretary of State John Kerry, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a ceremony at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Oct. 28, 2014. (Carolyn Kaster, Pool, AP Photo) This is the third time Stephen Harper has found himself suddenly short a...
QP Live: Let an anti-terror debate consume the Commons
Adrian Wyld/CP Maclean’s is your home for the daily political theatre that is question period. If you’ve never watched, check out our primer. Today, QP runs from 2:15 p.m. until just past 3. We livestream and liveblog all the action. Where were we? Stephen Harper often talks about how we all live on a scary planet. He’s not...
As Central Americans move through courts, thousands wait In limbo
SAN ANTONIO – Thousands of immigrants seeking legalization through the U.S. court system have had their hearings cancelled and are being told by the government that it may be 2019 or later before their futures are resolved. Some immigration lawyers fear the delay will leave their clients at risk of deportation as evidence becomes dated, witnesses...
Freedom declines worldwide as terrorism, authoritarianism rise
NEW YORK – Global freedom has suffered a disturbing decline with 60 per cent of the world’s population, or 2.6 billion people, living in countries that are not completely free, according to a report released Wednesday. Freedom House’s annual study which evaluated the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories determined that...
Did 65 million people get an iPhone 6 for Christmas?
Tech Week continues today, with Apple and Yahoo! releasing their quarterly earnings – and the big question is how many iPhone 6s Apple just sold (the average estimate: 65 million.) Tomorrow, Facebook reports their quarterly earnings – following a brief outage this morning that prompted panic among many a social-media addict. Today’s also...
Russia announces anti crisis plan after junk credit rating
MOSCOW – After a top ratings agency cut Russia’s credit grade to “junk” status, the government in Moscow on Tuesday announced a plan that will see the economy return to a budget surplus in 2017. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Russia’s rating to BB-plus late on Monday, a non-investment grade, for the first time since 2004,...
Survivors mark 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz
OSWIECIM, Poland – When the Soviet army entered Auschwitz exactly 70 years ago, finding piles of corpses and prisoners close to death, a Russian soldier took a small and hungry 11-year-old girl into his arms and rocked her tenderly, tears coming to his eyes. That girl, today the 81-year-old Paula Lebovics, doesn’t know who that soldier was,...
