Deep in the Swiss Alps, next to an old airstrip suitable for landing Gulfstream and Falcon jets, is a vast bunker that holds what may be one of the world's largest stashes of gold. The entrance, protected by a guard in a bulletproof vest, is a small metal door set into a granite mountain face at the end of a narrow country lane. Behind two farther doors sits a 3.5-ton metal portal that opens only after a code is entered and an iris scan and a facial-recognition screen are performed. A maze of tunnels once used by Swiss armed forces lies within.

The owner of this gold vault wants to remain anonymous for fear of compromising security, and he worries that even disclosing the name of his company might lead thieves his way. He's quick to dismiss questions about how carefully he vets clients but says many who come to him looking for a safe haven for their assets don't pass his sniff test. "For every client we take, we turn one or two away," he says. "We don't want problems."

Beijing has once again voiced strong objections to the deployment of a US anti-missile system in South Korea, vowing to take the "necessary" steps to maintain a strategic power balance in the region.

Stating that China has already made it perfectly "clear" on several occasions that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is not welcome in South Korea, the country's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated that the complex's deployment will not help maintain peace in the region.

The THAAD deployment "will in no way help address the security concerns of relevant parties, realize denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintain peace and stability on the Peninsula," Shuang told reporters at a daily briefing.

The spokesperson said that America's deployment of the weapons will "severely undermine" China's strategic security interests and will tip the regional balance of power on the peninsula.

"China is firmly opposed and will take necessary measures to defend national security interests and regional strategic balance. We strongly urge the US and the ROK to spend more efforts on upholding peace and stability on the Peninsula, take seriously the legitimate concerns of China and other regional countries, and immediately stop the deployment process," Shuang warned.

If the US launches a military campaign to oust the Syrian government, it would further fracture the country and have tremendous negative long-term consequence for the entire region, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned.

"If the US launches a direct aggression against Damascus and the Syrian Army, it would cause a terrible, tectonic shift not only in the country, but in the entire region," Maria Zakharova said during a talk show, which is to be aired fully later on Saturday and has been cited by RIA.

With no government in Damascus, there will be a power vacuum in Syria, which "so-called moderates, who are, in reality, not moderate at all but just terrorists of all flavors, would fill; and there will be no dealing with them," the diplomat predicted.

"And later it would be aggravated the way it happened in Iraq. We know that [Saddam Hussein's] Iraqi Army became the basis of the Islamic State. Everything that both the [US-led] coalition and Russia are fighting now stems from it," Zakharova said.

Press TV has interviewed James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst from Washington, to discuss US hints at possible terrorist attacks against Russian cities.

Jatras said Friday night that the threat described by Russia as an invitation to terrorist attacks are "irresponsible and incredibly dangerous," which could push the Russians and the Americans into a direct conflict.

On Thursday, US State Department spokesman John Kirby warned Russia of "more body bags" and "attacks on Russian cities" if the Russians continued cooperation with the Syrian government in attacking militants.

The US is risking a "direct confrontation" with Russia, which could easily get out of hand and end up with a "direct clash" between the two powers, Jatras told Press TV's "The Debate" program.

Venezuela's foreign minister called on Latin America to unite to defend sovereignty and development.

The foreign minister of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez denounced the existence of U.S. military bases in Latin American Thursday and called for the governments in the region to unite and demand their closing, remarks that came during the third annual Latin American Summit of Progressive Movements in Ecuador.

According to Rodriguez, who spoke to an audience in the capital city of Quito, these bases only provoke conflict in the region. "We denounce the presence of 70 U.S. bases in our region, we have to unite and demand the closing of these bases," said Rodriguez.

Ecuador's former foreign minister Ricardo Patiño introduced Rodriguez, warning that the imperialist powers will continue to attack the progressive forces in Latin America.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC that the US is trying to spare jihadist groups in its attempts to overthrow Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

It has been one year since Russia was invited, legally, by the internationally recognized government of Syria. What is the US doing in Syria, uninvited?

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with Stephen Sackur on BBC World News TV on the first anniversary of the beginning of the Russian air campaign in Syria.

Translated by J. Arnoldski

Yesterday, US State Department representative John Kirby tried to, so to say, "play a bluff."

The most hilarious aspect of the situation is that this soldier by profession, John Kirby, tried to act like a diplomat and bluff not only Vladimir Putin personally, but all of Russia.

He failed miserably from the start, so much so that Russian "propagandists" chipped in and sent him a present for his personal contribution to discrediting America in the eyes of Russians. His quote came in very handy, as it will be actively used against the Russian liberal-Westernists who love to tell everyone about how good America is and how there is nothing to fear.

