The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is still one of the most powerful lobby organizations in the country, but fortunately, it is starting to lose its iron-clad grip on our policymakers. AIPAC lost the fight to stop Chuck Hagel from being confirmed as Secretary of Defense; it lost the push for the US military to attack Syria, and it is losing its effort to derail nuclear talks with Iran. In the old days, AIPAC bragged that it could, within 24 hours, get the signatures of 70 Senators on a napkin if it really wanted to. This year, AIPAC got stuck at 59 cosponsors for its S.1881 sanctions bill - not enough support to force Senator Harry Reid to bring the bill to the floor or to override a threatened presidential veto.

Another sign of AIPAC's waning influence is the fact that this year, at their March 2-4 Policy Conference in Washington DC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attend but not President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden - both of whom have spoken in past years.

But it's certainly not time to sound the death knell. AIPAC still has a lot of muscle and will keep trying to flex it. Here's what we have to look forward to coming out of AIPAC 2014:

1. AIPAC continues to gun for a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC has been pushing for increased sanctions during these delicate international nuclear talks, a move that would violate the terms of the agreement, signal to Iran that the US negotiating team cannot deliver on its commitments, divide the US from its international negotiating partners, and embolden Iranian hardliners. AIPAC is still pushing for this, but as a backup is trying to set the conditions for the talks. AIPAC's policy would lead us down a path to yet another disastrous war in the Middle East (AIPAC was a big promoter of the war in Iraq - and look how that one turned out!).

2. AIPAC's call for unconditional support for the Israeli government undermines a possible negotiated solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. AIPAC promotes Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law, including the establishment of settlements in the Occupied West Bank and the confiscation of Palestinian land in its construction of the 26-foot high concrete "separation barrier" running through the West Bank. On February 27 Amnesty International published a report called Trigger Happy providing chilling detail of Israel's use of excessive force in the West Bank. AIPAC's support of these illegal practices is in direct opposition to a negotiated solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC has also been pressuring Secretary of State Kerry to keep the political representatives of Palestinians in Gaza - Hamas - completely out of the peace talks. How can you come to a negotiated solution if 40 percent of all Palestinians are not represented?

American exceptionalism has gone into overdrive with stern warnings from US President Barack Obama to Russia to respect Ukrainian sovereignty and to not destabilize the region

By "American exceptionalism" we mean Washington's seemingly unlimited capacity for exceptional arrogance and double think.

Obama has not yet accused Russia outright of "military invasion" in the crisis-torn country, but that was the clear inference from his weekend press conference. In a veiled threat of military confrontation, the American president warned that there would be "costs" for Moscow.

"Any violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity will be deeply destabilizing and the US stands with the international community to affirm that there will be costs [for this violation]," said Obama in a hastily arranged media statement in Washington on Friday.

The White House is obviously rattled by reports of Russian troop movements across Ukraine's southern Crimean Peninsula. Moscow says that its military presence in the autonomous Crimean republic of Ukraine is fully in accord with a long-standing legal agreement to have its soldiers stationed there as part of its Black Sea naval base.

A car bomb blast Thursday in a normally quiet Mogadishu neighborhood blew the facade off a tea shop where intelligence officers are known to congregate, killing at least 11 people, police said.

A ball of smoke rose into the sky, as survivors ducked for cover. One man broke his arm when, startled by the blast, he jumped out of a moving car near the attack.

Police Capt. Mohammed Hussein said he saw 11 dead bodies. The tea shop is frequented by members of Somalia's intelligence unit but it wasn't immediately known how many of the victims were government employees.

The al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab has increased the frequency of attacks in Somalia's capital in recent weeks, raising the specter of a return to daily violence. Last week an al-Shabab team attacked the presidential palace with two car bombs and seven gunmen. A car bomb exploded near a U.N. convoy earlier this month.

This is a portion of a 30 minute interview Putin granted CNN shortly after the West's adventures in Georgia in 2008. Strangely, it never made it onto CNN itself, although Russia Today apparently aired it.

A "devastating" two hundred and fifty page document: "The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008″, has been "presented to the International Criminal Court, and could result in some of Britain's leading defense figures facing prosecution for "systematic" war crimes" the (London) Independent on Sunday has revealed.

The dossier charges that: '"those who bear the greatest responsibility" for alleged war crimes "include individuals at the highest levels" of the British Army and political system.'

Among those named, states the Independent, are two former Defense Ministry supremos, Geoff Hoon and Adam Ingram, Defense Secretary and Minister of State for the Armed Forces, respectively, under Tony Blair's premiership, during the planning and invasion of Iraq and for most of the UK's occupation. General Sir Peter Wall, head of the British Army is also named.

US President Barack Obama has said he is "deeply concerned" about reports of military movements by Russia inside Ukraine.

Speaking at the White House Mr Obama said any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty would be deeply destabilising and he warned there would be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.

Earlier the US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power called for an urgent, international mediation mission to Crimea to de-escalate tensions in the region following an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

Ms Power said the mission would facilitate productive and peaceful dialogue among all Ukrainian parties.

It comes as Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 suspected troops have landed at a military air base near the regional capital of the Crimean peninsula, a top Ukrainian official said accusing Moscow of an "armed invasion".

"Thirteen Russian aircraft landed at the airport of Gvardeyskoye (near Simferopol) with 150 people in each one," Sergiy Kunitsyn, the Ukrainian president's special representative in Crimea, told the local ATR television channel.

He said the air space had been closed.

A leader of the Ukrainian radical group Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), Dmitry Yarosh, has called on Russia's most wanted terrorist Doku Umarov to act against Russia in an address posted on Right Sector's page in VKontakte social network.

The statement points out that "many Ukrainians with arms in the hands" supported Chechen militants in their fight against Russians and "it is time to support Ukraine now."

The message, signed "leader of Right Sector Dmitry Yarosh" then calls on Umarov "to activate his fight" and "take a unique chance to win" over Russia.

Yarosh, who is a self-proclaimed deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, leads the far-right militant Right Sector group. He used to be a leader of radical nationalist group Trident, which became the core of Right Sector.

The radical leader has been consistently anti-Russian in his statements, calling for the destruction and division of the "Moscow Empire" and openly supporting Chechen militants and Georgian aggression. Yarosh believes Russia is Ukraine's "eternal foe" and has said that war between the two countries is "inevitable."

Soros is now betting against the U.S. stock market to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars.

We are not in a recovery. What we are witnessing right now is the creation of a speculative bubble of epic proportions and that bubble is going to burst. We've been saying this for some time now, but when a major player like George Soros, a billionaire investor known for positioning himself on the right side of a risky trade starts actively betting against the U.S. stock market trouble is brewing.

Soros has recently purchased 1.3 billion dollars worth of put options on the S&P 500. Some have tried to down play this as merely hedging, but putting everything on one single position (the decline of the S&P) looks more like a calculated gamble than a conservative hedging strategy.

Unable to resolve tensions with the largely pro-Russian autonomous region of Crimea, Kiev is bombarding Moscow with accusations and warnings. Some politicians have even threatened to restock Ukraine's nuclear arsenal.

Throughout Friday, Russian diplomats and the military had to refute media speculation and explain that the armed people at the Crimean airports in Simferopol and Sevastopol weren't Russian troops.

"There are no troops whatsoever. No Russian troops, at least... Some civilians claiming to be representing groups of 'self-defense of Crimea' arrived at Simferopol airport overnight, but they retreated and nothing happened," Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Euronews.

The Russian Black Sea fleet has been stationed in Sevastopol since the 18th century. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union it remained there, according to an agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Any movements of the Russian military within Crimea are in line with the existing arrangements with Ukraine on the deployment of military assets in the former Soviet republic, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.

"We have an arrangement with Ukraine about the stationing of the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol and we are acting within the framework of that agreement," Churkin told reporters.

Official figures show that China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest goods trading country in 2013.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce cited data from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and said China was the world's biggest goods trading nation last year, Xinhua reported. The title previously belonged to Washington.

According to the statement, China's goods trade topped USD 4.16 trillion in 2013 overtaking that of the US. The country's exports totaled USD 2.21 trillion, while its imports stood at USD 1.95 trillion.

The figures have been confirmed by the World Trade Organization.

Yao Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, praised the new figures as a "great achievement" and a "milestone" in China's foreign trade, saying his country is currently the largest trade partner for over 120 countries and regions.