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The US government offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Kyiv — but he declined. “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky said, The Associated Press reported, citing a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation. Zelensky, 44, instead chose to remain in Ukraine’s capital as Russian forces brought the fight to the city streets, where gunfire and explosions were heard overnight Friday into Saturday.

WASHINGTON - Both violent and property crimes declined in 2007 from the previous year, the FBI reported Monday. In preliminary figures for crimes reported to police, the bureau said the number of violent crimes declined by 1.4 percent from 2006, reversing two years of rising violent crime numbers. Violent crime had climbed 1.9 percent in 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2005, alarming federal and local officials. Property crimes were down 2.1 percent last year from the previous year, the largest drop in the last four years. "One preliminary report does not make a trend, but it's going the way we...

Grigory Perelman a no-show for his Fields Medal.Four mathematicians were today due to collect gold medals and glory in Madrid, Spain, having been declared winners of the 2006 Fields Medals — referred to as the 'Nobel prizes' of mathematics. But only three turned up. Grigory Perelman, a reclusive Russian mathematician who was widely expected to be one of this year's winners (see 'Maths 'Nobel' rumoured for Russian recluse'), was indeed honoured at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians. But after a round of applause, president of the International Mathematical Union John Ball said "I regret that Dr...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2006 – The authors of an upcoming U.N.-sponsored report that alleges torture was committed against detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had declined an offer to observe operations at the facility, Defense and State Department officials said. "Any report that they may be writing would certainly suffer from the opportunity that was offered to them to go down there and witness firsthand the operations at Guantanamo," DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon today. U.N. representatives could have visited the U.S. military-run Guantanamo detention facility, but had declined the offer because they wouldn't be allowed...

The Denver woman who reported that a group of men beat her and carved derogatory words in her flesh declined a police request Thursday to take a polygraph test.Police would say that they are actively investigating the incident.April Mora, 17, was unavailable for comment Thursday.

<p>The Bush administration sought the advice of environmental groups in drafting its energy plan, but several declined to participate or suggested that Bush officials check their Web sites for information, just-released documents show.</p> <p>A month and a half before President Bush's energy plan was announced, the Energy Department contacted Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the World Resources Institute, Resources for the Future and four other groups to discuss conservation and energy efficiency.</p>