Reuters reports at least eight UN Security Council members delayed approval of a request by Libya to import weapons, tanks, jets and helicopters to take on Islamic State militants and monitor its borders. Spain, supported by Lithuania, Chile, New Zealand, Britain, France, Angola and the United States, placed a so-called “hold” on the Libyan request.
Meanwhile, EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini told Ansa that the European Union was ready to provide Libya with any form of help in close coordination with the UN. But she reiterated “the Libyans must take the first step”.
There has been a strong reaction in the UK to the proposal by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker that the European Union should establish its own army to counter Russia. The Daily Express reports the British government argued defence was a national, and not an EU, responsibility and that there was no prospect of that position changing.
Kathimerini says eurozone ministers have agreed that technical details about economic reforms in Greece would be thrashed out at a meeting in Brussels beginning tomorrow. In a statement, the recently-formed Greek government said it believed any technical difficulties would be resolved in the coming days, adding there was “a willingness to resolve the country’s financial problems rapidly”.
Le Figaro reports four people have been arrested over suspected links to the attacks in Paris last January on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher market that left 20 people dead, including the gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly. A French policewoman was detained together with her boyfriend, a man said to have been close to Coulibaly and who is also wanted on separate drug charges. Europe 1 radio says that she converted to Islam two years ago and was suspended from her duties in February.
The Associated Press says the president of the University of Oklahoma has severed the school’s ties with a national fraternity on Monday and ordered that its on-campus house be closed after several members took part in a racist chant caught on video. Posted online, the video shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the largest student fraternities in the US with about 15,000 members.
President Putin has revealed the moment he says he gave the secret order for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and described how Russian troops were ready to fight to rescue Ukraine’s deposed, pro-Moscow president. In a trailer for an upcoming documentary on state-run Rossiya-1 television called “Homeward Bound”, the Russian president openly discussed Moscow’s controversial annexation of Crimea a year ago. He recounted an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss how to extricate deposed president Viktor Yanukovych, who had fled a pro-Western street revolt in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
The United States is sending about 3,000 soldiers in the Baltic Sea for NATO exercises in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania counter the Ukrainian crisis. USA Today quotes a Pentagon statement saying that between 750 armoured vehicles, helicopters and other military switchgear is already in Riga as part of the deployment of US forces to NATO. The exercises will last for about three months.
Chadian and Nigerian military personnel have regained control of the Nigerian city of Damasak from the radical Islamic group Boko Haram. The Koaci news site reports more than 200 members of the Boko Haram and 10 soldiers died in the fighting on Sunday. Damasak fell to Boko Haram last November.
CNN says President Barack Obama denounced Republican senators who penned a letter attempting to warn Iran that any nuclear deal reached could expire the day Obama leaves office. The 47 GOP senators’ open letter marked an unusually public and aggressive attempt to undermine Obama and five world powers as negotiators try to strike an initial deal by the end of March to limit Iran’s nuclear programs.
At least 10 people have died in a crash of two helicopters in northeast Argentina. According to local station Radio La Torre one of the helicopters belonged to the government of La Rioja and the other to the organisers of an international TV competition. Eight of the 10 victims were French citizens who participated in the competition.
After almost a hundred years, the UK has finished paying the public debt securities issued in 1917 to finance its First World War effort. The Business Times says Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne signed the last coupon payment of 3.5 per cent of the debt of £1.9 billion pounds (€2.4 billion) contracted in 1914 with 120,000 savers across the Channel.
The Los Angeles Times announces the death of Sam Simon, the comedy writer and producer who helped develop The Simpsons. He was 59. He was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer in 2013. Simon, who made millions after leaving the show in 1993, donated his riches to charity.