A big win for Edward Snowden came with the narrowest of margins.

By a vote of 285 to 281, Members of European Parliament (MEP) passed a resolution Thursday calling for EU member states to drop criminal charges against the former NSA contractor and protect him from extradition.

In June of this year, the White House rejected the idea of dropping charges filed against Snowden under the Espionage Act. The former CIA contractor fled the U.S. in 2013 and resides in Moscow.

"The fact is that Mr Snowden committed very serious crimes, and the U.S. government and the Department of Justice believe that he should face them," Obama administration spokesman Josh Earnest told the Guardian at the time. "That's why we believe that Mr Snowden should return to the United States, where he will face due process and have the opportunity to make that case in a court of law."

Snowden faces the possibility of extradition to the U.S. should he enter any of the EU's 28 member countries. At the time of his departure, Snowden applied for -- and was denied -- asylum in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. The FBI pursued him relentlessly, even notifying Scandinavian countries in advance of their intent to extradite him should he leave Moscow via a connecting flight through any of their countries.

The new EU proposition specifically asks countries to "drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender." Snowden called the vote a "game-changer" on Twitter, adding, "This is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward."

Hillary's track record with Libya is poor to say the least. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was ultimately responsible for providing security at the US embassy where the attacks and killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens took place. Considering the outcome, it would be safe to say that Clinton was a failure in her duties at the very least. That is, if we assume the best and give her the benefit of the doubt.

However, while much has been made about the scandal in Benghazi and the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens there, the real story behind the attacks should make Clinton appear much more than an incompetent derelict. In fact, Clinton was anything but incompetent in the Benghazi scandal.

Chris Stevens was merely a casualty in a much broader campaign of arming terrorists in Libya and later transferring those terrorists as well as the arms themselves into Syria via Turkey. The fact that the United States has armed, trained, funded, and directed terrorists in Libya and Syria is beyond question. It is also a fact that the State Department has played a key role in that regard.

RT's Lizzie Phelan and her crew report from Palmyra in direct sight of Islamic State militants, who are holding positions among the ruins of the world heritage site. With the terrorists weakened by Russian airstrikes, the Syrian Army is preparing for an offensive to retake Palmyra.

The important UNESCO world heritage site has been under the control of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) since May. RT's crew are the first among international TV journalists to report from the area, with IS fighters visible on a nearby hill.


The historic area has been ravaged by Islamic State and it is where the extremists brutally kill their prisoners to terrorize their opponents.

This week in Palmyra they tried out a new execution method: they tied three prisoners - Syrian Army soldiers - to columns that were part of the historic structure, and blew them up, the army told RT.

Every day, positions of Syrian soldiers in Palmyra are targeted by IS militant sniper fire, artillery and mortars. This is being exclusively filmed by RT.

Red Cross personnel on the ground in Syria have not reported any 'airstrikes' allegedly delivered by Russian jets on civilian targets including hospitals, the medical charity's top executive told RT.

Since Moscow started its air campaign in Syria on September 30, Western media have been publishing reports that Russian jets are targeting civilians.

Last week, Russia was accused of bombing a number of hospitals in Syria, an allegation flatly denied by the Russian Defense Ministry. Dominik Stillhart, director of operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has people on the ground in Syria, told RT he is unaware of any such incidents. "We've seen these reports as well, but in the absence of any firsthand information coming from our teams on the ground, I can neither confirm, nor deny these allegations," Stillhart said, stressing that international humanitarian law "fully applies to the airstrikes undertaken by [anyone] in Syria, including Russia.


"In addition to providing large scale humanitarian assistance, our teams on the ground are also monitoring the conduct of hostilities and use of force, and in case we have concerns, we will share them directly, in a bilateral and confidential dialogue with the relevant party," the Red Cross executive said.

Stillhart revealed his organization had two employees at the medical facility bombed by US forces in Kunduz, saying the Red Cross "is still shocked" by the tragic attack, "even more so, because hospitals, medical facilities and health staff are protected by international humanitarian law."

"There are investigations that [are] currently going on and we're anxious to see the results of these investigations," Stillhart said.

Despite security measures taken to protect health facilities and medical workers operating in zones of conflicts, "the only way to guarantee better protection [for] health facilities, health and humanitarian workers is to fully respect international humanitarian law," Dominik Stillhart said.

The smear campaign against Russian military operating in Syria began last week, with media outlets citing reports from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) foundation based in Canfield, Ohio.

