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there are grounds to doubt this. They speculate the air force failed to spot the unidentified plane entering its airspace, or if it did, didn't respond to what could potentially have been a national security threat. Admitting that would be a highly embarrassing and sensitive for any air force, and could be the reason for the delay in publicly confirming that the plane did turn back.
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WASHINGTON NOTEBOOK: Clock ticking on tentative Geneva agreement for Russia-Ukraine detente
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Not until the final minutes of more than seven hours of negotiating was an agreement struck in Geneva this week to calm boiling tensions along the shared border between Russia and Ukraine. But the deal won't be sealed until its terms are met, and patience is wearing thin as time runs out.
• Skepticism that it might work deepened Friday as pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine continued to occupy government buildings in defiance of the accord and showed no inclination to abide by its call to surrender their weapons.
• The U.S. and European Union say they will slap Moscow with a new round of sanctions against oligarchs and advisers to President Vladimir Putin by the middle of next week if the separatists do not disarm and give up control of buildings they seized in recent riots against local authorities.
• In return, Moscow is demanding guarantees that Ukraine's promised constitutional reforms will give pro-Russian separatists a say in the distribution of government power.
• Few believe that either side will get what they want before the clock runs out.
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Analysis: Both parties hope to boost turnout this fall with doomed legislation
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Flip sides of the same campaign-season coin, the Republican drive in Congress to repeal the nation's health care law and the Democratic call to close the pay gap for women have much in common.
• Divided government assures that neither has even a remote chance of becoming law anytime soon. Instead, they figure prominently in rival strategies to maximize turnout in the fall -- Democrats hoping women will vote in huge numbers, while Republicans try to stoke election year enthusiasm among tea party activists and other (Continued on page 27)
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