The Gulf Affairs Institute Director comments on the United States supplying cluster bombs to the Saudi armed forces.

The United States has inflicted thousands of deaths and other casualties in Yemen through its supply of cluster bombs to the Saudi armed forces in violation of the laws of war, Gulf Affairs Institute Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik.

"The US role in Yemen is making a sham of international law. It is an exercise in hypocrisy," al-Ahmed said on Friday. "It was clear from the beginning that the United States was involved in the war in Yemen. They haven't found any way to justify this role."

US policymakers had claimed that they we replaying a restraining role on Saudi military operations against its much smaller neighbor, but this was the opposite of the truth, al-Ahmed insisted.

"They claim the US involvement is justified by reducing casualties, but instead US empowerment and support of Saudi Arabia is allowing Riyadh to inflict more civilian casualties in Yemen, not less. In other words, you throw fire and claim you are doing so to minimize the fire."

.The role of the United States in supplying weapons such as cluster bombs that are being used against a civilian population is a clear violation of international law, the professor pointed out.

Russia's military transport aviation has carried out over 280 sorties to prepare infrastructure of Syria's Hmeimim airbase and has transferred there almost 14,000 metric tons of cargo, a Russian Aerospace Forces spokesman said Saturday.

"In preparation for the Hmeimim airfield's infrastructure on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic crews of IL-76 and AN-124 Ruslan [aircraft] have carried out over 280 sorties and transported 13,750 tons of cargo," Col. Igor Klimov told reporters.

Moscow has been carrying out a military campaign against the Daesh, also known as ISIL/The Islamic State terrorist group, which is outlawed in Russia and a number of other countries, since September 30, at the request of the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The infamous Mexican drug kingpin wanted to make a biopic, and this helped authorities to track him down, officials said after Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's arrest on Friday.

An "important aspect that allowed us to locate him was that we discovered Guzman's intention to make a biographical film, for which he established contact with actresses and producers," Attorney General Arely Gomez said, as cited by AFP.

Germany has carried out its first reconnaissance mission from a Turkish air base as part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State. The first flights took place more than a month after Berlin approved its largest foreign military mission abroad.

Two of the 30-year old German Tornado jets armed with surveillance equipment took off from NATO's airbase in Incirlik at 9:32am Central European Time for a three hour long mission over Iraq and Syria.

North Korea has released a video showing what the country claims to be a successful submarine-launched ballistic missile test last month. It comes two days after Pyongyang claimed to have tested its newly developed miniaturized hydrogen bomb.

As part of an almost an hour long package into N. Korean military preparedness, the Korean Central Television showcased a segment of a ballistic missile launch carried out from a submarine on December 21. The video showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observing the launch, as the missile cleared the clouds.

While the US public may be bored of Hillary Clinton's "damn emails," as her rival Bernie Sanders put it, the latest batch of messages - released in the dead of night - offers tantalizing glimpses into what the former secretary of state knew, and when.

In a second breach of a court-mandated deadline, the State Department published the most recent collection of Clinton's emails at 1:39 a.m. ET (06:39 GMT) on Friday. The approximately 2,900 pages, representing 1,262 messages, were released in the same format as the New Year's Eve release, with none of the documents searchable by sender, recipient or subject.

Foggy Bottom offered no explanation as to why the release was delayed from Thursday evening, as originally scheduled, to the dead of night on Friday.

While the previous releases contained unintentionally humorous material about printing all emails and struggles with the fax machine, this round of messages revealed how Clinton dealt with mistakes by her staff, policy suggestions and family members contacting her during the Benghazi crisis.

While growing up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, just a short train ride away from New York City, I always heard tales of my distant cousin, Frank Serpico "the Cop", from my father, my aunt, and my grandmother. From what I understood, he is my grandmother's third cousin, and all I knew as a kid was that he stood up to corruption among police and got shot in the face for it.

