The Saudi-led military coalition has completed operation "Decisive Storm" against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen, a statement by Saudi military command cited by local media, says.

All goals set by the "Decisive Storm" operation have been achieved. These included the destruction of ballistic missiles the Houthis had taken control of. The decision to end the offensive comes following a request by the Yemeni government, according to the Saudi-led coalition spokesman.

The anti-Houthi campaign is now switching into a new phase codenamed "Restoring Hope", the statement said, as cited by Saudi-owned Arabiya TV. The Saudi Defense Ministry says it is going to focus on anti-terrorism, security and finding a political solution to the crisis.

On April 18, 2015, Sergey Brilyov, the anchor of the News on Saturday TV show, conducted an interview with President Vladimir Putin, during which he clarified a few of the answers he gave during the Q&A sessions. The clarifications concerned the question posed by Academician Torkunov concerning supplying S-300 weapon systems to Iran, and the matter of recognizing DPR and LPR. Both questions directly concerned the events in Ukraine.

Brilyov: The Israelis responded to the idea of supplying S-300s to Iran as follows: well, in that case we'll supply weapons to Ukrainians. Academician Torkunov, incidentally, asked about that, but you did not give him a full answer.

Putin: I simply forgot to.

Brilyov: So what will you say to the Israelis?

Putin: It's the choice for the Israeli leaders to make. They should act as they feel appropriate. I think it would be counterproductive if they have lethal weapons in mind. It will only lead to a new round of confrontation, to greater loss of life, but the outcome will be the same. Concerning our arms supplies to Iran, those are exclusively defensive weapons, and they in no way harm Israel's ability to defend itself.

Brilyov: Could you imagine a situation in which you might consider the possibility of recognizing DPR and LPR?

Putin: Right now I'd prefer not to discuss that, because whatever I say, it will be counterproductive. We will work in accordance with facts on the ground.

When it comes to the possible Israeli arms supplies to Ukraine, Putin's answer probably does not require further comment. It's meaning is perfectly understandable. But when it comes to recognizing the Donbass, there is some ambiguity.

Vasily Vovk Speaking on Ukrainian television Monday evening regarding the recent string of murders of prominent opposition journalists and politicians, Ukrainian Security Services Chief Investigator Vasily Vovk recommended that dissidents "shut their mouths" if they want to remain alive.

Appearing on the seemingly ironically titled program Svoboda Slova ('Freedom of Speech') on Ukraine's ICTV, Vovk stated that "I think that in our time, when there is practically a war going on, Ukrainophobes, if they don't shut their mouths, should at least stop their rhetoric. I think that in the present situation, there shouldn't be anyone stepping out directly against Ukraine and Ukrainianness."

The official warned that in the event that the 'Ukrainophobes' do not listen to him, "nothing good will come of it," adding that he says this "as the head of the Investigative Office of the Ukrainian Security Services."

It is difficult to overstate the degree to which the IMF and World Bank's neoliberal economic policies contribute to extreme vulnerability for farmers and peasants.

© AFPMembers of the Peasant Unified Movement of Bajo Aguán, Honduras, carry mock coffins bearing pictures of people murdered in land clashes during a demonstration in Tegucigalpa.

"The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling — their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability." - Arundhati Roy, War Talk

Founded at the historical seam between World War II and the birth of the Cold War, the World Bank's purpose — then as now — is to spread capitalism across the globe. Correspondingly, it has long promoted capitalist agriculture, alongside other rural extractive industries, at the expense of peasant, indigenous, and community-based food systems. And while the Bank's interest in farming has waxed and waned over its more than six decades, in recent years it has shown a renewed interest in the importance of agriculture. Critics, however, point to the Bank's complicity in a new feverish wave of global land grabs. And peasants around the world refuse to buy the World Bank's notion of their inevitable demise.

