Section: US & Canada
Fitch Strips Austria of Triple-A Rating
Fitch Ratings stripped Austria of its pristine triple-A credit rating, saying government debt will reach a higher peak than previously thought, while also lowering its ratings on Ukraine. …read more Source: The Wall Street...
Will Upcoming Ceasefire In Ukraine Hold?
Rachel Martin talks to Associated Press reporter Peter Leonard about the situation on the ground in Ukraine ahead of Sunday’s planned ceasefire.» E-Mail This …read more Source:...
US says Russia violating ‘spirit’ of Ukraine peace deal
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration on Friday accused Russia and pro-Russian separatists of violating “the spirit” of a peace deal for Ukraine with weapons shipments and intensified fighting before a ceasefire takes effect this weekend. The allegations came as fierce fighting surged in eastern Ukraine as the separatists...
Obama administration warily eyes Ukraine-Russia cease-fire while mulling arms support
The Obama administration said Friday that it is still weighing whether to provide U.S. weapons to Ukraine’s military and that the success or failure of a delicate peace deal reached this week to end the nation’s conflict with Russia-backed separatists will affect the calculus of the decision. Administration officials said …...
US says Russia violating ‘spirit’ of Ukraine peace deal
By MATTHEW LEE read more …read more Source: CNS...
Ukraine crisis tests the West
Thanks to determined diplomacy by Germany and France, Russia agreed Wednesday to a new cease-fire in Ukraine, to begin Sunday. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel was anything but triumphant, calling the deal a mere “glimmer of hope” for peace…. …read more Source: The...
Fighting intensifies in Ukraine
ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine (AP) — There’s no sign of a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine — where hostilities are supposed to end over the weekend under a peace plan worked out this week in Belarus. Russian-backed separatists have mounted a sustained offensive to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of the truce. Officials say at least 25 people were...
Putin’s Frozen Conflicts
High-level negotiations in Minsk have just produced a new ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. Few believe that the agreement will hold for long. But even if it does, the Western powers are showing little inclination to make efforts to roll back the separatist enclave in the beleaguered country’s east. Russia, meanwhile, shows no real sign of...
France hails ‘historic’ jet sale to Egypt despite rights concerns
Paris (AFP) – France basked Friday in the “historic” first foreign sale of its Rafale fighter jet to Egypt in a contract clinched in a breakneck three months, despite criticism over rights abuses by Cairo.For Paris the 5.2 billion euro ($5.9 billion) sale is a rare triumph after six failed attempts to export its flagship...
New Model Dictator
For most of the West, Vladimir Putin is a bogeyman. His love affair with the thuggish separatists in eastern Ukraine has blotched his image across the democratic world. In November, he had to slink away prematurely from the G20 Summit in Australia after he was snubbed by just about every leader who counted. Yet the reception he got during his...
