In a recent exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, Professor Christopher Busby from the European Committee on Radiation Risk, announced the results of his research and analysis having examined air and soil samples in the Gaza Strip months after the 22 days of Israeli military operations there had ceased.

Prof. Busby is one of the most prominent and widely respected radiation experts in the world, and an accredited witness on international fora such as the UN. In the past, he has testified on the impact of weapons used in wars in Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon. The Israeli authorities prevented Professor Busby from entering the occupied Gaza Strip to undertake the necessary analyses, but with the help of other physicians he was able to obtain the samples he needed.

The professor said that he had obtained two items to analyze, one of which was a filter from an ambulance covered with dust, and the second was some soil from a hole created by an Israeli bomb. He stated that the analysis showed the filter to contain a degree of uranium, and that the soil sample contained a high degree of enriched uranium. Analysis also showed a high degree of zinc, chrome, and niobium in the air. This is not the first analysis carried out by Professor Busby; he also discovered a high rate of uranium in Lebanon after examining samples from the area in the wake of the Israeli aggression of July 2006.
Professor Busby said, "the real concern is that people can inhale uranium, and this can lead to diseases and health problems, including congenital deformities in children..." If there is too much uranium in the air, there is a danger of pregnant women giving birth to deformed children, the possibility of children with various types of cancer and an increasing number of cancer cases among adults. This was apparent in Iraq and among people who worked in Kosovo in areas where enriched uranium was used.

US President Barack Obama made a mistake when he insisted on the immediate resignation of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, US Senator Tim Kaine said. "I think when the President said Assad must go it was probably a little bit of a mistake. He got ahead of himself when he said those words," Kaine told MSNBC.

The senator pointed out that Washington was also involved in the regime change in other Arab countries, including Iraq, Libya and Egypt.

"When the United States has tried to say who the leader of another country should be in this region, we usually have not done a very good job at it," Kaine said.

Russia is seeking ways to block the International Monetary Fund's next loan payment to Ukraine if Kiev defaults on its $3 billion debt to Moscow in December; Bloomberg cites a source familiar with the matter.

The IMF's current policy forbids it loaning to countries that default on other government debt. But last month the organization said it would go ahead with the promised $17.5 billion loan to Ukraine even if the country defaults on its debt to Russia. The IMF might amend its rules, allowing lending as long as the borrowing nation meets its obligations under the IMF program and bargains in good faith with the creditor country.

The highly effective Russian operation in Syria has clearly exposed the real position of the West, along with the ties it has with international terrorist groups.

As is already known, the so-called Western coalition, created by Washington more than a year ago has been "effectively fighting" terrorism in Syria and Iraq. What are the results? Desert areas with no terrorists to be found anywhere have been heavily bombed, at the same time, terrorists are regularly acquiring weapon due to "mistakenly" air-dropped crates. In any case, the terrorists are fighting with modern American weapons and they are wearing US army BDUs (battle-dress uniforms). And it seems that this outcome fully satisfies the sitting US administration, since Washington was leading the charge against international terrorism, or at least it claimed it did. However, the year of bombing nonexistent terrorist positions produced at least some results - the Islamic State has significantly increased the territory it controlled in Syria. It seems that the US could have been supporting extremists, while pretending that it fights them, until the Russian military campaign in Syria began.

Since the first days of Russian airstrikes in Syria, when militants got a taste of real bombs falling on their heads, and while fortifications, equipment, and command bunkers were being obliterated, Washington suddenly became quite vocal in claiming that the wrong terrorists were under fire. A whole new media campaign has been started with the money provided by the regimes of the Persian Gulf and the West, in a desperate attempt to convince the world that Russian air strikes are having no military success, and that they are killing civilians in droves. The major advancement launched by the Syrian Arab Army is now portrayed as a sort of a deal between the Islamic State and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, so, we are being told, terrorists are not running for their lives, and instead are just handing over their positions to the Syrian army. Such publications are usually published with unclear "open source" pictures and videos, so that nobody can confirm or deny this evidence.

In the Balkans and in the Mediterranean, the refugee crisis is reaching historic proportions. Instead of helping, NATO is carrying out a gigantic naval maneuver in the Mediterranean to simulate a fight against Russia. Thirty-six thousand well-trained soldiers are shooting with blanks throughout the area whilst volunteers in Germany collapse from exhaustion.

Human rights organizations predict that the forthcoming winter will be a humanitarian catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of refugees along the Mediterranean and the Balkan route. At the same time there is nothing but political chaos in the EU. All member states are saying they are swamped and Angela Merkel is still trying to get a consensus on her internment camps. The voluntary aid organizations in Austria and Germany are at their wits' end. The authorities have lost track [due to the sheer mass of refugees] and fear that it will get worse. The head of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, told the Bild newspaper that the border agency had registered "more than 800,000 irregular border crossings" at the EU's borders since the beginning of the year. A lot of people are still making their way out of the crisis regions and into Europe.

