To give Israel a legal excuse for seizing Palestinian homes, an MP has proposed a new version of an earlier bill to retroactively legitimize the seizure of property in the West Bank.

In October 2015, Israeli lawmaker Yoav Kish withdrew a bill that sought to legalize the seizure of Palestinian private property in the West Bank, after the proposal led to widespread anger. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a right-wing politician with little interest in Palestinian rights, rejected a similar bill during his last term, arguing that the proposal threatened the interests of Israel.

Over 2,000 Israeli structures have been built on Palestinian land.

Now the notion has arisen again. MP Shuli Moalem-Rafaeli, of the Jewish Home Party, has proposed an updated version of the bill in another attempt to legitimize land seizures.

Amid renewed public interest in determining the identities of all the culprits behind the 9/11 attacks, comes word that a second executive with one of the World Trade Center's insurers has died from "suicide."

Zurich Insurance Group's former CEO Martin Senn was reported to have shot himself at his vacation home near Davos in Switzerland. No suicide note was found by police. Senn resigned as CEO of the insurance giant last December after the company experienced losses from the still-unexplained large explosions in Tianjin, China, last August.

WMR reported on August 21, 2016:

WMR's sources from throughout Asia are reporting the same thing: the massive August 12 explosion that completely obliterated the Binhai New Area of the special economic zone city of Tianjin appears to not have been the result of an accidental chemical explosion but from state-sponsored industrial sabotage. The initial explosion was followed by a series of other explosions, said to be from combustible materials stored in the port and warehouse area. Moreover, WMR's sources report that the nature of the initial shock wave and secondary fireball indicates that the conflagration may have been caused by a tactical nuclear bunker buster bomb hidden in a shipping container.

Our report continued:

Among the 117 deaths from the explosion were a number of firemen. Some 70 people, most of them firemen, remain missing with a fear that they were vaporized by the series of explosions. Some 800 people were injured in the blast. Damage to the surrounding area was extensive with more than 8,000 new cars from Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Renault, and Toyota left as burnt-out shells from the explosion. Nearby metro train stations, a Japanese department store, and the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin were damaged by the explosions. Tianjin is 75 miles east of Beijing.

Even by the standards of the British Royal family, the case of Prince Andrew and the underage sex slave is a peculiar one.

An American woman called Virginia Roberts - now a married, 31-year-old mother of three - has filed an affidavit in a Florida federal court in which she swears in gruesome detail that the late press baron and pension fiddler Robert Maxwell's daughter Ghislaine recruited her to satisfy the sexual needs of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein and his friends. Those friends, according to Roberts, included the Duke of York, now fifth in line to the throne, and celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz (best known for getting Claus von Bulow's conviction for murdering his wife overturned). Buckingham Palace have denied everything more than once. Dershowitz is suing. From 1999 onwards, when she was just 15, Virginia spent much of her time on Epstein's Boeing 727 - nickname, the "Lolita Express" - on an unsavoury kind of world tour that included, she says, an orgy with Andrew on Epstein's private island of Little St James, or "Little St Jeff", as it became known.

One of the many extraordinary things about this sordid story that Jackie Collins would blush to create - aside from the fact that Andrew chose to refer to it at the World Economic Forum in Davos, of all places, but then was unable to keep his cool when asked if he would be making a statement under oath (he walked out of the room without answering) - is that Andrew would be friends with Jeffrey Epstein in the first place. But then again, as both Bill Clinton and Stephen Hawking have been to Little St James as part of Epstein's circle, he was hardly alone.

Around Epstein the question hovers: who exactly is this man who makes such powerful friends and how does he do it?

We are already into the fifth year since the conflict started in Syria and it still seems far from over—and we might not see its peaceful resolution unless the major powers involved in it start coordinating their anti-terror efforts. While the U.S. has been involved in the conflict since almost the beginning, Russia's entry in 2015 has considerably altered the course of events to a highly positive direction. Not only has Russia's role been recognized by the U.S. (read: John Kerry's appraisal of how Russian campaign has positively contributed to salvaging thousands of lives), but the U.S. is now, gradually though, coming round to the Russian way of ending the war. Many see in it a glaring diplomatic success of Mr. Putin and his team.

This coordination's first glimpse came when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during his last visit to Tashkent last week, "We agreed with our American partners - not straightaway, but after dealing with their concerns, doubts and even resistance - to eventually move from sharing information to coordinated action against terrorism. These issues are currently being considered by our defense departments." He further added that, "there is now a chance that such coordination will occur. We believe that the Russian (forces) and the aircraft of US-led coalition should operate in a synchronized and coordinated manner and help those who are really fighting terrorist units on the ground - armed forces of the Syrian Arab Republic and various Kurdish self-defense units ... I can safely say we are ready for such coordination (in the forthcoming operation to capture Raqqa)."

This coordination has also seen some sort of practical manifestation. According to some reports, Russia has started to restrain from attacking the Al-Qaeda affiliate groups, such as Al-Nusra, due primarily to facilitate the U.S. in separating its "moderate" units from Al-Qaeda. While one may argue that this case implies Russia giving in to the U.S. policy of funding 'proxy groups' against Daesh, it can also be seen a concession Russia has agreed upon to coordinate its way with that of the U.S. and its allies to avoid unnecessary provocation. To quote Lavrov, "We (Moscow) met them (Washington) half way".

Two of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged accomplices are running businesses from a Manhattan property linked to the wealthy sex offender under new identities, years after appearing to have left his scandal-plagued entourage.

