No doubt 2013 will go down as Barack Obama'€™s annus horribilis. The President of the United States (POTUS) currently faces a 55 percent disapproval rating on "€œthe way he is handling his job,"€ according to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll. [...]

Russia does not seek the role of a regional or global hegemony, but will defend its core values and interests, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. All attempts to impose on other nations have failed, he added. [...]

Joining an old European geopolitical and ideological project would have been catastrophic for the Ukrainian economy, political expert John Laughland told RT, noting that it was actually the EU, not Russia, blackmailing Ukraine into signing a suicide note. The European foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says Ukraine's U-turn is indeed a major disappointment. [...]

The P5+1 world powers and Iran have struck a historic deal on Tehran’s nuclear program at talks in Geneva on Sunday. Ministers overcame the last remaining hurdles to reach agreement, despite strong pressure from Israel and lobby groups. [...]

Debates about mass surveillance and calls for "€œreforms to politics, supervision and laws"€ mean leaks about US secret service were justified, a former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden wrote in his "€œManifesto for the Truth." In his opinion piece, published in German Der Spiegel news magazine on Sunday, Snowden writes that his revelations have in fact been useful and society will benefit fr [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ranked the most powerful person in the world by Forbes. He topped the list of the 72 world figures that "€œmatter the most,"€ while US President Barack Obama was rated second. Putin’s Syria “chess match” that prevented the US strike, and his having the last word in the diplomatic row over the fugitive NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, didn’t [...]

The father of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has arrived in Moscow. Lon Snowden's flight touched down at Sheremetyevo Airport - where his son famously spent five weeks in transit limbo before receiving asylum in Russia. The plane carrying Lon Snowden landed in Moscow Thursday morning, RT crew on the scene reported. [...]

Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA surveillance programs prove that the US has abandoned the rule of law, betraying its own constitution, whistleblower Thomas Andrews Drake, told RT. A group of US whistleblowers and activists has present Snowden with a Sam Adams Award for ‘Integrity in Intelligence’ in Moscow on Wednesday. [...]

Improved surveillance, take down of opposition websites for "€œillegal content€" and paid pro-government commentators are among the increasingly sophisticated tools used by authorities to restrict internet freedom, a new report claims. The 2013 Freedom on the Net report, compiled by non-profit Freedom House, says that 34 out of the 60 countries it surveyed suffered a falloff in internet freedom [...]

Despite a string of ‘unbelievable’ hurdles, a diving operation to lift the biggest-yet discovered fragment of the famous Russian meteorite stuck in a mud lakebed has entered the final phase. RT is scheduled to show live the recovery of the 50cm by 90cm space rock weighing an estimated 600kg, which plunged into the depths of Lake Chebarkul in February. [...]

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution outlining the details of taking under international control and ultimately destroying Syria’s chemical arsenal. "Today's historic resolution is the first hopeful news on Syria in a long time," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote. [...]

Eleven people who were aboard Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise will spend two months in pre-trial detention, a Murmansk court ruled. The ship's crew faces charges of piracy for boarding an Arctic oil rig. In addition, five activists are to be held for three days ahead of a new hearing. The 30 defendants in the dock include four Russians and foreigners from 19 countries, including the US and [...]