Green Bay News

TOWN OF GREENBUSH – A 37-year-old Sheboygan woman was killed in a crash Monday morning.

Sheboygan Co. sheriff’s officials say they were called to the scene on Hwy. 23 just east of Chickadee Dr. around 10:15 a.m. Deputies determined that the woman, who was the only person in the vehicle, was headed west on Hwy. 23. Her vehicle went off the road into the north ditch. It then went about 50 yards through a field and hit a tree head-on.

Emergency crews tried to revive the woman, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials continue to investigate the crash.

GREEN BAY – A man charged in connection with his infant daughter’s death pleaded not guilty Monday.

Queondrai Farris returns to court April 7 for a status conference on charges of first degree reckless homicide and child abuse, according to online court records.

According to the criminal complaint, the four-month-old baby had rib fractures that were “highly associated with abuse,” as well as “extensive bruising to both sides of the scalp.” Police say cause of death was manual suffocation.

MADISON (AP) – The Wisconsin Department of Justice is trying to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the state’s voter photo identification case.

The American Civil Liberties Union and allied groups filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 challenging a Republican law requiring photo ID at the polls. A federal appeals court ruled in October the mandate was valid but the ACLU has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.

DOJ filed a response Friday urging the justices not to get involved. The agency argued courts across the country have upheld voter ID laws and there’s no pressing need for the high court to take up the issue absent conflict. The agency also argued a challenge to Texas’ voter ID requirements would make a better case for review.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Degrading and defeating the Islamic state is at the heart of President Barack Obama’s new national security strategy.

In a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama said, “Germany and the United States remain united in our determination to destroy this barbaric organization.”

But those on the front lines of the war with ISIS are growing impatient.

“We are sacrificing more lives and putting many innocent lives at risk by allowing ISIS to survive for a longer period,” Barzani said.  “We need that strategy to be translated into action.” Barzani is with the Kurdish Region Security Council.

Other critics said the plan is more reactive than proactive.

“Our current policy is a whack-a-mole program where we just wait for them to want to commit an act of violence,” said Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of The American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

But U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry argued on NBC’s Meet the Press that many parts of the National Security Strategy against ISIS are already working.

“22% of the populated areas that they held have been taken back already, and that’s without launching what we would call a major offensive,” Kerry said.

But with no hint of ISIS letting up and more than 3000 U.S. led airstrikes launched against them; even some allies are growing wearier by the day.

NEW YORK (AP) – Brian Williams took a pounding in the ratings for his final night on the air before stepping aside as NBC looks into misstatements he made, but it’s unclear whether the drop in viewership was related to the controversy.

The Nielsen company said ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.46 million viewers on Friday, while NBC’s “Nightly News” had just under 8 million. It was two nights after Williams had apologized on the air for falsely claiming that he was in helicopter that had been hit by a grenade while in Iraq in 2003.

For this television season as a whole, Williams’ newscast has led in the ratings by an average of roughly 600,000 viewers each night over ABC.

On Thursday, the night after Williams’ apology, NBC beat ABC by about 800,000 viewers, Nielsen said.

Although NBC leads in the ratings this season as it has for much of the past decade, ABC’s broadcast with David Muir does win occasional nights. ABC has beaten NBC on nine individual nights since the beginning of the TV season in September – six of them Friday nights, which in general is NBC’s weakest evening. On the Friday before Williams made his admission, ABC won by 400,000 viewers.

Substitute Lester Holt takes over “Nightly News” Monday for an undetermined amount of time after Williams, who is managing editor as well as anchor, announced over the weekend that he was stepping away entirely from the show.

Meanwhile, another instance emerged of Williams appearing to embellish a wartime reporting experience.

Williams traveled to Israel in July 2006 to cover that country’s military campaign against Hezbollah. The anchor reported on MSNBC that he flew in a Black Hawk helicopter with Israeli military officials at a height of 1,500 feet. He said he saw a trail of smoke and dust where Katyusha rockets had landed in the uninhabited Israeli countryside. Then, he said he witnessed two rockets being launched toward Israel some six miles from where he was flying, according to the network transcript.

In an interview at Fairfield University more than a year later, Williams said that Katyusha rockets passed “just underneath the helicopter I was riding in,” according to a film of the interview, described in The Washington Post on Monday.

