If there are US-backed groups anywhere seeking the overthrow of their government, you will find John McCain in their midst. He is the Energizer Bunny of interventionism.

Fresh off his trip to Libya, where he was granted an award by the military on the same day the Libyan parliament declared Sharia law, McCain was this weekend on the streets of Kiev.

McCain walked among the protestors, giving encouragement to those who have occupied and trashed government buildings in attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government. "I am proud of what the people of Ukraine are doing," he said.

Of course, when peaceful antiwar protesters showed up at McCain's own Senate office in 2007, he promptly had them arrested.

For those who may not know, McCain is the long-time chairman of the US government funded International Republican Institute, which spent millions supporting the Orange Revolution 1.0 in 2004. Now McCain (and his IRI) is back for 2.0.

Along with IRI's parent organization, the government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, and USAID, you can find the material and organizational support for the current uprising in Ukraine. Glance at the websites of opposition-oriented "NGOs" like the Institute of Mass Information, Internews, Uniter, and many others and you will see the ubiquitous logos indicating US government funding of the Ukrainian opposition. You can also see the US government funded - and CIA-affiliated - Freedom House among the most prominent opposition supporters in Ukraine.

An anti-drone motion was passed by Yemen's parliament on Sunday, banning drone attacks. The symbolic vote comes amid growing anger against US unmanned aircrafts used to kill off Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. Concerns for civilians are also on the rise.

"Members of parliament voted to stop what drones are doing in Yemeni airspace, stressing the importance of preserving innocent civilian lives against any attack and maintaining Yemeni sovereignty," SABA news agency reported.

The non-binding motion needs to be approved by the president in order to have any political weight. At the moment, the motions passed by the Yemeni parliament are seen as no more than recommendations to the government, Reuters stressed.

Washington has recently increased the intensity of drone strikes in Yemen in an offensive against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), despite widespread criticism sparked by the fact that strikes are far from "surgical."

Yemen is considered to be AQAP's main foothold of what is deemed the most active wing of the militant network.

Hundreds of thousands emerged onto the streets of Ukraine's capital Sunday for dueling meetings for and against an embattled government struggling to cope with a political crisis provoked by last month's decision to back away from greater economic ties with the EU.

In a show of support for the Ukrainian opposition, US Senator John McCain addressed a crowd of anti-government demonstrators in central Kiev.

"The destiny you seek lies in Europe," McCain said. "The free world is with you, America is with you, and I am with you."

That remark was greeted with roars of approval and chants of "John McCain, John McCain" and "Thank you, USA."

Ukrainian protesters have been camped out on Kiev's Independence Square, where they have erected barricades and tents, for over three weeks.

"It shows that Europe and the United States support democracy," said Irina Tertitsa, 30, who watched McCain's speech. "If they were to introduce sanctions as well, that would be super."

This week marked the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What would it be like if people in the U.S. knew they had these rights?

This week marked the 65^th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was drafted by a commission of the United Nations that was chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. The Convention became effective in 1951, the United States finally ratified it in 1988 and it was signed by President George H.W. Bush.

What would it be like if people in the United States knew they had these rights and demanded to have them realized? We believe it would be a very different world - the economy would be a more equitable with full employment, healthcare for all, no people without housing and more humane on every front. Instead, this week an annual report of Credit Suisse ranked the US as the most unequal of all advanced countries.

As a general guide for understanding human rights there are five principles that should be applied to every policy: universality, equity, transparency, accountability and participation. In a nutshell, universality means that policies apply to all people. Equity means that people have what they need in order to be at the same level as others. Participation means that people have input into the policies that affect their lives.

Harriet Tubman once said, "I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." Similarly, we have human rights and our rights are being violated every day, yet many are not aware of this.

Uruguay's president has accused the head of the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) of lying and double standards, after the official claimed the country did not consult the anti-drug body before legalizing marijuana.

Earlier this week, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize both the sale and production of marijuana.

INCB chief Raymond Yans has slammed the "surprising" move, accusing the South American state of legalizing the drug without first discussing it with the UN organization.

Uruguay's president, Jose Mujica, rejected the criticism on Friday, saying that he's ready to discuss the law with anyone.

"Tell that old man to stop lying," Mujica said in an interview with Uruguay's Canal 4.

"Let him come to Uruguay and meet me whenever he wishes... Anybody can meet and talk to me, and whoever says he couldn't meet with me tells lies, blatant lies."

"Because he sits in a comfortable international platform, he believes he can say whatever nonsense," he added.

"Despicable human scum." "Worse than a dog." A "traitor for all ages" who "perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts in a bid to overthrow the leadership of our party and state and the socialist system." Fate: a swift military tribunal, and a swift execution "in the name of revolution and the people".

So that was the date with destiny for Jang Song-thaek, 67, uncle of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-eun (arguably 30), according to state news agency KCNA. In North Korea, the revolution is definitely not a bulgogi party.

KCNA maintains that Jang - married to Kim Kyong-hui, the very influential sister of the late Dear Leader Kim Jong-il - admitted he wanted to stage a military coup d'etat. The inevitable follow-up is - what else - a purge (at the Central Committee's administrative department). Who said all that Cold War shtick was over?

Jang was, in theory, young Kim's Cardinal Richelieu. And then, out of the blue, he is shown on state TV dragged out of a meeting, publicly humiliated, demonized as a drug addict and womanizer, stripped of all posts and titles (chief of the Party's administrative department, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission), accused of corruption, tried and whacked, as if this was a North Korean Pulp Fiction remake. What gives?

