Section: US & Canada
US Senate Confirms John Tefft as Envoy to Russia
The U.S. Senate has approved President Barack Obama’s nomination for ambassador to Russia. John Tefft, a career diplomat specializing in Eastern Europe, was unanimously approved Thursday, filling a post that had been vacant since February. Tefft has served as Obama’s ambassador to Ukraine and former President George W. Bush’s...
Senate Follies Almost Derail Confirmation Of New U.S. Ambassador To Russia
In the midst of major political turmoil, fiery rhetoric, sanctions, violence in eastern Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, America’s new diplomatic envoy to Russia almost didn’t get confirmed by the Senate. On Thursday night, a Republican senator refused to confirm John F. Tefft as the new ambassador to Russia as...
White House Adviser Goes Ballistic After Republicans Block Russian Ambassador Nominee
The Senate on Thursday night eventually confirmed John Tefft to be the U.S. Ambassador to Russia late Thursday night, after an initial blocking of his confirmation by Senate Republicans prompted an unusually public outburst by a senior White House adviser. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,...
MH17 Crash Site: 10 Ukraine Government Troops Killed By Rebels
Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday killed at least 10 soldiers in an overnight ambush on a Ukrainian paratroopers unit, near the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a BBC report said. …read more Source: International Business...
Dozens of investigators reach Ukraine plane crash site
A team of several dozen international investigators descended Friday on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site in eastern Ukraine to begin combing an area now designated as a crime scene. …read more Source: CTV...
Snowden Asks to Stay in Russia
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has applied to renew his political asylum status in Russia. The temporary political asylum Snowden received last July was good only through midnight Thursday. A lawyer in Russia representing Snowden said he can stay in the country at least until there is a decision on his application, and...
Analysis: Putin cornered over Ukraine
Bowing to Western demands would potentially spell political suicide for the Russian leader, who has built his popularity on standing up to the West. When mass protests chased the Russian-leaning Ukrainian president from power in February, Putin saw it as a Western plot against Russia and quickly moved to annex Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula...
Investigators reach Ukraine jet wreckage site
For days, clashes along routes to the wreckage site had kept investigators from reaching the area to find and retrieve bodies that have been decaying in the 90-degree midsummer heat. […] after negotiations, the investigators were allowed through the final rebel checkpoint at the village of Rozsypne on Thursday afternoon by a rifle-toting...
Flash Points: Do the new sanctions on Russia have any bite?
CBS News Homeland Security Correspondent Bob Orr and CBS News Senior National Security Analyst Juan Zarate discuss fresh sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union aimed at hurting Russia’s economy amid the country’s continued backing of Ukranian separatists. …read more Source:...
Even If He Brought No NSA Files, Snowden Is Still ‘Very Useful’ To Russia
As the world condemns Russia’s continued support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in the wake of MH17, Edward Snowden is asking Vladimir Putin for an extended asylum. It’s an awkward circumstance for a self-proclaimed human rights and Internet freedom activist, even beyond taking refuge in a land with a terrible human rights record...