Williams was even more descriptive in an August 2006 appearance with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

“Here’s a view of rockets I have never seen, passing underneath us, 1,500 feet beneath us,” Williams said. “And we’ve got the gunner doors on this thing, and I’m saying to the general, some four-star, ‘It wouldn’t take much for them to adjust the aim and try to do a ring toss right through our open doors, would it?’?”

Also Monday, the newspaper Stars and Stripes released a transcript of its interview with Williams last week, made before his apology, where he attempted to explain his story. Williams was asked about a claim by military involved in the 2003 Iraq mission that his helicopter was flying about an hour behind the Chinook helicopter that had been hit by the rocket-propelled grenade.

Williams said it was the first he’d heard of that. “I could not see in front of us and I thought we were just in one flotilla, for lack of a better word,” he said.

NBC hasn’t given a timetable for how long its look into Williams’ statements, coordinated by the division’s investigative editor Richard Esposito, will take or if its report will be made public.

It has prompted a vigorous debate. Some critics suggest that Williams’ actions, particularly telling the untrue Iraq story on “Nightly News,” warrant his dismissal as anchor. Others wonder if commerce will win out, since Williams has kept “Nightly News” at the top of the ratings for a decade while much of his news division crumbled around him. How much are the years of good work worth?

“This is one of the toughest calls that I’ve ever seen,” said Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University. “On the one hand, the public is right to expect nothing but the truth from our reporters and our news anchors.”

Yet this isn’t a case of someone deliberately inventing news sources or, in the case of Dan Rather at CBS a decade ago, reporting during a presidential campaign a story casting doubt on President George W. Bush’s wartime record that could not be backed up, he said.

“The real difficulty for a news organization, or a reporter, is that once you’ve made one misstep, it’s really hard to earn (trust) back,” said David Westin, former ABC News president. “You can. But it takes a lot of time. It takes a long period of time with proven performances. It takes a long time of getting it right.”

The incident should remind news organizations that it’s more important to report the news than “brand” their personalities, he said.

More than 1,000 comments were posted to NBC’s “Nightly News” Facebook page. The majority supported Williams, with some posters suggesting they wouldn’t watch the broadcast until he returned. But some commenters said they wouldn’t trust him again.

NEW YORK (AP) – Health officials say the number of measles cases in the nation is up to 121 so far this year.

All but 18 of the cases are tied to an outbreak that started at the Disneyland amusement park in California.

Until recently, it was unusual to see more than 100 cases a year in the United States. Measles are most commonly seen in winter and early spring, brought in by foreign visitors or by U.S. residents who pick up the highly contagious virus overseas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the numbers Monday, adding 19 cases to the 102 reported as of last week.

Measles causes a fever, runny nose, cough and rash all over the body. In rare cases, it can be deadly.

MADISON (AP) – Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has raised nearly $110,000 this year in her re-election bid.

Bradley reported raising $109,894 in January. That brings her total raised to just over $375,000 for the campaign so far against Rock County Circuit Judge James Daley.

Daley had not yet reported his January fundraising totals by mid-afternoon Monday. The report was due by midnight.

Bradley, who is seeking a third 10-year term on the court, reports having nearly $353,000 cash on hand.

Daley last week reported raising just $74,600 through the end of last year.

In recent years, outside groups with partisan interests have spent heavily on officially nonpartisan Supreme Court races, far surpassing spending by the actual candidates.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A water manager is facing discipline after he was caught urinating in an empty reservoir that supplies drinking water for the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokesman Tyrone Jue said Monday that the agency confirmed anonymous complaints that maintenance planner Martin Sanchez had urinated in the 674 million gallon reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills early last month.

The reservoir had been drained for maintenance, and officials say public health wasn’t in danger.

Sanchez, who earns $111,000 annually, was in line for a promotion before the incident. He now faces a maximum penalty of a weeklong suspension without pay. A message left with Jue seeking comment from Sanchez wasn’t immediately returned.

San Francisco’s water comes mostly from Sierra Nevada runoff.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A 16-year-old sent a cellphone selfie that also showed another teen he had just fatally shot in the face, sitting in a chair, investigators said in court papers charging the teen.

Maxwell Morton faces a preliminary hearing Feb. 19 on charges of first-degree murder, criminal homicide and possession of a weapon by a minor following the shooting Wednesday of Ryan Mangan, who also was 16. Mangan’s funeral was Monday in Jeannette, a city of roughly 9,500 residents about 25 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Investigators zeroed in on Morton after the mother of a third boy called police a day after the shooting to report that Morton had sent her son the picture with Mangan’s lifeless body in the background.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Morton, and a woman who answered his home telephone Monday told The Associated Press the family has yet to hire one, before declining to comment.

