The Obama administration jumped the gun by announcing that Turkey had authorized it permission to fly US fighter jets out of the Incirlik Airbase against Islamic State militants, who are making dramatic gains in Iraq and Syria.

The snub from Ankara is as an embarrassment to US officials, who on Sunday were trumpeting Turkey's participation in the fight against the Islamic State [IS]. On Tuesday, military leaders from 22 countries that contribute in one way or another in the US-led coalition against IS will meet US President Obama in Washington.

White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice, in an apparent effort to convince war-weary Americans at home that there is some sort of global consensus on the Syrian mission, told NBC's Meet the Press that Turkey and Saudi Arabia had authorized that "facilities inside Turkey can be used by the coalition forces, American and otherwise, to engage in activities inside of Iraq and Syria."

On Monday, Turkish officials denied that they'd granted permission for their territory to be used as a launch pad against IS.

"Turkey has made no decision on whether to open its Incirlik airbase to the US-led coalition in the fight," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in New York.

Its getting hot in the kitchen

It looks like Poroshenko's days are numbered. His most likely replacement? The extreme right.

So the "great genius" of Ukrainian military strategy, the man who promised to organize a victory parade for the Ukrainian army in Sevastopol was fired.

Officially, of course, Ukrainian Defence Minister Valerii Geletei submitted his resignation which was accepted. But the truth of the matter is that Heletey was sacked for gross incompetence and for making idiotic claims that the Russian military had used two tactical nuclear weapons at the Lugansk airport. The question is, of course, whether that will solve Poroshenko's problem.

After all, if Geletei promised a victory parade in Sevastopol, Poroshenko promised one in Donetsk. He did get one, but not the one he hoped for: a parade of Ukrainian prisoners followed by street-cleaning trucks. Poroshenko also promised to liquidate the "terrorists" in a matter of days, but instead his military suffered a crushing and most humiliating defeat. Finally, Poroshenko did go to the US to get a special ally status for the Ukraine, a conference of "friends of the Ukraine", lethal aid and lots of money. In the end, he got nothing besides standing ovations and smiles. The critical question is, why did the US gave nothing meaningful to Poroshenko? Could it be that the US has decided that he is unable to deliver anything useful?

Russia will import pork from China for the first time in a decade to replace imports from the US and Europe banned as part of the standoff with the West over the Ukraine crisis.

Pork imports by Russia from China have resumed for the first time since 2004, according to the website of Russia's consumer watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor. Eight hundred tons of pork is on its way to Russia in 32 shipping containers.

China is the world's largest pork producer and in 2013 delivered 68 million tons, or about 50 percent of the world's pork.

Worried about foot and mouth disease, Russia banned Chinese meat imports in 2004. In 2009 swine flu struck Chinese pigs and in 2003 the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak had also raised concerns.

In August, Russia agreed to resume pork imports from China, and gave two Chinese companies permission to sell on the Russian market. Nine more applications have been processed and are awaiting approval.

A new prize-winning American documemtary film has been released which suggests that the snipers who killed 100 demonstrators on Kiev's central square in January and February of this year may have been working for pro-western groups seeking to overthrow the then president, who was pro-Russian. The full video can be seen at the end of this article.

This is precisely the opposite of what the western media reported at the time.

Even though it sounds like old news, it is very interesting to have a look back at some of the events that caused the bloody civil war we are witnessing right now in Ukraine.

We all remember leaked conversation of Estonian Foreign Minister and his claims that snipers that killed protestors were most likely hired by Maidan protest leaders.

A few days ago, even Reuters, which usually has a strong anti-Russian bias when covering Russia, ran a special report in which they expose "serious flaws" in Maidan massacre probe.

At the time of the sniper killings, although no thorough investigation had been conducted, the blame was immediately placed on the officers who served under Yanukovich and Russia.

World wealth has reached a record $263 trillion but is concentrated in fewer hands. The richest 1 percent have accumulated more wealth, and own almost 50 percent of it, which could trigger recession, according to a new report by Credit Suisse.

The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, released Tuesday warns that the "abnormally high wealth income ratios" may spark a recession, as high disparity leads to economic friction.

Global wealth has grown to a record $263 trillion in mid-2014, $20.1 trillion more, and an 8.3 percent increase, over mid-2013. Household wealth has more than doubled since 2000, when the same report calculated it at $117 trillion.

Leading the money trail is the United States, dubbed 'Land of Fortunes' by the report, which again boasts the highest average wealth. It is home to 34.7 percent ($91 trillion) of global wealth. Europe's portion comes in a close second with 32.4 percent, followed by India and China's 23.7 percent share, and then the 18.9 percent concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region.

North America has the highest average wealth and is also the world's leader in GDP, which the report estimates grew by $12.9 billion in 2013.

The current conflict in Ukraine has shown that the international law is in a deep crisis, with many international human rights groups turning a blind eye to the crimes against civilians in the country's southeast, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.

"They [the events in Ukraine] have exposed a large-scale crisis of the international law, basic norms of the Universal declaration of human rights and the Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide," Putin said at a meeting of Presidential Council for Human Rights.

"We have witnessed double standards in the assessment of crimes against the civilian population in southeastern Ukraine, the violation of basic human rights, namely the right to life and the right to personal security. People there are subject to torture, cruel and humiliating punishment, discrimination and unjust decisions," the president said.

The Russian leader thanked Russian human rights activists for their "fair stance" and for coming to Ukraine to help those who found themselves in a "difficult and sometimes deadlock situation."

"Unfortunately, many international human rights organizations turn a blind eye to what is happening and hypocritically turn their backs," Putin said.

US sanctions against Russia can be considered as economic terrorism, said acting Bolivian President Evo Morales in an interview to RT. He also revealed his secret job aspiration.

"This [US sanctions against Russia] is genuine economic terrorism. The country that thinks it can dominate the world is making a mistake," says Morales.

"I think that US President Barack Obama doesn't' know what is going on in other countries and continents."

According to Morales, a single country "cannot rule in this multipolar world," as all the issues should be "settled in cooperation among the states; that's what the UN is for."

"Thus I condemn and reject these kind of actions [US sanctions against Russia]," said the president, adding that Bolivia shares "the struggle of the Russian people."

"I express my solidarity with Russian people and their President [Vladimir Putin]," he added.


Morales recently coasted to victory in the country's presidential elections. He won the third term, securing 60.5 percent of the vote according to a count released by local TV channel ATB.

A Russian diplomat in Australia called the remark of Australian PM Tony Abbott about his intention to "shirtfront" Vladimir Putin "immature." He reminded the Aussie politician that he might be "very fit" but Putin is "a professional judo wrestler."

Abbot's scandalous remark came on Monday after he told journalists that he is going to "shirtfront" the Russian president on the sidelines of G20 summit over the tragedy of the Malaysian airliner crash in the Donetsk Region of Ukraine in July.

"I am going to shirtfront Mr Putin - you bet I am - I am going to be saying to Mr Putin Australians were murdered, they were murdered by Russian backed rebels," Abbott said.

Shirtfront is a football technique for a front-on chest bump or rough handling aimed at knocking your rival backward to the ground. It's "a reportable offence and considered illegal," says the Australian Football Rules website.

The Russian Embassy in Australia, however, didn't let Abbot's remark go unnoticed.

Third secretary of the Russian Embassy in Canberra, Aleksandr Odoevsky, told the Australian Associated Press that the remarks of the Australian PM were "immature."

"We consider the recent statements tough talk and immature," Odoevsky said.

"Hopefully there's no fight. Well, definitely we admire the Australian prime minister. He's very fit, but the Russian president... he's a professional judo wrestler," Odoevsky told Ten Network television.

Abbot toned down his language a day later as he failed to answer journalists' questions about shirtfronting Putin and whether he regretted his statement. He said he is "absolutely determined to have a very robust conversation with the Russian president."

"We've all seen the impact of Russian policy on the innocent people on board Flight MH17. I think the very least I can do, speaking for Australia's dead and speaking for the families of Australia's dead and indeed speaking for the world's victims is to have a very robust conversation with President Putin," he added.

Rescue workers and OSCE observers working on the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing in eastern Ukraine came under artillery fire from positions occupied the Kiev government troops, a leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said Tuesday.

"Rockets fell two kilometers away from the field where experts were gathering items of Boeing passengers," DPR Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin said.

On Monday, DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko said that independence supporters were ready to let Ukrainian investigators visit the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines plane, noting that it was "strange" that the debris from the aircraft was not being collected.

On Sunday, October 12, RIA Novosti reported that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made a statement on his official website saying the following:

We expect to achieve complete ceasefire in the coming days. Once this happens, the creation of a buffer zone will be launched. Both sides must pull out heavy weaponry at least 15 kilometers [9.3 miles] away into the controlled areas.

This comes at a time that has seen Ukrainian forces violate said ceasefire multiple times a day. The OSCE has reported on the shelling of multiple towns by Kiev forces, and Donetsk's leadership has claimed Kiev violated the ceasefire a total of 17 times on Monday with shelling of residential areas killing 3 and injuring 7, with more attacks that night, bringing the total to 45 violations, at least 12 dead, with dozens more wounded. This comes after 16 civilians were reported killed on Sunday alone.

The continued violations on the part of Kiev have prompted DPR Prime Minister Zakharchenko to curb the planned "silence regime", which would have seen Novorossiyan troops withdraw their artillery from the line of conflict if Kiev could abide by the ceasefire for 5 days.

Poroshenko, in his official statement, also mentioned that he had reached out to the OSCE to increase the number of monitors of the conflict to 1500, upon which they agreed.