Globe Trot: Syrian ‘cease-fire,’ Russian elections, and Cuban flights

SYRIA: UN aid trucks remain stuck at the Aleppo border for a fourth day of a U.S.-Russia brokered cease-fire agreement, and rocket fire was coming from rebel-held areas of the city. Around 250,000 civilians—of a population once at 2 million—remain in Aleppo and face critical shortages, with U.S. and Russian officials blaming each other.

In photos, this is Aleppo.

RUSSIA: With elections for seats in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, scheduled for Sunday, what seems like transparency is not.

BRAZIL: Federal prosecutors on Wednesday accused former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of being the “maximum commander” of the kickback scheme at Petrobras, and he is fighting back.

CUBA: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on the Obama administration to suspend flights to Cuba after a TSA official disclosed to lawmakers that there are no air marshals aboard the newly started commercial flights.

I’M READING: Justice and the Enemy by William Shawcross, current chairman of the UK Charity Commission.

… AND SPEAKING: Tonight in Charlotte, N.C., at Christ Covenant Church’s “Women’s Coffee and Conversation,” at 7 p.m. at Windrow Clubhouse, 3209 Windrow Lane, Matthews, N.C. Topic: “Finding Water in the Desert,” on the church in the Middle East.