The launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos mission to the Red Planet serves partly as a response to the "stupid political" anti-Russian sanctions, according to Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos. In an interview with Sputnik, Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, described the launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos miss [...]

An Islamic State fighter from the US was arrested in Iraq after emerging from territory controlled by the militant group in Syria, a local commander told Kurdish media. The man reportedly mistook the area for the Turkish border. A local commander told Kurdish news outlet Rudaw that the arrested man was 27-year-old Muhammad Jamal Amin, a Virginia-born US citizen of a Palestinian father and an Ir [...]

A group of Communist Party lawmakers is seeking to impose sanctions on US officials involved in the kidnapping and jailing of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, proposing Hillary Clinton as the first candidate for the blacklist. In their letter, quoted by popular daily Izvestia on Monday, the MPs reminded that at the moment of Yaroshenko’s kidnapping, Hillary Clinton occupied the post of US [...]

Following her party's success in the German regional elections, the chairwoman of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party told RT that the results were “even better” than anticipated, and that AfD is needed in the country. Official election results proved significant success for AfD, which received enough votes to get into three state legislatures. [...]

The US Justice Department cautioned local courts that it is unconstitutional to jail someone for not paying fines without determining whether they are able to pay, and warned against using court fees to generate revenue for cities. The warnings came as part of an effort to reform court practices that “perpetuate poverty and result in unnecessary deprivations of liberty,” the Justice Depar [...]

Stability used to define Germany's political system. But the refugee crisis has fundamentally changed the country's party landscape. The rise of the fringe has eroded the traditional centers of power. Seven or eight months ago, Germany was a different country than it is today. [...]

With her refugee policies, Chancellor Merkel has isolated Germany to a greater degree than any of her predecessors. The Balkan Route has been closed down against her will and many EU leaders believe her overtures to Turkey are delusional. There were times when interactions between the German [...]

Western media is ignoring what is really going on on the ground in Syria, presenting its own, largely distorted narrative, Canadian freelance journalist and rights activist Eva Bartlett notes. What lies beneath the attempts to hide the truth? For years US policy-makers have been repeating the mantra "Assad must go," turning a deaf ear to warnings that once Bashar al-Assad is toppled, [...]

An explosion that hit the center of Ankara on Sunday killed at least 27 people, 75 injured. An explosion at a bus stop in Ankara caused at least 27 people killed and multiple wounded, according to reports. Some 27 people were killed and 75 injured in an explosion that struck the Turkish capital on Sunday evening, the office of the mayor of Ankara confirmed. [...]

NATO Supreme Allied Commander Philip Breedlove recently took US hawks' campaign of Russia-baiting up a notch, suggesting Russia and Syria have 'deliberately weaponized' refugees to 'break European resolve'. The remarks, and the mainstream media's ability to convey them with a straight face, are an indication of a broken system, experts suggest. [...]

The economic survival of Ukraine depends not on Western bailouts but on the resumption of Russian investments. Until that happens, no one can predict a bright future for Ukraine, an American political analyst wrote. "In January Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, congratulated the country on surviving its first winter without buying Russian gas. [...]

A new study from CardHub.com says credit card debt in the US has jumped by about $71 billion to $917.7 billion in 2015. The average American household with credit card debt now owes $7,879, which is the highest figure since the 2008 financial crisis. [...]

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suffered an interesting memory lapse when slating her opponent’s track record on healthcare reform at a political event Saturday. Speaking at a rally in St. Louis, Missouri, Clinton was addressing the issue of “standing up” against “powerful forces” to reform US healthcare when she questioned Sanders’ past efforts in this area. [...]

A four-year-old Asian boy who mispronounced “cucumber” as “cooker bomb” was recommended for a de-radicalisation programme by staff at a UK nursery, the boy’s family has said. According to the child’s mother, who has not been named, workers at the [...]

A nuclear power propulsion system could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just over a month, a huge step forward from the current 18 months required. Russia might test a nuclear engine as early as 2018, the head of the Rosatom nuclear corporation revealed. Another advantage of a nuclear engine is that it enables a spacecraft to maneuver throughout the flight, whereas existing technology only makes [...]

Hundreds of tractors disrupted traffic in the Finnish capital on Friday, when thousands of farmers arrived in Helsinki to protest the catastrophic situation in the agricultural sector and ongoing sanctions against Russia. [...]

Now that Trump is under attack from a fair part of the Republican establishment, it is worth remembering that much of Trump’s noxious shtick is consistent with the longstanding GOP playbook. What are we to make of the arch-authoritarian, white-nationalist Donald Trump phenomenon? [...]

A nuclear engine currently being developed in Russia by the nuclear agency Rosatom and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will allow a spaceship to reach Mars in an unprecedentedly short period of just 1.5 months, Rosatom’s General Director Sergei Kirienko said Wednesday. [...]

The European Union is no longer able to tackle the economic and migrant crisis gripping the 28-nation bloc and is closer to collapse than it has ever been before, Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote citing the European Central Bank’s former economist Jürgen Stark. “The risk of collapse is at its highest now… [...]