An overwhelming majority of Russians named President Vladimir Putin "€˜Man of the Year"when pollsters asked them to choose from among serving Russian politicians. The latest research conducted by an independent Russian pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed that 68 percent of Russian citizens consider Putin worthy of the title. [...]

ISIS’ plans to conquer Europe via Libya have been revealed in letters seen by an anti-terrorism group. Owing to its perfect location on the continental doorstep, the terrorists plan to ferry fighters from North Africa across the Mediterranean. The plans, analyzed by anti-terrorism British think tank Quilliam, outline a strategy to illegally ferry fighters across the sea from Libya into southe [...]

The US has no real plan for tackling the Islamic State in Syria, with airstrikes and arms supplies to the unreliable opposition announced “just to do something,” Matthew Hoh, former US marine and analyst at the Center for International Policy, told RT. Damascus has warned that unauthorized US airstrikes in Syria would be tantamount to an act of war, with Moscow stressing that such action ca [...]

Russia's Space Forces are to modernize and again use an old radar station in Sevastopol, Crimea, part of Russia's missile attack warning system until 2009. The station to be fully operational and providing data to the Russian military in 2016, Space Forces commander Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Golovko announced on Saturday. [...]

Russia is not going to get involved in a new arms race, President Vladimir Putin said as he ordered his government to work out “balanced and realistic” defense strategy for 2016 through 2025. “Someone really wants to unleash a new arms race,” Russia’s president said at a meeting with senior defense industry officials. “We, of course, are not going to be involved in this race.” [...]

The CIA's European Division has halted its operations in Western Europe in response to several spying scandals in Germany and the continent's negative reaction to the revelations of spying by the National Security Agency on European leaders and citizens. The stand-down order has been in effect for two months. [...]

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to scrap the Human Rights Act if the Conservatives are re-elected in Britain's 2015 general election. The controversial proposal has stoked the ire of civil rights groups across the nation. Speaking on the final day of the Conservative Party’s four-day conference, Cameron pledged to do away with the Act and replace it with a British “bill of rights.” [...]

Catalonia's president, Artur Mas, has said he will put his signature on a decree calling for a "consultation" on independence from Spain on November 9, despite Madrid deeming any potential referendum unconstitutional. “I will sign the decree for the consultation in Catalonia, in fact I will call this consultation for November 9 as agreed some months ago with the majority of Catalan political [...]

A German court has rejected a bid by opposition parties to bring ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden to Berlin to testify about the US agency's intelligence activities in Germany before a parliamentary committee. Members of Germany’s Green and left parties petitioned Berlin’s Federal Constitutional Court to grant Snowden temporary entry to Berlin in order to answer questions about the National [...]

A group of high-profile trade unions have backed a growing campaign opposed to a new transatlantic trade deal critics claim will make the privatization of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) irreversible. Three of the UK’s largest unions have tendered motions to the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Liverpool, outlining their opposition to the cross-border agreement currently being negotiated [...]

The families of German citizens killed in the Malaysian plane crash in eastern Ukraine are planning to sue the Ukrainian authorities in the European Court of Human Rights, accusing them of manslaughter by negligence. Ukraine should have closed its airspace if it couldn’t provide for the safety of flights over its territory, Elmar Giemulla, a professor of aviation law representing the three fa [...]

Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko doesn't rule out the country failing to make a $120 million coupon payment on July 24 and default. A Goldman Sachs analyst made the forecast on Wednesday. Ukraine could theoretically default next month, as in May the country’s parliament adopted a law allowing a moratorium on foreign debt repayments. [...]

Foreign Policy magazine – Russia’s fierce critic – met with the leader of Azov Battalion, an irregular force assisting Kiev to cleanse eastern Ukraine of “terrorists.” The group boasts fierce tactics, “values far from European,” and Nazi-like attributes. Azov, which has an estimated personnel of 500 people, is one of about 50 volunteer battalions formed by Maidan activists and ult [...]

When President Putin makes his lightning one-day visit to India, the main thing on his mind will be power. He'll be discussing nuclear cooperation and energy when he meets Prime Minister Modi. “Nuclear energy cooperation is one of the pillars of our strategic partnership. We concluded two inter-governmental agreements in this field in 2008 and in 2010,” Putin said in an interview with India [...]

Kosovo's biggest daily newspaper has published a full-page appeal from Austria not to waste time and money trying to get asylum in the EU. The call comes after a surge in the number of Kosovars smuggling themselves out of the impoverished entity. [...]

Industry illegally injected about 3 billion gallons of fracking wastewater into central California drinking-water and farm-irrigation aquifers, the state found after the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a review of possible contamination. According to documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, the California State Water Resources Board found that at least nine of the 1 [...]

Canberra has authorized deployment of special forces to Iraq to join operation against militants of the Islamic State. From now on, the Australian Air Force craft present in the region will also take part in combat missions against terrorists. It has only ever been a matter of time that Australia’s 600 military personnel and aircraft deployed to a United Arab Emirates airbase in mid-September [...]

The last truck from Russia's second humanitarian aid convoy to the Eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk has returned home after delivering its cargo. All vehicles had reached the Ukrainian-Russian border without incidents and the last of them crossed the border in the direction of Russia at around 6:30 pm local time (2:30 pm GMT). [...]

Thousands of Americans living overseas continue to give up their citizenship as foreign banks turn them away over the burden of completing increasingly expensive and complicated tax returns required by a controversial new tax law. More than 1,500 Americans have renounced their citizenship in so far 2014, the Guardian reports. [...]

The heads of Iran and Russia’s state-run nuclear agencies discussed the construction of new nuclear plants in Iran during a meeting held on Friday around the same time that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, also sat down for a chat about Tehran’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with the West, according to regional reports. [...]

Less than two weeks after the 13th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, three New York firefighters who worked at Ground Zero died of cancer, all on the same day, the Fire Department of New York said. Lt. Howard Bischoff, 58, and firefighters Robert Leaver, 56, and Daniel Heglund, 58, died within hours of one another Monday. [...]

Russia is going to maintain its security "consistently and rigorously," President Vladimir Putin has said. And despite NATO's military buildup close to Russian borders, the national military doctrine will remain solely defensive, he said. The Russian president made the comments in a speech at the Ministry of Defense meeting at the newly established National Defense Control Center in Moscow. [...]