Nada Marcinkova and Sarah Kellen, who were questioned by lawyers about whether Prince Andrew had any involvement in Epstein's abuse of underage girls, have since reinvented themselves as Nadia Marcinko and Sarah Kensington.

Marcinkova, 29, is now a pilot and the chief executive of Aviloop, a website selling discounted flying lessons and other deals related to aviation. Kellen, 34, states that she is the owner of SLK Designs, a renovations firm.

However according to public records, both businesses have operated from addresses in a building on East 66th Street in Manhattan majority-owned by Epstein's brother Mark, a wealthy property magnate. Two condominiums in the building sold last year for $2.5m and $1.85m.

Marcinkova's company is officially registered with New York authorities at the building. Import records show that Kellen's company takes deliveries there.

Fighters of the terrorist group Islamic State have publicly executed 19 Kurdish women, local activists in Mosul reported. They were burned alive in iron cages in one of the city squares, sources told Kurdish ARA News agency.

The women, who belonged to the Kurdish Yezidi minority, were executed on Thursday, according to witnesses in Mosul, the Iraqi stronghold of IS (formerly known as ISIS). "They were punished for refusing to have sex with IS militants," local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News. Hundreds of local residents witnessed the brutal execution, but could not do anything about it, he added.

IS, an Iraq, Syria and Libya-based terrorist group, adheres to what it believes to be a pure version of Islam. They justify their numerous crimes, including cruel forms of capital punishment, by the tenets of the religion.

Sunni Muslims living in territories under their control are forced to live by IS rules or be expelled or killed. Ethnic and religious minorities are being harshly persecuted. The Yezidis, an ethnic group that has its own synthetic religion and are considered devil-worshipers by extremist Muslims, are among those suffering under IS.

Thousands of Kurdish women captured by IS fighters were forced to become sex slaves to the militants. Those who managed to escape or were freed said that the women are raped, traded around, often denied food or rest and otherwise mistreated. IS leadership produced manuals for their men on what they should and should not be doing to their captives.

State-run Saudi Aramco is to cut the price of light crude by 35 cents a barrel to northwest Europe and by 10 cents a barrel to the Mediterranean in July.

At the same time the company has raised prices on most crude grades for Asia and the US amid strong demand in the regions.

The step follows a failed attempt by OPEC members in Vienna last week to freeze output. The current production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day was approved by the group in December 2011.

Falling prices for European consumers is due to increased competition from Iran as it plans to boost exports to the region.

The Islamic Republic currently sells 400,000 barrel per day to Europe and aims to increase exports to 700,000 after deals with Greek, French and Italian refiners are signed, according to Iranian officials.

US sanctions aren't just hurting everyone including the US, they are accomplishing nothing. The US State Department's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) notified readers of a diplomacy campaign by the United States aimed at "urging" Europe to maintain sanctions against Russia. While the US claims the necessity of these sanctions are self-evident and beneficial to the US and Europe, such campaigns would not be needed if that were truly the case.

The article titled, "U.S. Sends Envoy To Urge Europe To Maintain Russian Sanctions," states:

The United States is dispatching an envoy to Paris and Berlin on June 7 and 8 to try to convince European allies "of the importance of maintaining sanctions pressure on Russia," the U.S. Treasury said on June 3.

The sanctions, RFE/RL claims, are a result of Russia's involvement in neighboring Ukraine's downward spiral, which ironically enough, began not with Russian involvement but with that of America. Between 2013-2014 the United States, with its own senators traveling to Ukraine and taking the stage at US-backed protests in Kiev, quite literally propelled a violent Neo-Nazi putsch into power.

Since then, Ukraine has unraveled. Rather than taking responsibility for yet another failed US intervention, US policymakers have instead decided to shift the blame on Moscow. The ability to hold up US-EU sanctions against Russia as a means of legitimizing this shift of responsibility is key to the continued underpinning of Western support for the current regime in Kiev, and Washington's continued belligerence toward Moscow.

US Sanctions are a Geopolitical Wrecking Ball

Like a geopolitical wrecking ball, US intervention in Ukraine first destabilized and destroyed Ukraine's economy, before brushing into Russia and now with sanctions ongoing ever since, the effects have swung back to hit Europe and even the United States itself.

France's economy minister was left scrambling for safety when a group of angry union activists attacked him with eggs. It comes amid nationwide strikes and protests against a controversial labor reform law.

Emmanuel Macron was attempting to attend an event in the Paris suburb of Montreuil on Monday when he was struck with eggs by angry members of the CGT union telling him to "get lost."

Speaking to reporters with yolk in his hair, 38-year-old Macron said the egging was the work of "professional agitators," RFI reported.

"They don't listen, they insult," said the minister, who was at the post office to launch a new stamp commemorating the 80th anniversary of the popular front government that gave French workers new rights.

"It's all par for the course but it won't have any impact on my determination," Macron said, as quoted by Reuters. He added that there is no economic future for those who resist change.

In the 1990s, former Secret Service agent Gary J. Byrne served in the White House, posted outside Bill Clinton's Oval Office.

His new book scheduled for release in late June is titled "Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate."

Details of the book are largely under wraps. A description posted on Amazon states the following:

"Posted directly outside President Clinton's Oval Office, Former Secret Service uniformed officer Gary Byrne reveals what he observed of Hillary Clinton's character and the culture inside the White House while protecting the First Family."

"Now that a second Clinton administration threatens - their scheme from the very beginning - Byrne exposes what he saw of the real Hillary Clinton."