Recently the world media had spread the news of the miraculous salvation of a suicide due to the President of Turkey. The Daily Sabah edition published a video in which Erdogan stopped his motorcade (which was on its way to Friday prayers in the mosque) to save a man who was about to jump.

The president's aides told the man that he wanted to talk to him and then brought him to the Mercedes Erdogan was riding in. In the footage we see the suicidist soon talking with the Turkish leader, who makes a few phone calls on a golden late-model iPhone. After that, the man kisses Erdogan's hand.

It was reported in the news that the man was about to commit suicide because of family problems, and that Erdogan promised to solve these problems. The story was published on 25 December on Christmas -- drawn on the Christmas story in the spirit of Charles Dickens. However, later it turned out that the failed suicidist is a senior Turkish intelligence agent. Some Turkish media and some bloggers published pictures of him. This means that the Turkish version of "A Christmas Carol" smacks of a theater production.

Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Monday sent two letters to the UN Secretary-General and President of UN Security Council regarding the persistence of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and other terrorist organizations in committing crimes against civilians in Syrian cities.

The Ministry said that terrorist organizations are targeting Syrian cities with suicide bombing and arbitrary shelling in a bid to disturb the state of tranquility and stability which had prevailed in several Syrian cities that witnessed successful national reconciliation efforts in recent days.

The letters asserted that this terrorism is the result of the open and generous support in funds, arms, and munitions provided to terrorists by states like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, who are complicit in the terrorist attacks carried out against the Syrian people.

Something surprising emerged in the latest Daily Treasury Statement report showing the sources and uses of operating cash of the US Treasury: the line item for Federal Reserve Earnings exploded to $19.3 billion on December 28, doubling the amount of cash the Fed had remitted to the Treasury for all of 2015.

The verdict in Kiev is disappointing for the Ukrainian authorities. In particular, the former head of foreign intelligence service of Ukraine, Mykola Malomuzh, said that the West does not want to support Kiev and has almost entirely adopted the Russian strategy of resolving the crisis in Donbass. The corresponding statement of Malomuzh was made on the air of Ukrainian TV.

According to the former head of foreign intelligence service of Ukraine, this information is continually voiced in various European forums, but not at the official level.

I, visiting international forums in London, Monaco and other countries of the world over the past year and three months, have seen the trend of a reduced interest in Ukraine," said Malomuzh.

Almost entirely unnoticed internationally, Turkey's government and rebellious Kurdish groups are locked in battle in a series of sieges in the main towns in the east of the country. Turkey's prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu describes it as a struggle against terrorism which will be fought to the end without compromise.

Close-up details of the sieges are scarce even in the Turkish press. Few Turkish journalists let alone foreign correspondents are covering what amounts in effect to war conditions in the affected towns. Other information comes from clandestine Kurdish sources and pictures, coming not from the Turkish press, but sent via the Internet showing ravaged buildings and bodies lying in the streets. According to a government statement on Dec. 25, 217 Kurdish terrorists have been killed in the past month. The Turkish Human Rights foundation says that over 124 civilians have been killed in recent months. In total there have been about 150 days of "curfew", each of them lasting for the whole 24 hours, not simply overnight.


The two worst-affected settlements are Sur, the old city of Diyarbakir, and Cizre, a town close to the Tigris and Turkey's border with Iraq. Sur was designated a protected area of outstanding beauty before the shooting started. Now many of its historical buildings, as well as schools and social centers, have been burnt out: the government and the PKK each blame the other.

In his seminal Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization, Bryan Ward-Perkins writes:

Romans before the fall were as certain as we are today that their world would continue forever... They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.

The Empire of Chaos, today, is not about complacency. It's about hubris - and fear. Ever since the start of the Cold War the crucial question has been who would control the great trading networks of Eurasia - or the "heartland", according to Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861 - 1947), the father of geopolitics.

We could say that for the Empire of Chaos, the game really started with the CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953, when the US finally encountered, face to face, that famed Eurasia crisscrossed for centuries by the Silk Road(s), and set out to conquer them all.