According to a criminal complaint, Morton took the photo with Snapchat, a messaging app that lets people send photos, videos and texts that disappear in a few seconds, unless the recipient saves them. If that happens, the sender is automatically notified.

In this instance, the boy who received the photo saved it, and his mother turned it over to police.

The photo “depicted the victim sitting in the chair with a gunshot wound to the face,” which, police said, is precisely how Mangan’s mother found her son when she returned home at about 6 p.m. that day. The Snapchat photo had the name Maxwell at the top, and Morton also sent the same boy text messages saying, “Told you I cleaned up the shells” and “Ryan was not the last one,” according to the criminal complaint.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck would not comment on the messages, including whether authorities believe Morton was referencing plans to kill others. “We don’t anticipate any additional charges at this time,” Peck said Monday.

Peck, a county prosecutor for 31 years and the district attorney since 1994, said he has never seen a case “where the suspect photographed the crime scene.”

But, he said, “I don’t want to comment any further about what that represents or what that means.”

Mangan’s phone also contained a photo of him holding the gun investigators say Morton used, a 9mm pistol, police said.

Westmoreland County detectives and Jeannette police got a search warrant Friday for Morton’s residence, based on the cellphone photos, and found what they believe was the same gun, hidden under the basement stairs. Morton confessed “that he used the handgun found in the basement under the stairs to shoot Ryan Mangan in the face and then leaving the victim dead in the room,” according to the criminal complaint.

By charging Morton with first-degree murder, authorities contend the killing was premeditated with malice. The criminal homicide charge is an umbrella count that leaves open the possibility that Morton could be prosecuted for a lesser degree of murder or even manslaughter. If convicted of first-degree murder, Morton would face up to life in prison, though the sentence would not be mandatory – as it is with adults – because he is under 18.

Even so, Morton is charged as though he’s an adult. His eventual attorney could try to get a judge to move the case to juvenile court, where Morton would face incarceration or parole only until he is 21.

APPLETON – Police are investigating after a phony 911 call led them to a downtown business Monday.

The caller claimed there was a shooter at a business in the 100 block of College Ave., police say.

Officers went there, but could not find anything.

Drunken driving is down, but impaired drivers are still getting behind the wheel.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted an anonymous roadside survey of drivers across the country. Drivers who agreed to participate were pulled over and tested on the spot.

The survey found that drunken driving was down by a third from the last test seven years ago.

It was down 80 percent from the first survey in 1973 but more people were driving impaired by marijuana or other drugs.

20 percent of drivers had evidence of drugs in their system that would impair judgment.

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) – Marion “Suge” Knight will remain behind bars for the next six weeks while attorneys prepare for a hearing in which evidence of numerous uncharged crimes allegedly committed by the former rap mogul might be presented.

Knight is charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run after he struck two men in a Compton parking lot during a Jan. 29 confrontation.

The decision to keep him jailed came at a hearing Monday that also shed some light on Knight’s recent hospitalization.

His attorney, David Kenner, said the Death Row Records co-founder passed out and had serious breathing problems after his arraignment last week.

He didn’t elaborate on Knight’s ailments but said he doesn’t think his client is receiving adequate care.

“Right now we’re at the mercy of what the Los Angeles County jail decides is appropriate or not appropriate,” Kenner said.

Knight sat with his head cocked to the side during much of Monday’s hearing, which was supposed to address whether bail should be set for him.

A prosecutor and Knight’s attorneys sought a delay to prepare for the hearing, which Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes said might include evidence of a “very large stack of uncharged crimes.”

She declined to elaborate on the cases.

Kenner said he had not seen any details about the uncharged crimes, but he is not worried about them.

He said once the alleged crimes are detailed in court, he expects to challenge them and “make sure what we’re getting is the truth.”

Knight has pleaded not guilty in the murder case and is due back in court March 20. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Knight, 49, complained of chest pains and was briefly hospitalized after entering his plea.

Superior Court Judge Richard Ocampo denied a request to allow Knight to be evaluated by his personal physician. Ocampo said doctors with the county jail system were adequate to treat Knight, and his attorney should give them information about Knight’s ailments.

Kenner said he would file details about his client’s health under seal. But he noted after Monday’s hearing that he doesn’t think Knight should have been discharged from the hospital.

