Israel's top military electronic surveillance unit expelled dozens of veterans on Monday for refusing to spy on Palestinians living under occupation, Army Radio said.

The commander of Unit 8200, named as Brigadier-General "A", barred the 43 reserve soldiers who wrote to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs in September, saying they could no longer serve in the unit, the radio said.

Coming a few weeks after Israel's 50-day war against Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the letter was seen as an unprecedented rebuke of Netanyahu's security policies but the military dismissed it as a publicity stunt by a small fringe.

By decrying the sweep of eavesdropping on Palestinians, and the role such espionage plays in setting up air strikes that have often inflicted civilian casualties, the move opened a window on clandestine practices.

Israeli jets struck several targets in Syria in response to Hezbollah rocket fire into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the IDF said. The exchange came as Iran warned Tel Aviv of crossing a "red line" with the murder of an Iranian general in Syria.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) announced striking Syrian army artillery targets late on Tuesday night in response to an earlier rocket attack on Golan Heights and Mount Hermon.

"The IDF views the Syrian regime as responsible for what occurs in its territory, and will act at any time and any way it sees fit to protect the citizens of Israel," the IDF said.

Israel's retaliation followed two rocket attacks believed to be perpetrated by Hezbollah in the northern Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon. While the projectiles exploded in open territory and caused no damage or casualties, some 1,000 visitors to the Mount Hermon ski resort still fled for cover.

This video, from November 20, 2013, shows People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleg Tsarov explaining in the Ukrainian parliament U.S. plans for civil unrest and civil war in Ukraine. This was the night before the protests began (on November 21).


See below for the transcript.

Russia has accused the United States of having no evidence against three Russian citizens charged with spying, and says the Americans are using the charges for political purposes.

U.S. prosecutors said the defendants were directed by Russia to gather sensitive economic intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against Russian banks and U.S. efforts to develop alternative energy resources.

One of the defendants, identified as Yevgeny Buryakov, arrested Monday in New York, is officially employed by the Manhattan branch of Vnesheconombank, a Russian state bank that was hit by U.S. sanctions last year.

The other two defendants held diplomatic positions and are believed to have returned to Russia.

"No proof to back up the charges has been presented," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Tuesday, accusing the U.S. of deciding "to launch another round in its anti-Russian campaign."

"We insist on a stop to the string of provocations against Russian representatives unleashed by U.S. secret services, and on immediate consular access to Buryakov, on the strict observance of the Russian citizen's rights and on his release," Lukashevich was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS

The public inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko is under way, eight years after the former KGB officer was poisoned with deadly Polonium-210 in London.

The chairman of the inquiry, Sir Robert Owen, is expected to suggest where responsibility for the act lies.

Litvinenko's widow, Marina, claims he was murdered by Russian intelligence operatives. Owen has already said there is a "prima facie" case against Russia.

Russian authorities have not allowed two suspects to be extradited to the UK and will not give evidence at the hearing. The inquiry will also not discuss the clandestine work of Litvinenko, who was on an MI6 payroll when he died.

After Black teen Trayvon Martin's 2012 death at the hands of George Zimmerman in Florida, a newly formed group called the Dream Defenders sprung into action. They marched for miles. They occupied the state capitol in Tallahassee. They pushed for legislative measures that would address racial inequality.

Today, the Dream Defenders remain focused on racism in America, and have helped lead the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations that have swept the nation after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two unarmed Black men killed by the police in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City.

But the Dream Defenders have also broadened their focus in recent months by joining U.S. Palestinian rights groups in calling for an end to Israeli human rights abuses. On December 20th, they deepened their commitment to Palestinian rights by unanimously endorsing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) call. The endorsement came during the Dream Defenders' conference in Florida.

And at the start of 2015, members of Dream Defenders, along with other groups focused on racial injustice like the Black Youth Project, went on a delegation to Palestine organized by the Institute for Middle East Understanding. The trip was meant to expose Black activists to the Israeli occupation. After returning, the participants have drawn parallels between the Black and Latino experience in the U.S. and the Palestinian experience.

The BDS endorsement by the Black and Brown-led Dream Defenders and the trip to Palestine is a sign of the growing ties between the racial justice movement and Palestinian rights activists. The groups are building on a rich history of collaboration between Black, Latino and Palestinian activists.

