Section: US & Canada
News Analysis: Questions Linger Over Russia’s Endgame in Syria, Ukraine and Europe
A partial truce in Syria capped something of a foreign policy trifecta for President Vladimir V. Putin, but his goals are uncertain for all three. …read more Source: The New York...
Facebook Is Making a Map of Everyone in the World
Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Mobile World Congress on Sunday in Barcelona. Albert Gea / ReutersAmericans inhabit an intricately mapped world. Type “Burger King” into an online box, and Google will cough up a dozen nearby options, each keyed to a precise latitude and longitude. But throughout much of the world, local knowledge stays local. While...
Ex-Guantanamo detainee with alleged ISIS ties arrested same day as Obama’s big prison-closure announcement
REUTERS/Michelle Shephard/PoolSpanish and Moroccan police on Tuesday arrested four suspected members of a jihadi cell that sought to recruit fighters for the Islamic State group, including one described as a former Guantanamo detainee who once fought with militants in Afghanistan. Three people were arrested in Spain’s North African enclave...
Germany, France Urge Ukraine and Russia to Implement Minsk Accord
Germany and France are urging Ukraine to fight corruption and pass legislation on an election in the pro-Russian east, as required by the cease-fire agreement, to help stem violence in eastern Ukraine. Speaking Tuesday in Kyiv with his French and Ukrainian counterparts, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there have been many...
Ukraine’s “Project Wall” Digs In As Front Line Defense Against Russia
Ukraine is attempting to build a barrier along the whole of its 2,000 kilometer land border with Russia, to thwart any potential attack. “Project Wall” is ambitious and, so far, only partially constructed. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service went to take a look. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
Leonid Bershidsky: Why Putin stopped at the Crimea
President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia took over Crimea “without a single shot being fired.” There’s even a propaganda movie that presents the operation as the result of brilliant Kremlin planning and seamless execution. A document published on Monday shed new light on why the annexation was bloodless — and on the limits of...
Pretty please? Russia asking permission to fly over U.S. with advanced digital camera
WASHINGTON — Russia will ask permission on Monday to start flying surveillance planes equipped with high-powered digital cameras amid warnings from U.S. intelligence and military officials that such overflights help Moscow collect intelligence on the United States. Russia and the United States are signatories to the Open Skies Treaty, which...
Obama’s passivity after Syria crossed his ‘red line’ changed the world, France’s ex-foreign minister says
There were global consequences for Syria’s unpunished use of chemical weapons, most notably in Russia’s attack on Crimea the next year, Laurent Fabius says …read more Source: Vancouver...
German, French Foreign Ministers Anxious about Ukraine
The foreign ministers of France and Germany, on a visit to Kiev, are expressing concerns about the political tensions that are impeding reform efforts in Ukraine and about the persisting conflict in eastern Ukraine.The two countries have been trying to help resolve the… …read more Source:...
Russian Vandals Stop Maidan Massacre Commemoration in St. Petersburg
Vandals forced Russian liberals to abandon a memorial service for those killed in Ukraine’s pro-European Maidan revolution on the second anniversary of the protests, Radio Free Europe reports. Demonstrations against the pro-Russian government in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities resulted in 130 deaths. The violence peaked on February 20, when...