Last year, doctors found a blood clot in Knight’s chest after he passed out at a Las Vegas jail, where he was being held after being arrested on a robbery charge filed in Los Angeles. His attorneys at the time said the clot was related to Knight being shot six times in August at a nightclub.

Knight was a key player in the gangster rap scene that flourished in the 1990s, and his label once listed Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg among its artists. But Knight lost control of the company after it was forced into bankruptcy.

Authorities contend Knight intentionally struck Carter and another man in the parking lot of a Compton burger stand, but his attorneys have said he was trying to flee a vicious attack. Carter’s funeral was held Saturday and attracted nearly 2,000 people.

The confrontation occurred after Knight got into an argument at a location where a promotion video for the film “Straight Outta Compton” was being shot. The film is about the rise of the rap group N.W.A.

In court Monday, Knight politely responded when Barnes asked whether he approved of a delay in his case to give both sides time to prepare for the bail review hearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government on Monday pledged $3.2 million to help save the monarch butterfly, the iconic orange-and-black butterfly that can migrate thousands of miles between the U.S. and Mexico each year. In recent years, the species has experienced a 90 percent decline in population, with the lowest recorded population occurring in 2013-2014.

About $2 million will restore more than 200,000 acres of habitat from California to the Corn Belt, including more than 750 schoolyard habitats and pollinator gardens. The rest will be used to start a conservation fund – the first dedicated solely to monarchs – that will provide grants to farmers and other landowners to conserve habitat.

The move by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comes as it’s in the midst of a one-year review to determine whether to classify the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, which would afford the butterfly more protection. In December, the agency said that there was enough evidence to trigger a review.

“The magic of the monarch butterfly is that little patches matter,” said Service Director Dan Ashe at a news conference in Washington. Piece by piece, he said, “we can make a difference on a continental scale.”

The monarch lays its eggs exclusively on the milkweed plant. Conversion of prairies into cropland and the increasing use of weed killer-resistant crops have greatly reduced the extent of milkweed, officials said.

“It is weed control that is driving eradication of the milkweed plant,” Ashe said.

The conservation projects will be focused on the I-35 corridor from Texas to Minnesota, areas that provide important spring and summer habitat along the butterfly’s migration path. The species also faces challenges in Mexico, where its primary wintering grounds are being threatened by logging and climate change. Ashe said the hope was to eventually sign an agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to cover their entire range.

Environmental groups who have pressed for the butterfly’s protection said Monday the announcement was a positive step, but said the species needs legal protection.

Monarchs are pollinators and indicators of broader environmental problems. Some populations migrate thousands of miles, across multiple generations each year from breeding and wintering grounds.

“The specter of listing will spur a lot of conservation for the monarch,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that asked the Fish and Wildlife Service last August to protect the monarch butterfly and set aside critical habitat.

But Curry said the butterfly needed to be listed for it to recover.

BOSTON (AP) — The third major winter storm in less than two weeks inflicted fresh snow — and misery — across New England and portions of New York state on Monday. Boston, which broke records set during the epic Blizzard of ’78, grappled with a conundrum: Where to put it all?

Doug Buckley, a truck driver delivering food to restaurants in Boston, captured the city’s winter weariness: “I want to take a plane to Florida.”

Here’s how the latest snowstorm is ravaging the region again:

___

BESIEGED UNTIL EARLY TUESDAY

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for central New York, the western Catskills and much of New England through early Tuesday.

Some areas of Massachusetts had about a foot of snow before dawn, and the storm was expected to last all day Monday. The weather service reported an unofficial measurement of more than 21 inches in Norwell, while other communities south of Boston including Weymouth, Quincy, Milton and Rockland got 18 inches or more. Fitchburg, Leominster and Ashby in north-central Massachusetts all had about 15 inches. Logan Airport in Boston had a foot, and the city was forecast to get as much as 2 feet.

“You can’t change it. The snow is there,” said Helen Ferullo, a Weymouth social worker resigned to the onslaught. “You can’t do anything about it.”

In New York, the snow stretched from Buffalo to the Hudson Valley, one day after 6 inches of snow fell on parts of the region. Much of Connecticut braced for 6 to 12 inches.

___

‘PRETTY MUCH UNPRECEDENTED’

In Massachusetts alone since last month’s blizzard struck, state workers have removed enough snow to fill Gillette Stadium 90 times over, Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters Monday morning, calling the situation “pretty much unprecedented.”

