Vladimir Putin’s remark about “taking Kiev in two weeks” was taken out of context and its meaning was distorted, Moscow said, adding that it’s ready to publish the president’s conversation with the European Commission head. Moscow may reveal the full recording of the controversial phone call if European Commission president, Jose Manual Barroso, doesn’t object in the next two days, [...]

A favorite tactic to get Americans and Europeans ready for another war is to liken some foreign “enemy” to Hitler, no matter how ill-fitting or absurd the comparison. But once the Hitler slur is slung all rational debate ends, as Danny Schechter explains. The ISIS gang makes great enemies. They dress in black, wear Halloween masks, wave flags, act viciously, and cut off the heads of journal [...]

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo recently co-wrote “No Rights that a White Man is Bound to Respect” for Black Agenda Report. She will be speaking at a rally outside the Justice Department Wednesday afternoon “to call on the Attorney General to help secure justice for Michael Brown and the people of Ferguson, Missouri, as well as an overhaul of U.S. law enforcement tactics in order to stop police bruta [...]

The British government will press other European nations at a meeting in Brussels on Saturday to block Russia from using the SWIFT banking network, Bloomberg reported, in what could be a dramatic expansion of sanctions. The British government will press other European nations at a meeting in Brussels on Saturday to block Russia from using the SWIFT banking network, Bloomberg reported, in what c [...]

Switching over to EU trade standards will cost Ukraine €165 billion over the next 10 years, Russian President Putin warned at a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko in Minsk on Tuesday. Moscow has long warned Kiev that signing the Association Agreement (AA) with the EU would be economic suicide, whereas Moscow is also poised to suffer a €2 billion blow, according to Putin. [...]

The Russian president is starting his visit to Tajikistan to take part in a major SCO summit, discussing ways to boost cooperation and also the political bloc's policies regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization unites Russia, China and ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are Russia’s allies in trade, poli [...]

Exclusive: More than seven weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 people, a preliminary report failed to address the mystery of who shot the plane down. The Dutch investigators didn’t even try to sort through conflicting allegations and evidence, writes Robert Parry. Beyond confirming that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 apparently was shot down on July 17, [...]

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said the state-owned oil giant Rosneft could receive more than $40 billion in financial aid from the Russian government. The country’s largest crude producer may receive up to $40.6 billion (1.5 trillion rubles) in assistance from Russia’s National Welfare Fund. [...]

Scores of casualties were reported as eastern Ukrainian militias were allegedly closing in on Mariupol port hours before a ceasefire pledged by President Poroshenko was announced. Authorities say they repelled the attacks and the city is calm. The fighting near Mariupol has cost the cost the lives of seven civilians, including two children, during the two days, Konstantin Batozsky, adviser to t [...]

One of the more intriguing and appealing features of Catholicism is confession. This basically means that, in the eyes of Rome, any error or crime, no matter how profound, can be exorcised once a believer receives absolution from a priest. The media has something similar, except it’s known as ‘mea culpa’ culture. Essentially, it allows them to print and broadcast any amount of utter codsw [...]

The UK will contribute 1,000 personnel to a new multi-national rapid reaction force, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. He suggested the NATO "multinational spearhead force" could be deployed anywhere in two to five days. The British prime minister announced the force, to be based in Eastern Europe, will be launched in response to alleged Russian military involvement in Ukraine and instabil [...]

The ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and self-defense forces is "still shaky, but holds," the OSCE stated. The fighters are still skeptical of the peace process, but they are hoping for the war to end. “People who have never seen this think war is like TV. You watch and forget because there’s some entertainment show later. Here, everything is reality. Here, people are dying in front of [...]

Europe saw one of the largest demonstrations in recent years: at least 1.8 million people formed an 11km red-yellow line to show their support for the upcoming independence referendum. A mosaic was made in the form of a 'V' for 'vote'. At least 1.8 million Catalans, dressed in red and yellow, the colors of the Catalan flag, gathered on Gran Via and Avenida Diagonal, two of the main streets in B [...]

The American fast-food giant witnessed a sharp decline in global profits in August, hit by the closure of its restaurants across Russia and a "rotten meat" scandal in China. McDonald’s earnings slid with stores open at least 13 months taking a worse-than-expected hit in August, falling 3.7 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based hamburger chain said in astatementon Wednesday. This is the bigge [...]

Russia has been put into an impossible situation, meaning they are responsible not only for what has been done in Lugansk and Donetsk, but also for what has been done on the side of Kiev, political analyst Alexander Pavic told RT. Apparently, the truce in Ukraine is not enough for the EU to hold back on yet more sanctions. [...]

The self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have come up with their own proposals to stabilize situation in south-eastern Ukraine, which include temporary ceasefire, 50km demilitarized zone, flight bans for Kiev and OSCE monitoring. The first and foremost step should be the announcement of a temporary ceasefire by both Ukrainian military and the self-defense forces starting fr [...]

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht wants to see oil and natural gas exports from the US to Europe included in the forthcoming transatlantic trade deal which will create the world's largest free trade zone. Europe wants US oil and gas to help offset its dependence on Russian energy. About 30 percent of Europe’s total gas requirement comes from Russia, approximately half of that is vulnerable [...]

The OSCE was told there was no Russian presence spotted across the Ukraine border, refuting Thursday's claims that a full-scale invasion was underway. Both the Ukrainian monitoring team head and Russia's representative have given a frim 'no.' The chorus of allegations about Russia's military invasion of Ukraine had President Poroshenko calling for an emergency meeting of the country’s securit [...]

In an August 29 editorial calling for the US and NATO to adopt a retaliatory policy against Russia over its alleged “large and unacceptable escalation of … aggression against Ukraine,” the New York Times asserts in passing that after rebels in eastern Ukraine “shot down a Malaysian jetliner with a Russian missile … Russia’s involvement became more overt.” [...]

After admitting last week that "we do not have a strategy yet" for dealing with the Islamist militants in Syria who have beheaded two Americans, Barack Obama has struck a more confident note on a trip to Europe this week. The American president used a visit to Estonia on Wednesday to declare that the "defence of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defence of Berlin and Pari [...]

Printable solar panels are going to be available to us very soon and could power "entire skyscrapers," Australian researchers say. The very near future will see personal electronic charging transformed, but the potential is growing quickly. A team of 50 scientists in various fields worked for years to develop paper-thin, printable solar panels as part of the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consort [...]

The European Commission has suspended its aid to European farmers hit by the Russian import ban. The amount of submitted claims for some products is several times higher than EU’s annual trade with Russia, with some sources blaming Poland for the exaggerations. [...]