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G20 leaders reveal global growth plan to boost GDP by $2 trillion The Associated Press Published Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:00PM EST Last Updated Sunday, November 16, 2014 1:45AM EST BRISBANE, Australia -- Leaders of the G20 nations finalized a plan Sunday to boost global GDP by more than $2 trillion over five years by investing in infrastructure and increasing trade. The communique issued at the conclusion of their summit in Brisbane, Australia says the leaders plan to jumpstart growth, in part, by creating a global infrastructure hub. The plan will purportedly help match potential investors with projects, and also...

Glenn Reynolds refers to this as “smart diplomacy – the real thing,” but it’s based on the very dumb diplomacy rolled out by Vladimir Putin over the past year. Brisbane, Australia hosts the G-20 meeting this week, and Putin decided to make a point by sending a war flotilla of the Russian navy to the waters north of Australia, in order to make the point that, er … he’s a reasonable guy, or something: But it was clear that Putin’s actions over the past few days were top of mind for the leaders.Abbott lashed out at the Russian leader...

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to leave the G20 summit early after Western leaders lambasted him Saturday over the crisis in Ukraine and threatened further sanctions. “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Putin, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald, Reuters reports. President Barack Obama said the United States was at the forefront of “opposing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17.” German Chancellor Angela...

Several commentators pointed out that the "Malaysia" logo on the plane from the photograph was in the wrong place. Maksim Kats, a Russian blogger, said the plane in the picture looked like a slightly altered version of the one that tops the search results if you Google "Boeing view from above" in Russian. It also happens to be a publicity photo of a Boeing 767, not a 777, which was shot down over Ukraine in July. Others noted that the fighter jet looked different from an Su-25 - the type which the Russian media had consistently claimed shot down MH17....

David Cameron has warned Russia it will face more sanctions if it continues to support the separatists in Ukraine's civil war. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron said: "If Russia continues to destabilise Ukraine, and we continue to see Russian troops and Russian tanks inside Ukraine, then there's going to have to be a very different relationship with Britain and Europe on the one hand, and Russia on the other, and potential for further sanctions." Mr Cameron also suggested in a separate interview that he does not trust Vladimir Putin, and said he was saddened that Mr Putin...

David Cameron has compared Russia to Nazi Germany because of its actions in Ukraine on the eve of a tense meeting with Vladimir Putin. Mr Cameron will on Saturday night challenge Mr Putin about Russia’s continued acts of aggression in Ukraine as it supplies heavy weapons and tanks to the separatists. In a reference to World War II, Mr Cameron said that the world must “learn the lessons of history” and intervene to stop “a larger state bullying a smaller state”. He said: "Russian action in Ukraine is unacceptable. We have to be clear about what we are dealing with....

Stephen Harper had a showdown with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, telling the Russian leader to "get out of Ukraine" in a dustup at the Group of 20 summit in Australia. Harper's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, said the prime minister was speaking to a group of G20 leaders at a private leaders' retreat on Saturday morning when Putin approached and extended his hand. MacDonald said Harper told Putin: "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine." According to MacDonald, Putin did not respond positively. He didn't provide...

BRISBANE, Australia - Stephen Harper had a showdown with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, telling the Russian leader to "get out of Ukraine" in a dustup at the Group of 20 summit in Australia. Harper's spokesman, Jason MacDonald, said the prime minister was speaking to a group of G20 leaders at a private leaders' retreat on Saturday morning when Putin approached and extended his hand. MacDonald said Harper told Putin: "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine." According to MacDonald, Putin did not respond positively....

Stephen Harper had a showdown with Vladimir Putin on Saturday, telling the Russian leader to “get out of Ukraine” in a dust-up at the Group of 20 summit in Australia. Harper’s spokesman, Jason MacDonald, said the prime minister was speaking to a group of G20 leaders at a private leaders’ retreat on Saturday morning when Putin approached and extended his hand. MacDonald said Harper told Putin: “I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine.” According to MacDonald, Putin did not respond positively. He didn’t provide...

