The failed $500 million program to set up a proxy army in Syria was a test, US President Barack Obama told ’60 Minutes’, adding that he had doubts about the project from the start. He also ruled out sending US troops to Syria. “I've been skeptical from the get-go about the notion that we were going to effectively create this proxy army inside of Syria,” Obama said in the interview. [...]

Falling commodity prices have sowed the seeds of destruction for 2,600 employees of agricultural giant Monsanto. The world’s top seed supplier is cutting 12 percent of its workforce to save money in the face of profit losses. Monsanto Co.’s job cuts will coincide with a reorganization of its research and development activities. [...]

The US Department of Defense will work on compensating the families of the victims killed in a deadly American airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The strike “mistakenly” killed 22 [...]

Using ground troops in Syria is out of the question, the Russian president said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV. Russia’s air operation has been thoroughly prepared and is aimed merely at aiding the Syrian Army’s offensive, he said. “Whatever happens, we’re not going to do this [ground operation] and our Syrian friends are well aware of it,” President Vladimir Putin said in an inter [...]

Russia, Ukraine, and the crisis in Crimea, plus criticizing Vladimir Putin on RT is discussed with Breaking the Set host, Abby Martin. The new cold war, and need to use diplomacy to prevent World War III is looked at with Martin in this Buzzsaw interview hosted by Sean Stone. GUEST BIO: When Abby Martin began streaming her thoughts and emotions through a paint brush at 19, she discovered h [...]

Tells Erdogan to “Go to Hell”; Threatens “Big Stalingrad” for Turkish and Saudi-Backed Fighters in Syria; Russia Will Work with Iran and China to Save Syria from Hypocrite Dictator Erdogan; Moscow Concern Reflects Cold Coup by US ISIS Czar Allen to Push Terrorist Forces East Towards Iran and Russia; Americans Must Demand #FireAllen4ISIS Now! Webster Tarpley is an American [...]

Defeating ISIS should be the first priority for everyone and only once it’s solidly accomplished, should work on a more representative Syrian government begin, says Lawrence Wilkerson, retired US Army Colonel, ex-chief of staff to Secretary Colin Powell. What do you think about the western media’s reaction to Russian airstrikes in Syria? Would Russia’s involvement, as western media claims [...]

An Indian maid is in serious condition as a result of her Saudi employer allegedly chopping off her hand after she reportedly told officials about physical and mental harassment and torture she was subjected to at work. Kasthury (Kasturi) Munirathnam, (aged 50-58) from Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, left for Saudi Arabia in July this year to work as a housemaid. [...]

Western media reports of Russian missiles hitting Iran are “blatant lies” and part of a campaign of psychological warfare, a top Iranian military commander said. CNN claimed four Russian cruise missiles fell in Iran instead of continuing toward Syria. “We have no reports of any Russian missiles crashing in Iran,” Gen. Musa Kamali told Russian news agency Sputnik. “All those media repo [...]

Russian air forces carried out 67 sorties, striking 60 separate targets in northern Syria in the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry has reported. Two senior Islamic State field commanders are reportedly among some 300 militants killed in the strikes. “Among the targets are the communication hubs, command posts, fuel stores and terrorist training bases located located in Raqqa, Latakia, Idlip [...]

The Obama administration is set to overhaul the Defense Department's $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, according to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. The US president is expected to speak on the matter later on Friday. Carter said during a Friday news conference in London that Washington has been "looking for several weeks at ways to improve" the program. [...]

The defense funding bill for 2016 includes some lavish support to rebels in Syria and lethal aid to the current Ukrainian government. Although President Barack Obama is at loggerheads with lawmakers over some of the provisions, they are likely to remain. Obama has threatened to veto the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act – also known as House Resolution 1735, or the NDAA – [...]

Three Dutch media companies have filed a joint lawsuit against the country’s Security and Justice Ministry, demanding that it disclose more documents relating to the MH17 catastrophe investigation after the ministry’s refusal to release the information. The Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation (NOS); the Dutch subsidiary of the European TV, radio and production company RTL Group; and the Dut [...]

In between Russia's military intervention in Syria and Iran's challenging of Saudi Arabia's hegemonic power in the Middle East, the region is witnessing unprecedented political frictions. Those growing pains will ultimately see manifest a new order - which one remains to be determined.   [...]

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is calling for an independent investigation into the deadly US airstrike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz to determine whether the attack can be regarded as a war crime. According to Doctors without Borders, such an investigation should gather evidence from the US, NATO and Afghanistan, as well as testimonies of the Kunduz hospital staff and patients. [...]

The whole point of Islamic State’s tactic of hiding in mosques and using human shields is to try to make Russia look bad hoping the military would make an error, says Doctor Max Abrahms of Northeastern University in Boston. John Wight, a writer and political analyst, shared his opinion on what the Western media hopes to achieve by further speculation on the campaign. [...]

Anti-TTIP activists have submitted a 3 million-signature petition to the European Commission in London and Brussels in a bid to halt secret trade negotiations between the EU, US and Canada. The petition, believed to be one of the largest ever compiled, calls for an immediate end to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. [...]

Four Russian Navy warships have fired a total of 26 missiles at the position of the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced. The missiles were fired from the Caspian Sea. The missiles flew some 1,500 km before reaching their targets, probing their efficiency. [...]

The United States has been involved in and assisted "regime change" without the overt use of the United States military. Often, such operations are tasked to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Regime change has been attempted through direct involvement of US operatives, the funding and training of insurgency groups within these countries, anti-regime propaganda campaigns, coups d'état, and [...]

An estimated 3,000 Islamic State fighters as well as militants from other extremist groups have fled Syria for Jordan fearing a renewed offensive by the Syrian army in addition to Russian airstrikes, a military official has told RIA news agency. “At least 3,000 militants from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), al-Nusra and Jaish al-Yarmouk have fled to Jordan. [...]

Russia is ready for contact with the Free Syrian Army, but it is now a 'phantom,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said at a news conference following talks with his Laos counterpart in Moscow. "They tell us about the Free Syrian Army, but where is it?  It remains a phantom group, nothing is known about it," Lavrov said, adding that Russia has sent a request about the group to the Un [...]

As if to underscore Russia’s decision to initiate airstrikes against Islamic State on the territory of Syria as Western forces don’t appear up to the task, NATO jets unleashed a deadly barrage on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan. No sooner had Vladimir Putin wrapped up his speech at the United Nations, where he roundly criticized the manner in which US-led forces hav [...]