Uruguay will join Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Venezuela in having an embassy in the embattled Palestine.

The Uruguayan ambassador Enrique Ribeiro will travel to Ramallah, Palestine on Friday to open the new Uruguayan embassy.

Foreign Minister Luis Almagro confirmed the urgent transfer of Ribeiro to Ramallah.

In the letter, the Palestinian Authority, through Minister Riad Malki, welcomed the decision of the Uruguayan government to proceed with the opening of a permanent diplomatic mission in Ramallah and he also offered full support to the Uruguayan ambassador to facilitate his work.

They also expressed their appreciation for the continued support of Uruguay in "the just and legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to recover their inalienable rights."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is desperate; it is itching for a war in battlefield Ukraine at any cost.

Let's start with Pentagon supremo, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has waxed lyrical over the Russian Bear's "threat": "When you see the build-up of Russian troops and the sophistication of those troops, the training of those troops, the heavy military equipment that's being put along that border, of course it's a reality, it's a threat, it's a possibility - absolutely."

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu could not elaborate if it was "threat" or "reality", absolutely or not, but she saw it all: "We're not going to guess what's on Russia's mind, but we can see what Russia is doing on the ground - and that is of great concern. Russia has amassed around 20,000 combat-ready troops on Ukraine's eastern border."

In trademark, minutely precise NATOspeak, Lungescu then added that Russia "most probably" would send troops into eastern Ukraine under the cover of "a humanitarian or peace-keeping mission". And that settled it.

Hagel and his remote-controlled Romanian minion Lungescu obviously have not read this or simply ignored its detailed explanation by Russian Air Force's spokesman: the "threat" or "build-up" happens to expire this Friday, the last day of Russian military exercises announced in advance.

The Times Of Israel has removed a provocatively-titled blog post after huge blowback, denunciations, and ridicule across social media. The post - "When Genocide Is Permissible" (in full below) - concludes, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?"

Removal or not, we are sure this will do nothing to endear Israel to the world.

The Times Of Israel site Before and After...

And thanks to The Way-Back Machine, here is the full article...

Kiev has turned off hot water throughout the city in an attempt to save gas for the winter months. The Ukrainian government is unsure how long people will be affected, or whether the measure will be enough to ensure winter heating.

Utility company Kievenergo cut gas supplies to all thermal power plants that warm the water supplied to households, adding that it received the order from the Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining. "All the thermal power plants have had their gas supply cut as of August 4," the company said.

General director Alexander Fomenko said the move was needed in order to save gas for the cold winter ahead.

Kiev has about 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas for heating, Itar-Tass reported. Head of utilities in Kiev, Dmitri Novitsky, noted that it is not enough to regularly supply gas during winter months. "If we don't start saving gas now, then we will have big problems in winter," Novitsky said.

George Galloway has suggested the UK city of Bradford should be "an Israel-free zone," and has called for the district to issue a blanket boycott of Israeli goods, services, academics and tourists.

Speaking on behalf of the Respect Party in Leeds, the MP for Bradford West encouraged a crowd gathered at a public meeting to back his stance and "do the same."

Galloway's comments, which were filmed and subsequently posted on YouTube, have generated heated responses on Twitter. Following several official complaints, they have also sparked a West Yorkshire Police investigation.

"We have received two separate complaints about comments attributed to George Galloway MP during a speech he gave at a public meeting in Leeds on 2nd August 2014. We are currently investigating the complaints," a spokesman for West Yorkshire police said.

Gabor Steingart, the the publisher of Germany's leading financial newspaper Handelsblatt, just let loose with an editorial directly challenging Washington's idiotic anti-Russian policies.

The appearance of this document is very timely: just yesterday Russia unleashed the first round of counter-sanctions, banning the import of foodstuffs from the US and the EU. These counter-sanctions are cleverly designed to cause pain in proportion to the level of anti-Russian activity of the country in question; thus, the three Baltic countries, which are virulently anti-Russian in spite of having large Russian populations and surviving largely through trade with Russia, face staggering losses, followed by equally anti-Russian Poland, followed by the rest of the EU, including poor Greece, which is friendly to Russia and should be considered collateral damage.

