Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has promised to use all legal means to fight a "fraudulent" impeachment process, stating that when an elected leader is hunted over accusations of a crime they did not commit the proper term for it would be a "coup."

"I may have made mistakes, but I didn't commit any crime," Rousseff said in front of a group of her supporters near the Planalto presidential palace in capital Brasilia. "It's the most brutal of things that can happen to a human being - to be condemned for a crime you didn't commit. There is no more devastating injustice."

A Reuters/Ipsos poll was released on the evening of Wednesday May 11th and headlined, "Trump draws even with Clinton in national White House poll".

It opened: "Republican Donald Trump pulled even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday, in a dramatic early sign that the Nov. 8 presidential election might be more hotly contested than first thought."

It showed 41% Clinton versus 40% Trump, well within the poll's 3% margin-of-error. This is the first time ever, that their polling has shown the two candidates even nearly close enough to be within the poll's margin-of-error

A Russian Communist Party MP has proposed applying the recently approved state program of free handover of land not only to the Russian Far East, but also to much larger territories in Siberia.

"If the government bill on free land handover has been signed into law, we suggest that it should be expanded to the territory of Siberia already today. These two macro-regions must become pilot grounds and the collected experience could be later used on the whole territory of our country," RIA Novosti quoted Sergey Obukhov as saying Friday.

"One of the possible ways to restart the cultivation on unused lands is to give these lands top citizens who want to work in agriculture. I assure you, we will find enough of them," he added.

According to Obukhov's estimates, the total area of unused agricultural land in Russia currently exceeds 40 million hectares.

Russia is being forced to look for ways to neutralize threats to its national security due to deployment of the NATO anti-missile shield in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the alliance launched a missile defense site in Romania.

The US missile shield in Europe is a clear violation of Russian-American arms treaties, Putin said at a meeting with Russian military officials, adding that the anti-missile facilities can be easily re-purposed for firing short and midrange missiles.

The US anti-missile shield in Europe is yet another step in increasing international tensions and launching a new arms race, he stressed.

However, Putin assured that Moscow has no intention of being dragged into an arms race. The country will be working "carefully" in accordance with existing plans, he added.

"Recent developments indicate that the situation isn't getting better. Unfortunately, it's deteriorating. I'm talking about the launch of the radar station in Romania as one of the elements of the up-and-coming US anti-missile defense program," Putin said.

Russia is making every effort to maintain the strategic balance of power, in order to avoid the outbreak of large-scale conflicts, the president said.

The deployment of a radar system in Romania complicates the international situation around Russia, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with military commanders on Friday.

"The latest developments suggest that the situation is not changing for the better. Unfortunately, it is being aggravated, considering the deployment of a radar station in Romania as an element of the US missile defense shield system," Putin said.

US President Barack Obama is hosting his counterparts from five Nordic nations in Washington. While officials were somewhat vague about the agenda, NATO's build up in Europe and Russia is expected to figure highly.

The leaders of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are visiting the US on Friday for a glamorous state visit and dinner. It will take place in a tent on the South Lawn boasting a transparent ceiling, complete with lighting, flowers and ice sculptures evoking the northern lights.

The feast has a main course of Ahi Tuna, Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, and Chicken and Waffles as an appetizer. A handcrafted fishing boat made of gum paste and chocolate will be the dessert showpiece. Albuquerque singer Demi Lovato will be the night's entertainment.

The White House said Obama and his guests will discuss "a range of issues, including countering terrorism and violent extremism, protecting the environment, coordinating on Arctic issues, promoting the Global Health Security Agenda, advancing sustainable development, enhancing nuclear security, providing humanitarian assistance, and addressing the migration and refugee crisis in a humane and orderly way."

New research indicates that nearly 40 percent of new wastewater injection wells approved over the past year in California are perilously close to fault lines, increasing the risk of man-made earthquakes in the already seismically active Golden State.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) found that 13 out of 33, or 39 percent, of new drill permits for wastewater disposal wells issued by regulators with California's Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) between April 2015 and March 2016 were for drill sites within 5 miles of a fault.

