The British Labour Party opposes Israel'€™s offensive in Gaza, party leader Ed Miliband has said. The UK's leader of the opposition , who has Jewish origins, told the Huffington Post that the ground invasion would likely help Hamas recruitment efforts and undermine Israel’s reputation in the international community. [...]

The Israeli military has been accused of using flechette shells during its offensive in Gaza, which can cause widespread harm and death to civilians. The weapons, though legal in Israel and internationally, have been slammed as inhumane by rights groups. The munitions are normally fired by tanks and contain thousands of small darts, which are released when the shell explodes in midair. The flec [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is necessary to call on Kiev to observe the ceasefire, which should last while investigations into the MH17 crash are ongoing. Putin said that Ukrainian troops attacked self-defense units near Donetsk almost at the same time anti-government forces were handing over the black boxes from the MH17 crash to international experts. [...]

A number of major US and European airlines are immediately suspending flights to and from Israel after a rocket attack near Ben-Gurion International Airport. US Airways, Lufthansa and Delta are some of the companies grounding their planes. [...]

France will go ahead with the delivery of the first of two Mistral warships to Russia despite protests by the US and UK, prompted by Moscow's stance in the Ukrainian crisis. The ship is nearly completed and will be presented in October. French President Francois Hollande said the plan to deliver the two Mistral helicopter carriers was made in Paris and will go forward despite calls from the US [...]

Russia has released military monitoring data, which shows Kiev military jets tracking the MH17 plane shortly before the crash - and posed yet another set of questions to Ukraine and the US over the circumstances of the tragedy. [...]

Stalled progress towards EU membership has shifted Turkey's economic interest, and it is now looking for closer cooperation with Russia's Customs Union, Economic Development Minister Aleksey Ulyukayev said. Ulyukayev discussed the plan with Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci at the G20 trade ministers meeting in Sydney, Australia, over the weekend. [...]

The UN Security Council has condemned the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, called for an international probe into the incident in a unanimously adopted resolution. All 15-member states voted to pass the Australia-proposed resolution, condemning “in the strongest terms” the crash of Malaysian plane on July 17 in Donetsk region of Ukraine, which resulted in 298 people dead. [...]

The Ukrainian militia have handed over to Malaysian experts the black boxes from the Malaysian Boeing-777 airliner that crashed in east Ukraine on July 17. The Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) Prime Minister Aleksandr Boroday handed over the black boxes from the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 early on Tuesday. [...]

The duty-free trade deal between Russia and Ukraine is coming to an end. Russia says fundamental changes mean that it will invoke Article 62 of the Vienna Declaration to terminate the understanding. The move comes as Russia insists it needs to protect domestic markets after Ukrainesigned the Association Agreement on June 27, which gives Kiev duty-free trade status with the European Union. [...]

Four Palestinian's have been killed and dozens wounded after an Israeli tank shell hit the third floor of Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, according to a Health Ministry spokesman. Ashraf Al-Qidra said that the third floor housed an intensive care unit and operating theaters. [...]

The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said. [...]

Here's the spin war verdict: the current Malaysian Airlines tragedy "the second in four months" is "terrorism" perpetrated by "pro-Russian separatists" armed by Russia and Putin is the main culprit. End of story. Anyone who believes otherwise, shut up. Why? Because the CIA said so. Because Hillary ‘We came, we saw, he died’ Clinton said so. [...]

Criminal prosecution is likely to be expanded on Americans involved in recruiting and supervising activities of German officials spying for the US intelligence, Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas told Welt am Sonntag. If investigators find a body of evidence that alleged double agents in Germany’s federal intelligence service and Defense Ministry have been spying to the benefit of American in [...]

Referring to the tragic downing of a Malaysian Airlines plane over eastern Ukraine, former Texas congressman Ron Paul warned against jumping to conclusions over the culprits. Drawing parallels between the potential for a Russian-made missile system’s connection to the attack of the passenger jet on Thursday over the restive Donetsk region of Ukraine and the capture of US-made weapons by Islamist [...]

More than 5,000 Iraqis have died in the violence in the country so far this year, a large proportion of them women and children suffering gruesome deaths at the hands of ISIS extremists and over-zealous security forces, says a detailed new UN report. [...]

Russia urges an impartial and open investigation into the Malaysian Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine and an international commission to be set up. Addressing the UN, Russia's envoy Churkin said a probe into Ukraine's aviation authorities is also necessary. [...]

Some Western states and Kiev rushed to find Russian involvement in the MH17 crash having no evidence to back their claims, Russia's Deputy Defense Minister told RT. He invited Ukraine to answer 10 questions to prove their commitment to an impartial probe. Speaking to RT, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has criticized Western countries for jumping to conclusions just “24 hours [...]

The Russian Defense Ministry has said that neither the Buk missile defense system, nor any other military equipment, has crossed the Russian border into Ukraine. Such border crossings “can’t be performed in secrecy,” the official representative for the Russian Defense Ministry told the journalists in Moscow. [...]

Revelations of the National Security Agency's global spy program, together with civil strife in Ukraine has severely damaged Barack Obama's popularity among Brazilians, Germans and Russians, a major US polling agency reported. Thanks to a series of global scandals, the United States in general, and its commander-in-chief in particular, [...]

The Association of European Businesses (AEB), a Moscow-based business lobby, said that new US sanctions against Russia have a more severe effect on European than on American business. The AEB says it “regrets” the US sanctions, and warns that they will stunt economic growth “not only in Russia”. [...]

On Thursday, when a Malaysian Airlines plane was apparently shot down over Ukraine, a Ukrainian Buk anti-aircraft missile battery was operational in the region, the Russian Defense Ministry said, contradicting Kiev's statements. The battery was deployed at a site from which it could have fired a missile at the airliner, the ministry said in a statement. It said radiation from the battery’s radar [...]