The number of civilians killed or injured in Afghanistan in 2015 was the highest in the last seven years amid increased fighting between pro-government forces and insurgent groups, including the Taliban, the United Nations said in its annual report.

According to the UN's 2015 Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, the total number of civilian casualties recorded in the last year amounted to more than 11,000, including more than 3,500 deaths and almost 7,500 injuries.

"This report records yet another rise in the number of civilians hurt or killed. The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable," Nicholas Haysom, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UNAMA, said in a press release.

The North Korean state is routinely mocked in the West for engaging in hyperbole and bombast. Ironically, the Western reaction to its latest satellite launch is a carnival of knee-jerk hysteria and hyperbole. But all the bluster has conveniently given Washington an opportunity to proceed with its global missile shield plans. That is far more destabilizing to international security than any alleged North Korean violation.

In an interview this week on CBS, US President Obama repeated denunciations of North Korea's rocket launch into outer space last Sunday, which Pyongyang claimed was for the purpose of putting an observation satellite into orbit.

Obama said: "I think we have been concerned about North Korea's behavior for a while. This is an authoritarian regime. It's provocative. It has repeatedly violated UN resolutions, tested and produced nuclear weapons and now they are trying to perfect their missile launch system".

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond lambasted North Korea, saying its actions "continue to present a threat to regional and international security".

Within hours of the satellite launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the US and its South Korean ally unveiled their plans to install the Pentagon's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system. The system is designed for intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as high as 200 kilometers. It is part of the global "missile shield" network that Washington is pushing elsewhere in Europe.

Original by Aleksandr Kots and Dmitriy Steshin published by Komsomolskaya Pravda; translation by J.Hawk

Aleppo is Syria's biggest city and its industrial heart. The proximity to Turkey and, of course, to sea ports, used to be a positive factor, but during the last five years it was the city's bitter misfortune. Contrary to rumors, the road between Damascus and Aleppo turned out to be comparatively safe, and these days it is under strict control. But one still had to make a few detours to bypass territory held by the al-Nusra front. One part of the route runs right along the frontline with ISIS, the Raqqa province.

The Islamic Republic declared that it is moving away from the US dollar for use in trades and that Tehran welcomes replacing dollar with other currencies.

According to Shana, Iran's official news agency, Safar-Ali Karamati, Deputy director of International Affairs for Marketing and Crude Oil Operation in the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co, stated that Iran's "top priority" is "to receive cash and oil demands in euro... Because of their [European Union] single monetary unit, European customers have no problem to pay for crude oil deals in euro". Two of the Iranian officials in the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Industries and Mines told me that Iran offers several other methods of payment, rather than the dollar, for its foreign trades, exports and imports.

What are the reasons behind such a significant monetary move? Why is Iran moving away from the US right after the nuclear deal was reached? And what are the implications of such actions?

In news that just about left us falling off our chairs, the mainstream media seems to be leaning toward the conclusion that dirty games and evil tactics may be behind the massive string of Chipotle's E. coli outbreaks.

Specifically, The New York Times recently published an article carrying the headline, "C.D.C. Ends Chipotle Case With Illness Still a Mystery." That "mystery," of course, is the fact that although investigations into the E. coli outbreaks were conducted by the CDC, the real cause of them still remains unknown. This very well may be as close as we've seen mainstream media come to actually raising the possibility of biotech industry food terrorism in this particular case.

A high-ranking officer within the joint operations room in Damascus, which includes Russia, Iran and Syria and Hezbollah said there are three possible scenarios in Syria:

The first is the [Saudi] Arab ground troops would enter Syria from the Turkish borders, in the area under the so-called "Islamic State" group (ISIS) on the long bordering front from Jarablus to Al-Ra'ee. This can be possible and quickly achievable if a kind of an agreement is reached between Turkey and ISIS. After all, the Jihadist group has to face either the Turkish-Arab forces - that could allow a possible exit - or the Russian-Iranian-Hezbollah forces where there will be no exit".

The second scenario is through the Jordanian borders East of Syria up to Raqqa. A longer road but would allow Saudi Arabia to bring its logistic and armoured support to push all the way to the ISIS-controlled land. In both scenarios, these troops, Arabs or Turkish-Arabs, would not clash or contact or even walk into the Russia-Damascus and allies military operational stage.

The third scenario is that the Saudi are boosting the moral of the Jihadist by advertising a possible intervention so these don't surrender easily and hold the ground for as long as possible.

The source continued:

"Any scenario is linked to the will of the United States to be engaged in a war in Syria. This is exactly what the Saudi officials said. The U.S. is sending the Awacs aircraft because any U.S direct intervention on the ground is totally excluded. This could be the U.S. contribution, along the diplomatic effort in Geneva. Never the less, we build our military reaction based on the strong possibility that the Arab ground troops are most likely to invade Syria. These forces, under the title of defeating ISIS, won't reach Raqqa overnight. Logistic support and troops movement from Jordan into Syria require between 3 to 4 months to be completed. These forces, in this case, are expected to advance from Jordan, into al-Badiyah and continue up north toward Raqqa, the northern Syrian city, as a possible scenario. Any potential contact with the Syrian forces could lead to a larger war".

We do not exclude the fact that Saudi Special Forces could act behind ISIS lines to guide airtrikes or carry small scale attacks. None the less, these forces cannot contribute to defeat ISIS but in directing specific targets. Any attack that could weaken ISIS is considered to our advantage. The U.S. led coalition can bomb ISIS any time but no ground troops would be welcome. Moreover, no jet is allowed to enter the Syrian space without prior coordination with Russia, otherwise it will be considered as a potential target. This is also another fact to consider. Therefore, no one is willing to see a large scale war, mainly President Obama who has avoided to be entangled in the Syrian war for the last two years.

There will be no peace in Syria.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced yesterday that for The Kingdom, the removal of Assad is "crucial," adding without any sense of shame that the Syrian leader is the "single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists in the region".

This is not a rogue statement made by a renegade government: It's a policy that has been approved, and most likely dictated, by the United States. And now the Saudis have parked their F-15s at a Turkish airbase used by the US military to strike targets within Syria:

At least two civilians were reportedly killed and several more injured in the village of Maryamayn in northern Syria, as the Turkish army shelled Kurdish militia positions in Aleppo province for the second day in a row on Sunday.

A video released by the Syrian Kurdish news agency ANHA and obtained by Ruptly shows damaged buildings and people rushing to take care of the wounded in the village of Maryamayn near the town of Afrin after reportedly undergoing a Turkish artillery attack.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the man Republican People's Party opposition party, spoke out Sunday against any decisions that would plunge Turkey into war and slammed Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's foreign policy.

"We are against all decisions which could plunge Turkey into war," Kilicdaroglu said on his Twitter account.

Kilicdaroglu reminded that Davutoglu called on his party to pick its side.

"Davutoglu is the one who must pick sides, he calls for supporting [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan's foreign policy interests, not the Turkish interests," Kilicdaroglu continued.

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