The CBD also found that 26 of the 33 rework permits for wastewater disposal wells granted by DOGGR over that same period were for wells within 5 miles of a fault. Rework permits are required when a company wants to re-drill a well or alter a well casing.

The CBD said it is concerned about these rework permits because alterations to an injection well can signal that a company is resuming wastewater injections, increasing the volume of water injected, or injecting in a different area underground — all actions that raise the specter of induced earthquakes.

A study released in February found that wastewater injections were likely to blame for an earthquake swarm in Kern County, California, one of the biggest oil-producing counties in the United States.

DOGGR is no stranger to controversy, of course, having previously admitted to improperly permitting as many as 2,000 wells to inject fluids from enhanced oil recovery techniques like fracking into underground aquifers that should have been protected under state and federal law.

In a letter, the CBD urged California Governor Jerry Brown to "protect Californians from oil industry-induced earthquakes by ordering your regulators to stop issuing permits for wastewater injection wells within five miles of a fault."

The letter notes that among the 26 rework permits issued was one for a Tejon oilfield well that has already been linked to induced earthquakes. That well was examined in the February study, which identified oil-waste injections as the probable cause of a series of earthquakes in 2005 near Bakersfield, CA, at least one of which was as severe as 4.7 in magnitude. The authors of the study said that "considering the numerous active faults in California, the seismogenic consequences of even a few induced cases can be devastating."

Turkey's increasingly dictatorial president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scored yet another domestic victory Thursday, with the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, his former ally who nominally holds the reins of the country.

Erdogan is now free to push for a change in the constitution that would transfer more power to himself. But this act also highlights his growing political isolation, which many believe will spell the end his career — an outcome of great concern to the US and its European allies.

Western leaders desperately need Turkey to remain stable. As a key NATO ally in a volatile region — NATO's second-largest army, in fact — and the country that is supposed to protect Europe from another flood of refugees, a lot is riding on Turkey's stability. But the oppressed half of the country does not share the same sentiments, and talk of a possible coup against Erdogan is growing louder.

Perhaps the surest sign of trouble for his political future is the sarcasm pouring in on Erdogan from all sides — from the cover of the leading German magazine Der Spiegel to an "Insult Erdogan" contest sponsored by a prominent British magazine to homegrownsocial media.

If anyone wants a short course on what's wrong with US diplomacy look no further than US Ambassador to Hungary Coleen Bell's speech Friday to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament. In typical diplo-speak there was plenty of flowery language about shared values, fish swimming together in the same water (?), sappy poetics like "together, out of that winter, we would force the spring," and talk of together being "part of the world's greatest military and political alliance."

But make no mistake: Inside Ambassador Bell's velvet glove is an iron fist, poised to strike should Washington's annoyingly independent-minded Fidesz-led government step out of line on the big issues. And by "big" issues it should be understood that the US means the issues it considers in the interests of its own foreign policy, not those in Hungary's interest.

Message to Hungary: do as we say or you will be sorry.

Ambassador Bell's previous job was as a television soap opera producer, but raising more than two million dollars for the election of Barack Obama "earned" her the position of top US diplomat in Hungary.

Hillary Clinton wants the American voters to be very afraid of Donald Trump, but there is reason to fear as well what a neoconservative/neoliberal Clinton presidency would mean for the world

For centuries hereditary monarchy was the dominant way to select national leaders, evolving into an intricate system that sustained itself through power and propaganda even as its ideological roots shriveled amid the Age of Reason. Yet, as monarchy became a dead idea, it still killed millions in its death throes.

Today, the dangerous "dead ideas" are neoconservatism and its close ally, neoliberalism. These are concepts that have organized American foreign policy and economics, respectively, over the past several decades - and they have failed miserably, at least from the perspective of average Americans and people of the nations on the receiving end of these ideologies.

Neither approach has benefited mankind; both have led to untold death and destruction; yet the twin "neos" have built such a powerful propaganda and political apparatus, especially in Official Washington, that they will surely continue to wreak havoc for years to come. They are zombie ideas and they kill.

Yet, the Democratic Party is poised to nominate an adherent to both "neos" in the person of Hillary Clinton. Rather than move forward from President Barack Obama's unease with what he calls the Washington "playbook," the Democrats are retreating into its perceived safety.