Lviv / AFP Branches of at least three Russian banks have been attacked during a spate of weekend violence across Ukraine that coincided with the second anniversary of the ouster of Kiev’s Moscow-backed leadership. The latest incidents occurred overnight Sunday in Lviv — a nationalist bastion in the west of the former Soviet republic — where unknown assailants torched the …

London / Bloomberg Irish banks are acting immorally, and ripping off their customers. At least, that’s what politicians are saying before the nation’s Feb. 26 general election. Bankers remain a prime target for politicians, seeking to win over voters still angered by what the IMF described as the world’s costliest banking crisis since the Great Depression. Fianna Fail, once the …

Washington / AP Russia seeks permission to start flying surveillance planes equipped with high-powered digital cameras amid warnings from US intelligence and military officials that such overflights help Moscow collect intelligence on the United States. Russia and the United States are signatories to the Open Skies Treaty, which allows unarmed observation flights over the entire territory of all 34 member …