The sudden contraction of the German economy in the second quarter could be caused by Russian sanctions and the erosion of confidence from the crisis in Ukraine, the German Finance Ministry said on Friday.

A 0.2 percent shrink in Europe's strongest economy between April and June came after modest growth of 0.7 percent in the first quarter. The first quarter was mostly driven by an unusually warm winter, which stimulated construction activity.

"The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) goes beyond the expected counter-effect to the very strong weather-related performance in the previous quarter," Bloomberg quotes the finance ministry monthly report.

The ministry considers the main hindrances to the economy are "the effect of sanctions, and negative effects on confidence due to the Ukraine crisis," which have likely resulted in the decline of industrial activity in the second quarter.

Among other reasons listed is "weaker economic development in the eurozone" and "other geopolitical tensions." Moreover, the investment in construction and foreign trade had weighed on growth in the second quarter.

Despite negative figures, the general economic trend remains positive the ministry assured.

Germany is sticking to its forecast to grow by 1.8 percent this year even after its disappointing second quarter, Rainer Sontowski, German State Secretary for Economics, said on Wednesday.

"If the Ukraine crisis does not escalate further and no further serious stages of sanctions is imposed, it is to be expected that the current economic slowdown is only temporary," the ministry statement said.

As the first 30 trucks in the humanitarian convoy headed for war-torn eastern Ukraine, the residents of Lugansk - struggling daily without regular food supplies, water, electricity and under constant shelling - are looking forward to the aid relief.

On Friday, the Russian convoy crossed the Ukrainian border and started moving in the direction of Lugansk, after Moscow had ordered it to proceed, without waiting for further instructions or permission from Kiev.

Due to the electricity black-out and the lack of water, many local enterprises have to a halt in Lugansk. RT traveled to what used to be the area's biggest bread-baking facilities and spoke with one of the employees, Vasily, who said that he doesn't know how the locals get by.

"I don't know why they are doing this, I stopped being afraid and just live my everyday life," he told RT.

There are make-shift markets in the region, with most of the traders coming from neighboring villages, where the situation is a bit less catastrophic.

Lugansk residents come to the market to buy goods - or for exchange, as no payments have been made in the city over the past few weeks, and the prices are through the roof.

A Missouri chapter of the Ku Klux Klan has raised more than $150,000 for the white police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

A GoFundMe page set up to support Darren Wilson has raised that amount since it was created on August 17.

The Wilson page's mission statement says: "We stand behind Officer Darren Wilson and his family during this trying time in their lives. All proceeds will be sent directly to Darren Wilson and his family for any financial needs they may have including legal fees."

"All money will go to the cop who did his job against the Negro criminal," said New Empire Knights of the KKK.

Rising levels of food poverty have led to malnutrition becoming more common in the UK, experts say. The public health problem is responsible for a range of ailments surfacing across the country, including rickets.

Britain's Faculty of Public Health has linked the growing trend to people's inability to afford quality food. According to the latest figures, there has been a 19-percent increase in the number of UK citizens hospitalized for malnutrition over the past twelve months.

UK ministers say the government has billions available to tackle issues concerning public health. The coalition recently confirmed that a portion of this funding will be channeled towards local authorities to address public health concerns such as malnutrition.

But against a backdrop of alleged funding to address state-wide manifestations of food poverty, a national crisis is looming.

In a democratic republic, the "innocent until proven guilty" concept is supposed to be sacrosanct. Jurors, police officers, judges and prosecuting attorneys - at least in theory - are required to err on the side of caution, and if a guilty person occasionally goes free, so be it. But with the war on drugs, the concept of innocent until proven guilty has fallen by the wayside on countless occasions. The war on drugs is not only fought aggressively, it is fought carelessly and haphazardly, and a long list of innocent victims have been killed or maimed in the process.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently addressed the war on drugs during a speech for the American Bar Association's annual meeting, calling for the United States to seriously reevaluate its harsh policy of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent, low-level drug offenses. Holder acknowledged that "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason," and he pointed out that according to one report, black males convicted in drug cases typically receive sentences that are 20% longer than the sentences imposed on white males for similar offenses. It was refreshing to hear an attorney general make those statements; also encouraging is a recent Rasmussen poll finding that 82% of Americans see the war on drugs as a failure.

Many people from across the political spectrum - from the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to right-wing libertarians like Ron Paul, Walter Williams and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson - have pointed out that the war on drugs has become much deadlier than the drugs themselves. Innocent civilians have more to fear from botched drug raids and careless police work than they do from drug dealers.

Below are 10 innocent victims who became collateral damage and lost their lives in the war on drugs (there are many, many more).

Russia's Liberal Democratic Party will press for depriving President Barak Obama of the Nobel Peace Prize on the grounds that the US leader is disgracing the award by organizing wars instead of fighting for peace.
The statement, posted on the party's website, quotes its leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky as saying that the fact that the Peace Prize was given to Obama in 2009 caused bewilderment from the very beginning - the award went to the man who had occupied his post for less than a year and had not claimed any real achievements.

