Russian and Chinese support for secular Arab nationalism in the conflict in Syria opens up possibilities for the Arab World to move beyond the sectarianism and division of the post-Nasser era.

Of the two great Communist powers of the 20^th century, China had always played a smaller, quieter, more subtle role in geo-politics vis-à-vis the USSR.

This phenomenon has largely continued in the 21^st century with Vladimir Putin's Russian Federation expanding upon traditional alliances made during the Soviet years.

Yet China's global outlook cannot be overlooked and there are many signs that China is looking to play a more active role in global affairs alongside Russia and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The statement comes only days ahead of an official visit by Vice President Joe Biden in a bid to normalize bilateral relations between the two countries and reach an agreement on the matter of Fethullah Gulen as Turkey appears to be edging away from NATO in the aftermath of the failed coup.

The US failure to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of the failed overthrow of the Erdogan government, is "destroying" Turkish-American relationships said Turkey's Prime Minister in another bout of incendiary rhetoric ahead of Vice President Joe Biden's official visit regarding the matter.

"Nothing is the same after July 15," said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Saturday. "America knows this, and we know they know it" before describing relations between the two countries as "so-so."

Sweden has been shocked by revelations about their quietly dignified King

Five months ago, the Swedish royal family was the toast of Europe. All eyes were trained on Stockholm as the glamorous Crown Princess Victoria wed her long-time boyfriend in a fairy-tale ceremony, and the world's press clamoured for a glimpse of the elegant Swedish royals and their regal guests.

Now the international media is again camped outside the gates of Stockholm's Drottningholm Palace - but this time for far less congratulatory reason.

Revelations last week that the King of Sweden once enjoyed romps in seedy nightclubs owned by shadowy underworld figures have eclipsed the sparkle of July's wedding. King Carl XVI Gustaf, the stern-looking, bespectacled monarch who is honorary chairman of the World Scout Foundation, has found himself thrust uncomfortably in the spotlight following the publication of an unflinching book, Carl XVI Gustaf - Den motvillige monarken (Carl XVI Gustaf - The reluctant monarch) which catalogues his past predilection for wild, alcohol-fuelled orgies and naked jacuzzi parties with models.

Hillary Clinton's top campaign aide, and the woman who might be the future White House chief of staff to the first female US president, for a decade edited a radical Muslim publication that opposed women's rights and blamed the US for 9/11.

One of Clinton's biggest accomplishments listed on her campaign web site is her support for the UN women's conference in Bejing in 1995, when she famously declared, "Women's rights are human rights." Her speech has emerged as a focal point of her campaign, featured prominently in last month's Morgan Freeman-narrated convention video introducing her as the Democratic nominee.

However, soon after that "historic and transformational" 1995 event, as Clinton recently described it, her top aide Huma Abedin published articles in a Saudi journal taking Clinton's feminist platform apart, piece by piece. At the time, Abedin was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief. She was also working in the White House as an intern for then-First Lady Clinton.

An anti-immigrant group staged a fake Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) attack in Prague's center that, unsurprisingly, ignited a chaotic panic among the crowd, resulting in "several tourists" being injured.

The group entered the Old Town Square equipped with an Islamic State flag, a military vehicle, army clothing, a camel, stick-on beards and fake guns which they fired in the air while shouting Allahu Akbar.

Ankara-backed Islamist units have reportedly mobilized on the Turkish side of the Syrian border to launch an assault on Jarablus, aiming to prevent the US-backed Kurdish-dominant SDF from capturing the town from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.

"The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey)," one of the Free Syrian Army fighters told Reuters. Another rebel source confirmed a buildup of forces, loosely organized under the FSA umbrella, inside Turkey at a military camp near the town of Qarqamish just across the border with Jarablus.

"Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus," the source told the news agency.

Although Hillary Clinton selected Tim Kaine as her Vice President in this campaign, her true running mate might very well be her vagina. Indeed, while Clinton's support continues to be among the lowest for any Democratic nominee in recent memory, she has managed to position her gender as a focal point of her campaign, a move intended to capture the women's vote among liberals and conservatives alike. And, considering her opponent is Donald Trump, a man seen by millions of women as a misogynistic loudmouth, she has done this quite successfully.

But beyond the political window-dressing and empty rhetoric, Clinton's record on women and families should not only lose her the support of American women, it should qualify her as one of the most anti-woman candidates in history. For while modest progress has been made toward some semblance of gender equality, it is the actions of Clinton herself that have done more than any other single individual to harm women and families. Slick public relations aside, Hillary Clinton may very well be the most anti-woman candidate in generations.

Hillary's Relentless Attack on Women and Families

"I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21^st Century." So said Hillary Clinton in a 2011 interview with Newsweek. And this quote, among many others, has been trumpeted by Clinton supporters as the revelation of the angel of feminism, the gospel according to Saint Hillary. But in probing a little more deeply, some disturbing questions emerge which seem to cast doubt on her commitment to the rights of women and girls, both in the 21^st Century, as well as at the end of the 20^th Century.

As First Lady, Hillary Clinton, along with her then President husband Bill Clinton, did more than anyone to make the lives of poor and working class women and girls all the more precarious. Perhaps no single action taken by the Clintons did more to harm women and families than the evisceration of welfare. As part of a deeply cynical, and unconscionably reckless, strategy to win over racist white voters, the Clintons set their sights on Black and Latino women and children, portraying them as parasitical exploiters of hard-working whites.

Iran will allow the Russian air force to use its Hamadan airbase for as long as Moscow sees fit, the country's Defense Minister said, after Russian planes used the Iranian airfield to bomb terrorists in Syria for the first time this week.

Russia can station its forces at the base "for as long as they need" to support their mission against terrorists in Syria, Brigade General Hossein Dehghan said during a news conference on Saturday. Dehghan stressed that the base is solely to be used to launch airstrikes that "target gatherings, bases, and activities of terrorists."

The Minister also stressed that the cooperation with Russia is based on the Islamic Republic's general policies and the approval of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. Permission to deploy an undisclosed number of Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range strategic bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighters was granted at the request of Syria the Minister pointed out.

"It is a military decision made in the framework of cooperation in fighting IS and other terrorists, which was organized at the request of the Syrian government," the Defense Minister said.

German authorities are set to introduce a new state defense plan that would make citizens stockpile food and water, enough to last for at least ten days, in the event of a major disaster or an armed attack, local media revealed.

The nation is to be encouraged to put away food reserves to take care of themselves in case of emergency, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) daily reported on Sunday citing a 69-page draft drawn up by the Interior Ministry.

"The population will have to hold an individual food stock that is to last ten days," the document titled "Concept for Civil Defense" reportedly said.

A newly-formed governing council in Yemen could work with Russia to "fight terrorism" by allowing Moscow use of the war-torn country's military bases, Yemen's former president said on Sunday.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, a former counter-terrorism ally of the U.S. who was toppled by mass protests in 2011, told state-owned channel Russia 24 that Yemen was ready to grant Moscow access to air and naval bases.

"In the fight against terrorism we reach out and offer all facilities. Our airports, our ports... We are ready to provide this to the Russian Federation," Saleh said in an interview in Sanaa.

The ex-strongman may lack the clout to implement such an offer. But officials from the party he heads now run a political council that controls much of the country along with the Houthi movement allied to Iran.