As a kid I didn't quite understand his importance yet, but when I grew up and started questioning the world around me, particularly my religious upbringing and then the government, I began to see all of the evil and corruption at the heart of society - I soon realized what a great man Frank truly is. I eventually became more interested in Frank after seeing the movie "Serpico" (1973) starring Al Pacino (based on a biography also titled Serpico written by Peter Maas) and it dawned on me how questioning authority and exposing corruption might just run in my blood. Although semi-famous, I found that hardly anyone of my generation knew who he was, let alone what he did and how important it is. I've never actually met Frank, although I would certainly like to - so if you're reading this, Serpico, don't hesitate to reach out!

With the increasing militarization of police departments, rampant police brutality across the country, the sparking of the Black Lives Matter movement, and roughly 1000 people killed by police officers in 2015 alone (well over 1000 according to killedbypolice.net), we are dealing with something serious in this country. I feel now is more important than ever for more people (particularly those of my generation) to be aware of who Frank Serpico is, what he did at great risk to his own life, and why it's important. We must all speak out about militarization of police, police brutality, and other instances of corruption in law enforcement, and it is especially important for the few remaining good cops, those who truly want to change the oppressive atmosphere within the police force that Serpico endured, to also speak out.

Saudi Arabia continues to shock the world with its crimes against civilians in Yemen. On this occasion, the Saudi-led coalition attacked the day-care centre for blind children, located in the Yemeni capital city of Sana'a.

Whilst exact information about the victims of the air raid are not confirmed, it has been reported at least 3 are dead. The blow to the Yemeni civilians was inflicted at a time when they were all sleeping. This explains the complete lack of reaction to a war crime by the USA, European countries, as well as the so-called "human rights" organizations who like to talk about non-existent victims of the Russia, Syria and other undesirables to the West countries.

Kosovo is often cited by liberal interventionists as NATO's success story and now a reason for attacking Syria. However, the ongoing lawlessness in the country shows nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the Serbian province of Kosovo. Tens of thousands were killed or maimed by the airstrikes, and Kosovo was carved out as a NATO statelet under the control of UNMIK (the United Nations Mission in Kosovo) in alliance with its local quislings the Kosovo Liberation Army (the KLA).

Last month's parliamentary debate on British airstrikes in Syria witnessed several MPs citing the operation as a great success. Labour MP Ivan Lewis was "proud of the difficult choices that we made" in Kosovo and elsewhere, which he claimed "saved hundreds of thousands of lives".


Kosovo was particularly held up by those supporting British military action in Syria as an example of how airstrikes alone, without support from ground forces, can be victorious. Mocking those who argued that "coalition action which rests almost wholly on bombing...will have little effect", Margaret Beckett responded "well, tell that to the Kosovans, and do not forget that if there had not been any bombing in Kosovo perhaps 1 million Albanian Muslim refugees would be seeking refuge in Europe."

Images of malnourished children from the town of Madraya have emerged on the internet. The photos are so shocking that I refuse to share them as they are a testament to the evil that lies within humans. It is inconceivable that such suffering can be brought onto innocent children who had no choice or say in the war.

What has emerged however is the myth that 'Assad and his army' are besieging the town, and that he is the one bringing this suffering upon his own people. This is the very people that he claims he is fighting to protect from jihadist forces.

The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) ran with the line that Madaya has been 'under siege for seven months by Syrian government forces and Hezbollah militias.' It makes a passing mention that Ahrar ash-Sham are holed up in the town of 40,000 people, but fails to mention that Ahrar ash-Sham are a key ally to Al-Qaeda's franchise in Syria, Jabhat Al-Nusra and shares its radical ideology.

Even if Ahrar ash-Sham are holed up in the city, how does this even remotely justify the food shortages and the blockade the government is imposing on Madaya? Nothing can justify such a blockade.

However, what if I was to suggest that Madaya is not under a food blockade from 'the regime', but that the food shortage is caused by the Ahrar ash-Sham militants attempting to force the hands of the Syrian government to ease the campaign on the besieged terrorist group?

This very real prospect has not been considered by usual propagandist from the ABC, BBC, The Guardian and the usual ilk who cannot go on and do simple investigative work as it might threaten their simplistic paradigm on understanding the multifaceted and complex Syrian War.