"Usually the Nobel Peace Prize is handed to people who fought for peace for 20, 30, 40 or 50 years, who did prison time. This man has not moved a finger. And in recent years he has organized wars. Ukraine is in flames, the Mideast is troubled, and there are problems in Afghanistan. Throughout his term in power - not a single peacekeeping operation; we see only death, aggression and refugees. The Peace Prize should be recalled immediately to avoid disgracing of the award!" Zhirinovsky stated.

A French pensioner has had to prove he is alive after being denied a refund by a state health insurance firm on the grounds that he was in fact dead. The 68-year-old then had to endure a bureaucratic nightmare to show he was still living.

"I received a letter on July 8 from the Social Security of Independent Professions telling me that the refund was not possible on the grounds of my death on January 4th 2010," Jean-Marie Sevrain told AFP.

The Frenchman had been hoping to be reimbursed to the tune of 23 euros after visiting a doctor to pick up some prescription drugs, to help him fight diabetes. Sevrain said that he had been doing this "every three months for many years."

"When I got the letter, I thought I was dreaming, then my wife and I started laughing," he said. "What is bizarre is that I am supposed to be dead but the letter indicated I had the possibility to appeal," the 68 year-old said.

There's been a flood of local news stories in recent months about FBI raids on charter schools all over the country. From Pittsburgh to Baton Rouge, from Hartford to Cincinnati to Albuquerque, FBI agents have been busting into schools, carting off documents, and making arrests leading to high-profile indictments.

"The troubled Hartford charter school operator FUSE was dealt another blow Friday when FBI agents served it with subpoenas to a grand jury that is examining the group's operations. When two Courant reporters arrived at FUSE offices on Asylum Hill on Friday morning, minutes after the FBI's visit, they saw a woman feeding sheaves of documents into a shredder." --The Hartford Courant, July 18, 2014

"The FBI has raided an Albuquerque school just months after the state started peering into the school's finances. KRQE News 13 learned federal agents were there because of allegations that someone may have been taking money that was meant for the classroom at the Southwest Secondary Learning Center on Candelaria, near Morris in northwest Albuquerque ..." --KRQE News 13, August 1, 2014

"Wednesday evening's FBI raid on a charter school in East Baton Rouge is the latest item in a list of scandals involving the organization that holds the charter for the Kenilworth Science and Technology School.... Pelican Educational Foundation runs the school and has ties to a family from Turkey. The school receives about $5,000,000 in local, state, and federal tax money.... The FBI raided the school six days after the agency renewed the Baton Rouge school's charter through the year 2019." --The Advocate, January 14, 2014

"The state of Pennsylvania is bringing in the FBI to look into accusations that a Pittsburgh charter school [Urban Pathways Charter School] misspent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on luxuries such as fine-dining and retreats at exclusive resorts and spas." --CBS News, November 12, 2013

"COLUMBUS, OH--A federal grand jury has indicted four people, alleging that they offered and accepted bribes and kickbacks as part of a public corruption conspiracy in their roles as managers and a consultant for Arise! Academy, a charter school in Dayton, Ohio." --FBI Press Release, June 2014

What's going on here?

Charter schools are such a racket, across the nation they are attracting special attention from the FBI, which is working with the Department of Education's inspector general to look into allegations of charter-school fraud.

One target, covered in an August 12 story in The Atlantic, is the secretive Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who runs the largest charter-school chain in the United States. The Atlantic felt compelled to note, repeatedly, that it would be xenophobic to single out the Gulen schools and their mysterious Muslim founder for lack of transparency and the misuse of public funds. "It isn't the Gulen movement that makes Gulen charters so secretive," writes The Atlantic's Scott Beauchamp, "it's the charter movement itself."

Kristen Buras, associate professor of education policies at Georgia State University, agrees. "Originally, charter schools were conceived as a way to improve public education," Buras says. "Over time, however, the charter school movement has developed into a money-making venture."

Two dozen protesters - most of them armed - from a gun club named after the founder of the original Black Panther Party peacefully marched through parts of South Dallas on Wednesday.

The open-carry rally was organized by the Huey P. Newton Gun Club to promote self-defense and community policing in response to recent police shootings, both nationally and locally.

Police monitored the black-clad demonstrators, some of whom had rifles slung over their shoulders. As they walked down MLK Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard in the blistering heat, many chanted "black power" and "justice for Michael Brown," the black teenager fatally shot by police this month in suburban St. Louis. His death has touched off a string of often-violent protests in that area.

Vancouver drone operators who use the flying machines to spy on people could face criminal charges of voyeurism or harassment, according to the Vancouver Police Department.

Sgt. Randy Fincham said the police force has had 13 complaints about drone or unmanned aerial vehicles this year, 10 of them since May. The most recent incident occurred Sunday night in the 600-block of Abbott in the neighbourhood known as Crosstown.

Conner Galway was sitting outside on the patio of the 36th floor at about 8:30 p.m. when he first saw the drone for about an hour. It came back again around 10:30 p.m.

He said it came close enough for him to see something moving underneath the body of the drone that looked like a camera lens.

"I thought it was concerning," he said.

Fincham said in an email that the VPD would become involved if a drone or other high-tech device was used to view or record a person within their own home or apartment, or if the drone caused damage to property or injured someone.