Ukraine's acting Interior Minister is threatening to resolve "in 48 hours" the situation in eastern regions where administrations of at least two cities are controlled by protesters demanding a nationwide referendum on the state structure. Arsen Avakov told journalists on Wednesday that the coup-imposed government is ready to use force in the mutinous eastern regions. [...]
No legal means exist to challenge mass surveillance, said NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, testifying to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A former NSA contractor, Snowden was speaking to the PACE session in Strasbourg via a video link-up from Moscow. [...]
Russia's barrage of sarcastic comments to the Obama administration, which is seeking to impose sanctions to change Moscow's stance on Ukraine, has been enriched with a piece of advice to relax and look for inner tranquility. The comments came from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who was speaking with Interfax news agency about the worst period of tension between Russia and the US over [...]
Serious issues regarding constitutional law rose to the surface on Friday as a US federal judge dismissed a court case against the US government by families of three Americans killed in US drone strikes in Yemen. [...]
Who would have thought a unitary superpower on Earth would accelerate a return to regionalism in place of globalization? For all those who deem ‘Financial Innovation’ to be an oxymoron, that brilliant invention the credit card springs to mind. [...]
Imperial soldiers cannot be judged. In Italy it's almost impossible. In the last 15 months, the Italian Judiciary have asked to proceed against 113 American soldiers for various crimes, but the Italian minister of justice denied authorization in 91 cases. t works like this: when the US Army wants to judge a soldier in the USA who committed a crime in Italy, they have to ask the relevant Italia [...]
A UN report hammers the United States' human rights record, denouncing vast surveillance, ongoing unaccountability for torture, deadly drone strikes, one of the world's highest death penalty counts, and mass incarceration, among other black marks. [...]
Exactly 15 years ago, on March 24, NATO began its 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. The alliance bypassed the UN under a âhumanitarianâ pretext, launching aggression that claimed hundreds of civilian lives and caused a much larger catastrophe than it averted. [...]
Thousands of people have trekked across Spain to protest austerity they claim is destroying their country. Under the banner of "no more cuts!" the protesters are calling for an end to the Spanish government's "empty promises." Six “columns” of trains, cars and buses, as well as bands of pedestrians have travelled from Extremadura, Andalusia, Valencia, Murcia, Asturias, Galicia and Aragon, [...]
A crucial referendum on either becoming an integral part of Russia or staying within Ukraine on conditions of wide autonomy has kicked off in the Republic of Crimea despite international condemnation and pressure from Kiev. The polling stations of 27 regional Crimea election commissions are going to be open all day long [...]
The self-proclaimed government in Kiev is reportedly planning to cut pensions by 50 percent as part of unprecedented austerity measures to save Ukraine from default. With an "empty treasury", reduction of payments might take place in March. [...]
Thousands gathered in the Russian cities of Novocherkassk, Bryansk, and Belgorod to support the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine. "We don't abandon our people," said banners held by those who sympathized with residents of the crisis-torn country. [...]
An estimated 675,000 Ukrainians left for Russia in January and February, fearing the "revolutionary chaos" brewing in Ukraine, Russia's Federal Border Guard Service said. Officials fear a growing humanitarian crisis. On Sunday, the border guard service said Russian authorities have identified definite signs that a “humanitarian catastrophe” is brewing in Ukraine. [...]
Press freedom in the United States has suffered "one of the most significant declines" in the last year after sacrificing information to national security, with the NSA surveillance scandal topping the list of wrongdoing. That’s according to The World Press Freedom Index for 2014 from Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which put the US in 46th place out of 180 countries, a 13-place drop fr [...]
Despite failing to arrest Tony Blair for "crimes against peace" last Friday, the London barman who attempted the citizen's arrest has been rewarded with a quarter of the bounty for keeping the issue of double standards alive in the media. [...]
One of the former California police officers acquitted this week of beating to death a mentally ill homeless man wants to get his job back on the force. He and his partner were fired amid the investigation back in 2012. [...]
Lawyers from the Justice Department have urged a judge to halt a lawsuit against the NSA's spy programs. This comes after the judge's previous ruling that the NSA's collection of metadata was likely unconstitutional and "almost Orwellian" in nature. [...]
A YouTube video in which NSA boss Keith Alexander tries "to set the record straight" on the agency's spying antics has nosedived. The half-hour interview triggered a wave of criticism from users, branding it the "most hated" video on YouTube. [...]
It is beyond tragic that people resettling near Fukushima have to figure out how bad the contamination there is, with Japan's government allowing it to happen, Kevin Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist from the Beyond Nuclear organization, told RT. [...]
Uruguay has become the first country in the world to legalize both the sale and production of marijuana. President Jose Mujica has championed the measure as a way of combatting the illegal drug industry that has decimated parts of Uruguay. [...]
As the world remembers Nelson Mandela's legacy as South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon, he was also deeply skeptical of American power, the Iraq invasion, and was a key supporter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. [...]
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has said the US and UK must do more to protect internet usersâ privacy as the US has fallen to fourth place in a survey ranking countries in terms of their internet freedom. [...]