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Russia's upper house of parliament voted Wednesday to revoke the right of President Vladimir Putin to use Russian troops in Ukraine, as efforts to calm a separatist uprising in Ukraine's east continue. The Federation Council had approved Putin's request for a resolution allowing for the use of force on March 1. But on Tuesday, the President sent a letter to the speaker of the upper house asking it to cancel the resolution. Only one senator voted against revoking the powers Wednesday, with 153 in favor. Putin's request was made in light of ongoing talks on how to settle the crisis...

Many view America's education as a failure, but in at least one important way, it's been a success -- a success in dumbing down the nation so that we fall easy prey to charlatans, hustlers and quacks. You say, "Williams, that's insulting! Explain yourself." OK, let's start with a question or two. Are you for or against global warming, later renamed climate change and more recently renamed climate disruption? Environmentalists have renamed it because they don't want to look silly in the face of cooling temperatures. About 650 million years ago, the Earth was frozen from pole to pole,...

Nine people are feared dead after self-defense forces in the Donetsk region shot down a Ukrainian army helicopter, which was used for transporting military cargo, a Kiev spokesman said. The Mi-8 helicopter was downed “at about 5 pm local time at Karachun Mountain near Slavyansk by a rocket fired from a portable air defense system,” eastern Ukraine military operation spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, wrote on his Facebook page. “There were nine people aboard the helicopter. According to preliminary information, all those aboard died in the crash,” he said, adding that the helicopter was returning to a Ukrainian checkpoint after a cargo...

DETAILS TO FOLLOW Borodai, the "Prime Minister" of the Donetsk Republic went on Television to announce this, which is apparently a result of the first talks between the rebels and Kiev, today in Donetsk.

All the time I was growing up in Atlanta, the face of Robert E. Lee was taking shape on the side of an enormous granite mountain just outside town. He loomed like a god above us, as much a presence as any deity, and God knows he was accepted as such. It was only much later that I began to question his sanctity, and then to hate what he stood for. When I was in elementary school, the face of Lee on Stone Mountain was a rough-cut thing, weathering and wasting as the generation that began it in 1912—a generation...

I want to the start in a different place. The media keeps saying we are a nation that is being torn apart at the seams. In some ways, I agree with them, only because we are not looking for the things that bring us together. The left and right, we can’t agree on anything, right? The only place we can find common ground is in the hatred of one another. That’s the narrative that everybody is giving you. Unfortunately, there is some truth to that, unless we decide to look for more. We have been greatly divided. When the President...

Ukraine faces the threat of Russia cutting off gas supplies when a 06:00 GMT deadline passes on Monday after talks on a long-running gas pricing dispute failed. Russian natural gas producer Gazprom said it was not extending the deadline for Ukraine to start paying off its gas debts after the discussions ended in the early hours of the morning in Kiev, raising the prospect of disruptions to gas flows to the European Union via Ukraine. The breakdown of the talks is likely to increase political tensions that have mounted in the past few days between Kiev and Moscow as Ukrainian...

Anti-Kiev forces took down a Ukrainian military Il-76 jet as it was landing in Lugansk, the country’s Defense Ministry said. It did not provide details on casualties. TSN.ua news website earlier cited an army source as saying that around 30 paratroopers were killed as self-defense forces hit the jet with a rocket early on Saturday. The plane was transporting rotating military personnel and had “troops, machinery, equipment and food,” the ministry said in a statement. The Il-76 is a heavy military transport aircraft that usually has a crew of seven and can transport up to 167 soldiers with weapons. Meanwhile...

Democrats and Republicans are more deeply divided along ideological lines – and partisan rage and antipathy runs much higher than at any time in the past two decades, the report by the Pew Research Center concludes.

Ukraine is believed to be considering shutting down its border with Russia in its eastern region as tensions between the two countries continue unabated. "We have to take all the necessary measures. Of course we are going to close the border immediately. We are now preparing for such a move," Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the interior minister, told the Ukrainian TV Channel Five. Ukrainian authorities have been alleging that pro-Russian separatists and extremists are constantly penetrating the bordering regions to enter Ukraine escalating the conflict. Russian officials have not yet confirmed the claims. When asked if there were plans to...

