According to the Pentagon, Aleppo is "primarily held" by al-Qaeda. They argue that the rebels the CIA supports there are allies of al-Qaeda. The CIA, however, "rejects that claim, saying alliancess of convenience in the face of a mounting Russian-led offensive have created marriages of battlefield necessity, not ideology."

Only the CIA doesnt "reject that claim", they don't deny the fact that the rebels they back are in alliance with al-Qaeda, they admit that it is true and then go on to try to justify the crime of supporting international terrorism.

The US is, by their own admission, supporting one of the most horrific terrorist groups in the world through their rebel proxies. Noting this fact only a few months ago would have been rejected outright as some kind of conspiracy theory lunacy, yet now that they are unable to hide it anymore the propaganda narrative has changed. Instead of denying it they admit it, and say the rebels do work with al-Qaeda only they really really don't want to, and so it's okay. The problem however is that every single claim made in this argument is false.

Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, who supports Hillary Clinton and insists that Donald Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russians and Iranians in Syria should be killed covertly to "pay the price."

The ex-CIA chief, who worked with Clinton while she was secretary of state, told CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose that Iran and Russia should "pay a big price" in Syria - and by that he meant killing them.

"When we were in Iraq, the Iranians were giving weapons to the Shia militia who were killing American soldiers," Morell said. "The Iranians were making us pay a price. We need to make the Iranians pay a price in Syria, we need to make the Russians pay a price," he continued.

When asked if that meant killing Russians and Iranians, Morell fully agreed, qualifying the answer with "covertly."

Hillary Clinton is facing a lawsuit in the midst of her presidential campaign, as the parents of Americans slain in Benghazi have decided they have had enough and are suing her for wrongful death and defamation, among other things.

The complaint was filed by the lawyer of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the mother and father of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, who were both killed in the 2012 Islamist attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

"During her campaign for President, Defendant Clinton has negligently, recklessly, and/or maliciously defamed Plaintiffs by either directly calling them liars, or by strongly implying that they are liars, in order to protect and enhance her public image and intimidate and emotionally harm and silence them not to speak up about the Benghazi attack on at least four separate occasions," attorney Larry Klaiman wrote, in laying out the basis of the lawsuit.

Turkish president Recep Tayip Ergodan is meeting with "his friend" Vladimir Putin in hopes of turning a fresh page in the two countries' relations. It is their first meeting since Turkey downed a Russian bomber over Syria last November.

"Your visit, which comes amid a very complicated situation in Turkey, indicates that all of us want to revive our dialogue and restore relations for the sake of the Turkish and Russian peoples," President Putin said, greeting Erdogan in St. Petersburg. Putin added he was "one of the first [heads of state] who called President [Erdogan] and reaffirmed support for overcoming the domestic political crisis related to the [military] coup." In turn, Erdogan stressed he appreciates President Putin's willingness to meet him in person. "I once again express my gratitude to you for this opportunity to be with you and meet with you," the Turkish leader said.

Ankara appears to expect much from the meeting. "This will be a historic visit, a fresh start. I believe that a new page will be opened [during]... the negotiations with my friend Vladimir [Putin]," President Erdogan told TASS news agency in an exclusive interview ahead of the visit, adding that "there is yet much for our countries to do together." The two leaders are expected to meet tête-à-tête and then come out with a "roadmap" to help bring Russia-Turkey relations to a new level.

Nearly 100 people were killed in the weekend's protests in Ethiopia as demonstrators clashed with security forces in different parts of the country, Amnesty International says. The rights group says the most deadly incident happened in Bahir Dar, where at least 30 people died on Sunday. The authorities have said seven died in Bahir Dar and that security forces were reacting to violence from protesters.

There has been an unprecedented wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months. People in the Oromo and Amhara regions have been complaining about political and economic marginalisation.
Amnesty says that 67 people died when "security forces fired live bullets at peaceful protesters" in different towns and cities in the Oromo region over the weekend.

There were clashes between security forces and protesters on Sunday in Bahir Dar, the Amhara regional capital.

Opposition activists have given similar figures for the number of people killed.

The government has blamed "nearby and distant foreign enemies and social media activists" for defying warnings about holding unauthorised protests, the government-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) reports.

The authorities have said that the demonstrators were destroying government and private property and "inflicting deaths on innocent citizens" and arrests were made as people were trying to spread the violence, FBC adds.

The International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) decision to ban Russian Para athletes from the forthcoming Paralympic Games is overwhelmingly filthy and inhumane, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday. "Paralympians are not disables persons who do sport out of despair. Paralympians are athletes who have proved that there is no such thing as despair," she noted.

"The decision to bar the entire Russian Paralympic team from the Paralympic Games is strikingly filthy and inhumane," she wrote on her Facebook account. "It is a betrayal of those high human rights standards the modern world is resting on."

