Moscow has voiced concerns over the landing of 150 US soldiers in Rumeilan, northeastern Syria, without the consent of the Syrian government, calling it a "violation of the country's sovereignty."

"Speaking from the position of the Foreign Ministry, we can't help but be concerned about the fact that such actions are being carried out by the US without the consent of the legitimate government of the Syrian Arab Republic," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS.

"It is a violation of sovereignty," he said. "I emphasize that a similar political assessment has already been given by official Damascus, and we express our full solidarity with it," the Russian diplomat said.

He added that "contacts between Russia-US defense ministries are taking place on a daily basis."

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister said the issues are being discussed by "professionals who are well versed in the situation, its dynamics, and in the existing threats and challenges, which can be tackled by the corresponding contingents."

A bid to assassinate the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, allegedly plotted by Kiev has been foiled by the DPR's security forces.

On Friday, Zakharchenko's press service confirmed the reports of an assassination attempt, promising to reveal further details later. A source in DPR's State Security Ministry said its "operatives... on Thursday detained a group of Ukrainian citizens, who had arrived from territories controlled by Kiev." "The individuals had in their possession a powerful explosive disguised as an interior design item," the source said.

The would-be assassins had previously studied Zakharchenko's daily routes to locate the best spot for the attack, according to the source. The attempt on the DPR prime minister's life had been planned to be carried out at a small arms training center in Donetsk, he added.

Zakharchenko said the assassination attempt on him was prepared by the Ukrainian Security Service. "They [the assailants] were Ukraine security operatives," he said, as cited by the Donetsk news agency. All suspects have been arrested and are currently being interrogated, the source said.

The German Bundeswehr is planning to deploy its soldiers in Lithuania as part of NATO's mission aimed at "containing" possible Russian aggression, German media reported.

According to German magazine Der Spiegel, the German military will be deployed in Lithuania after the next NATO summit in Warsaw in July.

During the meeting, NATO countries plan to make a decision on strengthening the eastern flank of the alliance. The mission involves deployment of a permanent NATO contingent in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania. Each country is expected to host a battalion of up to 1,000 soldiers.

"Ahead of the meeting in Hanover, Obama had signaled that he, particularly, expects military contributions from Germany and the UK," the magazine wrote.

A Russian Air Force MiG-31 jet intercepted a US spy plane near Kamchatka in Russia's Far East last week, flying within 15 meters of the aircraft. Washington downplayed the incident, saying it was carried out in a "safe and professional" manner.

The MiG-31 (NATO code name Foxhound) is a Soviet-design supersonic interceptor, the world's fastest aircraft in service today. It got to within 15 meters of a US surveillance plane, which was flying in international airspace near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

"On April 21, a US Navy P-8 Maritime Patrol reconnaissance aircraft flying a routine mission in international airspace was intercepted by a MiG-31 Russian jet in the vicinity of the Kamchatka Peninsula," Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the Pacific Command, told the Washington Free Beacon.

However, rather than kicking up a fuss, Benham added that the maneuver was carried out in a "safe and professional" manner.

A full 27 years after the event, the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster concluded that 96 Liverpool Football Club supporters, crushed to death on April 15, 1989, were unlawfully killed.

The verdict in the longest jury case in British legal history vindicates the extraordinary campaign by the families, friends and supporters of those killed, injured and traumatized.

In the teeth of a state-organised cover-up, they vowed to bring those responsible for the deaths of their loved ones to justice. Their fight to reveal the truth in the face of a catalogue of lies concocted by the police, the Conservative government and the right-wing media is a testament to the principles of class solidarity and struggle against enormous odds. So determined were the families to get justice that some of them refused to accept a death certificate for their loved ones, after the original 1991 inquest recorded a verdict of "accidental death" for all 96.

Those killed were attending a match at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough football ground. Men, women and children were crushed to death after David Duckenfield, the police officer in command, gave the order to open Exit Gate C at 2.52 pm, just before the 3 pm kickoff. Hundreds of fans were directed into two already dangerously overcrowded "pens." Many died in these pens, while others passed away after escaping onto the pitch. The youngest victim was just 10 years old and the oldest, 67. Thirty-seven were teenagers, most still at school. The victims included three pairs of brothers, two sisters and one father and son.

