An artillery shell from Ukraine has hit a private house in the Rostov region of Russia, killing a citizen and leaving two more injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry promises heavy consequences. Reportedly up to six mortar shells exploded on Sunday in the small Russian town of Donetsk, which has the same name as the Ukrainian city and is situated right on the Ukrainian border. [...]

The White House were given the heads up that UK authorities were to force The Guardian newspaper to destroy hard drives containing top secret NSA documents. Emails obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indicate that US intelligence officers including NSA chief Keith Alexander were notified about Britain’s intent to retrieve the classified papers. [...]

One hundred French celebrities have launched a campaign against the upcoming TAFTA deal between the US and Europe. The protesters say the new treaty will lower economic standards and bring a large influx of GMO products from the US. The petition dubbed: “Everyone against TAFTA” started on June 10 and has gathered over 5,500 signatures so far. [...]

John Emerson never stops smiling. On the evening of Friday, July 4 -- Independence Day -- the United States ambassador shook hands on the red carpet at a reception given by his embassy at Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport, which has since been transformed into a park. Emerson greeted his guests with a diplomat's practiced joviality. He faced an endless line of businesspeople, German government off [...]

In what amounts to a diplomatic earthquake, Berlin has asked the country's top CIA official to leave Germany. The measures comes in response to the second allegation in a week of a German government employee spying for the US. [...]

German authorities have carried out a raid on the residence of a defense ministry official suspected of passing secrets to the US, just one week after the arrest of a German intelligence officer who worked as a double agent. Officials from the Federal Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday that residential and office premises of the staff of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin were searched on [...]

Ukraine's gas bill has risen another $838 million, after Kiev failed to make a payment for 1.7 billion cubic meters of Russian gas supplied in the first half of June. “The deadline for paying June bills expired yesterday; we again didn’t receive the money from Naftogaz Ukraine. As a result Ukraine’s debt to Gazprom for the 1.7 billion cubic meters supplied from June 1 through June 16 rose to [...]

Two American officials have acknowledged that the Central Intelligence Agency played a part in the espionage operation involving a German man who was recently arrested for allegedly spying on behalf of the United States. In a report published on Monday, two unidentified government officials told Reuters of the CIA’s involvement in the operation [...]

Germany may scrap its decades-old policy of not spying on key NATO allies in response to the latest spy scandal, which exposed a German intelligence officer as a double-agent leaking secret documents to the US. After the defeat of Nazis in World War II, the new authorities of West Germany adopted a policy of turning a blind eye to the intelligence activities of some of the victors, [...]

A Russian MP claims the US kidnapped his son from the Maldives on bogus cyber-fraud charges and may be preparing to offer him as bait in a swap deal for Edward Snowden. Roman Seleznyov, 30, was arrested at Male international airport as he was about to board a flight to Moscow. [...]

There is neither real criticism from German politicians, nor any visible efforts to return German gold held in the US, so it seems that US controls Germany, economic analyst Michael Mross told RT. In one of its recent reports Bloomberg claimed that Germany decided not to repatriate its gold reserves from the US, instead the Bundesbank issued an official statement that underscores it’s "trust" in [...]

Giles Parkinson: As early as 2018, solar could be economically viable to power big cities. By 2040 over half of all electricity may be generated in the same place it's used. Centralised, coal-fired power is over. Last week, for the first time in memory, the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland fell into negative territory – in the middle of the day. [...]

A video filmed at Barcelona airport shows two planes almost crashing on the runway. An Airbus 340 is shown crossing the runway at El Prat Airport in Spain as a flight from Moscow is coming in to land. Seeing the Airbus in its path, the pilot of the Boeing 767 from Russia aborts the landing. The plane then lands safely on the runway shortly afterwards [...]

Western support will allow more IMF and European lending to prop the Ukrainian currency so the Ukrainian oligarchs can move their money safely to British and US banks, economist and author Michael Hudson told RT's Truthseeker. The basic principle to bear in mind is that finance today is war by non-military means. [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said allegations of a German working as a double agent for the US intelligence are "serious" and if proven correct contradict the spirit of bilateral cooperation. Merkel on Monday joined in a chorus of German politicians voicing their concern over the arrest of a German intelligence employee for allegedly spying for the US. [...]

Star Wars tested for Eastern Europe; US space weapons “unofficial declaration of war”; “soft assassinations” planned for last weekend's EU election winners. Seek truth from facts with Gladio, NATO's Dagger at the Heart of Europe author and former European MP Richard Cottrell; Stop NATO newslist's Rick Rozoff; and Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space [...]

Amid growing Palestine-Israeli tensions, 12 more EU states have joined European heavyweights - such as the UK, Germany and France - in urging their nationals to refrain from doing business in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The group of those who issued warnings for their citizens on includes: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malt [...]

Case risks further straining ties with Washington in wake of last year's revelations of NSA's monitoring of Angela Merkel's phone. The German government has demanded an explanation from Washington over the US intelligence services' apparent contact with a German man arrested last week on suspicion of being a double agent, the interior minister said in a newspaper interview. [...]

Kiev's artillery attacked the city of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, witnesses and militia of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Lugansk (LNR) said. Ukrainian forces also attacked the city's suburbs from the air. [...]

The arrest of a German intelligence employee for allegedly spying for the US has caused an uproar among German politicians. The country’s foreign minister has demanded an immediate clarification of the situation from Washington. "If the reports are true, then we're not talking about trifles," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on a visit to Mongolia, DPA reports. [...]

The US has condemned the beating and detention of a 15-year-old Palestinian-American by Israeli police after a massive social media campaign exploded in cyber space decrying the actions and hypocrisy of Israeli authorities. [...]

The euro crisis may have eased recently, but companies and countries in the common currency zone still aren't investing enough to fuel growth. The best solution, a Berlin economics institute argues, is to establish an EU-wide investment fund. Among economists, Marcel Fratzscher is considered to be particularly creative. [...]