Globe Trot: Merkel urges Obama not to arm Ukrainian forces

UKRAINE: Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington. She hopes to persuade the United States not to arm Ukrainian forces—ahead of a four-way summit in Minsk on Wednesday seeking a diplomatic end to fighting in eastern Ukraine.

RUSSIA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rewrote Cold War history at a security conference in Munich. The crowd laughed when he said Russia’s annexation of Crimea “was the people invoking the right of self-determination.” But the laughter turned to scorn and boos when he compared it to the Soviet Union’s role in promoting German reunification. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted: “I hope he feels somewhat ashamed of having to market such rubbish.”

The U.S. Army commander in Europe speaking to The Wall Street Journal:

What Russian President Vladimir Putin “has done in Ukraine,” he said, “is a manifestation of a strategic view of the world. So when you look at the amount of equipment that has been provided, and the quality and sophistication of the equipment that has been provided to what I would call his proxies … they clearly have no intention of leaving there.”

LATIN AMERICA: Organized crime is making life difficult for Christians in Latin America, especially in Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia.

MEXICO: We’re looking into the disappearance of a young Christian worker from Texas in Cabo San Lucas.

IRAQ: U.S. envoy John Allen expects Iraq to begin an offensive “in the weeks ahead” to take back territory seized last year by Islamic State.

JORDAN: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry claims the United States and its allies have carried out 2,000 airstrikes against ISIS positions since August. If so, Jordan handled about 3 percent of them—56 air strikes since last Thursday. The pounding is Jordan’s “earth-shattering” response to the publicized burning of pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh.