Beijing has urged Washington to respect international maritime order and stop interfering with other countries' affairs. It comes in response to a fresh report by the Pentagon, mentioning China as the top target of US 'freedom of navigation' operations.

"We regard the so-called 'freedom of navigation' operations as the violent means by which the US promotes its unilateral claims," Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said as cited by CCTV.

According to Beijing, the actions of the American military reveal "the hegemonic logic of the US towards international maritime order."

"We hope the US can respect the sovereignty and security of other countries and contribute more to safeguard international maritime order and regional peace and stability," Hua Chunying said.

Russia has officially requested the UN to sanction and delegitimize two militant groups - Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam - who are known to have close links to ISIS and Al-Qaeda and "regularly" violate and sabotage the Russia-US-brokered Syrian ceasefire. The Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin has submitted Moscow's request to the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) Tuesday, asking to add Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam to the list of the so-called "1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee."

According to Churkin the reason "for this step was the evidence that these organizations, fighting in Syria, are closely linked to terrorist organizations, first of all Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Qaeda, and provide and receive from them financial, material, technical and military support." Groups listed by the UN as terrorist organizations are not included in the Russia-US brokered ceasefire in Syria, and can still be attacked.

Should Russia's move be supported by all members of the UN Security Council, Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam, fighting government forces in Syria, will not be part of the truce, which was meant to pave the way to reconciliation between the Syrian government and moderate rebel forces.

Between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted in Israel's military courts each year, says rights group

A jabbing pain in his shoulder and thigh roused Obada from his sleep at 3am. In the half-light, the 15-year-old could make out eight masked men surrounding his bed, their rifles pointed at him.

"I felt terrified," he said of the experience of being arrested in February from his home in the village of al-Araqa, near Jenin in the northern West Bank.

Obada is one of more than 100 Palestinian children who, in recent months, have found themselves dragged from bed at gunpoint in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers, according to children's right groups.

Testimonies like Obada's feature in a new report, No Way to Treat a Child, compiled by Defence for Children International - Palestine (DCIP), a group monitoring Israeli violations of Palestinian children's rights.

The 440 children currently in military detention are the highest total since the Israeli army started issuing figures in 2008 - and more than double the number detained this time last year.

The rights group says that, despite promises two years ago from the Israeli army to phase out night raids following international condemnation, in practice they are used as routinely as ever.

On the same weekend marking the Armenian genocide, European Union leaders Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk were in Turkey lavishing praise on Ankara for allegedly relieving the refugee crisis.

The coincidence was unfortunate but telling. The EU's silence on the historical Armenian issue is symptomatic of its muted stance on a range of contemporary concerns about repression under the Erdogan government.

Merkel and Tusk lauded Turkey for its part in managing the refugee deal with the EU, whereby mainly Syrian migrants arriving in Greece are shipped back to Turkey for "processing". But the fact that Merkel and Tusk made no reference to the weekend's official commemoration of the Armenian genocide and instead sought to bestow praise on Turkey - praise that many doubt is merited - will be seen as further proof the EU is a pathetic pushover.

Turkey denies its role in exterminating 1.5 million of its compatriots nearly a century ago was an act of genocide.

With this fawning by the EU is it any wonder wily Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unrelenting in his accretion of repressive powers?

Soon after the impeachment motion against President Dilma Rousseff was approved in the Brazilian Congress by what I chose to call Hybrid War hyenas, President-in-Waiting Michel "Brutus" Temer, one of the coup's articulators, dispatched a senator to Washington as special paperboy to deliver the news on the coup in progress. The senator in question was not on an official mission for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Brutus Temer was alarmed by global media reaction, which is increasingly interpreting what he's doing - allied with Brutus Two, notoriously corrupt head of the lower house Eduardo Cunha - for what it is: a coup.

The senator's mission was allegedly to launch a PR offensive to counter the coup narrative, which is, according to Brutus One, "demoralizing Brazilian institutions".

