NEW YORK TIMES: Unexpectedly, at the height of the Ukrainian winter, war has exploded anew on a half-dozen battered fronts across easternUkraine, accompanied by increasing evidence that Russian troops and Russian equipment have been pouring into the region again. A shaky cease-fire has all but vanished, with rebel leaders vowing fresh attacks. Civilians are being […]

ALJAZEERA: Congress could more than double the federal minimum wage without doing serious harm to the fast-food industry, according to a report from economists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In a hypothetical scenario in which the minimum wage gradually rose from $7.25 per hour to $15, the authors of the report found that […]

Confronted with a deepening scandal, the president of Argentina abruptly reversed herself on Thursday, saying that the death of the lead prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center was not a suicide as she and other government officials had suggested. Instead, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner suggested that the prosecutor’s death was part […]

USA TODAY: The deadly pattern of illnesses began to emerge in 2012 at hospitals in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago. In each case, the culprit was a bacteria known as CRE, perhaps the most feared of superbugs, because it resists even “last defense” antibiotics — and kills up to 40% of the people it infects. And in […]

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS EDITORIAL: The grand jury investigating Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s alleged violation of grand jury secrecy rules has grossly overstepped its bounds – it has recommended the Legislature rip a huge hole in Pennsylvania’s strong law that shields journalists from identifying confidential sources. Protecting confidential sources is essential if the press is to do […]

USA TODAY: European leaders said they have regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hope to reach a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, but will stand strong behind the sanctions until then. “Everyone is talking to Putin,” Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said Thursday […]

NEW YORK TIMES: The Chinese Communist Party has demanded an end to arrest and conviction goals for the police, prosecutors and courts, state-run news media said Wednesday. The order to end secretive performance standards was part of the government’s efforts to reduce the pressure for guilty verdicts. The pressure has led to a nearly 100 […]

NEW YORK TIMES: Only months ago, American officials were still referring to Yemen’s negotiated transition from autocracy to an elected president as a model for post-revolutionary Arab states. Now, days of factional gun battles in the Yemeni capital have left the president a puppet figure confined to his residence. The country appears to be at […]

WASHINGTON POST: House Republican leaders abruptly dropped plans late Wednesday to vote on an anti-abortion bill amid a revolt by female GOP lawmakers concerned that the legislation’s restrictive language would once again spoil the party’s chances of broadening its appeal to women and younger voters. In recent days, as many as two dozen Republicans had […]

NPR: …The findings, described in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, intensify concern about the safety of electronic cigarettes, which have become increasingly popular. “I think this is just one more piece of evidence amid a number of pieces of evidence that e-cigarettes are not absolutely safe,” says David Peyton, a […]

NEW YORK TIMES: …But a broader Justice Department civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black… Mr. Wilson told investigators that Mr. […]