Depopulation, murder, torture, starvation, slavery, sexual violence, political and religious repression - all these horrors were discovered by the UN Commission on Human Rights in a small North Korea. Experts interviewed by Pravda.Ru believe that the authors of the UN report were politically motivated, and the ultimate goal of these fake reports is the destruction of the DPRK.

The 372 pages long report was published online on February 17 by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The document is stated to be based on the testimony of defectors made during ​​80 public hearings in Seoul, Tokyo, London, Washington and Bangkok, as well as 240 confidential interviews with them. According to the press release, we are dealing with the extermination of the population, murder, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other forms of sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender-basis, forced relocation, kidnapping and inhumane food restriction during long periods of time.

In total, according to the UN, there are four large "labor camps" that contain anywhere from 80 to 120 thousand political prisoners. The report describes mothers feeding their malnourished children with snakes and rats, and families sent to prison because one of their relatives fled from North Korea.

The Jewish Defence League has dispatched French "militants" for a "show of solidarity" in illegal West Bank settlements

Two weeks ago, an announcement appeared on a French website, calling for "militants with military experience" to participate in a solidarity trip to Israel between September 19 and 25. "The aim of this expedition is to lend a hand to our brothers facing aggression from the Palestinian occupiers, and to enhance the security of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria," it explained. The dates of the trip coincide with the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.

As of yesterday, in response to this call, there were 55 French citizens, both men and women, with military experience, stationed inside the illegal Israeli settlements up and down the West Bank. Organised into five separate groups of 11, their mandate is to "defend the settlements against any attack from Palestinians", and to "aid" in areas where they feel there is a lack of Israeli army personnel or police forces.

The website belongs to the French chapter of the Jewish Defence League (JDL), a far-right Jewish group founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the United States in 1968. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has refered to the JDL as a "violent extremist organisation".

I have for a long time wanted to write about how the Western media, and especially the American media, portrays events happening in Russia and Russian foreign policy to Americans and American expert circles who do not read Russian...

...and unfortunately, there are many Americans considered experts on Russia who neither read nor speak Russian.

Now, as the Sochi Olympics turned the Western media's attention to Russian affairs one more time, the unlimited bias displayed in the US media has forced me to speak out on this topic again.

It is plainly obvious that the Western and especially the American mass media never aspired to give objective coverage to events unfolding in Russia after the fall of the USSR, and what's more, never aspired to give an unbiased account of the motives of Russia's domestic and foreign policy. There is therefore little surprise that they did not change their strategy for the Olympics. It is no coincidence that both before and after the openings of the games, the main themes one could read in the US media were not sports events or athletes, but rather the impending horror of potential terrorist attacks on both Sochi and all of Russia; looming criminal persecutions of Russian LGBT citizens, as well as of tourists and foreign LGBT athletes; the overblown disorganization of the Russian government in constructing the infrastructure for the Games; the endless talk of monstrous corruption and wastefulness of billions of dollars in the construction process; illusory Russian threats to its neighbors born in the minds of Western media and "experts"; and the alleged anti-Western démarches of Russia's diplomats.

In an interview published Feb. 5 by km.ru, Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former foreign relations head of the Russian Ministry of Defense and current president of the Academy of Geopolitical Studies, issued a sharp warning about the nature of the strategic crisis unfolding in Ukraine:

"Apparently they [officials of the European Union and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry] have dedicated themselves, and continue to do so, to deeply and thoroughly studying the doctrine of Dr. Goebbels. . . They present everything backwards from reality. It is one of the formulas which Nazi propaganda employed most successfully: . . . They accuse the party that is defending itself, of aggression. What is happening in Ukraine and Syria is is a project of the West, a new type of war: in both places you see a clear anti-Russian approach, and as is well known, wars today begin with psychological and information warfare operations. . . Kerry and Obama are encouraging in Kiev what they harshly repress in their country. European leaders break up unauthorized demonstrations with hoses, throwing demonstrators in jail, while in the Ukrainian case they do the exact opposite, and on top of that they threaten Russia. Logically, this is part of information warfare.

"Keep in mind that, under the cover of information commotion, U.S. ships are entering the Black Sea, that is, near Ukraine. They are sending marines, and they have also begun to deploy more tanks in Europe. . . We see that on the heels of the disinformation operation a land-sea, and possibly air operation is being prepared.

"They haven't even taught [opposition leaders] Klitchko, Yatsenyuk and Tyahnybok to run a government efficiently. The main thing is for them to take power, and destroy the Ukrainian state."

Currently in the Ukraine, there is a parliament in Kiev and a parliament in Kharkov. The parliament stripped Yanukovych of his powers and impeached him but he says they dont have the powers to do that and refuses to step down. The latest reports have the President in Donetsk. There is actually no single person in charge over there. It's chaos. Everything about the 'rebellion' reeks of western puppetry and fascism. Everything about the Yanukovych supporters of course reeks of Russia. The Crimea is having massive protests right now in the streets because they want to join in union with Russia. And Russia has stated it is prepared tosend in troops to protect ethnic Russiansof which there is 7-8 million of in Ukraine. Things are very fluid and changing hourly. Stay tuned..