The Green Revolution as Massive Global Land Grab

In its early years (1940s-1960s), while the World Bank financed rural infrastructure like large dams, it mostly ignored agriculture. Not until the 1970s did Bank President Robert McNamara (1968-81) call for investments in agriculture. Following his tenure as Secretary of Defense of the United States, during which Vietnamese peasants routed U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, he became keenly aware of agriculture's geopolitical importance. Under McNamara the World Bank partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation to massively expand the Green Revolution, which entailed transferring U.S.-style industrial agriculture to the global South through debt-financed programs and infrastructure.

The Green Revolution spread rapidly throughout Asia and Latin America (it was mostly a failure in Africa), with dramatic increases in agricultural production. From 1970 to 1990, the two decades of major Green Revolution expansion, the total food available per person in the world rose by 11 percent. The benefits of this model, however, were poorly distributed and introduced profound social and environmental problems — arguably leading to more hunger, not less. In South America, for instance, per capita food supplies rose almost 8 percent, but the number of hungry people went up by 19 percent in the same period.

High-yielding crop varieties demanded high levels of chemical inputs and required fertile, irrigable land that could be mechanized. As a result, poor farmers were displaced from the best lands as wealthier farmers took advantage of new credit opportunities and input packages and expanded their landholdings. Millions of rural people migrated to the cities in search of work or sought out precarious farming opportunities on poor soils and fragile hillsides, joining the ranks of the poor and hungry.

The Atlantic Council is a hawkish right-wing think tank. It was founded in 1961 to support NATO's killing machine. It's one of many similar groups in America threatening world peace and stability. Its solution for ending Obama's war on Syria is escalated war. It proposes what it calls a Syrian National Stabilization Force (SNSF) - code language for US-controlled conquering and occupying army.

It believes the way for sustainable peace in Syria is through overwhelming military might - featuring "a robust, (US proxy) three-division stabilization force of 50,000 Syrians", [a private mercenary force] established to act on Washington's behalf.

First we learned that Operation Jade Helm 15 is coming this summer from mid-July through mid-September to a Southwest neighborhood near you stretching from Texas to California. Per government sources and their mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post, it's nothing more than a benign massive military drill designed to test how effectively US Special Operations forces can covertly and as seamlessly as possible embed themselves into the civilian populace as a mere security training exercise to keep us all safe in the future. The Washington Post March 31^st headline - "Why Operation Jade Helm 15 is Freaking out the Internet and Why it Shouldn't Be" - then goes on to list several alternative news sites like InfoWars making the claim that martial law in America is coming soon.

According to last August's CNN poll, an all-time high of 87% of Americans simply do not trust their own government nor mainstream media as truthful or credible. More and more Americans are turning to alternative news sources in an attempt to find out what's really going on in their world.

But the rash of "sky is falling" headlines from the internet news sources have created a media firestorm. Millions of Americans could hardly be consoled by the Washington Post article encouraging them not to worry that our government once again is up to no good. Instead those distrusting MSM believe Jade Helm 15 is a training exercise that will pave the way for US martial law similar to how the Boston Marathon false flag was a litmus test for martial law imposed on a major US metropolitan city. Except this time Jade Helm's unprecedented size and scope covers a large expansive area taking up the southwestern quadrant of the United States.

The US military has designated certain states like Texas, Utah and part of Southern California during this operation as "hostile," adding that "New Mexico isn't much friendlier." That the one time reputable DC newspaper that broke Watergate in the 70's describes the Jade Helm operation in terms as if it were some kind of board game like Risk or Monopoly doesn't help its already dubious credibility. Millions of Americans have realized their own oligarchic government has betrayed them and their interests and simply can no longer be trusted. So in the eyes of the feds, that would automatically make them "hostile." The Post article also list several past covert military operations where states have been labeled as hostile territory for purposes of the training exercises. And of course that they went by unnoticed should give us solace the Jade's outcome will be no different.

Now that the fascist totalitarian oligarchy posing as our federal government has been busily expanding its military wars from the Middle East to American soil against its own law abiding citizens, the Post tells us we shouldn't worry. George W Bush once infamously proclaimed "you're either with us or against us."