The greatest beneficiaries of these sanctions are all those countries that opposed (11) or abstained (58) when the UN voted to condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea: they get to leapfrog over EU and US economically by exporting foodstuffs to Russia. Russia's consumers and Russia's agricultural sector are also among the winners: Russians will eat healthier food, with no GMO contamination, while profits that used to flow to the US and the EU will now be invested in domestic agriculture, making Russia more self-sufficient in food and aiding in the development of rural districts. Another clever element to these sanctions is that farmers tend to be politically vocal and influential. I see tractors clogging the streets of Europe's capitals and dumptruck-loads of manure decorating the steps of government buildings before too long.

As to his diagnosis of Obama's true motivation, I think he has it wrong. It's not all about pleasing the Tea Party. They, and American voters in general, are irrelevant, it makes no difference who gets elected, and Obama's policies are not Obama's. There is a deeper reason why the oligarchs who own and operate the country formerly known as America are currently attempting to enlarge every problem they see, be it stoking civil war in Ukraine or provoking ISIS into attacking Americans: they are desperate to avoid a scenario where the US collapses on its own, with no external enemy to blame. Not only would it be just too humiliating, but also the population, suddenly brought out of its stupor, might turn on those actually responsible rather than helplessly blame some foreign scapegoat. Putin has to fit the bill, reality be damned.

Five people from the same family were killed on Thursday in Lugansk as the basement they were taking refuge in, was shelled by Kiev government forces. Meanwhile in the center of the city, an Orthodox Church suffered bomb damage.

While Gaza grabs most of the world's headlines, the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk is suffering its own tragedy. Shelling by the Kiev government is becoming a daily routine for the petrified local residents, in a city, which was once the industrial heartland of Ukraine.

A family of five has been killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk after the basement they were sheltering in was reportedly shelled by Kiev government forces.

Grown men were in tears, as the fierce fire burned, others pleaded to try and help the family, which was trapped. However, there was little that anyone could do and eventually five charred bodies were dragged out of the ruins as the flames began to ease.

Warning: The following item contains images that some people may find disturbing. It is not recommended for minors. It's worth bearing in mind though, that many minors and their families cannot avoid viewing this on a regular basis.

Our goal in sharing these images is not to cause offence, but rather as a call out to all people of conscience, to denounce these war crimes; to refuse to remain silent in the face of these brutal actions and to wake up to the fact that one holocaust does not, under any circumstances, justify another.

Lebanese former prime minister Saad Hariri arrived in the Lebanese capital of Beirut Friday after a three-year self-imposed exile. His surprise move followed growing calls for his return as Lebanon's Sunnis confront a leadership gap.

Footage broadcast by local television stations showed Hariri arriving at government headquarters in Beirut, where he was due to meet Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Hariri, Lebanon's most influential Sunni politician, has been in self-imposed exile between France and Saudi Arabia since 2011. He left the country after his government was toppled by a coalition including the Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.

Hariri's surprise return comes days after he announced Saudi financial backing for the fight against jihadists on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Speaking to reporters in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Wednesday, Hariri said Saudi King Abdullah had pledged $1 billion to strengthen the capacity of the Lebanese armed forces "to preserve Lebanon's security".

Israel's deputy ambassador in Dublin proposed to her superiors a plan to personally smear Palestine solidarity activists - especially Israelis - to "humiliate and shame them" as suffering from psychological and sexual problems and imply that they work for Israel's spy agency Mossad.

Deputy Ambassador Nurit Tinari-Modai, who is also the wife of Ambassador Boaz Modai, made the suggestions in a memo to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was exposed by Israel's Channel 10.

The full text of the Channel 10 report has been translated from Hebrew by Dena Shunra, with emphasis added: