Ukrainian parliament-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his resignation on Thursday.

"In connection with the breakup of the parliamentary coalition, as well as non-adoption of a number of important bills, I announce my resignation," Yatsenyuk said from the Verkhovna Rada's rostrum.

"What happened today in parliament will have very complicated, if not dramatic, consequences for the country," he said. "It is good if I am mistaken."

Rada speaker Alexander Turchinov told deputies to start consultations on the appointment of a technical prime minister.

If the standoff with Russia and the West reaches a point where the EU has to completely cut trade with Russia, oil prices could soar above $200 per barrel, sparking a global economic crisis, says Adam Slater, senior economist at Oxford Economics.

Cutting off trade with Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, would create a shortage in global energy supplies, which would have spillover effects into Europe, Slater told the Guardian.

"In such a scenario, world oil prices could soar above $200 per barrel and gas prices would also rise steeply," Slater told the Guardian.

If Russian energy is banned from Western markets, Slater estimates that Russia would lose 80 percent of its energy exports. OPEC producing countries would fill in the market gap. Major economic downturns are associated with high energy prices.


"Stage three" sanctions- similar to those Iran experienced during the last decade- would bar the West from all Russia-related business, including exports.

The EU buys 84 percent of Russian oil exports, and 76 percent of natural gas exports. About a quarter of European countries completely rely on Russia for gas or oil supplies.

As of yet, Russia hasn't halted European gas supplied through politically unstable Ukraine, but this event itself could trigger "stage three", or trade-specific sanctions.

"These would further damage Russia's economy. Russia's next moves remain uncertain but an escalation of the conflict is still a significant risk which would have potentially negative global spillovers in particular via the impact on global energy markets," Slater said.

The EU hopes that Ukraine and Russia will settle their gas row by autumn.

The puzzle that still surrounds the shooting down of flight MH17 has unleashed a new wave of accusations against Russia.

Sanctions against Russia have been driven by the US, but Europe has been more reluctant to follow suit, since its economy is still fragile, and disruption with a close trading partner could further destabilize recovery. Russia is the EU's third largest trading partner, and the largest economies, Germany, France, and Italy have some of the strongest ties.

The US just implemented a new round of sanctions, targeting Russia's energy, finance, and defense sectors. On Thursday, the EU will broaden its industry-specific sanctions on Russia, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday.

The US sanctions block certain Russian companies from long-term dollar loans.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that Poland violated an international treaty to protect human rights by hosting secret CIA prisons on its territory.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled that Poland had contravened articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that cover torture, the right to liberty, and the right to an effective remedy for victims of crime.

The case was filed by two men, Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah, and Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who charge they were taken to a secret CIA black site in a Polish forest and subjected to treatment which amounted to torture. The men said at a hearing in December they had been brought to Poland in December 2002 with the knowledge of the Polish authorities. Both are now detainees at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

The US government accused Zubaydah of running a terror training camp Afghanistan which was attended by some of the September 11 hijackers. Al-Nashiri, originally from Yemen, was accused of directing an attack on the US. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000 that killed 17 sailors.

The United States is reportedly preparing to send a team of military advisers into Ukraine to assist with revamping forces there in the midst of the ongoing crisis between government-loyal troops and an anti-Kiev militia.

On Tuesday this week, the Washington Times reported that a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense confirmed plans to put Pentagon advisers in Ukraine.

"Within the next few weeks, a group of Defense Department representatives who specialize in strategy and policy will head to Kiev to evaluate specific programs that the United States may want to help bolster," reporter Maggie Ybarra wrote for the Times.

The newspaper says that Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, told the Times that the objective of sending DoD advisers overseas is to "shape and establish an enduring program for future US efforts to support the Ukrainian military through subject-matter expert teams and long-term advisers."

The gloves came off between CNN's Chris Cuomo and Russia Today's Peter Lavelle on Wednesday in a lengthy segment over the handling of the investigation and crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

In a nearly 10-minute back and forth, the two hosts fought - and traded insults - over whether the U.S. has provided intelligence to support suspicions of Russia's involvement. Afterward, Cuomo apologized to viewers and said the segment "became a little bit too heated."

Cuomo opened the exchange by asking Lavelle why Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't condemned the handling of the Flight 17 crash site.

"Vladimir Putin doesn't control a crime scene in a foreign country. I think it's quite ludicrous for you to ask that question," Lavelle responded, adding that Putin has called for a complete investigation.