Russian president's warning comes week after he lifted ban on delivery of S-300 missile defense systems to Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Israel on Saturday not to supply weapons to the Ukrainian government,saying that the move would be counterproductive to efforts to reach peace in east Ukraine.

"It's the Israeli leadership's choice. It's their right to do what they think is appropriate. If this is lethal weapon, I think it will be counterproductive. It will only lead to another round of conflicts, to a rise in the number of victims, and the outcome will be the same," Putin told the state-run Rossiya channel.

Another ille­gal action unlikely to be chal­lenged in court?

Mil­lions of Amer­i­cans liv­ing and work­ing in flood­plains and other low-lying areas are at acute risk of being inun­dated - not by ris­ing water, but by a tidal wave of fed­eral reg­u­la­tions - cour­tesy of the Obama Administration.

With pub­lic atten­tion riv­eted on the chaotic devel­op­ments in the Mid­dle East and the severe cold weather that gripped much of the nation over the win­ter, the White House on Jan­u­ary 30 qui­etly issued Exec­u­tive Order (EO) 13690, "Estab­lish­ing a Fed­eral Flood Risk Man­age­ment Stan­dard and a Process for Fur­ther Solic­it­ing and Con­sid­er­ing Stake­holder Input." https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/30/executive-order-establishing-federal-flood-risk-management-standard-and -

Vio­lat­ing exist­ing law

The exec­u­tive order is more than just a mouth­ful; it is the lat­est fed­eral intru­sion into what have tra­di­tion­ally been pre­dom­i­nantly self-governing com­mu­ni­ties. In defi­ance of exist­ing law, the EO rede­fines the term "flood­plain" to expand the area of the coun­try to be reg­u­lated as such. The Obama EO was issued in direct vio­la­tion of lan­guage Con­gress included in a FY 2015 appro­pri­a­tions bill that pro­hib­ited the Admin­is­tra­tion from imple­ment­ing new stan­dards until it had solicited and con­sid­ered input from gov­er­nors, may­ors, and other affected parties.

Iceland plays a "unique role" in keeping the Alliance's transatlantic link strong, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday (16 April) during a visit to Reykjavik. "Iceland makes important contributions to NATO and international security in many ways," he said.

Mr. Stoltenberg is in Iceland to discuss issues at the top of NATO's security agenda. He discussed Russia's continued aggressive actions in Ukraine and the rise of violent extremism in the Middle East and North Africa with Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson. Mr. Stoltenberg is also meeting Olof Nordal, the Interior Minister and senior members of Iceland's Parliament, including Einar K. Guofinnsson, the Speaker of the Althingi, and Birgir Armannsson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Secretary General noted the need for every Ally to continue to play a full role to ensure NATO is able to meet current and future challenges. "In this global security environment, it is more important than ever to work together. This requires a NATO response and that's what we are doing," Mr Stoltenberg said. He said that Allies are more than doubling the size of the NATO Response Force and creating a new 5,000-strong quick reaction Spearhead Force.

The visit to Iceland started at the Keflavik Security Zone, where the Secretary General met Icelandic and NATO personnel involved in the air surveillance peacetime preparedness mission.

The Secretary General, together with the Prime Minister, also paid a visit to the Icelandic Coast Guard's multi-purpose vessel 'Thor'.

The King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has praised Russia's efforts to settle the Yemen crisis in a telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin press service said.

"The Saudi king gave high appraisal to the Russian side's efforts to normalize the difficult situation in Yemen and expressed his gratitude to Russia for its stance when the United Nations Security Council voted for resolution No. 2216 on April 14," the Kremlin stressed.

"Both leaders confirmed readiness to deepen coordination between Russia and Saudi Arabia on regional and international agenda. They also expressed their mutual determination to further build up mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in various spheres," the Kremlin press service reported.

Putin invited the Saudi king to visit Russia.