Iran has secured the release of 13 metric tons of its gold assets blocked in South Africa under US-led sanctions, central bank Governor Valiollah Seif has said.

The repatriation came thanks to the Iranian negotiating team's follow-up of the matter in the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said in a statement.

"An equivalent of 13 tons of gold purchased before and held in South Africa over the past two years due to sanctions and certain obstructions arrived in the country in three consignments and was delivered to the CBI treasury," Seif said.

The transfer took place over the past week and the last consignment, including four metric tons of gold bullion, arrived in Tehran Tuesday night, he added.

"With the efforts of the diplomatic apparatus, the problem of transferring part of Iran's gold assets was resolved on the sidelines of the Vienna negotiations," the CBI statement said.

According to the CBI, the removal of sanctions and Iran's unfettered access to its assets abroad is one of the main objectives of the country's negotiating team in nuclear talks.

As much as $100 billion of Iranian assets, mostly from oil sales, are reportedly blocked overseas under the sanctions regime aimed at choking the country's economy.

The Ukrainian forces have violated the ceasefire regime 46 times over the last 24 hours, the Donetsk People's Republic defense ministry said on Thursday. The Kiev forces used multiple rocket launchers, artillery, battle tanks, anti-aircraft guns and small arms, the defense ministry said. A lot of settlements and cities of DPR came under fire were.

Kiev uses foreign mercenaries against the DPR, DPR Defence Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Thursday. Basurin noted that among them were "Croats, Poles, Lithuanians, Norwegians, Danes and even Germans" who are fighting with the Ukrainian forces against the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Foreign mercenaries are particularly numerous in the Mariupol area.

As the Iranian nuclear negotiations teeter on the brink, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is saying the world has more to fear from a nuclear-capable Iran than ISIS terrorists. The statement comes after the jihadists threatened to "uproot" the Jewish state.

Netanyahu's statement was made on Thursday, as the talks over Iran's nuclear program held in Vienna showed no clear sign of progressing to a solution acceptable to all sides.

The Israeli PM, famous for showing a cartoon with a bomb at the UN to illustrate his fears, made the warning during a visit to Israel's cyber park in Beersheba.

By now it should be clear to all that the only reason why Germany has been so steadfast in its negotiating stance with Greece is because it knows very well that if it concedes to a public debt reduction (as opposed to haircut on debt held mostly by private entities such as hedge funds which already happened in 2012), then the rest of the PIIGS will come pouring in: first Italy, then Spain, then Portugal, then Ireland.

The problem is that while it took Europe some 5 years to transfer a little over €200 billion in Greek private debt exposure to the public balance sheet (by way of the ECB, EFSF, ESM and countless other ad hoc acronyms) at a cost of countless summits and endless negotiations, which may or may not result with the first casualty of the common currency which may prove to be reversible as soon as next week, nobody in Europe harbors any doubt that the same exercise can be repeated with Italy, or Spain, or even Portugal. They are just too big (and their nonperforming loans are in the hundreds of billions).

There is no room for personal sympathies in big politics. But there is always room for assessing individuals or their actions. One can like or dislike one's opponent, but still regard their strategy favorably.

That's the case with Lavrov. The minister everyone "loves to hate" is respected for his diplomatic prowess.

For example, in a Foreign Policy interview, the foreign minister of a developing country, who preferred to remain anonymous, named Lavrov as one of the most effective foreign ministers today.

1. Good

Generally speaking, in the West Lavrov is characterized as a "negative hero." He is working with his fourth US Secretary of State, each of whom suffered at Lavrov's hands. Only Madeleine Albright remembers him fondly, but she was "fortunate" not to have to work with Lavrov. The best impression of Lavrov comes from Ursula Plassnik, the former foreign minister of Austria. She was met by Sergey Viktorovich with a big bouquet of yellow flowers near the legendary Kafe Pushkin restaurant. Ursula subsequently and frequently referred to Lavrov as "one of the smartest, best-informed, and most-respected foreign policy players on the world stage."

A while ago I had the pleasure of hearing Sergey Glazyev—economist, politician, member of the Academy of Sciences, adviser to Pres. Putin—say something that very much confirmed my own thinking. He said that anyone who knows mathematics can see that the United States is on the verge of collapse because its debt has gone exponential. These aren't words that an American or a European politician can utter in public, and perhaps not even whisper to their significant other while lying in bed, because the American eavesdroppers might overhear them, and then the politician in question would get the Dominique Strauss-Kahn treatment (whose illustrious career ended when on a visit to the US he was falsely accused of rape and arrested). And so no European (never mind American) politician can state the obvious, no matter how obvious it is.