Just in case you thought for a second that the sorry discipline we call economics couldn't stoop any further into the gutter of academic idiocy and irrelevance, think again. It's now being reported that ex-Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre (recently convicted on six counts of securities fraud) will be teaching an honors economics class at the "prestigious" University of Chicago.

There's nothing like an esteemed University setting the already culturally accepted example that ethics are for suckers. Stealing, cheating and corruption are the values most exalted in today's world. It doesn't matter how you achieve your wealth, as long as you attain it. After all, it's not as if you'll ever get in trouble for it as long as you work for a "Too Big to Jail" bank.

From the UK's Independent:

A few days ago we reported that the Ukraine decided to call Russia's "trump card" bluff - that would be everyone else's reliance on Russian gas supplies - when it drastically cut imports of Russian gas by 80% in February, seemingly to demonstrate its energy independence from Puting. Now Russia has decided to take the Ukraine to task, by announcing it has halted oil deliveries to the Ukraine Odessa refinery.

Hopefully the Ukraine, whose foreign currency reserves tumbled from $17.9 billion on February 1 to $15 billion currently, has alternative means of supplying itself with energy from benevolent sources, particularly those who are willing to provide the country with oil in exchange for goodwill.

Twice in recent years, Russia has suspended gas supplies, or notably raised prices, as the somewhat well-known "trump card" of Russia's oil and gas supply to Ukraine (and Europe for that matter) remains Putin's easiest option for clenching his iron-first against the divided nation. Following a pre-emptive move in November by Ukraine to diversify its energy supply, Russia had reduced the price of gas for the highly indebted Ukraine in December (to entice Ukraine under Russia's wing); but, after recent events, Dmitry Medvedev signaled on Monday that the price could be raised again. However, today we find that Ukraine's state oil and gas company, Naftogaz, has slashed gas imports from Russia's Gazprom by stunning 80% in February as Ukraine tries to show Russia it can't be pushed around... of course, with limited (and more expensive) alternative supplies, we fear this could well shoot them in the foot.

This action is similar to that taken in November (before the EU accession discussion)...

Russia and Ukraine waged two gas wars over prices in the winters of 2006 and 2009 (which lasted 3 weeks) over a claim Ukraine was late in paying.
...

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that if Gazprom refuses to revise its contract, Ukraine would stop importing gas from Russia. In a step away from energy dependence on Russia, last week Ukraine signed a $10 billion shale gas deal with Chevron.

Ukraine is speeding up its effort to diversify its supply, and has looked at different exporters, fracking, new offshore projects in the Black Sea, as well as new LNG terminals and pipelines to diversify supply. Ukraine imports more than half of its gas from Russia, but under Viktor Yanukovich's leadership, has intentionally scaled down Gazprom imports 40 percent over 'unfair prices'.

Two days ago the FT released a clear, informative and fact-based article, titled simply enough "Gold price rigging fears put investors on alert" in which author Madison Marriage, citing a report by the Fideres consultancy, revealed that global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50 per cent of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013.

To those who hve been following the price action of gold in the past four years, gold manipulation is not only not surprising, but accepted and widely appreciated (because like the Chinese those who buy gold would rather do so at artificially low rather than artificially high fiat prices) and at this point, after every other product has been exposed to be blatantly and maliciously manipulated by the banking estate, it is taken for granted that the central banks' primary fiat alternative, and biggest threat to the monetary status quo, has not avoided a comparable fate.

What is surprising is that where the FT article once was, readers can now find only this:

The situation in Ukraine is evolving by the hour. Right wing ultranationalists and their "liberal" collaborators have taken control of the Rada (Ukrainian parliament) and deposed the democratically elected, though utterly corrupt and incompetent, President Yanukovich.

Former Prime Minister, and convicted criminal, Yulia Tymoshenko has been freed, and is now making common cause with Right Sector, Svoboda, and the other fascist elements, while the opposition's nominal leaders such as Arseny Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko begin to fade into the background.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin undoubtedly watches with anxiousness. In Washington, Victoria Nuland and the Obama administration rejoice. However, perhaps the most critical development of all is soon to emerge in Europe, as the forces of Western finance capital prepare to welcome Ukraine into the fold. They will come bearing the usual neoliberal gifts: austerity and "economic liberalization."

President Barack Obama warns his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai that the US will pull all of its troops out of Afghanistan unless Kabul signs a controversial bilateral security deal.

President Obama conveyed the message in a recent phone call to Karzai, who has refused to sign the so-called bilateral security pact.
The latest conversation comes as Obama and Karzai have rarely spoken in recent months.

"President Obama told President Karzai that because he has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the BSA (Bilateral Security Agreement), the United States is moving forward with additional contingency planning," the White House said in a statement.

"Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the United States not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Furthermore, the longer we go without a BSA, the more likely it will be that any post-2014 US mission will be smaller in scale and ambition," the statement added.

The Afghan president Karzai has delayed signing the pact despite repeated US and NATO warnings.