Terrorism index shows nine-fold increase since 2000. In 2014, the number of lives lost to terrorism around the world increased by 80 percent, the highest level ever. The majority of such terrorist activity occurred in the largest refugee-producing nations, a Global Terrorism Index (GTI) showed. The GTI, developed by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), comprehensively studies the patterns [...]

Turkey has shown its hand by destroying the Russian warplane over Syria and followed through on its previous threats to Russia. We must now regard Turkey as a hostile state that supports terrorism. As has been widely reported, on November 24, Turkey – an EU aspirant NATO member – shot down a Russian warplane on legitimate Syrian duties. [...]

It all started with French President Francois Hollande, after the Paris attacks, having the temerity to advance the idea of France working together with Russia in the same coalition against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip “no excuse” Erdogan thought NATO and Russia by this time would be at each other’s – Cold War 2.0 – nuclear throats, while Washington had bru [...]

As the energies on earth are rising to new heights, their polarities are creating more tension than ever before. Frustration, anger, conflicts and crises are being evoked during today’s Full Moon in Gemini, and it will be wise to practice techniques to stay centered and grounded, and not be pulled into opposition. While these energies may feel unusually intense, they only flow in opposing di [...]

Oakland California is suing Monsanto for contaminating the city’s storm water with toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), threatening the region's ecosystem. “Agrochemical giant Monsanto knowingly contaminated Oakland’s storm water and the San Francisco Bay with a highly toxic chemical for decades, a new lawsuit filed by the California city claims. Oakland wants the company to pay for the [...]

How do you recognize and trust what is Truth? With so much conflicting information available to us on every imaginable topic, how do you discern what is Truth, what is fabricated, or just confused half truths? Here are 5 simple steps to recognizing TRUTH. By Guest Writer Lisa Young 1. Go to the SOURCE. The easiest way is to go to Source. Truth is actually an energy, a formula and a principle of [...]

NATO member state Turkey seems strangely committed to keeping Islamic State going strong in Syria, thus willing to take dangerous risks in confronting Russia in the region. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, a group of experts told RT. “I don’t think the Turkish government would have undertaken such an action against a military superpower like Russia without the consent of the US. It’s [...]

Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 over Syria has prompted geopolitics experts to explore Russia's options for how to respond, and to make predictions on how the incident will affect the political career of President Recep Erdogan. According to Expert.ru analyst Gevorg Mirzayan, things don't look so good [...]

Revoking Enlist Duo approval, agency sides with green groups and pulls brake on 'lethal cocktail of chemicals' Citing "new information" on the herbicide's environmental toxicity, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday announced it will revoke its controversial approval of Dow's Enlist Duo after determining that its combination of chemicals may be significantly more harmful [...]

Doctors Without Borders is challenging the Pentagon over the findings of internal probes into the bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3, saying the military's conclusions offer "more questions than answers" and that claims of "human error" simply don't correspond to the available facts. [...]

RT reporter Roman Kosarev, who was recently caught in shelling in Syria, says the atrocities he has seen at hotspots such as Syria and Eastern Ukraine have at times rendered him speechless, but this is also where unprecedented compassion can be found. We live in scary times. War, death, destruction, tears, hunger, refugees, indifference, carelessness, the glorification of the heinous and vulgar [...]

A Russian Su-24M tactical bomber was brought down over Syria by a Turkish Air Force fighter jet on Tuesday. Moscow and Ankara have put forward conflicting versions of what happened, and the circumstances of the crash remain under investigation. This is what is known so far. “Today at 9:30 the Russian aircraft, which performed combat counterterrorist missions was shot down by an aircraft of th [...]

Germany's foreign ministry said that it considers the blackout of Crimea by extremist groups a criminal act. The blackout in Russia's Crimea peninsula is a criminal act that must be investigated, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday. The Crimean blackout began on Sunday, after Ukrainian extremist groups blew up power line pylons on the Ukrainian side of the border. [...]

Ankara says the Russian Su-24 frontline bomber was downed after it violated Turkish airspace for 17 seconds. Russian military says the jet never entered Turkish territory and the F-16 fighter itself breached Syrian airspace. The Russian Su-24M tactical bomber performing a combat sortie over the territory of Syria in the vicinity of the Turkish border was brought down by a Turkish Air Force figh [...]

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet shows the utter desperation currently sweeping through the regime change camp as Russia closes in on the death squads in Syria. At 9:30am, a Russian SU-24 jet was shot down by a Turkish fighter plane. The pilots were then allegedly killed by Syrian Turkmen anti-government militias, with the body of one being paraded on camera in a video that was immedia [...]

After 14 years, trillions of dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of people dead – with violence expanding, not abating – perhaps it’s finally time to admit that the Bush-Obama “War on Terror” has been lost and that a new strategy addressing root causes is required, as Nat Parry describes. [...]

Turkey appears to have deliberately shot down a Russian warplane as a provocation designed to escalate tensions between NATO and Russia, a ploy that seems to have sucked in President Obama as he tries to look tough against Russia to appease his neocon critics, writes Robert Parry. President Barack Obama – always sensitive to neocon criticism that he’s “weak” – continues to edge the wo [...]

With today's shooting down of a Russian SU24 by Turkey, the war in Syria just took a new twist - and one that sends a powerful message to the UK as it contemplates joining in bombing raids on Islamic State militants. And for those who are hard of hearing, that message is: 'keep well out!' Up until now, the war in Syria has looked complicated. On the one side the Syrian state led by President Basha [...]

Offering a dramatic window into the fractious and complex geopolitics that are now swirling around the war against the Islamic State inside Syria and Iraq, the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey on Tuesday was also followed by the release of footage showing a Russian military helicopter being destroyed by Syrian rebel forces armed with U.S.-supplied anti-tank missiles. [...]