In 1887, ex-slaves began petitioning the federal government for pensions and compensation for the years they had labored without wages before abolition. When Congress ignored their thousands of petitions, they tried to sue for wage theft but were told they could not. At the very least, the descendants of the tens of thousands of members of the Ex-Slave Pension and Bounty movement – whose membership forms stated the number of years they had been working as slaves, along with the names of their slave owners and the plantations on which they lived – should be eligible for reparations. Other individuals...

The American, Russian and incoming Ukrainian leaders have discussed, in separate meetings in France, a ceasefire and other possible steps to de-escalate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, reports said. Russian President Vladimir Putin held brief one-on-one talks on Friday with his US counterpart Barack Obama and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, in a possible diplomatic breakthrough that played out amid continuing violence in eastern Ukraine. In remarks to reporters, Putin said the meetings with Poroshenko and other Western leaders were positive, and described talks with Obama as "substantial". "I think the exchange of views was very positive," he said after attending the...

U.S. military advisers are heading to Ukraine, the Air Force Times reports. The small team will be there to assess "mid- and long-term needs for defense reform," a Pentagon official tells Chuck Vinch. The White House has slowly been rolling out its assistance to Ukraine since early March, including a $1 billion aid package. Back then, interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with President Obama at the White House and appealed for military aid, including arms, ammunition, and intelligence support.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region forced the surrender of two military bases after heavy fighting -- a border guard base and a National Guard base. The Ukrainian border service announced personnel at its border base had been "redeployed to safer places" after sustained attacks. The National Guard base sustained heavy fire, including assaults by rocket-propelled grenades and machine gun fire, after a demand to surrender was rejected, the National Guard said. Three National Guard soldiers were injured, and all the vehicles on the base were destroyed, as well as the base headquarters.

SLOVIANSK, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. People’s militia in the city of Sloviansk, east Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, have downed a fighter plane Su-25 and a Ukrainian helicopter gunship as well as four armored personnel carriers (APC), Sloviansk People’s Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday. Ukraine's military has amassed armored vehicles and self-propelled mortars and howitzers near the town of Sloviansk, Stella Khorosheva, spokeswoman for the Sloviansk people's mayor, told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

Gennady Zyuganov (head of the Communist Party of Russia)at the meeting with journalists on Monday made several constructive ideas: the introduction of a no-fly zone, border control and cross-border corridors for Russian volunteers, riding on Donbass. "We have a full right member of the security Council to declare a no-fly zone over this territory and to contribute to any military objects, which will appear on this territory, were eliminated," he said. He added that this must be done for the security of the local population. "To watch them from planes shot of the city and civilians, to look at the...

At least five people are reported killed after an explosion in Lugansk administration building. The blast came as Kiev deployed fighter jets to the city in eastern Ukraine. This and heavy gunfire on the ground caused panic among civilians. The death toll was first reported by RIA Novosti; later it was confirmed by local self-defense forces, who said the blast was caused by the army's fighter jets striking the building. “Ukraine’s air force struck Lugansk downtown at 16.00 pm. Military aircraft made a targeted strike, deploying cluster bombs. The administration building is partially destroyed,” the government of the self-proclaimed Lugansk...

Libya seems to be heading towards a major civil war, waiting for its next strong man to put a lid on the chaos and control the various parties. The Libyan government is unable to control its territory. The situation in the country has deteriorated so much that the US suspended training by US special forces after a local militia stole a cache of American-provided weapons. According to a report published in the British newspaper, The Times, on Friday, quoting Olivier Guitta, the director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think-tank, French, American and Algerian special forces are on their way...

World champion in kick-boxing Nikolay Leonov was among supporters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic who died in the fight for the Donetsk airport on 26 May, co-chairman of the People's Front of Donbass Vladimir Rogov told RIA Novosti. Leonov's body was identified on Friday and taken to his native city of Dnepropetrovsk. Nikolay Leonov, aged 31, won the World Cup in full contact karate in Odessa in 2005. In 2007 he became the IAKSA and WTKA world champion in kick-boxing in Marina di Carrara, Italy. He achieved the norm of world-class athlete and worked as a training manager. Leonov...

All of the 80 Ukrainian troops holed up at a Lugansk military base have surrendered to self-defense forces who stormed the military installation hosting the Ukrainian National Guard. The initial assault lasted for 10-15 minutes with almost unceasing gunfire, witnesses say. A video reportedly filmed near the attacked facility has appeared on YouTube. There are conflicting reports on casualties and the outcome of the attack, which took place on the territory of an Air Force academy. Earlier, at least one Ukrainian soldier was reported to be seriously injured.