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The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) warned Russia is gaining the initiative on the battlefield and that Ukraine “cannot hold the present lines now without the rapid resumption” of U.S. aid, highlighting the dire situation Kyiv is in while Congress debates sending more weapons. The Tuesday ISW analysis said only the U.S. can provide critical air defense munitions and artillery shells for Ukraine that can keep them in the fight. “Lack of air defense has exposed Ukrainian front-line units to Russian aircraft that are now dropping thousands of bombs on Ukrainian defensive positions for the first time in...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed into the same-sex marriage legal battle Friday, filing a motion demanding gays and lesbians be allowed to resume tying the knot immediately. Schwarzenegger's legal bid came as a federal judge who overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage mulled a request by supporters of the ban to bar further homosexual weddings until the appeals process had been exhausted. "The Administration believes the public interest is best served by permitting the Court's judgement to go into effect, thereby restoring the right of same-sex couples to marry in California," Schwarzenegger's motion said. "Doing...

N.Korea Six Party talks unlikely before '07: Russia 1 hour, 29 minutes ago Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said on Tuesday the next meeting of the Six Party talks on North Korea was unlikely to take place before 2007, Interfax news agency reported. Reclusive North Korea has agreed to return to the stalled talks -- also including South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- which it had boycotted for a year. Some had expected the talks to resume in December. "Taking into consideration the coming Christmas holidays, every day the possibility that the talks will restart...

U.S. Nuke Negotiator Has Nothing to Say to N.Korea The U.S. representative in stalled six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Christopher Hill, on Monday reiterated he has no plans for a meeting with his North Korean counterpart, who is attending the same forum in Tokyo. Arriving to take part in the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) meeting, Hill told reporters the aim was not to arrange a bilateral meeting but to persuade North Korea to come back to the six-party negotiations. The assistant secretary of state said discussions with North Korea had already been held in January in Beijing...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2005 – The trial for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein resumed briefly today, but an Iraqi judge granted another delay to give the defense team more time to prepare, an official in Baghdad confirmed today. Saddam and seven other former aides are charged with crimes against humanity associated with a July 8, 1982, massacre in Dujail, Iraq. Acting on Saddam's orders, Iraqi security forces allegedly massacred about 150 villagers in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against the former ruler. The trial initially opened Oct. 19, but the judge granted a defense motion for more time to...

Nasa to resume shuttle missions By Daniel LakBy Daniel Lak BBC correspondent in Miami The US space agency (Nasa) says the first space shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster of 2003 is to be launched next May or early June. All shuttle missions had been suspended pending investigation of the accident, in which seven astronauts died. Improvements have also been made to the orbiter and its fuel tank system. Plans to resume the launches in March were put back after hurricanes hit east Florida, where the Kennedy Space Center is located, in July and August. The Nasa official in charge...

AOPA and IAOPA reiterate opposition to deadly force against civilian aircraft. Aug. 19 — The White House announced today the resumption of the "Airbridge Denial Program" with Colombia, the U.S. drug interdiction program allowing the use of deadly force against civilian aircraft. This is the first of the "Airbridge" programs to resume after the tragic shoot-down of a missionary aircraft in Peru in 2001. While the White House said that Colombia now has "appropriate procedures to protect against loss of innocent life, AOPA and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations reiterated opposition to the use of deadly...