Today’s Headlines and Commentary
A surprise international agreement backed by the U.S., Russia, the EU and Ukraine is calling on pro-Russian separatists who have seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine to vacate and lay down their arms, reports the Associated Press. But the leader of one armed group in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, has declared an intent to ignore the accord until the interim government in Kiev has resigned, writes the New York Times.
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A surprise international agreement backed by the U.S., Russia, the EU and Ukraine is calling on pro-Russian separatists who have seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine to vacate and lay down their arms, reports the Associated Press. But the leader of one armed group in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, has declared an intent to ignore the accord until the interim government in Kiev has resigned, writes the New York Times. Al Jazeera America quotes Pushilin on why he does not feel bound by the deal---because Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "did not sign anything for us, he signed on behalf of the Russian Federation."
The U.S. is set to release $450 million in frozen Iranian funds in the wake of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirming that Iran has diluted half of its higher-grade enriched uranium stockpile. The BBC has details.
Reuters reports that Syrian government has submitted a "more specific" list of its chemical arsenal, offering particular amounts in place of the estimates that it submitted to global regulators last year.
The Nigerian military retracted a statement that almost all of the 129 school girls kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants had been released; most of the hostages remain unaccounted for, reports CNN.
Yesterday marked the start of Mostafa Kamel Mostafa's jury trial in the Southern District of New York. Mostafa, also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, is the Egyptian-born cleric accused of helping plan the 1998 kidnapping of hostages, including two Americans, in Yemen, trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and assisting al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Times reports.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin accused NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of secretly recording a meeting using a Dictaphone while he was Danish prime minister. A NATO spokeswoman, Oana Lungescu, is calling the accusations "complete nonsense" but a documentary filmmaker has decade-old footage of a recorded exchange between Putin and Rasmussen. Here's the Wall Street Journal.
Critics have been calling Edward Snowden "contemptible" for his "bizarre" pawn-like appearance on a televised call-in program with Putin---check out Ben's earlier post on the subject---but Snowden is pushing back. Snowden writes in a Guardian op-ed that his questions to the Russian leader about whether Russia conducts surveillance on its citizens were designed not to pander but to get answers on the record. Here's the video of Putin's denial of large-scale Russian spying, along with a fact-check from the Washington Post.
The Pentagon is offering help in recovering passengers still underwater after a South Korean ferry carrying mostly high school students capsized on Wednesday morning. South Korean authorities have launched helicopters and deployed military divers, reports Foreign Policy, and the U.S. military is standing by.
Today "1971" premiers at the Tribeca Film festival, a documentary that the AP is calling a "prequel" to the Snowden saga. It covers an eight-person group that dubbed itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, which broke into an FBI office and found files that proved extensive spying conducted at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover against dissidents, civil rights leaders and anti-Vietnam War activists.
Canada has arrested a 19-year-old in connection with exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability, reports Al Jazeera America.
The U.S. Navy's Bluefin-21, an underwater drone searching the Indian Ocean floor for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, has dived to 4,695 meters---a record depth that risks equipment damage, notes Reuters.
Wired's "Danger Room" reports that in February DARPA awarded Logos Technologies a $100,000 contract to develop a stealth, hybrid-powered motorcycle.
Outside Pakistan's capital, a public library at an Islamic seminary for girls has been named after "Osama bin Laden, the Martyr," writes the AP.
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Jane Chong is former deputy managing editor of Lawfare. She served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University.