Boston set a record for the most snow recorded in a 30-day period, with 61.6 inches by 7 a.m. Monday, breaking the record of 58.8 inches set in February 1978.

Bangor, Maine, tied its own 30-day snowfall record with 53 inches, which hasn’t been seen in such a short period since 1969, the National Weather Service said.

___

ROOF COLLAPSES

Massachusetts emergency management officials confirmed that snow-laden roofs collapsed Monday in Quincy, Rockport and Bridgewater. No injuries were reported.

Quincy police said a former set of “The Finest Hours” — a Disney film about a Coast Guard rescue of crewmen aboard an oil tanker wrecked off Cape Cod during a 1952 blizzard — suffered a partial collapse at an old shipyard in Quincy. The movie starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck is scheduled to open next year.

___

MORE TRANSIT HEADACHES

Amtrak canceled portions of its passenger train service in upstate New York because of the storm. It said some trains linking New York City to Albany-Rensselaer and Niagara Falls, New York, were canceled. New York’s Metro-North Harlem line had delays of up to 45 minutes.

Boston’s Logan International Airport was allowing only a limited amount of flights to arrive and depart Monday. Travelers were urged to check with their airlines. Dozens of flights in and out of Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport were canceled, as well as flights at Maine’s Portland International Jetport and Bangor International Airport.

Boston’s transit system, the nation’s oldest, has been particularly hard hit this winter. The buildup of snow and ice on trolley tracks combined with aging equipment has stalled trains, delaying and angering commuters. On Monday, nearly 50 commuters were rescued from a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority train that became disabled between stations in Quincy, just south of Boston. Parts of Boston’s Red and Orange subway lines shut down and passengers were being loaded onto buses.

A frustrated Baker called that “unacceptable” and said he’ll meet with top transit officials once the weather subsides.

___

DEEP FREEZE COMPLICATIONS

Adding insult to injury, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency warned that potentially record-low temperatures and wind chills are expected to move into the region later in the week.

Baker said state offices would be closed for nonemergency personnel Monday, and he encouraged businesses to allow employees to work from home or stay home so they wouldn’t be on the roads.

The steady run of winter blasts has already sucked up over 70 percent of New Hampshire’s Department of Transportation winter maintenance budget. Rhode Island, too, said Monday’s storm will use up what’s left of its $14 million budget for snow removal and nearly the entire salt stockpile.

___

WHERE TO PUT IT ALL?

In many New England communities, the obvious problem is where to put the new snow.

State snow disposal guidelines require that communities use locations that won’t harm environmental resources and have barriers that prevent contaminants from seeping into groundwater when the snow melts. In Massachusetts, officials were using giant melters to liquefy the latest snow.

___

FOUR MEN AND A JEEP

Carrie Sullivan, a manager at Uncle Charlie’s Finer Diner in Weymouth, Massachusetts, said she needed four men and a Jeep to dislodge her car from piles of snow in her driveway early Monday. When she finally got to work two hours later, the diner was filled with plow drivers and electric company crews.

“They were pretty much walking around like zombies. They’ve been working for 20 hours straight,” she said.

“I think we’d all like to get a little bit back to normal,” she said. “For now, we’ll just keep bringing the coffee and the hot pancakes.”

At the Capital Deli in Concord, New Hampshire’s downtown district, owner Matt Beauregard wasn’t shy about how he felt about the latest storm to blanket the city.

“I’m really getting sick of the snow,” Beauregard said. “It’s relentless.”

___

Associated Press radio correspondent Julie Walker in New York City; AP writers Rodrique Ngowi, William J. Kole and Mark Pratt in Boston; Rik Stevens in Concord, New Hampshire; and Mary Esch in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.

GREEN LAKE – A suspect in a deer poaching pleaded not guilty Monday.

Grant Boese faces 128 charges related to the deaths of 15 deer. He was released on a signature bond and returns to court Feb. 24, according to online court records.

Boese and Steven Steger allegedly shot 15 deer, texted photos of them, kept the empty shell casings, and hid several deer with brush and snow, according to the criminal complaint.

Boese faces 128 counts in all, including 14 misdemeanor counts of failure to obtain a hunting license, 16 misdemeanor counts of illegal shining and two misdemeanor counts of failing to tag. The ordinance violations including multiple counts of hunting after revocation, hunting within 50 feet of the road, hunting after hours, discharge weapon from vehicle, and fail to make effort to retrieve downed game.