The Russians have that pretty well figured out by now. Yes, maintaining a dialogue and cordial directions with the Europeans is important. But it is well understood that the Europeans are just a bunch of American puppets with no will or decision-making authority of their own, so why not talk to the Americans directly? Alas, the Americans too are puppets. The American officials and politicians are definitely puppets, controlled by corporate lobbyists and shady oligarchs. But here's a shocker: these are also puppets—controlled by the simple imperatives of profitability and wealth preservation, respectively. In fact, it's puppets all the way down. And what's at the bottom is a giant, ever-expanding, financial black hole.

Do you like your black hole? If you aren't sure you like it, then let me ask you some other questions: Do you like the fact that your credit cards still work, or that you can still keep money in the bank and even get cash out of an ATM, or that you are either receiving or hope to eventually receive a pension? Do you like the fact that you can get useful things—food, gas, airline tickets—for mere pieces of paper with pictures of dead white men on them? Do you like the fact that you have internet access, that the lights are on, and that there is water on tap? Well, if you like these things, then you must also like the financial black hole, because that's what's making all of these things possible in spite of your country being bankrupt. Perhaps it's a love-hate relationship: you love being able to pretend that everything is still OK even though you know it isn't, and you wish to enjoy a bit more of the business-as-usual before it all goes to hell, be it for a few more days or another year or two; but you hate the fact that eventually the black hole will suck you in, after which point things will definitely... suck.

On Tuesday, someone broke into an underground vault in Sacramento, and cut several high-capacity internet cables. Nobody knows who this person is or why they did it, but since that time the FBI has revealed that it was not an isolated incident. They've been investigating 10 other recent attacks on the internet infrastructure of California, and they seem to be deeply troubled by the vulnerability of these cables.

The FBI is investigating at least 11 physical attacks on high-capacity Internet cables in California's San Francisco Bay Area dating back a year, including one early Tuesday morning.

Agents confirm the latest attack disrupted Internet service for businesses and residential customers in and around Sacramento, the state's capital.

FBI agents declined to specify how significantly the attack affected customers, citing the ongoing investigation. In Tuesday's attack, someone broke into an underground vault and cut three fiber-optic cables belonging to Colorado-based service providers Level 3 and Zayo.

The attacks date back to at least July 6, 2014, said FBI Special Agent Greg Wuthrich.

"When it affects multiple companies and cities, it does become disturbing," Wuthrich said. "We definitely need the public's assistance."

A security professional who was interviewed for that article, also suggested something that should perk the ears of any American that hears it.

"When it's situations that are scattered all in one geography, that raises the possibility that they are testing out capabilities, response times and impact," Thompson said. "That is a security person's nightmare."

In yet another sign that the American government is reassessing the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, and that BDS is gaining traction, the State Department yesterday said that it did not oppose BDS, boycott, divestment and sanctions actions, aimed at the occupied Palestinian territories, because Israeli settlements "make it harder to negotiate a sustainable and equitable peace deal in good faith."

The statement was a special clarification of White House policy on the new fast-track trade bill, which contained a provision that Congress had included at the urging of Israel lobby groups: to punish European companies and governments that support BDS of Israel - including Israeli activities in the occupied territories. The legislation purposely sought to protect settlements; and yesterday the Obama administration said it isn't buying.

Liberal Zionists are enthused by the White House statement. J Street:

Attempt to block EU steps against Israeli settlements backfires as USG issues statement starkly refusing to legitimize settlement activity

Israel Defense Forces violently intercepted the Swedish boat named Marianne in the early hours of June 29 to prevent it from landing in Gaza, using tasers against unarmed passengers. The 18 passengers, whose mission was to break the siege of Gaza, were taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the non-Israelis will be deported from Ben Gurion Airport.

The Marianne was originally part of a flotilla comprised of four boats with 48 passengers, including human rights activists, journalists, artists, and political figures representing 17 countries. Three of the boats returned to ports in Greece

Since the leftist media has adopted a neoconservative/ liberal interventionist line toward Russia and Putin, it came as no surprise to me when the left-wing Politico published an article accusing the Russian government of involvement in the Texas independence movement. Said article came across the Russia Insider desk last week and the only thing positive that I can say about its contents is that shortly after its publication, somewhere a bell rang and a neo-con got his wings.

"Putin's Plot to Get Texas to Secede" by earnest Columbia grad Casey Michel, draws a specious link between the Texas Nationalist Movement, right-wing Russians, and Vladimir Putin.