A federal judge ruled that the General Services Administration (GSA) wrongly infringed on the First Amendment rights of Occupy Eugene protesters by severely restricting the hours and days they were allowed to demonstrate. The group, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, sued the GSA for denying a permit so its members could protest in a public plaza in Eugene, Oregon in 2012. [...]

The Ukrainian parliament is to debate a law on amnesty for Ukrainian troops who have committed war crimes in the course of military actions in Eastern Ukraine. Earlier, an Amnesty International report confirmed the facts of large-scale crimes. A bill on amnesty for military personnel who committed war crimes during the military crackdown in Eastern Ukraine was introduced in the Rada (the Ukrain [...]

An Amnesty International report has confirmed that war crimes including abductions, executions and extortion were committed by the Ukrainian Aidar battalion in Lugansk region, eastern Ukraine, an official from Russia's Foreign Ministry says. “The report confirms large-scale crimes, including war [crimes] made routinely and under the aegis of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, by the leaders [...]

Arms firms that provide core military components for drones deployed by the US to conduct covert strikes in violation of international law allegedly bought access to NATO's summit in Wales last week, a British human rights charity says. The defense companies concerned doled out up to £300,000 to ‘exhibit’ their military wares at the conference in Newport. Among the firms present were Gener [...]

The United States will soon release a long-awaited report detailing the findings of a Senate investigation into the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques, and sources now say those tactics far exceeded what the world was led to believe. According to an article published on Sunday by the UK’s Telegraph, the American intelligence officers tasked with interrogating alleged Al-Qaeda memb [...]

The latest opinion poll put the pro-independence movement in the lead for the first time, with 51 percent voicing their support just 11 days before the referendum on the issue. Prime Minister Cameron and Queen Elizabeth II expressed their concern. The poll was conducted by YouGov and The Sunday Times. The two-point lead has a margin of error, but the chances of a vote in favor have significantl [...]

Foreign Policy magazine – Russia’s fierce critic – met with the leader of Azov Battalion, an irregular force assisting Kiev to cleanse eastern Ukraine of “terrorists.” The group boasts fierce tactics, “values far from European,” and Nazi-like attributes. Azov, which has an estimated personnel of 500 people, is one of about 50 volunteer battalions formed by Maidan activists and ult [...]

We are at the beginning of an epoch where at some point in the future there could be an open war between the advanced powers, and there is not much faith in the ceasefire in Ukraine, Samir Dathi, National Officer of the Stop the War Coalition, told RT. Ukraine's President is confident about a ceasefire - do you think he's right to be? [...]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced ceasefires before and was always the first to violate them, Spanish volunteer Ramiro Gomez, who fought in eastern Ukraine against the troops of the coup-imposed Kiev government, told RT. According to the European volunteer, this ceasefire is in effect a part of Poroshenko’s strategy: “to reorganize the [Ukrainian] army which is already a la [...]

Camp XRAYFew realize how expensive it is to keep Guantanamo Bay prison operational. The Joint Task Force (JTF) detention center, which opened in 2002, costs US taxpayers $140 million a year, breaking down to about $800,000 per detainee. The JTF was never meant to be permanent, yet twelve long years after the first round of prisoners arrived, 149 prisoners remain detained there indefinitely. [...]

Nearly 500 protesters were arrested in three dozen US cities on Thursday as fast-food workers and supporters staged sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience nationwide to call attention to their low wages and lack of union representation. Organizers of the strike said that, all told, actions at fast-food restaurants occurred at about 150 cities nationwide, from Manhattan’s Times Square to Littl [...]

The removal of Kiev's coup-imposed authorities from power is the only way to restore peace and stability in Ukraine, opposition leader and ex-presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev told RT. Tsarev has blamed Igor Kolomoisky, the Kiev-appointed Dnepropetrovsk region governor and oligarch, for making “quite a large” contribution to the current violence in Ukraine. [...]

2014 has been the year of “Russian invasions”. But the farcical politicking and media charade surrounding Ukraine’s upheaval reminds us of the tale of Texas, and independent thinking too. Washington and Kiev would have us believe Russia invaded Poroshenko’s Ukraine. But Ukraine's Texicans* in the east have another story to tell. [...]

As long as Kiev continues to claim that everything that happens in Ukraine is Russia`s fault there is no serious prospect of there being any peace at all, John Laughland from the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris told RT. On September 3 Russian President Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had a phone conversation concerning possible steps aimed at resolving the U [...]

Last week, a US military lawyer on the defense team for self-proclaimed 9/11-attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed resigned from the Army in protest of the "show trial" conducted by the US at Guantanamo Bay. Maj. Jason Wright resigned on Aug. 26, according to NPR. He accused the US government of “abhorrent leadership” on human rights and due process at the military detention center at G [...]

Four subcontractors, working to decommission the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, are suing the Tokyo Electric Power Company, in the first-ever such case, saying they were never compensated for working in the radioactive area. According to Japanese media, the lawsuit is demanding the utility company pay a total of ¥91.4 million ($868,000) in “dangerous-work” benefits. [...]

Human Rights Watch has condemned the illegality of Ukrainian actions in east Ukraine, ascribing direct blame to Kiev for the rising death toll in the Lugansk Region, which by local estimates has reached 300 since May. The organization visited the city on August 20-22, performing a survey of the situation and carrying out interviews with locals who in one way or another were affected by the heav [...]

Fukushima's governor has officially agreed to allow the country's authorities to store radioactive waste for 30 years in two municipalities in exchange for 300 billion yen ($2.89 billion) in subsidies. “It’s a difficult decision, but I want to accept the construction plan,” Governor Yuhei Sato told journalists on Saturday. [...]

The United States is one of only three countries in the world that does not offer a monetary supplement to new mothers on maternity leave from their jobs, according to a United Nations study. The report, prepared by the UN’s International Labor Organization, found that the only two other nations that do not provide cash benefits during maternity leave are the absolute Persian Gulf monarchy Om [...]