Steger faces 74 counts in all, including 16 misdemeanor counts of illegal shining. The ordinance violations including multiple counts of hunting within 50 feet of the road, hunting after hours, discharge weapon from vehicle, and fail to make effort to retrieve downed game.

Another suspect, Cody Johnston, was charged previously in connection with a subsequent chase but was not charged for the animal deaths.

WICKLIFFE, Ohio (AP) – Police say an 11-year-old girl in northeast Ohio has been charged with murder in the beating death of a 2-month-old who was staying overnight with the girl and her mother to give the baby’s mom a break.

Wickliffe police Chief Randy Ice said at a news conference Monday that the 11-year-old, her mother and the baby girl were on a couch downstairs when the mother fell asleep at about 3 a.m. Friday. The mother was awakened less than an hour later by her daughter, who was holding the badly injured infant.

The baby died later at a hospital.

A juvenile judge entered a not guilty plea for the girl on Monday. She remains in the Lake County juvenile detention center and will receive a competency evaluation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared Monday that Russian aggression in Ukraine has only reinforced the unity of the U.S. and Europe, as they weighed the prospects of reviving an elusive peace plan to end the conflict.

Still, Obama held open the prospect that if a new round of diplomacy this week fails, the U.S. could send Ukraine’s beleaguered military defensive weaponry. The president said that while he has yet to make a decision on lethal aid, his team is considering “whether there are additional things we can do to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of Russian aggression.”

Merkel and other European leaders staunchly oppose arming Ukraine, in part out of fear of sparking a proxy war with Russia.

The U.S. and Europe have largely been in agreement on their response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, raising the prospect that a public split over lethal aid is a tactic to push Russian Vladimir Putin to agree to a peace plan.

During a joint White House news conference with Obama, Merkel reaffirmed that she sees no military solution to the fighting in eastern Ukraine. However, she added that no matter what Obama decides, “the alliance between the United states and Europe will continue to stand, will continue to be solid.”

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met with Putin and Ukrainian leaders last week and announced a new summit meeting for Wednesday in Minsk. The United States was not at the negotiating table last week, nor will it participate in Wednesday’s talks.

Merkel, who has perhaps the most productive relationship with Putin of any Western leader, said reaching a diplomatic agreement was crucial to keeping the peace in Europe.

“I myself actually would not be able to live without having made this attempt,” she said through a translator.

More than 5,300 people have been killed since fighting in eastern Ukraine began in April, according to a U.N. tally. The bloodshed has markedly increased over the past two weeks, sparking both the new diplomatic maneuvering and Obama’s re-evaluation of sending Ukraine defensive military aid.

The president gave no indication of how quickly he would make a decision on possibly ramping up military assistance to Ukraine, nor did he indicate whether there was a specific development that might trigger that step.

“The measure by which I make these decisions is, is it more likely to be effective than not,” he said.

The U.S. has so far limited its military assistance to non-lethal equipment, including gas masks and radar technology to detect incoming fire. If Obama approves lethal aid, the U.S. could send Ukraine anti-tank missiles, such as the Javelin weapon system, along with armored vehicles.

The U.S. and Europe have largely focused their punitive measures against Russia on several rounds of economic sanctions. The penalties, along with plummeting oil prices, have caused significant damage to Russia’s economy.

The European Union decided Monday to temporarily hold off on ordering more sanctions on Russians and Ukrainian separatists while awaiting the outcome of the peace talks.

Details of the proposals being discussed between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France have not been revealed, but the main sticking points have emerged in the leaders’ recent comments.

One is enforcing a peace deal. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has expressed opposition to any peacekeeper force, apparently reflecting concern that sending Russian peacekeeping troops into eastern Ukraine could result in a de facto occupation.

However, key to a real settlement is some mechanism for monitoring the Ukraine-Russia border to ensure that Russia is not sending troops or equipment to the separatists. Ukrainian officials would have the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe conduct such monitoring.

The status of the eastern regions remains contentious. Ukraine passed a law last year proposing what it called significant autonomy for the east, but rebels dismissed it as vague and meaningless. Russia has pushed for “federalization” of Ukraine, which would presumably give the east significant independence, but Ukrainian authorities oppose that.

Obama and Merkel also discussed the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State militants and the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. The U.S. and Germany, along with their negotiating partners, are discussing with Iran the outlines of a framework agreement ahead of a late March deadline.

The negotiations have been extended before. Obama said Monday that he does not believe an extension would be “useful” unless Iran can agree to the basic outlines of a deal.

“They should be able to get to yes,” Obama said. “But we don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — An AirAsia X flight heading from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia turned back shortly after takeoff Sunday due to a technical problem, circling for hours before landing safely back in Kuala Lumpur, the long-haul budget carrier said.

The incident came after an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 while flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people on board. That was the first fatal accident for AirAsia, the region’s top budget carrier, which was formed in 2001. AirAsia X is the group’s long-haul arm.

After Sunday’s incident, group Chief Executive Kamarudin Meranun said the jet’s auto-thrust system malfunctioned about 45 minutes after takeoff. He said the pilots then switched to manual thrust and could have continued with the flight, but decided to turn back since it was still early in the nearly 10-hour trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Airbus A330 had to circle for four hours over the Malacca Strait to burn fuel and prevent a hard landing, Kamarudin said.

“There is no emergency. It is not a safety issue. It is just a precautionary measure. Safety is paramount to us,” Kamarudin told The Associated Press.

The airline said in a statement that Flight D7172 landed safely at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 5:40 p.m., more than five hours after it departed. The passengers were then transferred to another aircraft, which took off for Jeddah at 7:23 p.m., it said.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s foreign minister on Monday criticized neighboring Jordan, which recently stepped up airstrikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria, and said his country does not need outside help in battling militants.

Walid al-Moallem also told reporters that Damascus will not accept Jordanian or other foreign ground troops crossing into Syria to fight.

There has been no mention of any international troops offering to go into Syria to fight the Islamic State group. Jordan has, however, vowed to retaliate harshly for the slaying of one of its pilots, who was burned alive by the Islamic State group militants last week.

“We will not allow anyone to violate our national sovereignty and we do not need any ground troops to fight Daesh,” al-Moallem said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. “The Syrian Arab government is fully capable of fighting Daesh valiantly and we don’t need any other troops.”

Jordan is a member of a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria. The Syrian government describes the airstrike campaign as illegitimate because it has not been coordinated with the Syrian government.

Syrian government forces are fighting Islamic State group militants on the ground but have lost about a third of the country to the extremist group.

Government troops are also battling opposition fighters from an array of rebel groups fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Al-Moallem said Syria offered to coordinate with the Jordanian government in fighting terrorism, but received no response.

He accused Jordan of allowing “terrorists” — a government term for all opposition fighters seeking to topple Assad — to cross into Syria after training them in camps in Jordan overseen by the United States. The CIA has said it is running a rebel training program in Jordan.

Al-Moallem claimed that Jordan, “which fights the Islamic State group along with the international coalition, doesn’t fight” against Syria’s main al-Qaida branch, called the Nusra Front, along its borders.

The Nusra Front is fighting with Syrian rebel groups in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition helping Iraq push back Islamic State group militants is not doing enough to match the scale of the threat, a senior Iraqi official said Monday as he called for increased firepower to defeat the extremists.

Speaking to The Associated Press on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq said the coalition “should be more serious, more effective.”

“I don’t think that the intervention of this coalition is serious enough compared with what we see from the strength of ISIS,” he said, using an alternative name for the group.

Coalition warplanes have been pounding Islamic State group positions in both Iraq and neighboring Syria with airstrikes for months. The United States alone has flown roughly 900 combat missions over Iraq since August. Several coalition countries also have sent military advisers, weapons and other assistance to Iraq.

Al-Mutlaq said more must be done.

“We would welcome any help which does not contradict with the independence of the country, and any help which unites the society and (does) not divide the society in Iraq,” he said.

Asked for specifics on what Iraq needs, he replied: “Airstrikes and weapons. … More advanced than what Daesh has now,” he added, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Shiite powerhouse Iran, which is not part of the U.S.-led coalition, has carried out airstrikes inside Iraq too. It also is providing Iraq with weapons and military advisers, deepening its ties to its neighbor and Shiite militias there.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, like the U.S. and Israel, are wary of Iran’s influence.

Those concerned about Tehran’s role in Iraq “should come and help the Iraqis in order to limit that interference,” al-Mutlaq said.

Al-Mutlaq is one of the most senior figures from Iraq’s Sunni minority in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s Shiite-led government. Al-Abadi last month praised the coalition’s air campaign while complaining that commitments to train and equip Iraqi troops were slow to come, telling AP that “we are in this almost on our own.”