Section: US & Canada
EU Slaps Sanctions on Five Russian Banks
The European Union has sanctioned five Russian banks to protest Moscow’s intervention in restive eastern Ukraine. The EU said it is limiting the banks’ access to European capital markets, which could further impede the already weak Russian economy that some analysts say is sliding toward a recession. The 28-nation EU bloc called for...
Russia halts Ukrainian soy, sunseed imports: Report
Russia will suspend Ukrainian soy, soymeal and sunseed imports starting from Aug. 1 due to breach of phytosanitary requirements, Interfax news said. …read more Source:...
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:...
Ukraine MH17 Wreckage Site Finally Accessed By Investigators
ROZSYPNE, Ukraine (AP) — As mortar fire landed nearby, an international team of investigators finally reached the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 wreckage site Thursday and got their first look at a scene experts fear has been badly compromised in the two weeks since the plane was blown out of the sky. For the families of the 298 victims, it...
MH17 Victims’ Items and DNA Retrieved From Crash Site
Investigators from the Netherlands and Australia finally returned Thursday to the site in eastern Ukraine where MH17 was shot down two weeks ago. …read more Source:...
Information War Rages Alongside Real One in Ukraine
The downing of the Malaysian airliner two weeks ago, and allegations that Russians are shelling Ukrainian troops across the border, have moved the information war swirling around the Ukrainian conflict to a new level. VOA’s Al Pessin reports from Kyiv. …read more Source: Voice of...
We Had Our 9/11 (But Pretended It Didn’t Happen)
That Europe is not raising its voice to stop the bloodshed in Gaza is no big surprise. Sadly, we are used to a 28 Member States consensus-based foreign policy that tends to be anodyne. Bad news for Europe’s potential, but much worse for others around the world who miss our ambition to be assertive about human rights and international law...
