The United States military'€™s top commander said during a security summit this week that the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine has prompted the Pentagon to revisit old contingency plans unused since the days of the Cold War. [...]

A proposed multinational force to further secure the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine will now include over 100 armed Australian police and soldiers. The move comes shortly after 40 unarmed Dutchmen had been deployed to "€œfurther stabilize the area."€ The additional Australian personnel were discussed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott with President Putin, and will join a contingent of 90 A [...]

NSA surveillance controversy centered on U.S. fear that Europe's economic powerhouse will dump the dollar. Financial analyst Jim Willie sensationally claims that Germany is preparing to ditch the unipolar system backed by NATO and the U.S. in favor of joining the BRICS nations, and that this is why the NSA was caught spying on Angela Merkel and other German leaders. [...]

When we spend almost 30 times as much money locking youth up as educating them, how can we say that education matters? I'm tired of talk. Let's educate our kids. We say that education matters, yet California is ranked number 47 among the states in per pupil spending on education. [...]

Austrian officials say they are baffled to explain a UFO sighting in which dozens of people reported seeing between 50 and 100 objects flying in formation. The incident happened over the Aichfeld basin near the city of Knittelfeld in the southern Austrian state of Styria where eyewitness Juergen Trieb, 41, and his girlfriend Waltraud Kaliba, 40, managed to take this snap before the high speed o [...]

Yatseniuk quits as he berates parliament for failing to pass law to increase army financing and regulate country's energy situation. Ukraine's prime minister has resigned after the governing coalition collapsed, in a sign that five months after the Maidan protests led to a change of government, the country's political system is still beset by discord. [...]

With average annual growth rates of 8.5 percent, Panama’s per capita GDP has more than doubled over the past decade. This impressive growth performance has been driven by a steady rise in public and private investment in a stable economic environment buttressed by prudent policies. In its latest assessment of the Panamanian economy, the IMF said Panama’s economy continues to grow strongly, [...]

Entrepreneurism in American has been on the decline for at least 30 years, a new report suggests, and for the first time in three decades the number of business "deaths" in the United States exceeds that of "births." The report, published on Monday this week by economists from the Brookings Institute, examines business dynamism in America — or how the process by which firms are continually bo [...]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its growth expectations for the world's biggest economy to 1.7 percent for the year, after a harsh winter crushed growth in the first quarter. In June, the Washington DC-based institution forecast US growth at 2 percent. The revised forecast is below last year’s 1.9 percent growth rate, and would be the slowest annual rate for the United St [...]

The White House is tracking visitors to its website, despite proudly promising that WhiteHouse.gov complies with federal privacy laws and does not use cookies. The AddThis tracker is present on every page on the site, according to EFF. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) studied the White House site for the new type of online tracking system after a new report by ProPublica found that the [...]

A German astronaut managed to capture the Gaza war zone from space while aboard the International Space Station. He called it his "saddest photo yet." Alexander Gerst, a German flight engineer, geophysicist and volcanologist, spread the news with a short tweet on Wednesday, as the ISS was on a flyby over Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. The image went viral. [...]

Russia has so far been the only nation to release evidence related to the MH17 crash, the Defense Ministry said, urging other countries to follow suit. Though there have been a lot of claims of Russia's involvement, none have been backed by proof. The US claims its intelligence data and satellite imagery confirm that the missile which downed MH17 was fired from rebel-controlled territory. So fa [...]

A never-before-published document released by The Intercept on Wednesday reveals the flexibility with which United States officials may place individuals on watchlists and deem them terrorists without obtaining concrete proof. [...]

An increasing number of businesses are opting out of staying virtually connected and are reverting back to old technologies to avoid being spied on. The move has led to a surge in typewriter sales in Germany. German typewriter makers such as Bandermann and Olympia have cited climbing sales amid NSA spying revelations. [...]

France'€™s foreign minister has accused the UK of double standards following its criticism of the Russian Mistral warship deal. Referring to Russian oligarchs in the UK, he said that Britain must tend to its own backyard before attacking French policies. Following the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine, British Prime Minister David Cameron criticized Paris for its plan to go ahead with [...]

Israel continued to pound Gaza overnight, including hitting 100 targets in Shujai'iya, the scene of the most intense fighting of the conflict, as the Israeli military confirmed that one of its soldiers was missing. Hamas claimed on Sunday that it had captured an Israeli soldier during the intense battle in Shujai'iya. [...]

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls the downing of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine "appalling" in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He also discusses the flare-up in the Middle East and US espionage in Germany. The news that a passenger plane had possibly been shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday reached German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier a [...]

Officials in Berlin were long in denial that their closest allies were spying on Germany. Now, ministries are undertaking measures to improve security and counterintelligence. They're anticipating frosty relations with the US for some time to come. [...]

Moscow will respond to NATO's expansion towards Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin said at the emergency Security Council meeting in Moscow. Here are his key quotes on Russia's defense, Western sanctions, and violence in eastern Ukraine. [...]

The 2014 Global Peace Index, compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, provides a ranking of over 160 countries according to their peacefulness. The index includes 22 country-specific indicators such as dealing with external or internal conflicts, organized crime, refugees, political instability, terrorism, homicides, incarceration levels, police and military personnel levels, and the [...]

Closing arguments ended and a jury began deliberating in former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's defamation lawsuit against the estate of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle. Both men were US Navy SEALs. [...]

Unnamed US officials are telling Associated Press that their intelligence suggests Malaysia plane shot down by separatist, no link to Russia found. Officials believe that the passenger aircraft was intercepted by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile, which was fired by Ukrainian militia members. One official said the likeliest explanation was the aircraft was shot down in error, an assertion that se [...]