Your morning five: Ukraine’s eastern flank endures limbo

We tell you five things you need to know this morning.

1. Ukraine’s eastern flank endures limbo. Protesters remain dissatisfied with Kyiv leadership and refuse to vacate dozens of occupied administrative buildings. Americans blame Russia for the protesters’ obstinacy and want the Kremlin to encourage the occupiers to lay down their arms. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who first denied and then admitted that Russians infiltrated Crimea, still denies Russians are directly involved in Ukraine’s east—outright denying the existence of a long-serving Russian operative that Kyiv officials say they’ve spotted among Slovyansk and Kramatorsk occupiers.

2. A South Sudan rebel leader denied leading a massacre. Riek Machar denies United Nations claims that South Sudanese rebels are behind more than 200 deaths in Bentiu. President Salva Kiir booted Machar from the country’s vice-presidency last June, and since December, the two leaders have split the country along ethnic lines. Th UN condemned “targeted killings of civilians based on their ethnic origins and nationality” and blamed the rebels, which recently gained control of Bentiu, for shooting up the town—including the inside of a mosque.

3. Canadians claim foreign workers stole their jobs. Sandy Nelson and Shauna Jennison-Yung are the latest longtime restaurant employees to claim their boss kicked them to the curb and, in their place, hired cheaper temporary foreign work. George Siourounis, the boss, defended his hiring practices at Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza in Weyburn, Sask., and told The Globe and Mail there are “always two sides to the story.” The anti-TFW chorus only grows louder, and most political leaders jump to the defence of born and bred Canadians.

4. A Canadian-based firm could own Botox. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, the massive Montreal-based drug company, is joining aggressive American investor Bill Ackman—the overhauler of Canadian Pacific, among other firms—to bid on Allergan Inc., the company that infamously produces Botox. The price tag could rise as high as $40 billion, including $15 billion in cash. Barclays and Royal Bank of Canada would finance the deal.

5. Siale Angilau was killed in a Salt Lake City courtroom. The 25-year-old defendant in a trial involving 29 counts of gang-related assault, conspiracy and weapons felonies, among other charges, allegedly attempted an attack on a witness who’d taken the stand. A U.S. Marshal shot Angilau repeatedly, and the defendant later died in hospital.