The verdict triggered an outburst of pent-up emotion. Relatives and supporters, many in tears, applauded the jury as it exited. Outside court they cheered. One of the Hillsborough campaigners, Trevor Hicks, who lost two daughters, Sarah and Vicki, responded, "I think if anyone is a winner today, it's society at large in that, no matter who you are, how big you are, or where you are in your organisation, the public will come after you if you do anything wrong."

Margaret Aspinall, who lost her 18-year-old son James, said, "Let's be honest about this—people were against us. We had the media against us, as well as the establishment. Everything was against us."

Anonymous, the mostly toothless hackster activists, do put out good videos. (There's something to be said for a bark, even when there is little bite.) Though not one of their snazzier productions, here is a fact-packed 25-minute rundown on Hillary's loooooong and horrific record of crimes, corruption, and abuses of power. With time to do little more than list the sordid scandals, the video does not even get around to mentioning her leading role in international war crimes, from Libya to Honduras, that have left countless thousands of innocents dead (and the Clintons rich). These are crimes in which the full US administration and both political "parties" are fully complicit. (And the US taxpayer, in very concrete ways, "responsible.")

About the author

Steven Wolf is an Ottoman urban historian. He writes geopolitical commentary about ongoing events in Turkey and Syria, his areas of historical specialization, at CaravansarayPosts.com.

This morning, the security forces of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) apprehended a vehicle loaded with a large amount of Israeli-manufactured weapons in Syria's southern As Swaida'a governorate.

According to military sources, the vehicle was heading towards the western countryside of As Swaida'a. However, it failed to reach its destination due to a SAA ambush which was enabled through intel of local residents.

Israeli settlers reportedly backed by security forces have stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for the fourth time since the beginning of the Passover week. They shouted racist slogans and attempted to conduct religious rituals forbidden at the site.

A new string of clashes erupted at the Al-Aqsa mosque, a major holy site for Muslims and Jews, on Wednesday as far-right Israeli settlers under heavy protection from police broke into the mosque, local media reported. Two groups of around 50 men were said to have shouted racist and provocative slogans and attempted to pray although it is forbidden for Jewish people to do so at the site.

A number of Israelis and Palestinians were detained for violating the site's regulations since the first day of Passover. The clashes were first reported on Friday when Israeli settlers stormed the mosque and took a baby goat to the site to carry out a sacrificial ritual. Police managed to prevent the procedure by arresting at least seven people.

The best way to raise funds for a media project in Ukraine? Go full-bore anti-Russia to easily woo North American and European governments to give you money.

Kiev-based Hromadske.TV is the symbol of the info wars between Moscow and the Western world, a war that the West claims it is losing to the big guns in Moscow. So worried are the Europeans, Canadians and Americans that the Russians are beating them at their own game - the sexy world of news and entertainment — that they're funding the company.

According to their financial report for the year ending 2015, they have nearly a dozen foreign backers. Some long term, some more fly-by-night.

Who are they? They are the Canada International Development Agency (CIDA); the Embassy of The Netherlands in Ukraine; another Canadian charity called the Ukrainian World Foundation; independent DC-based Pact World; the U.S. Embassy of Ukraine's Media Development Fund; California based Internews Network; Swiss Cooperation Office and the Swiss International Development Agency; eBay EBAY -0.69% founder Pierre Omidyar's fund is one of the four biggest donors; the Swedish International Liberal Center; Thomson Foundation; the German Embassy of Ukraine and the biggest funder of all, the European Commission's Ukrainian delegation office.

Tanzania could serve as a springboard for Russia's expansion into the vast East African market, the Russian industry and trade minister said Thursday.

Mansurov said Russian manufacturing giants - Russian Helicopters, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and United Wagon Company (UWC) - were eager to work on industrial projects in Tanzania.

"Tanzania, with a population of over 40 million, is a sizable market for us and a platform for expanding the presence in East Africa, negotiating joint production ventures, in addition to direct imports."

Mansurov, who leads a delegation of Russian business executives to Tanzania, said Russia was returning to the continent after withdrawing in the 1990s.