Section: US & Canada
Looking for Christmas books: Governor General winners and nominees offer their picks
Michael Crummey, finalist in Fiction for Sweetland (Doubleday Canada) Pick: Lila, Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) I read Robinson’s National Book Award winner Gilead a few years back and was completely floored by it. Narrated by a bookish geriatric preacher in the American midwest who unexpectedly falls in love with an...
Exclusive: Gorbachev Blames the U.S. for Provoking ‘New Cold War’
In the offices of Mikhail Gorbachev, still sharp at 83 and plainspoken as ever, the walls are lined with photos from his travels as the leader of the Soviet Union and, in the years after its demise, as a living icon of the Cold War. One picture shows him with his late wife Raisa standing arm-in-arm with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. In another...
Money Troubles: Russia’s Weak Ruble Pulls Down Neighbors’ Currencies
As the value of Russia’s ruble tumbles amid low oil global prices and Western sanctions, it is taking the currencies of many former Soviet republics down with it. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
Obama Cautious on More Russia Sanctions Unless Europe Agrees
President Barack Obama expressed caution on Thursday about the possibility of the United States adding more sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Ukraine because it could cause divide Washington and Europe. With some lawmakers on Capitol Hill considering more sanctions, Obama told the President’s Export Council that the current...
Russia’s ruble under pressure despite rate rise
The Central Bank raised its key interest rate by a percentage point to 10.5 percent, citing an increasing rise in consumer prices and “significant inflation risk.” The ruble has lost more than 40 percent of its value since January, battered by Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the drop in the price of...
Yatseniuk Urges International Donor Conference
Ukraine risks defaulting on its debt unless Western donors come up with more funds on top of the financial aid already promised, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Thursday. A year of revolution and war with pro-Russian separatists has pushed Ukraine’s hryvnia currency to record lows and crippled the economy, which was already near...
William Daniels Wins 2014 Tim Hetherington Grant
French photographer William Daniels, a frequent contributor to TIME, was named the 2014 recipient of the Tim Hetherington Grant by World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch on Thursday for his ongoing work in Central African Republic. His project, titled “Roots of Africa’s Unholy War,” was chosen from 198 applicants. The annual honor,...
Ukraine Says Three More Soldiers Killed Despite Truce
The Ukrainian military said on December 11 that three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and eight injured in attacks by pro-Russian separatists over the previous 24 hours — the first casualties since a fresh truce deal in eastern Ukraine went into effect on December 9. …read more Source: Radio Free Europe / Radio...
The world as we see it
What, no reindeer? 250 Santas hit the slopes in Newry, Maine, for the 15th Annual Santa Sunday, raising money for local charitiesBrian Snyder/Reuters Friendly fire power With minimal fanfare, NATO-led troops in Afghanistan officially held a “colours casing ceremony” and closed their joint command in Kabul, putting the allied war effort on a path...
In Response to Putin’s New Cold War, the West Must Be Warm to the Russian People
Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003 after criticizing President Vladimir Putin and spent 11 years in prison. In recent months, he has re-emerged in the public as a leader in a renewed opposition aimed at replacing Putin and bringing democracy to Russia. He delivered the following remarks (abridged by The WorldPost)...