The IPC ruled on Sunday to suspend RPC's (Russian Paralympic Committee) membership and bar the Russian team from the Paralympic Games in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Russian Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko told TASS Russia will challenge this decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Labour Party members who joined after January 12 have won the right to vote in the approaching leadership contest, but the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) has vowed to appeal the High Court ruling. A High Court judge said the NEC had committed a "breach of contract" by restricting those eligible to vote in the leadership election. The original ban affected an estimated 130,000 new party members, who had joined Labour after the "freeze date" on January 12 this year.

Now, the victory of five new members - Christine Evangelou, Hannah Fordham, Rev Edward Leir, Chris Granger and a minor named only as "FM" - could open the door to the thousands who felt unfairly excluded from the contest between challenger Owen Smith and incumbent Jeremy Corbyn.

The five members' solicitor Kate Harrison told the press the court's decision, including the rule to let minors vote in the election, is a triumph for democracy. "This case was about the right to vote under the Labour Party constitution, under which all members are equal and valued," she said. "This is a good day for democracy, a good day for my clients who are proud to be members of the party that stands for social justice, and a good day for the Labour Party."

Many believe the court ruling will give Corbyn an advantage, as the bulk of new members are understood to be supporters of the Labour leader. Evangelou, a fitness instructor from north London, said she believes new members like herself want to work with Corbyn and "take the party back to its roots."

Any police officer who shoots to kill is playing with fire.

In that split second of deciding whether to shoot and where to aim, that officer has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner over a fellow citizen. And when an officer fires a killing shot at a fellow citizen not once or twice but three and four and five times, he is no longer a guardian of the people but is acting as a paid assassin. In so doing, he has short-circuited a legal system that was long ago established to protect against such abuses by government agents.

These are hard words, I know, but hard times call for straight talking.

We've been dancing around the issue of police shootings for too long now, but we're about to crash headlong into some harsh realities if we don't do something to ward off disaster.

You'd better get ready.

It's easy to get outraged when police wrongfully shoot children, old people and unarmed citizens watering their lawns or tending to autistic patients. It's harder to rouse the public's ire when the people getting shot and killed by police are suspected of criminal activities or armed with guns and knives. Yet both scenarios should be equally reprehensible to anyone who values human life, due process and the rule of law.

For instance, Paul O'Neal was shot in the back and killed by police as he fled after allegedly sideswiping a police car during a chase. The 18-year-old was suspected of stealing a car.

Korryn Gaines was shot and killed—and her 5-year-old son was shot—by police after Gaines resisted arrest for a traffic warrant and allegedly threatened to shoot police. Police first shot at Gaines and then opened fire when she reportedly shot back at them.

Loreal Tsingine was shot and killed by a police officer after she approached him holding a small pair of medical scissors. The 27-year-old Native American woman was suspected of shoplifting.

None of these individuals will ever have the chance to stand trial, be found guilty or serve a sentence for their alleged crimes because a police officer—in a split second—had already tried them, found them guilty and sentenced them to death.

In every one of these scenarios, police could have resorted to less lethal tactics.

They could have attempted to de-escalate and defuse the situation.

They could have acted with reason and calculation instead of reacting with a killer instinct.

That police instead chose to fatally resolve these encounters by using their guns on fellow citizens speaks volumes about what is wrong with policing in America today, where police officers are being dressed in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon "every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making."

Ankara and several European countries are seeking to find a way to ease Washington's sanctions on Sudan as they hurt economic relations with the African country, Turkey's ambassador said.

KHARTOUM — Turkey and a number of European countries are discussing ways to ease US economic sanctions against Sudan in order to open the country for investment, Turkish Ambassador to Sudan Cemalettin Aydin told Sputnik Monday.

"One of the reasons behind the lack of Turkish investments in Sudan is linked to the difficulties caused by the US embargo. We are talking with a range of European countries, also suffering from this, about convincing the United States to ease the pressure on Sudan," Aydin said.

Turkey is moving eastwards and may unleash a security nightmare scenario for both Europe, the US and NATO. Thus, the summit between presidents Erdogan and Putin in St. Petersburg on Tuesday has been called historic in advance, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet pointed out.

Russian-Turkish relations are clearly entering a new phase. The chill in the Russian-Turkish relations seems to be gradually being replaced with a thaw, as the two countries' presidents are all set for a face-to-face meeting.

"This will be a historic visit, a new beginning. The talks with my friend Vladimir open a new page in our bilateral relations," president Erdogan said prior the meeting with Putin.

The agenda focuses on re-establishing political and economic relations, as well as finding a solution to the Syrian crisis. Russia is determined to continue its support to the democratically elected Syrian president. Today, Erdogan no longer seems to mind this idea.