The Russia Today host instead pointed a finger at the State Department, which he said was relying on Twitter and YouTube for evidence.

"Maybe you haven't been following it, but the U.S. has actually [come] out with its own intelligence" connecting Russia to possibly assisting the separatists, Cuomo said.

"What forensic evidence are you referring to? Twitter?" Lavelle replied.

The EU Council did not agree to new Russian sanctions on Tuesday. However, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said an extended 'black list' will be published on Thursday. It will include the energy, and defense sectors, and financial markets.

At the moment there is not a complete list of Russian companies or people that will fall under the new EU sanctions, Ashton said.

Last week, before Malaysia flight MH17 crashed, Europe declined to follow the US move and expand sanctions. Prior to the crash, media reported the EU planned to stop Russian loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Suspending lending from these institutions would cut off substantial funding from Russia, as it's the biggest recipients of the London-based EBRD. Last year Moscow received $2.5 billion (1.8 billion euro) in investments from the EBRD and $1.4 billion (1 billion euro) from the EIB.

Russia used the money to finance a variety of projects: from pipeline valves, property purchases, and a loan to a hypermarket chain. There are two Russian projects currently awaiting funding from the EBRD, one a 300 million euro plan to promote energy efficiency, and the other a $180 million loan to lease agricultural and forestry equipment.

The EBRD invests about 9 billion euro annually across Europe, Central Asia and North Africa, and is more than 50 percent owned by the G7 nations. The US has a 10 percent stake in the institution, and Russia has 4.05 percent. The bank has a total of 64 shareholders.

The second round of EU sanctions targeted specific individuals and companies, a follow up to the first round of asset and travel bans.

Before any investigation into the MH17 crash even started, Western politicians and the media were quick to pin the blame for the tragedy on Russia. The parts of the story that do not support the theory seem to have been simply disregarded.

A UN Security Council resolution, unanimously adopted on Monday, urges a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the MH17 crash.

But for some it's already clear who is to blame.

"...this is a direct result of Russia destabilizing a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias and training and arming them," British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote.

"What's happening is really grotesque and it is contrary to everything President Putin and Russia said they would do," US Secretary of State John Kerry said on NBC television.

"Russian-controlled territory, Russian-backed rebels, quite likely a Russian-supplied weapon - Russia can't wash its hands of this," Australian PM Tony Abbott believes.

Western mass media, so sure of the Kremlin's hand in whatever bad things happen in Ukraine, has lately switched from calling anti-government forces in the east of the country pro-Russian to plainly Russian separatists.

Finally! The Russian military has decided to speak out about some of what it knows about what happened to MH17. It was a typical Russian event: the interpreters were nothing short of *terrible* (I speak as a former military interpreter myself), the visual aids were badly designed (the shape of a SU-24 bomber was used to represent a totally different SU-25 close air support aircraft), and there was no Q&A. See for yourself:

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither "concrete facts" nor "irrefutable evidence" to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.

The "March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance," a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government's secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place "entire categories" of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to "nominate" people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as "fragmentary information." It also allows for dead people to be watchlisted.

Over the years, the Obama and Bush Administrations have fiercely resisted disclosing the criteria for placing names on the databases - though the guidelines are officially labeled as unclassified. In May, Attorney General Eric Holder even invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent watchlisting guidelines from being disclosed in litigation launched by an American who was on the no fly list. In an affidavit, Holder called them a "clear roadmap" to the government's terrorist-tracking apparatus, adding: "The Watchlisting Guidance, although unclassified, contains national security information that, if disclosed ... could cause significant harm to national security."

The massive investment in neuroscience undertaken by the U.S. BRAIN project and its sister initiative the Human Brain Project is increasingly taking a turn toward the examination of mental health. In fact, hundreds of European scientists working on the project are threatening a boycott because of this direction.

In their view, the initial directive was to be more focused on repairing organic injuries and disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and physical brain damage sustained in accidents. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder would be one area that might involve the military.

However, there is a disturbing trend developing in law enforcement and medicine to use what has been learned about the human brain in order to adopt pre-crime systems and predictive behavior technology.

But could a brain scan become standard procedure to see which troops might be inclined to commit insider attacks?

Troops overseas have been working alongside Iraqi and Afghan troops for years, but a new interest is being taken in evaluating potential extremists who are infiltrating to kill from within.