Attempts were made to break into the hospital mortuary holding the body of Kim Jong-nam, according to Malaysian police. The country has refused to hand over the remains to North Korea until it is claimed by a family member.

"We knew there were attempts by someone to break into the hospital mortuary. We had to take precautions. We will not allow anyone to tamper with the mortuary," Malaysia's Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said at a press conference, as reported by the Malay Mail.

Khalid would not identify the break-in suspects, but said they were known to police.

The alleged break-in attempt comes after North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia reportedly had his request to have the body returned to the country denied. North Korea claims the body is not that of Kim Jong-nam and that the Malaysian police cannot be trusted.

US Defense Secretary Mattis rushes to Baghdad as Iraqi army launches giant offensive to liberate western Mosul from ISIS

The Iraqi government on Sunday 19th February 2017 launched the second stage of its campaign to liberate Mosul - Iraq's second largest city - from ISIS.

The initial target of the offensive is Mosul's airport. Al-Jazeera has published a dramatic account of the early stages of the battle, which includes this evocative phrase

NBC News reported earlier that a dossier on Trump is being prepared for Vladimir Putin

The Kremlin never commissioned any dossiers on the psychological makeup of US President Donald Trump, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

NBC News earlier reported that "a dossier on Donald Trump's psychological makeup is being prepared for Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Thanks to "MS" who drew my attention to this amazing video. This is an except from an RT program entitled "Watching the Hawks" (see full video here). In this excerpt, a (supposedly) "former" Mossad officer, Juval Aviv, predicts that Donald Trump will be impeached for treason in the next few months. See for yourself:

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has described the measures taken by the EU to settle the economic crisis in Greece as a "terrible job." The comment comes as Greece agrees to new reforms that are set to help the country qualify for cheaper loans.

"Isn't it yet another piece of evidence that the European Union is particularly good at doing a terrible job, but handling what should be a very manageable crisis," Varoufakis told CNN on Tuesday.

He noted that, in fact, the goals set for Athens are nearly impossible to reach. "The people at the IMF [International Monetary Fund]... told us that the Greek debt is unsustainable and the austerity that is being [imposed] upon Greece is catastrophic for the program itself."

Germany has announced its plans to increase its army by 5,000 troops, with 500 extra reserves and 1,000 civilian posts, aiming to have a total manpower of 198,000 by 2024.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen in a statement published on the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) website.

"The Bundeswehr faces demands like never before," said von der Leyen. "In the fight against IS [Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL] terrorism, the stabilization of Mali, or our considerable NATO presence in the Baltic States."

Germany's armed forces "must also be able to grow with its tasks," she added.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security... This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter."—Historian Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45

Brace yourself.

There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn't bode well for the future of this country.

Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by the antics of the political ruling class that they are oblivious to all else, you'd better beware. Anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you'd better beware. And anytime you have a government so far removed from its people as to ensure that they are never seen, heard or heeded by those elected to represent them, you'd better beware.

The world has been down this road before.

As historian Milton Mayer recounts in his seminal book on Hitler's rise to power, They Thought They Were Free, "Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people‑—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies', without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us."

We are at our most vulnerable right now.

The gravest threat facing us as a nation is not extremism—delivered by way of sovereign citizens or radicalized Muslims—but despotism, exercised by a ruling class whose only allegiance is to power and money.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

America is burning, and all most Americans can do is switch the channel, tune out what they don't want to hear, and tune into their own personal echo chambers.

We're in a national state of denial.

Yet no amount of escapism can shield us from the harsh reality that the danger in our midst is posed by an entrenched government bureaucracy that has no regard for the Constitution, Congress, the courts or the citizenry.

If the team colors have changed from blue to red, that's just cosmetic.

The playbook remains the same. The leopard has not changed its spots.

Scrape off the surface layers and you will find that the American police state is alive and well and continuing to wreak havoc on the rights of the American people.

"We the people" are no longer living the American Dream.

We're living the American Lie.

Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, is a villain to some and a brilliant economist to others. Greenspan has often been blamed for the housing bubble of 2008 which burst, causing the greatest economic recession since the 1920's. In a question and answer interview published in the February issue of the World Gold Council's Gold Investor, Greenspan opined about the importance of gold as the world's only real economic standard and admitted Ron Paul had been right all along.

The former chair of the federal reserve was asked about a term known as "stagflation." That's a condition wherein the economy is stagnant but prices are increasing. He was asked whether or not concerns over stagflation were legitimate or something no one should worry about.

The Libyan people are still suffering because Western powers continue to fuel the ongoing conflict there, the cousin of slain leader Muammar Gaddafi has said on the sixth anniversary of the Arab Spring, adding that the West should apologize and leave Libya alone.

"It is clear to everyone what is now happening in Libya: total destruction, people fleeing their homes, mass hunger. Our country has descended into total darkness, and our people are enduring suffering," Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, the cousin of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, told RT in an exclusive interview.

"On this anniversary of the Arab Spring, we must demand an apology to all Libyans - those whose homes were destroyed, those who were humiliated. On their behalf, I demand that the UN Security Council and the leading world powers apologize for what happened in 2011."

The Russian defense minister has warned against telling "a bear what to do," as he was commenting on his British counterpart describing Russia as "a bear" and saying the West does not need it "sticking its paws in" Libya.

"While on the 'animal' topic... What do they [UK] have on their coat of arms? A lion, I guess. There is an old saying: all lions are felines, but not all felines are lions. Let everyone mind their own business. I don't think that there is an animal in their zoo that can tell a bear what to do," Sergey Shoigu said while answering questions from students at a conference held by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Tuesday.

On Friday, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that the UK doesn't need "the bear sticking its paws" in Libya's affairs, the Daily Mail reported.