The Ukrainian parliament has approved laws on special status for the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, as well as amnesty for those participating in the hostilities.

The special status law has received 277 'yes' votes from a total of 450 MPs, while the amnesty law was approved by 287 parliamentary members. The session of the Verkhovna Rada is underway during which MPs are to ratify an agreement with the EU.

The law on the special status of Lugansk and Donetsk Regions guarantees the right to use and study Russian or any other language in Ukraine.

It also states that local elections are to take place in the regions on December 7.


The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, earlier welcomed the law on special status for Ukraine's eastern regions proposed by President Poroshenko.

On 11 September 2014, on a 'historic' thirteenth anniversary of the terror attack proclaimed by suicide bombers aimed at the buildings of the World Trade Centre, an urgent meeting was called in Jeddah calling for the ministers of foreign affairs of six countries - members of the Gulf Co-Operation Council, as well as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and the USA. The issues of counter-action to the Middle East terror organisations were discussed there; and first of all, the activities of the ISIS terror organisation.

The USA, as the true champion of this event, although it was officially summoned by Riyadh, hastened to announce its success and creation of the international coalition to fight the 'absolute evil', as ISIS is now called. Indeed, the participants of the meeting, apart from the foreign minister of Turkey - M. Chavushoglu - unanimously signed the document stating the goals of the coalition, as dictated by the USA (in fact they were false, as we will show later), fighting with ISIS and also with the methods proposed by Washington; bombarding the militants' positions from the air, both on the territory of Iraq and Syria, providing military assistance to Kurds and Iraqi government, as well as offering humanitarian aid to those who found themselves on the territories occupied by the militants. In general, several measures were taken which would reduce the influx of militants into the zones seized by them.

Washington is pleased not only with the creation of the above-mentioned coalition with the active support on part of Riyadh, but also with the received freedom of actions. The USA were able not only to escape the immediate participation in destroying of ISIS by their own ground forces (i.e. formally to observe Obama's declarations that he will not involve America into the Middle East conflicts), but also to receive the silent support of the regional states regarding the fact that the actions undertaken by this created coalition will take place virtually beyond the framework of the United Nations Charter, bypassing its requirements to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the independent states, and first of all Syria. The repetition of 2003 scenario is evident.

John Kerry rebuffed the criticism on part of Russia, regarding such intents by issuing a statement that Moscow itself allegedly violates the international law in Ukraine and that is why its criticism of the American activities is 'ridiculous', and it cannot demand respect for the United Nations regulations in the Middle East from the USA. They have a poor excuse - they are going to violate the rules because others do it. In other words, the USA, whilst nodding at others (without any evidence), will further destroy the system of international law, as they were doing successfully during the last decades, especially after the collapse of the bipolar system of international relations.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? He/she is the leader of the majority party. He/she and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

Just 545 Americans have fouled up this great nation.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

Russia and China are moving closer together as Moscow becomes more and more disenchanted with the West. Can these two countries successfully challenge western hegemony? Can the bear and dragon reshape the world? CrossTalking with Martin Hennecke and Pepe Escobar.

In a press conference in 1965, France President Charles de Gaulle warned about the central problem still facing the world 50 years later: the U.S. dollar being accepted as the world currency in international trade.

This was evidently and continues to be a great advantage for the U.S. Anyone can imagine he would be the richest man in town, if he would print money at home and the whole town would accept it as their money.

As Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild said:

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes its laws."

The U.S. got the power to issue the currency that has been accepted as real money all over the world since the Bretton Woods treaty in 1945.

When it was signed the U.S. dollar was backed by gold - any country or individual could convert it into gold.

This was of course just a TRICK... if all those holding dollars would demand it to be converted into gold, the U.S. Federal Reserve couldn't do it, nor could the U.S. government.

Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan has questioned Washington's sincerity about launching a military coalition against the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group, saying such a coalition is only meant to deceive world's public opinion.

In an interview with Trend news agency on Tuesday, Mohsen Pak-Ayeen said this so-called coalition is supposed to be fighting a phenomenon, which has been created as well as financially and militarily supported by the United States.

