The Czech Republic does not support the permanent stationing of NATO troops in the country in connection with the situation in Ukraine, Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

According to Stropnicky, Czechs vividly remember the Soviet invasion of the country in 1968 and therefore are opposed to the presence of any foreign troops on the territory of the country.

"We know well how any permanent stationing [of troops] is still a problem", Stropnicky said, noting that he still supports the expansion of cooperation on training and other activities of the alliance. Previously commander of NATO forces in Europe, US General Philip Breedlove said that in the light of the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, NATO member countries may consider permanently stationing troops in Eastern Europe. Currently, NATO troops are present in the region only for short-term rotations.

"The Google services and apps that we interact with on a daily basis aren't the company's main product: They are the harvesting machines that dig up and process the stuff that Google really sells: for-profit intelligence." - Journalist Yasha Levine

"We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about." - former Google CEO Eric Schmidt

What would happen if the most powerful technology company in the world and the largest clandestine spying agency in the world joined forces?

No need to wonder. Just look around you. It's happened already. Thanks to an insidious partnership between Google and the National Security Agency (NSA) that grows more invasive and more subtle with every passing day, "we the people" have become little more than data consumer commodities to be bought, sold and paid for over and over again.

With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases - whether at the grocer's, the yogurt shop, the airlines or the department store, and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we're helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time.

What's worse, this for-profit surveillance scheme, far larger than anything the NSA could capture just by tapping into our phone calls, is made possible by our consumer dollars and our cooperation. All those disclaimers you scroll though without reading them, the ones written in minute font, only to quickly click on the "Agree" button at the end so you can get to the next step - downloading software, opening up a social media account, adding a new app to your phone or computer: those signify your written consent to having your activities monitored, recorded and shared.

It's not just the surveillance you consent to that's being shared with the government, however. It's the very technology you happily and unquestioningly use which is being hardwired to give the government easy access to your activities.

Russia has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the EU's so-called 'Third Energy Package,' according to media reports.

"This procedure is provided for in the rules of the Organization," a source said, adding that "Russia sent a note to the EU Mission at the WTO and notified the WTO Secretariat thereof," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

A second news agency, Interfax, stated that a "source close to WTO" spoke of "the start [of a] court examination." The agency said it obtained confirmation from the director of the Ministry of Economic Development's department of trade negotiations, Maksim Medvedkov.

Signed in 2007, the Third Energy Package outlines a set of rules regulating the European gas and electricity market. The European Commission insists the Third Energy Package was aimed at increasing competition on the energy market, allowing other players to join the sector and liberalizing energy prices.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine declared victory in a secession referendum Sunday, ratcheting up tensions between the West and Moscow, which by recognizing the results could push the country toward a breakup.

Ukraine called the vote illegal and riddled with irregularities, and part of a wider campaign by Moscow to punish Kiev for pursuing closer relations with Europe.

But Sunday's vote saw long lines at some polling places and was immediately hailed as a triumph by separatist leaders and Russian state media. Kiev's fledgling government is scrambling to mount presidential elections May 25, which it hopes will shore up its legitimacy, and faces growing hurdles after losing control of provinces in the east to pro-Russian rebels. Local police in the region are of dubious loyalty, and army units have stalled in their offensive against rebel strongholds.

The just-retired long-time NSA chief, Gen. Keith Alexander, recently traveled to Australia to give a remarkably long and wide-ranging interview with an extremely sycophantic "interviewer" with The Australian Financial Review. The resulting 17,000-word transcript and accompanying article form a model of uncritical stenography journalism, but Alexander clearly chose to do this because he is angry, resentful, and feeling unfairly treated, and the result is a pile of quotes that are worth examining, only a few of which are noted below:

AFR: What were the key differences for you as director of NSA serving under presidents Bush and Obama? Did you have a preferred commander in chief?

Gen. Alexander: Obviously they come from different parties, they view things differently, but when it comes to the security of the nation and making those decisions about how to protect our nation, what we need to do to defend it, they are, ironically, very close to the same point. You would get almost the same decision from both of them on key questions about how to defend our nation from terrorists and other threats.

The Russian president has charged the Central Bank and the government with the task of developing a working scheme allowing enforcement of the ban on civil servants' and officials' foreign assets through cooperation with foreign banks.
The presidential order was prepared after the United States, the EU and several other nations imposed sanctions on a group of Russian officials and top executives in state owned companies. According to the decree, the government and the Central Bank must find a way to receive information from foreign financial institutions or government instances, the Izvestia daily reported.

The newspaper's unnamed source in the government has stressed that the main objective of the move was to uncover the civil servants who were dodging the ban on foreign assets as the sanctions make such people vulnerable to court action in in foreign jurisdictions, which is against the government's desires.

Europe is powering the military rise of China, approving multi-million dollar deals for the transfer of weapons and dual-use technology - despite an arms embargo stemming from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, AFP reveals.

China is the world's second largest military spender and the fastest growing military market, with Beijing setting aside $132 billion in defense spending. While they are yet to touch the US' massive $495.6 billion defense budget, China recently announced they would increase military spending by 12.2 percent for 2014.

"It will take China a long, long time before its budgets will effectively alter the military balance with the US," Jonathan Holslag of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies, recently told Stars and Stripes.

"But that's not the main concern. While the US still has some scope to respond, neighbors are getting much more nervous... Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines all know that they could be the first victim if the balance of power shifts at America's detriment."

A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate compared food stamp recipients to wild animals in a Facebook post.

Dr. Annette Bosworth, who is running for South Dakota's open Senate seat against four other Republicans, shared a viral image Monday on her personal page on the social media network, reported Right Wing Watch.

"The food stamp program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They proudly report that they distribute free meals and food stamps to over 46 million people on an annual basis," the graphic claims.

"Meanwhile, the National Park Service, run by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us 'please do not feed the animals.' Their stated reason for this policy being that ... The animals will grow dependent on the handouts, and then they will never learn to take care of themselves," it continues. "This concludes today's lesson. Any questions?"

The French government has said that it will go ahead with 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) contract to supply Russia with two Mistral helicopter carriers because cancelling the deal would harm Paris more than Moscow.

In the wake of the crisis in Ukraine, the United States had been pressing France as well as Britain and Germany to take a tougher line against Russia and cancel the Mistral contract.

But France refuses to link the helicopter carrier deal to the US/EU debate over tougher sanctions against Russia.

A French government official travelling with President Francoise Hollande in Azerbaijan Sunday, who asked not be named, told reporters that the contract was too big to cancel and that if France didn't fulfill the order it would be hit with penalties.

"The Mistrals are not part of the third level of sanctions. They will be delivered. The contract has been paid and there would be financial penalties for not delivering it.

"It would be France that is penalized. It's too easy to say France has to give up on the sale of the ships. We have done our part," the official said.

London has more billionaires than any other city in the world, and Britain has more billionaires per head of population than any other country, new data showed on Saturday.

The survey of Britain's super-rich compiled for the Sunday Times newspaper is likely to prompt debate in a country where many still struggle financially and where food banks are a fact of life, despite economic growth recently returning to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crash.

London is home to 72 of Britain's 104 sterling billionaires, well ahead of Moscow in second place with 48 people worth the equivalent of 1 billion pounds or more. New York is in third place with 43 billionaires, San Francisco in fourth place with 42, Los Angeles next with 38 and Hong Kong in sixth place with 34.