Overview A new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, North America: Time for a New Focus, asserts that elevating and prioritizing the U.S.-Canada-Mexico relationship offers the best opportunity for strengthening the United States and its place in the world. "It is time to put North America at the forefront of U.S. policy," the report says. "The development and implementation of a strategy for U.S. economic, energy, security, environmental, and societal cooperation with its two neighbors can strengthen the United States at home and enhance its influence abroad." Chaired by David H. Petraeus, retired U.S. Army general and chairman of the KKR...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 519 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic ; Independents underlined ) H R 5682 RECORDED VOTE 14-Nov-2014 12:52 PM QUESTION: On Passage BILL TITLE: To approve the Keystone XL Pipeline … … … … … 221 … 1 11 Democratic 31 161 … 9 Independent … … … … TOTALS 252 161 1 20 ---- AYES 252 --- Aderholt Amodei Bachmann Bachus Barr Barrow (GA) Benishek Bentivolio Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Boustany Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Broun (GA) Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Byrne Calvert Camp Capito...

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday as Senate supporters worked to line up 60 votes to send the measure to the White House. The 252-161 House vote came amid jockeying by two Louisiana lawmakers — Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu — to be seen winning authorization for the pipeline before voters decide which of them serves in the Senate next year. Cassidy said it’s past time for the United States to authorize Keystone XL, six years after Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. first asked for permits to construct the pipeline...

Russia has announced plans to build a drone base for military reconnaissance in a town just 420 miles off mainland Alaska and just over 300 miles off the US state’s St Lawrence Island, Russia’s state news agency reported on Thursday. "The command of the eastern military district in charge of the military development of the Arctic zone has moved forward with plans to form an unmanned aerial vehicle division,” Alexandr Gordeev, spokesperson for the district said.

The U.S. government now patrols nearly half the Mexican border by drones alone in a largely unheralded shift to control desolate stretches where there are no agents, camera towers, ground sensors or fences, and it plans to expand the strategy to the Canadian border. It represents a significant departure from a decades-old approach that emphasizes boots on the ground and fences. Since 2000, the number of Border Patrol agents on the 1,954-mile border more than doubled to surpass 18,000 and fencing multiplied nine times to 700 miles. […] The government has operated about 10,000 drone flights under the strategy, known...

Next year, thousands of English professors head to Vancouver for the annual Modern Language Association (MLA) convention. Let’s hope they stay healthy so they don’t get to use the type of national health care they’ve always wanted. The Canadian Frasier Institute offers a depressing recap on the results of Canada’s single-payer system: “Since 1993, the average wait for treatment has almost doubled (to 18.2 weeks in 2013), per capita public healthcare expenditures have increased by about 40 per cent (after adjusting for inflation), and it is becoming increasingly apparent that patients are suffering the consequences,” Bachus Barua reports in the...

The bright teenager from Beckingham, Kent — known then as Dorothy Winifred Shiers — had studied accounting in high school and turned her proficiency with numbers into a job with a London company. But with her nation at war, she heeded the call and joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service, or Wrens as they were known. At the end of her basic training, she was required to sign the Official Secrets Act, its inherent solemnity backed by the promise of a £2,000 fine and two years in prison for contravention at any time prior to 1975. Lincoln was an Enigma...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead: Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved: and now we lie In Flanders fields! Take up our quarrel with the foe To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch: be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields

Bronze Bell from Long-Lost Arctic Shipwreck Revealed by Megan Gannon, News Editor | November 10, 2014 03:13pm ET Divers recovered a bronze bell from the wreck of the HMS Erebus, a British ship that was missing for nearly 170 years after an ill-fated expedition to the Canadian Arctic. In 1845, British Royal Navy officer and explorer John Franklin led more than 100 men on a quest to find a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But they never completed their mission; in 1846, their ships — the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror — became trapped in ice near...

TransCanada, raised estimated capital costs for Keystone XL project to C$8 billion ($7.02 billion) from an initial projection of C$5.4 billion, citing lengthy delays. Keystone XL, which would carry Alberta oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has been awaiting U.S. presidential permit for more than six years...

Russian spyplane violates Lithuania airspace, Canadian Hornets intercept it Nov 09 2014 By David Cenciotti Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet jets intercepted and shadowed a Russian Air Force Il-20 Coot over Lithuania. On Nov. 8, two RCAF CF-18 (or CF-188) Hornet jets deployed to Lithuania for NATO Baltic Air Policing mission were radar-vectored to intercept and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 Coot-A plane flying off the Baltic coast. According to Canadian media outlets, the CF-18s were conducting a routine training sortie out of Siauliai airbase, when they were re-tasked to visually ID the Russian ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) plane...