Only six decades later, it's clear there won't be an American Silk Road in the 21st century, but rather, just like its ancient predecessor, a Chinese one. Beijing's push for what it calls 'One Belt, One Road' is inbuilt in the 21st century conflict between the declining empire and Eurasia integration. Key subplots include perennial NATO expansion and the empire's obsession in creating a war zone out of the South China Sea.

As the Beijing-Moscow strategic partnership analyses it, the oligarchic elites who really run the Empire of Chaos are bent on the encirclement of Eurasia - considering they may be largely excluded from an integration process based on trade, commerce and advanced communication links.

Beijing and Moscow clearly identify provocation after provocation, coupled with relentless demonization. But they won't be trapped, as they're both playing a very long game.

Russian President Vladimir Putin diplomatically insists on treating the West as "partners". But he knows, and those in the know in China also know, these are not really "partners". Not after NATO's 78-day bombing of Belgrade in 1999. Not after the purposeful bombing of the Chinese Embassy. Not after non-stop NATO expansionism. Not after a second Kosovo in the form of an illegal coup in Kiev. Not after the crashing of the oil price by Gulf petrodollar US clients. Not after the Wall Street-engineered crashing of the ruble. Not after US and EU sanctions. Not after the smashing of Chinese A shares by US proxies on Wall Street. Not after non-stop saber rattling in the South China Sea. Not after the shooting down of the Su-24.

The Russian Air Force has carried out 121 sorties over the last two days, hitting a total of 424 targets across Syria, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. A large Islamic State arms depot was struck, as was a meeting of the jihadist group's commanders in Raqqa.

The bombing raids were undertaken by Su-24, Su-25 and Su-34 warplanes on with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) strongholds of Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zor, the ministry reported on its website.

Moscow says it is receiving intelligence from Syrian government opposition groups, which is helping it to conduct its bombing missions against jihadist forces. This cooperation enabled Russian warplanes to bomb a building that was used for a meeting of IS commanders.

An Informed source from Mosul city, reported that ISIS terrorist organization has executed children fleeing from the fighting in Ramadi, Iraqi Media reported.

That elements of ISIS terrorist organization have executed thirty boys who did not exceed the age of 16 years old after they fled from the fighting in Ramadi, in the courtyard of the center of Qayyarah area south of Mosul.

It is noteworthy that ISIS is forcing hundreds of children in Mosul and other terror camps, to enter special training camps to murder and use weapons spreading extremist ideas and send them to face the battle fronts to strengthen the shortage in camps after many of ISIS elements have escaped.

ISIS is suffering from refracts in morale among its elements after victories of Peshmerga in Sinjar recently as well as the Iraqi security forces , the victory of tribal members and the Popular Mobilization Units in Salahuddin and finally liberation of Ramadi.

Declassified papers reveal US President Ronald Reagan urged Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to read Tom Clancy to interpret Soviet Cold War strategy, and that a jar of moon dust, given by Richard Nixon, was left in a Downing Street cupboard for years.

The files disclose a series of bizarre moments in the nations' so-called 'special relationship' during the 1980s, when Cold War tensions flared between the West and Soviet Russia.

RT picks the highlights of these newly declassified documents from The National Archives.

The Syrian army has managed to move inside the town of Sheikh Maskin, which was controlled by foreign-backed militants, in the southern province of Dara'a. The military said in a Wednesday statement that troops were in the town's main square, capturing its eastern and northern neighborhoods.

Sheikh Maskin is located on a major supply route from the Syrian capital of Damascus to the city of Dara'a.

Syria's official SANA news agency, meanwhile, said terrorists have started to move their operations' center from the town to the city of Nawa, adding that the militants are also fleeing Sheikh Maskin after a number of their leaders were killed in the army's operation.

Terror groups have confirmed the killing of at least 11 of their members, including four of the their commanders, in Sheikh Maskin.

Separately, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least ten Takfiri militants, including a top leader of the al-Nusra Front, were killed by the Syrian army near Dara'a. The new advances came a day after army units succeeded in gaining control over Tal al-Hash and the 82nd brigade camp in the vicinity of Sheikh Maskin.

Syria's drive against militants across the Arab country saw a major boost since Damascus began to have the Russian air cover on September 30. The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.