Turkish officers on the Syrian border have communicated with Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, Turkey's Cumhuriyet daily reported, citing an investigation by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's office which allegedly eavesdropped on their phone calls. [...]

In his seminal 'Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization,' Bryan Ward-Perkins writes, "Romans before the fall were as certain as we are today that their world would continue forever... They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.” [...]

Activists who think that Ukraine’s 2016 budget screams death to the agricultural sector have brought a dead pig in a coffin to the Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev and held a mock funeral ceremony. The angry protesting farmers and their supporters demand to keep a simplified tax system and special VAT rules for the agricultural sector in 2016, something the announced budget lacks as Ukraine ha [...]

The US has ordered 20 additional RD-180 rocket engines from Russia, days after US Congress lifted the ban on the use of Russian engines to get American ships into space. However, the move has been lambasted by some politicians in Washington. [...]

Legal prostitution can lead to unusual laws. Driving instructors in the Netherlands may now legally accept sex as payment for their lessons. “Ride for Ride,” is the name of a newly introduced Dutch law allowing any student over 18 years old learning to drive a car, motorcycle, truck, or bus to offer his or her body in exchange for the accredited lessons, Metro reported Saturday. [...]

Kiev's attempts to avoid paying back its $3 billion debt to Moscow could end in the country defaulting on its foreign debt. Why didn't Kiev's Western benefactors side with Kiev in the IMF decision on the debt? Sputnik takes a look. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund board recognized Kiev's outstanding $3 billion debt to Moscow as sovereign, a status Kiev had fiercely contested. [...]

Nobody needs to read Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski’s 1997 opus to know US foreign policy revolves around one single overarching theme: prevent – by all means necessary – the emergence of a power, or powers, capable of constraining Washington’s unilateral swagger, not only in Eurasia but across the world. The Pentagon carries the same message embedded in newspeak: the Full S [...]

The Most Hypocritical Statement of 2015 awards have lots of strong contenders - but Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has made a dramatic late grasp for glory. He has condemned an attack on Idlib in north-west Syria believed to have been carried out by Russian planes, saying Syrian lands will not be part of "Russian imperialist goals." [...]

The Pentagon deliberately subverted American policy toward Syria, sabotaging US efforts to aid Syrian rebels and even sending US intelligence to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to journalist Seymour Hersh. In a nearly 7,000-word piece in the London Review of Books, Hersh says that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America's top military leaders, decided to deliberately subvert American for [...]

Beijing has said political dialogue is the only solution to the conflict in Ukraine, and not sanctions. On Monday, the European Union announced it was prolonging economic sanctions against Russia for another six months, for what it called Moscow’s noncompliance with the terms of a ceasefire agreed in Minsk, Belarus. [...]

he political standoff between the West and Russia has put many through difficult times. Russia is living through a severe crisis, exacerbated by EU sanctions – but that’s as business in Europe also is in trouble, as the loss of a major partner has dealt a blow to prosperity. Can the European Union afford the confrontation, given the state some of its economies are in, and the dissent that is g [...]

Russia didn’t ditch negotiations with Europe over its free trade agreement with Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. The EU left the negotiations with the words “game over,” which isn’t “very European and intolerant,” according to Putin. [...]

The Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has been indirectly providing Syrian military with intelligence on Islamic extremists fearing the Obama administration’s agenda to oust Bashar Assad will engender total chaos in Syria.   [...]

The Western powers were forced to admit that the Assad government enjoys some popular support in Syria. They had to change their position once Russia moved in militarily and altered the dynamic in Syria, Brian Becker from the anti-war Answer Coalition told RT. [...]

An annotated version of Hitler’s infamous “Mein Kampf,” banned in Germany for decades, will hit the bookshelves in January. Now it will become part of the school curriculum to “immunize” teenagers against fascist ideas, the German Teachers’ Association says. [...]

A newly-leaked report on illegal oil sales by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL), which was ordered to be compiled by Norway, has revealed that most of the IS-smuggled oil has been destined for Turkey, where it is sold off at bargain low prices. [...]

The 2015 installment of Vladimir Putin's now-traditional end-of-year Q&A lacked some of the sparkle of previous years. However, the Russian President captivated his audience for over three hours and addressed a host of serious issues. [...]

Russia’s foreign minister said he believes it will be “possible” to establish a transitional unity government in Syria within six months and hold national elections within 18 months. Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry spoke after the UNSC voted for Syria peace plan. [...]

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is to stand trial in France for negligence over a €400 million payment to a businessman in 2007. At the time she headed the Ministry of Finance. Lagarde has been accused of “negligence by a person in a position of public authority.” [...]

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump responded to Vladimir Putin’s comment, in which the Russian president called Trump “the absolute front-runner,” stating that it was a “great honor” to receive praise from a “highly respected” leader like Putin. “It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond,”Tr [...]

Ukraine has imposed a moratorium on the $3 billion Russian debt repayment, said the country’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk at a cabinet meeting on Friday. The announcement comes ahead of the December 20 deadline for the debt redemption. "Considering that Russia has refused, despite our efforts, to sign an agreement on restructuring and to accept our proposals, the cabinet is imposing a mor [...]

The actions of the US military in Syria are a violation of the latter’s sovereignty and not part of any anti-terrorist action, Syria’s deputy foreign minister says. “We doubt that they [US troops] are sincere in their fight against terrorism. They do not coordinate their actions with the Syrian Army. This makes those forces illegal in Syria’s territory. [...]