Even a very foolish person will find it difficult to believe that John Kirby, foretelling explosions in Russian cities and Russian soldiers coming back in body bags, in fact wishes us all happiness and prosperity. Thank you very much, Mr. US State Department spokesman!

Translated by J. Arnoldski

The official spokesperson of the US State Department, John Kirby, stated that his words on possible terrorist attacks in Russia in the event of a worsening of the situation in Syria were not intended as a threat.

"I didn't threaten anyone. It was the facts. And these facts are not new. The question was, what are the implications for Russia," Kirby informed journalists, noting that he was merely repeating the words of US State Secretary John Kerry that there would be "more war and more blood." He also added that assuming these words were an "incitement to terrorism" is "totally false."

On this note, Russian folklore has a precise diagnosis in the saying "If the claw is stuck, then the whole bird is done for" [which roughly translates into English as "Once the line is crossed, there is no going back" - J. Arnoldski]. In the face of its official representative John Kirby, the US State Department has burned itself in the most obvious and irreversible way.

Pundits have declared a "New Cold War." If only! The Cold War was a time when leaders focused on reducing tensions between nuclear powers. What we have today is much more dangerous: Washington's reckless and irresponsible aggression toward the other major nuclear powers, Russia and China.

During my lifetime American presidents worked to defuse tensions with Russia. President John F. Kennedy worked with Khrushchev to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Richard Nixon negotiated SALT I and the anti-ballistic missile treaty, and Nixon opened to Communist China. President Carter negotiated SALT II. Reagan worked with Soviet leader Gorbachev and ended the Cold War. The Berlin Wall came down. Gorbachev was promised that in exchange for the Soviet Union's agreement to the reunification of Germany, NATO would not move one inch to the East.

Peace was at hand. And then the neoconservatives, rehabilitated by the Israeli influence in the American press, went to work to destroy the peace that Reagan and Gorbachev had achieved. It was a short-lasting peace. Peace is costly to the profits of the military/security complex. Washington's gigantic military and security interests are far more powerful than the peace lobby.

Since the advent of the criminal Clinton regime, every American president has worked overtime to raise tensions with Russia and China.

China is confronted with the crazed and criminal Obama regime's declaration of the "pivot to Asia" and the prospect of the US Navy controlling the sea lanes that provision China.

Russia is even more dangerously threatened with US nuclear missile bases on her border and with US and NATO military bases stretching from the Baltics to the Black Sea.

Russia is also threatened with endless provocations and with demonization that is clearly intended to prepare Western peoples for war against "the Russian threat." Extreme and hostile words stream from the mouth of the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, who has called the president of Russia "the new Hitler" and threatened Russia with military force. Insouciant Americans are capable of electing this warmonger who would bring Armageddon upon the earth.

Yesterday, Israel's voice in the US, the New York Times, added to Hillary's demonization of the most responsible leader in the world with this editorial: "Vladimir Putin's Outlaw State." This irresponsible and propagandistic editorial, no doubt written by the neoconservatives, blames all the troubles in Ukraine and Syria on Putin. The NYT presstitutes know that they have no case, so they drag in the US-orchestrated false report on MH-17 recently released by Washington's Netherlands vassal.

This report is so absurd as to cast doubt on whether intelligence exists anywhere in the Western world. Russia and the now independent Russian provinces that have separated from Ukraine have no interest whatsoever in shooting down a Malaysian airliner. But despite this fact, Russia, according to the orchestrated report, sent a surface-to-air missile, useful only at high altitude, an altitude far higher than the Ukrainian planes fly that are attacking Russians in the separated republics, to the "rebels" so that the "rebels" could shoot down a Malaysian airliner. Then the missile system was sent back to Russia.

How insouciant does a person have to be to believe this propaganda from the New York Times?

Does the New York Times write this nonsense because it is bankrupt and lives on CIA subsidies?

A powerful array of institutional/oligarchic interests is behind the rabid demonization of all things Workers' Party.

The interminable, ghastly telenovela aiming at turning Brazil, the seventh-largest economy in the world, into a Banana Republic of Scoundrels while destroying its economy, is—like the infamous GWOT (Global War on Terror)—a gift that keeps on giving.

No, this would never qualify as a Shakespearean tragedy or even a Monty Python sketch. Neither tragic nor funny; just nasty, brutish and overwhelmingly pathetic.

Center stage once again is Sergio Moro, the puny provincial prosecutor with an Elliott Ness complex in charge of the blatantly one-sided Car Wash corruption investigation. Moro is a pure product of Hollywood screenwriting. He is investigator, judge, executioner; in sum, he incarnates The Law. A Magnum-deprived Dirty Harry, but armed with plenty of cheap suits.

After the golpeachment of Dilma Rousseff, it didn't take long for Moro to play his joker: Lula in jail by all means necessary.