The Iraqi government never asked for and does not need any US involvement in ground operations against Islamic State terrorists. The eye-opening statement came only a day after the Pentagon promised its partner more ground support if it was required.

"This is an Iraqi affair and the government did not ask the US Department of Defense to be involved in direct operations," spokesman Sa'ad al-Hadithi told NBC News. "We have enough soldiers on the ground."

Hadithi made it clear that any involvement of US forces that stretches beyond their "train and advise" mission must be cleared with Baghdad - as mandated under international law.

Thus far Iraq has only cleared a US air campaign over its territory against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). For now, Hadithi stressed, Iraq only needs US support in "arming and training [Iraqi] forces." Around 3,300 US troops are involved in the mission in Iraq.

China has arrested two Japanese nationals over "spying," an official says, following the detention of two other Japanese individuals on similar charges earlier this year. The official at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo, whose name was not mentioned in reports, made the announcement on Thursday. According to Japan's Yomiuri newspaper, one of the detainees is a woman, who was arrested in the city of Shanghai in June.

In late September, Tokyo confirmed that two Japanese had been detained in China since May, adding that the country is trying to secure their release. Back then, reports did say a third Japanese had also been held but it was not officially confirmed. Back in 2010, Chinese authorities temporarily detained four Japanese nationals on suspicion of entering a military zone and taking photos without permission.

The recent detentions come as ties between Beijing and Tokyo are at their lowest ebb over issues such as a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea and Japan's approach to its wartime crimes. China lays claims to the islands, which are currently controlled by Japan. Beijing also accuses the Japanese PM of not being apologetic enough for his country's World War II aggression.

A Ukrainian Eurobond held by Russia and due for redemption in December is "official" debt, and for that reason Russia is not taking part in restructuring talks Ukraine has held with private creditors, Russia's finance minister said on Wednesday. Anton Siluanov told journalists that Moscow would take legal measures if Kiev did not repay the debt on time.
Russia's longstanding position is that the $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond should be classified as official intergovernmental debt and is therefore subject to different rules than for sovereign debt owned by private firms."Ukraine's debt to Russia which is due to be redeemed in December of this year cannot be treated as a debt before private creditors, the debt has another status, it is official" Siluanov said.

At least 13 people have been killed in Saudi military attacks on a bus carrying the employees of a private company in Yemen's southwestern Ta'izz Province. The bus was hit on the road linking the city of Ta'izz with the capital, Sana'a, on Thursday. Fourteen people were also wounded in the attack. Saudi fighter jets have also targeted a mosque and a house in the Saqayn district of the northwestern province of Sa'ada.

Warplanes also carried out three airstrikes on Kitaf district of the same province. Earlier in the day, Riyadh launched a series of airstrikes on the Sirwah district of Ma'rib Province.

The attacks come two days after Saudi Arabia bombarded a hospital in the Heedan district of Sa'ada, run by medical charity group Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Yemen has been under Saudi airstrikes on a daily basis since March 26 when Riyadh launched a ferocious military campaign against the impoverished nation.

The International Monetary Fund will go ahead with the promised $17.5 billion loan to Ukraine even if Kiev defaults on its $3 billion debt to Russia due in December, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Current IMF policy forbids it loaning to countries that default on other governments. In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin and then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich agreed Moscow would buy $15 billion in Ukrainian Eurobonds. After the first $3 billion, Russia decided not to buy the remaining $12 billion following the Maidan events, which resulted in the overthrow of Yanukovich's government.

Changing IMF's arrears policy would help "to avoid an outcome where Russia could hold the fund program hostage," Douglas Rediker, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former US representative on the IMF's board told the WSJ.

The United States has used a Christian non-governmental organization (NGO) as a front for an espionage program to spy on North Korea, a new report reveals.In 2004, the Pentagon launched a secret program to gather intelligence from inside the East Asian country that has long been a source of great concern to Washington, The Intercept reported.

"We had nothing inside North Korea," one former military official familiar with US efforts in the country told the Intercept. "Zero."

However, a Christian charity organization called the Humanitarian International Services Group, or HISG, was able to finally make way into North Korea through offering much-needed humanitarian aid to Pyongyang. According to the NGO's documents, HISG was established by three friends shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. Under the leadership of Kay Hiramine, the organization set out to provide disaster relief and sustainable development in poor and war-torn countries around the world.

The espionage program was the brainchild of Lieutenant General William "Jerry" Boykin, a senior US Defense Department intelligence official during the George W. Bush administration. Boykin who was an evangelical Christian, obsessed with finding new and unorthodox ways to penetrate North Korea.