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 [...]

One need do nothing more than take a look around to see that the situation in the world is dire. A dire situation, however, does not mean there is no possibility of change; a dire situation means that the timing is ripe for change. Exactly the transformational change that is the subject for contemplation today. [...]

Seeing their colleagues and patients die was a horrifying shock, according to survivors of the deadly air raid on a hospital in Afghanistan. The tragedy, medical staff said, simply cannot be dismissed as “collateral damage” from a botched airstrike. Recalling the tense minutes of continuous airstrikes which hit the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, NGO staff said that the d [...]

The head of the Chechen Republic has asked the Russian president to send Chechen units to fight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, adding that his fighters have sworn to fight terrorists till the end. “This is not idle talk, I am asking for permission to go there and participate in special operations,” Ramzan Kadyrov said in the Friday interview with the RSN radio. [...]

NATO has started its biggest exercise since 2002 with 36,000 international troops from 30 states, including non-NATO nations, participating in the drills which are taking place at sea, in the air and across the territory of three European states. The alliance has kicked off its massive “Trident Juncture 2015” exercises which will last until November 16. [...]