Chile's once and future leader Michelle Bachelet easily won Sunday's presidential runoff, returning centre-left parties to power by promising profound changes in response to years of street protests.

Ms. Bachelet won with 62 per cent of the vote to 38 per cent for the centre-right's Evelyn Matthei, who promptly congratulated her rival. "I hope she does very well. No one who loves Chile can wish otherwise," Ms. Matthei said.

But turnout was just 41 per cent, a factor that worried Ms. Bachelet, who needs a strong mandate to overcome congressional opposition and make good on her promises.

"I hope people can come and participate and through their vote give a clear expression of the kind of Chile where they want to continue to live," Ms. Bachelet said after casting her ballot earlier Sunday. "The changes we need can't be produced through skepticism."

What power has law where only money rules? - Petronius

French-born Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn became the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) tenth Managing Director in November 2007.

Unlike most of his predecessors at the helm of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn - also known as DSK to his fellow Frenchmen - is not a banker and has no known affiliations to banking entities. Instead, he had worked as a politician and as a university professor. (Whitney, 2011).

His term was remarkable because of three different extraordinary facts, namely:

1. Less than a year after his arrival at the IMF, a worldwide financial crisis of considerable proportions took place. (Chossudovsky, 2011).

2. As a member of the French Socialist Party, DSK was widely believed to harbor aspirations to run for the highest political office in France, i.e. the Presidency, in the elections that were scheduled for 2012. He was regarded as a competitive challenger who would contend against the then incumbent President Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, candidate of the conservative-leaning UMP Party - Union for a Popular Movement - (Weisenthal, 2011).

3. His skill as IMF Managing Director was praised for being a "sagacious leader" (Stiglitz, 2011) and, replaying the role of the legendary Austrian Prince and statesman, DSK was described as "Metternich with a Blackberry" for his bright maneuvers to establish a "system of interlocking interests" in order to ensure that stability and balance, understood in both financial and political terms, could prevail (Johnson, 2010).

A Sex Scandal at the Highest Levels

Nevertheless, DSK's promising career, in both the IMF and French politics was abruptly undermined in New York, on May 14, 2011 when he was arrested and charged with sexual assault and attempted rape of Guinean-born Sofitel Hotel chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo. Shortly afterwards - on May 18, 2011, DSK tendered his resignation from the IMF. He was swiftly replaced by French Finance Minister Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde. DSK pleaded not guilty and, eventually, all charges were dismissed (Los Angeles Times, 2011) after even public prosecutors became unable to believe the accuser's words (BBC, 2011).

Was this incident just another high-profile sex scandal, similar to the ones involving former US President William Jefferson Clinton, former US Democratic Senator John Reid Edwards, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, former Israeli President Moshe Katzav, former President of the World Bank Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Howell Petraeus, et al. or . . . is there more than meets the eye at play? As an educated guess, this research paper is meant to provide a plausible answer.

Can a country boycott itself? That may sound like a silly question. It is not.

At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the "Giant of History" as Barack Obama called him, Israel was not represented by any of its leaders.

The only dignitary who agreed to go was the speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, a nice person, an immigrant from the Soviet Union and a settler, who is so anonymous that most Israelis would not recognize him. ("His own father would have trouble recognizing him in the street," somebody joked.)

Why? The President of the State, Shimon Peres, caught a malady that prevented him from going, but which did not prevent him from making a speech and receiving visitors on the same day. Well, there are all kinds of mysterious microbes.

The Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had an even stranger reason. The journey, he claimed, was too expensive, what with all the accompanying security people and so on.

Not so long ago, Netanyahu caused a scandal when it transpired that for his journey to Margaret Thatcher's funeral, a five hour flight, he had a special double bed installed in the El Al plane at great expense. He and his much maligned wife, Sara'le, did not want to provoke another scandal so soon. Who's Mandela, after all?

Altogether it was an undignified show of personal cowardice by both Peres and Netanyahu.

What were they afraid of?

Well, they could have been booed. Recently, many details of the Israeli-South African relationship have come to light. Apartheid South Africa, which was boycotted by the entire world, was the main customer of the Israeli military industry. It was a perfect match: Israel had a lot of weapon systems but no money to produce them, South Africa had lots of money but no one who would supply it with weapons.

So Israel sold Mandela's jailers everything it could, from combat aircraft to military electronics, and shared with it its nuclear knowledge. Peres himself was deeply involved.

The relationship was not merely commercial. Israeli officers and officials met with their South African counterparts, visits were exchanged, personal friendship fostered. While Israel never endorsed apartheid, our government certainly did not reject it.

President Obama and his family will leave Washington Dec. 20 for a 17-day holiday vacation in Hawaii.

The White House announced Friday that the Obamas will depart next week after what is expected to be a light work schedule for the president in Washington.

The president and his family traditionally spend their Christmas break in a rented home on Oahu with spectacular ocean views.

For his first three years in office, Mr. Obama rented a $24,500-per-week gated Plantation Estate, which offers security and privacy on the white sand beach of Kailua Bay.

Last year, renting a similar house in the same locale, Mr. Obama was forced to cut short his vacation and fly back to Washington on the day after Christmas to resume negotiations on an emergency budget deal with Congress.

This year, Congress is on track to approve a two-year budget deal before the Christmas holiday.