He added that the world public opinion will not forget the number of occasions when the US Congress endorsed financial support for ISIL militants and other Takfiri groups.

President Barack Obama, under pressure from some lawmakers to provide more help to foreign-backed militants operating inside Syria, asked the US Congress in late June to approve $500 million to train and equip the militants.

The European Union does not recognize elections in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday.

"In view of reports about local elections having taken place in Crimea and Sevastopol, we recall that the European Union recognizes neither the legal framework nor the legitimacy of these elections," Ashton said in a statement.

"The European Union continues to condemn the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and will not recognize it," she added.

The elections to the State Council, the peninsula's new legislature, were held on September 14. These were the first elections in Crimea since it became part of Russia in March .

More than 96% of the Crimean residents voted for the reunification with Russia during a referendum held on March 16.

Russia is now threatening NATO allies in the Baltics. If Moscow tries another invasion of commandos and spies, the alliance is prepared to act, NATO's top general said.

On Monday, NATO Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove had a not-so-subtle message for Russia: it will consider stealth and unofficial invasions to be a trigger for war.

Europe knows these stealth invasions all too well. Russia first sent teams of special operations forces wearing uniforms without insignia in February into Crimea and then later into eastern Ukraine to work with Russian minorities inside the country to begin an insurrection. Ukraine's military has been fighting these "little green men" ever since. But until recently, Russia has not even acknowledged sending anyone into the country.


Breedlove, speaking at the Atlantic Council on Monday, said if the Kremlin tried that in one of the NATO allies that border Russia - like the former Soviet republics in the Batlics, for example - it would risk triggering Article Five of NATO's charter which is the section that calls on the alliance to come to the defense of a member state being attacked.

Russian officials fear regional war may turn into a world war.
A joke making the rounds among Russian officials and hacks who take a keen interest in what is going on in the Middle East these days goes something like this: How will the Yanks deal with the Islamic State group? They will create "Islamic State 2", a bigger and better armed group, and let it deal with the original Islamic State group. And what happens when "Islamic State 2" turns against them as it happened with the original Islamic State? They will create "Islamic State 3", and so on.

But seriously, the rise and spread of the Islamic State group is no laughing matter. Now that the US and its allies have finally woken up to the dangers of the spread of the extremist group, the worry in Moscow is that the hotheads in the Pentagon and at Nato headquarters in Brussels will decide to start hitting Islamic State positions in Syria along with "other targets" there as well - for instance, Syrian army positions.

US President Barack Obama has already announced his plan to deal with the group, promising to lead a "broad coalition" that will "roll back this terrorist threat". In Moscow, the fear is that the US will seize this opportunity to intervene in Syria.

Activists from Japanese island hope growing anger over a controversial US military base will boost support

Campaigners from Okinawa will arrive in Scotland on Monday to seek inspiration from the Yes campaign as they look to boost support for making the southern Japanese island an independent nation.

While Okinawa's movement is tiny compared with its counterpart in Scotland, activists say they stand to benefit from mounting public anger over Tokyo's plans to push through the construction of a controversial US military base in defiance of local opposition.

"We're really interested in seeing how the rest of the UK and the international community react if Scotland does vote for independence," said Masaki Tomochi, a professor of economics at Okinawa International University and a leading figure in the independence movement.

"Scotland has every right to be independent and to take decisions about its own future. That's what people all over the world want, including the people of Okinawa."

Tomochi and his colleagues, along with a reporter from the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, will tour Scotland meeting voters, academics and Scottish National party officials. Their group has posted a condensed Japanese version of the SNP's Scotland's Future manifesto on its website.

The history of Okinawa, Tomochi argues, is one of bloody sacrifice at mainland Japan's behest, and collusion between Tokyo and Washington, beginning with a secret postwar agreement to allow the US to bring nuclear weapons to the island and maintain military bases there indefinitely.

The 2012 deployment of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft on the island, and the relocation of a military base have added to popular resentment towards Tokyo.

"The only way we can fix this is to declare our independence from Japan and go back to the way we were before Japan used force to take the islands," he said.