What does NATO, financed by the European taxpayer's money, do? Any normal army would transform itself into a humanitarian assistance operation. NATO could gather all forces and establish temporary help for the displaced people trekking along the Balkan route, especially in the NATO countries Turkey, Greece and Italy. They could do everything possible to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, which is what the German armed forces [Bundeswehr] would do in such an emergency. They could also help the underfunded and helpless Frontex troops to finally begin securing the EU's external borders.

The S-400 Triumf, a top-tier anti-aircraft weapon system produced in Russia, has no parallels across the globe in terms of combat capabilities, defense expert Konstantin Sivkov told Radio Sputnik.

Take the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, for instance. "The THAAD has shorter range and is incapable of hitting targets beyond the horizon. In addition, it is purely an anti-ballistic missile system designed to shoot down ballistic missiles," he added.

The S-400, developed in response to President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, has a lot more to offer.The Triumf's first unique feature is its long range.

Washington needs "boots on the ground" in Syria in addition to its air campaign against ISIS, which is not fruitful despite some progress. US Air Force secretary has admitted that "ground forces" is a must in order to "occupy" and "govern" parts of Syria.

In her comments, Secretary Deborah Lee James stressed the importance of the US-led air campaign, but admitted that airstrikes need to be backed by ground forces.

"Air power is extremely important. It can do a lot but it can't do everything," James said, just two days after Secretary of Defense Ash Carter supported President Obama's "willingness to do more" in terms of US troops on Syrian ground.

"Ultimately it cannot occupy territory and very importantly it cannot govern territory," James told reporters at the Dubai Airshow. "This is where we need to have boots on the ground. We do need to have ground forces in this campaign."

Here's how it usually goes... You say you have some doubts about vaccine safety and all those vaccinations the government requires you to give your kids. You say you're concerned about serious side-effects you keep reading about, and particularly potential links to autism and autoimmune disorders, and the reports of encephalitis and shock. A typical response from mainstream proponents of vaccines would proceed like this...

Oh, you're being silly, you don't know the science. Look, 99.9% of all doctors and scientists will tell you that vaccines are safe and effective. The science is solid, it's long been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Ninety-nine point nine percent. That sounds pretty convincing. Of course, it's unclear what formula, study or survey was used to come up with that figure, so you start to do your own research, and you quickly realize there are lots of doctors and scientists, in addition to well informed parents, journalists and consumer advocates, who do not subscribe to the establishment's mantra about vaccine safety and effectiveness. They do not believe the myth that the science is settled, and some are very vocal about their reservations or opposition to it.

Ambivalence, political twists and turns and the adoption of mutually exclusive decisions on Syria clearly show how completely lost the Saudi leaders are and their distinct lack of understanding of the fundamentals of modern foreign policy. The leaders of the wealthiest countries in the world, the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world have fully displayed their political inadequacy, inability to manoeuvre and adapt to the realities of the modern world. The once infinite riches are melting away rapidly, and soon ordinary Saudis will be faced with the issue of cost-cutting in their simple everyday problems.

But, as they say, all in good time. It seemed that only recently the Saudi press took after its main overseas sponsor and ally, the United States, which have put forward a plan of the "smooth transition" of power in Syria and did not call for the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. US Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN reporters that Washington had changed its position on Bashar al-Assad. The United States, according to The New York Times, have closed their largest training centres of so-called moderate Syrian rebels in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Saudi rulers even responded positively to the position of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was also forced to be in favour of negotiations with the current Syrian president. In this regard, experts drew attention to the statement of Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador in Washington and former intelligence chief, who expressed his confidence that Moscow's strategy on Syria seems to be more effective than the efforts of the United States, and that the Russian point of view demands attention and respect. However, Russia has never departed from its principled position and has consistently advocated peace talks with the legitimate President, al-Assad.

The Saker: You are a very well known public figure in the United States. Still I would like you to tell us three things about you which in your opinion is the most important things about you.

Cynthia McKinney: I am always in a state of questioning and learning and I love to research questions and an array of solutions of interest to me. I think curiosity is a good thing and broadens ones knowledge. But, it was exactly this questioning nature of mine that got me into political trouble because the institutions that I joined are steeped in "propriety" and "etiquette" and "place"; the culture is set by those who are there the longest and have accrued the most power. That is not Black women - and it's certainly not Black women who ask too many questions and don't know their "place."

I'm told that Rahm Emanuel, who recruited my opponent to run against me in the Democratic Primary, said that I was not a "team player" because I did not accept Democratic Party leadership nostrums on the 2000 Presidential Election that sent George Bush to the White House, September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, and George Bush's wars that became Barack Obama's wars. In fact, the first Iraq War funding bill brought to a vote in Congress after I left, passed with only the required number of votes, 218; had I been returned to Congress, that bill would have failed and quite possibly, we'd be having a completely different conversation right now. That's the importance of every vote on every issue; the importance of every vote on every candidate, in every election. Instead, I was turned out of Congress, the war funding bill passed with the vote of my replacement, and as is said, "the rest is history." The documentary American Blackout tells this story very well.