Russia and India have signed a contract for the supply of advanced S-400 air defense systems, Indian officials said, according to Russian news agencies. The delivery will happen "as soon as possible," he said. The signing of the contract has been confirmed by an Indian official at an international security forum in Moscow, RIA Novosti and Interfax news agencies reported. Russia's Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the reports. The S-400 is the latest and most advanced of the long-range surface-to-air missiles produced by Russia.

The Russian military is the only operator of the system, but China and India are expected to be the first foreign nations to receive it. Media reports in 2015 said that India wants to buy five S-400 battalions.

As peace talks continue between the Syrian government and the High Negotiations Committee, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned of Turkey's "decisive influence" on the opposition council.

"In order to come to terms over six months it is necessary not to slam the door and dig in heels, as several delegates of the so-called Riyadh group have done," Lavrov said on Monday, speaking on the progress made through the Syrian peace talks.

The ceasefire agreed on February 27 has largely held and includes 71 settlements. While there have been occasional instances of fighting, many of these can be attributed to terrorist groups like Daesh, which are outlawed and not part of the deal.

Still, as negotiations continue, Lavrov added that "it's no secret" that Turkey has a "decisive influence" on the opposition group High Negotiations Committee.

"So one should not come for talks with ultimatums but should sit down at the negotiating table and reach an agreement," he said.

The foreign minister added that the Russian government is working to compile a more thorough list of the terrorist groups operating within Syria.

Militants of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group keep on arriving in the north-eastern regions of the Syrian province of Latakia from the territory of Turkey, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

On Monday, the Russian ministry said the extremists were building up their powers in Latakia's north-eastern parts.

"According to information received from civilians and opposition representatives, militants of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist grouping continue arriving in north-eastern regions of the Latakia province from territory of Turkey," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website on Tuesday.

The problems of the Middle East and North Africa are being compounded by a lack of "Western involvement," former Tory Foreign Secretary William Hague has claimed in a surprise intervention.

Hague, who headed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) between May 2010 and July 2014, said without foreign guidance the region's booming population, as well as "religious hatred, poor governance" and a "lack of economic success," would see Europe flooded with migrants.

Acknowledging some of the mistakes of the UK's 2011 war in Libya and its disastrous aftermath, Hague wrote in the Telegraph: "There is a danger of drawing the wrong conclusions from this experience, and enfeebling ourselves with a reluctance to send force overseas just when we will have a vital need to do so."

The rather repulsive sight of US puppet-in-chief Obama grovelling before Saudi royals last week, while US media sounds off on the shocking (not) 'revelation' that the House of Saud was instrumental in carrying out 9/11, point to interesting developments in the Western oil war against Russia. Pepe Escobar has proposed that US intervention was the reason for the recent last-minute failure by the world's leading oil producers to cut oil production, a deal that would have led to a rise in oil prices and given the Russians more room to maneuver by decreasing pressure on their state budget.

This came at a time when increased oil prices would benefit both Russia and Saudi Arabia - the Saudis are now more dependent on oil revenue than at any time in the past 40 years. But the Saudis, apparently with Washington's gun to their heads in the form of a threat to expose the Saudi role in 9/11, announced that the oil war was back on by announcing that they would instead flood the market.

Bearing in mind that the House of Saud is, essentially, the West's original Islamic State, their reneging on the oil cut deal is unsurprising. The very purpose of the Royal Head-chopping Kingdom has been to police the region and be a 'proxy force' that the West can use to do its dirty work. They've fulfilled that role brilliantly for decades, arming and inspiring thousands of terrorists, while turning the wealth of the Middle East into monopoly money for the West.

After the deal fell through, the Russian energy minister Alexander Novak essentially said 'We're sick of the games - bring it on', calling the Saudis' bluff by declaring that if they followed through on their threat to pump even more oil onto the markets, thus driving prices down further, and stating that Russia would respond by vastly increasing its own production.