A global group of professionals, scientists and environmentalists - the Monsanto Tribunal - are preparing a trial for the GMO seed giant in The Hague. They say the crowdfunded action, determined to charge Monsanto with "ecocide," is more than a symbolic move.

The Monsanto Tribunal's goal is to research and evaluate all of the allegations made against Monsanto in connection to all the damages its products have caused to human health and the environment. It is scheduled to be held at The Hague from October 12 to 16 in 2016. The trial will wrap up on next year's World Food Day.

One of the main goals the broad group of signees [ABOUT US] wants the tribunal to achieve is establishing "ecocide" as a crime. "Recognizing ecocide as a crime is the only way to guarantee the right of humans to a healthy environment and the right of nature to be protected," The International Monsanto Tribunal says on its website.

US authorities have warned of an imminent security threat to the American consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, urging to avoid the area.

"Due to information about an imminent security threat against the US Consulate compound, the US Consulate General Istanbul advises all US citizens to avoid the US Consulate today," Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) wrote on its website.

A major fire has broken out on an offshore oil platform in Azerbaijan's waters. While no official casualty count was immediately available, an independent report indicated that the disaster claimed 32 lives.

The ongoing rescue operation is hampered by stormy weather with waves rising up to 11 meters high, Trend news website reported.

The fire started overnight at a rig at the Gunashli field southeast of Neft Daşları (Oil Rocks) settlement. It was caused by strong winds that damaged a gas pipeline on the platform, the Azeri state energy company SOCAR said.

Two-thirds of Russian citizens say that after 2018 they would like to see Vladimir Putin or his personally proposed successor as president after the elections. Less than 20 percent of Russians say that the nation should choose someone with a different approach.

According to a poll conducted by the independent agency Levada Center in late November, 57 percent of respondents would prefer to see Putin reelected as president in 2018. Eleven more percent said that the incumbent president should be replaced by someone he himself proposes as his successor.

Eighteen percent said that they would prefer another person as president who would suggest a different political course, while 14 percent of responders said it was too difficult for them to answer the question at the moment.

In the same poll, 48 percent of Russians said that currently no politician in the country could effectively replace Putin, while 33 percent said that the replacement could be found once the need arises and 6 percent answered that they already know a perfect candidate. Twelve percent of respondents said they found the question too complex to answer.

Behind closed doors, speaking with investors and Wall Street analysts, the gun industry views mass shootings as an opportunity to make lots of money.

Ordinary people are despairing about the frequency of tragic events like the murderous rampage in San Bernardino on Wednesday, or the Planned Parenthood massacre last week. And the cycle of mass killing, media frenzy, and political stalemate starts anew each time, The Intercept reported on Thursday.

But meanwhile, gun sales continue to break records, a fact that has not gone ignored by financial analysts. The Intercept reviewed on Thursday investor transcripts for gun companies, ammunition manufacturers, and sporting stores, and found many instances of industry executives discussing mass shooting incidents and the resulting political dynamics as lucrative.

Here's how it works. Following a mass shooting, there is talk of gun control, which the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates attack as an assault on the Second Amendment. Notably, gun and ammunition manufacturers often donate, either directly or as a portion of each sale, to the NRA. The fear of losing gun rights leads to panic buying, which brings greater profits to gun retailers, gun companies and their investors.

ISIS is responsible for spreading a flesh eating bug across Syria according to the Kurdish Red Crescent.

Human rights workers have said that more than 500 cases of Leishmaniasis disease have been reported in Syria over the past 12 months.

Dilqash Isa of the Kurdish Red Crescent, said: 'As a result of abominable acts by ISIS that included the killing of innocent people and dumping their corpses in streets, this is the leading factor behind the rapid spread of Leishmaniasis disease.'

The female shooter in the San Bernardino, California massacre, Tashfeen Malik, pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook post immediately before the attack, officials have told several news organizations.

Malik posted under a different name, a US official familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The post was later removed, apparently by Malik herself, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing law enforcement officials. However, FBI technicians were able to recover it.

The post appeared "just before the attack," a law enforcement source told NBC News.

If confirmed, the finding could be a "game changer" in the investigation, two officials told Reuters.

Here is one of the reasons why the Fed is confident the US economy is strong and resilient enough to sustain a rate hike: since January, the US has added 293,900 waiter & bartender positions and zero manufacturing workers.

Unless one is an economist, no further commentary is needed.

If one is an economist, we eagerly look forward to an extended discussion why one should focus only on the blue line and ignore the red one, debate the adverse impacts of the weather (both hot and cold) on manufacturing, listen to how the collapse of high-paying jobs is actually a good thing for low-paid food servers, and how this is merely a confirmation of the bullish split of the US economy into a growing services and a "slightly softer" manufacturing sector.

A baffling, surreal scene just played out on the two networks, where the landlord of the San Bernardino shooting suspects apparently allowed reporters into their apartment.

The result was disturbing. On live national television, reporters sifted through the remains of the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. They picked over children's toys. They held up photos, speculating about whether the woman depicted in one might be Malik. They displayed Social Security cards and driver's licenses with readily identifiable information—and not just for the deceased suspects:


As if the journalistic irresponsibility of baselessly speculating while holding up images of potentially innocent people on TV wasn't bad enough, it beggars belief the scene wasn't taped off and guarded. Reporters were given free rein to walk through an apartment that is an important part of the investigation, and they were allowed to handle what one would expect to be evidence. Police didn't appear to know the media tour was going on. Brian Ries of Mashable reports:


However, an NBC spokeswoman said the tour was approved by the FBI:

A group of San Francisco policemen cornered a 26-year-old man and opened fire on him at point-blank range, riddling his body with 15 shots Wednesday afternoon. The killing, graphically depicted in a video posted on Instagram, took place in the Bayview section of the city, one of its poorest neighborhoods. The video can be viewed here.

The victim, later identified as Mario Woods, 26, was armed only with a kitchen knife, which he held onto despite being pepper-sprayed and shot with beanbag ammunition. Woods was making no move to attack police, and can be seen in the video backing away and raising his hands in front of him as though in self-defense.

Woods is backed into a wall by at least a half-dozen cops, all with guns drawn. He attempts to sidle along the wall to his right. Then one of the cops accosting him steps in front of him, cutting off his last route of escape. When Woods takes one further step, the cops open fire, while bystanders scream in horror.

The police were responding to a report by a stabbing victim who was receiving treatment at San Francisco General Hospital, who claimed he'd been attacked at Third Street and Le Conte in Bayview-Hunters Point. Woods was at that location when police arrived. The resulting confrontation was recorded on smartphone video by a witness on a city bus passing by.

When the uploaded video caused widespread outrage, the San Francisco Police Department sought to smear the victim, releasing a report that he had been identified as a gang member in 2009, affiliated with the so-called Oakdale Mob, and subjected to a civil injunction.

The "gang injunctions" issued by San Francisco authorities after 2006 amount to lifetime bans on individuals going to certain neighborhoods of the city, usually the poor neighborhoods in which they had grown up and where their families live. Eyewitnesses and acquaintances told the local press that Woods was no threat to anyone, someone who "wouldn't hurt a fly" and was frequently seen hanging around in the neighboring smoking or drinking a beer.