“Ukraine situation is dire and worsening”

"In Ukraine, violence is getting worse and the crisis is deepening "In Ukraine, violence is getting worse and the crisis is deepening. Russia continues to disregard international rules and to support the separatists with advanced weapons, training and forces," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is considering a new proposal that would mean setting up dedicated teams in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. "These units will make it easier to deploy NATO forces rapidly," said Stoltenberg. "They will support collective defense planning. And help coordinate multinational exercises.” Russia is unlikely to welcome the prospect of more NATO forces stationed close to its western border. Eastern Ukraine is in a "dire" security situation, and Russia is failing "miserably" in its seriousness to negotiate an end to the crisis. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to meet with Ukrainian leaders, including President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday. They will then go on to Moscow on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to ease the tensions between these two nations. It emerged this week that the United States is now considering sending lethal aid to help the Ukrainian government fend off attacks from pro-Russian rebels in the eastern part of Ukraine. Asked if France would join the United States in providing such equipment to the Ukrainian military, Hollande said "the option of negotiation, of diplomacy, cannot be extended indefinitely."

In Other News Millions of people will buy Apple Watches, because Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) enormous, core base of fans will line up for just about anything. At $349 per watch, Apple has to sell "just" 3 million Apple Watches to reach $1 billion in sales. Here's why Apple knows the Apple Watch won't be an instant hit: It costs $350. That's a lot of money to fork over for a device that adds a slight bit of convenience. It doesn't do anything more than your iPhone does -- it just allows you to do some iPhone functions on your wrist. Battery life is going to be awful. If the rumors of 10-hour battery life hold true, that's truly dreadful. That'll barely get most people through their work day and commute. There's no mistaking the Apple Watch -- it's boxy, fat and, compared to Apple's other products, it's ugly. It was a dramatic account from the early stage of the Iraq War, one that placed NBC News anchor Brian Williams aboard a U.S. military helicopter that had drawn enemy fire. The story was told repeatedly by Williams and NBC. Williams, the anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," apologized on Wednesday for claiming -- as recently as last Friday -- that he'd been on a helicopter that was "forced down after being hit by an RPG." The incident happened on March 24, 2003. A Chinook helicopter was forced down by enemy fire. But Williams was not aboard. "Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter," one that "took no fire and landed later beside the damaged helicopter."