The growing ties between the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Palestine also comes at a time when pro-Israel groups, anxious about a changing America, are courting communities of color to bolster America's pro-Israel stance.

"It was really great to participate in a space where people immediately understood why Palestine is such an important issue and started making connections to their own histories of experiencing racism or colonialism in the Caribbean or Latin America or Africa," said Kristian Davis Bailey, who was part of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) contingent at the Dream Defenders conference.

"Human rights" or "democracy" have nothing to do with current wars of conquest except that these words are used as cover to hide institutionalized mass murder and theft. In fact, human rights and democracy are usually the first casualties of any invasion.

The "West", however, understands the value of these words to sell wars which invariably destroy "non-compliant" secular governments in favour of divisive fundamentalist regimes.

Human lives are superfluous to the overriding imperial agendas. In fact, imperial strategists prefer that target countries become internally divided, even when division exacts a huge toll in innocent lives.

It's all very illegal, but the West is not overly concerned with international sanctions. The West isn't particularly perturbed by the consequent rise of fundamentalism either, because it uses fundamentalist proxies such as al Qaeda and ISIS - or neo-Nazis - to globally implement their agendas of destruction.

The pre-planned invasion of Libya is a case in point. Prior to the invasion - ironically billed as a "humanitarian Intervention" - Libya's government, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, boasted significant achievements, including the following:

*The highest standard of living in Africa

*Human Development Index (HDI), a measure of health, education, and income, ranked above the regional average

* Free public health care, and free public education

* 89% adult literacy rate (with girls outnumbering boys by 10% in secondary and tertiary education)

* Subsidized, affordable food

* Homelessness all but wiped out

Federal prosecutors in the United States have announced charges against three Russian men who allegedly operated an international spy ring based out of New York City.

US attorneys said Monday that Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev, and Victor Podobnyy have been charged "in connection with Buryakov's service as a covert intelligence agent on behalf of the Russian Federation." Buryakov unlawfully acted as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, the federal complaint alleges, and his co-defendants are charged with conspiracy thereof.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation says that their investigation into the three co-defendants began shortly after ten alleged Russian spies, including Anna Chapman, were arrested in 2010 following a multi-year investigation. "Within a few months" of the Russians' subsequent guilty pleas, according to this week's statement, the FBI began investigating Buryakov, Sporyshev and Podobnyy.

According to the FBI, Buryakov maintained a cover job in the US as an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank, but actually worked to gather intelligence for Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR. A public LinkedIn profile for a man with the same name as Buryakov suggests he may have been working as a deputy representative in the US for Russia's Vnesheconombank.

Just in: FBI arrests Russian spy in the Bronx who was part of ring attempting to collect economic intelligence & recruit #NYC residents

- FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) January 26, 2015

Sporyshev and Podobnyy posed as a Russian trade rep and a United Nations attaché, respectively, but allegedly worked as intermediaries between Buryakov and the SVR, according to the Department of Justice.

TV preacher Pat Robertson on Tuesday advised a senior citizen who was a paying member of his 700 Club teleministry that a reverse mortgage was a "good deal" if she was having trouble making ends meet.

"I have been a 700 Club partner for many years," a woman named Maria explained in an email. "I am 67 years old and still working because retirement money does not cover our basic expenses."

"I was thinking about a reverse mortgage but have my doubts," Maria wrote. "What do you think?"

Robertson pointed out that a reverse mortgage prevented the bank from taking "your house away from you as long as you are alive and living."

"You don't have to pay it off, but somebody has to pay it off, namely the United States taxpayer," Robertson continued. "So, it's not a good deal for the taxpayers, but for most people it's a pretty good deal."

The televangelist recommended that Maria speak to a financial adviser, but added that "it could be a good deal for you."

Becoming a 700 Club partner starts at $240 a year for a basic membership. A Chairman's Circle membership runs $10,000 a year.

An internet video reportedly showing the confession of a man saying he was a spotter in the deadly shelling of Mariupol is just another low-quality fake created by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry also hinted that closer examination of the footage actually points to the fact that Ukraine forces were responsible for the bombardment.

The video was published on the internet on Sunday, one day after shelling in the eastern Ukrainian port city killed at least 30 people and left another 100 injured.

"The SBU needed 24 hours to force this story out of a man, which - as we see in the clip - is read by the detainee from a piece of paper located left to the screen," the statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said.