Palestinian demonstrators have pelted a group of US politicians visiting the occupied West Bank with eggs to show their anger at Washington's hostile policies against their nation and in favor of the Israeli regime.

On Thursday, dozens of Palestinians gathered outside a research and polling center near Ramallah, where an American delegation, including New York City Council members and civil society groups, was visiting.

"America is the head of the snake" and "Americans are not welcome in Palestine," the protesters chanted as they tried to force their way into the offices of the center. Others chanted, "Jerusalem (al-Quds) is the capital of Palestine."

Upon leaving the venue, the visitors were pelted with eggs and vegetables by the crowd of protesters, who also chased their bus. The delegation had to be evacuated from the city by Palestinian police forces.

In an unprecedented joint Argentine-Russian police operation straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, six people have been arrested for trying to smuggle over $60mn worth of cocaine out of Argentina through diplomatic mail.

Back on December 13, 2016, Russian Ambassador to Argentina, Viktor Koronelli, personally alerted Argentinian Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, of a discovery of suspicious packages in the school annex of the diplomatic mission in Buenos Aires. Argentine authorities wasted no time, dispatching a team of experts by 11pm to check the contents of the 12 suitcases discovered by the Russians.

It was the beginning of an investigation that lasted more than a year and was full of cinematic edges. After receiving confirmation at 2am that same night that the bags were full of pure cocaine, totaling some 389 kg (858 pounds), Bullrich, who accompanied a team of Argentine experts to the embassy, instructed the Gendarmerie team to run to the Central Market to buy some 400 kilos of flour. Argentine authorities knew that they only had until 6am before staff began arriving for work. The next four hours were spent by the team replacing the cocaine with flour and placing a GPS tracker inside.

A new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) shows that both the science and policy of the climate debate are shaped and driven by an almost flawless example of classical Groupthink.

Written by one of Britain's leading newspaper columnists Christopher Booker, the report is based on research by Professor Irving Janis, the American psychologist who is famous for his theory of "Groupthink". But as Booker explains, Janis never looked at the application of his theory outside the policy areas he was interested in:

"Janis's focus was on decision-making in the foreign policy arena. However, as soon as you look, you see that his ideas apply elsewhere. The climate debate is a case in point - all of the characteristic 'rules' of groupthink are there: warmist ideas can't be tested against reality, and so to ensure they are upheld as the truth, they have to be elevated into a 'consensus' and anyone who challenges them must be crushed. These are precisely the features that Janis used to define Groupthink."

YPG representative in Afrin, Brusk Haseke, has confirmed to Sputnik that Syrian forces have arrived to Afrin despite Turkish Air Forces' shelling on February 20, adding that a new group of Syrian military entered the city today.

"The information that the Syrian army has retreated and could not enter Afrin under attack from the Turkish Armed Forces is not true. Yesterday, a large group of soldiers from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), linked to the Syrian army, arrived in Afrin to, jointly with the Kurdish self-defense units of the YPG, confront the Turkish military and the [Free Syrian Army] FSA," Haseke told Sputnik.

However, the YPG representative stated that at least two servicemen were killed during Turkey's shelling.

"While approaching Afrin, they were attacked by Turkish artillery, which resulted in the death of two fighters and three wounded. Despite this, they arrived in Afrin and joined detachments of the YPG. At present, the fighting is ongoing at the front in Afrin. The fighters arrived in the city with heavy weapons and armored vehicles and, together with YPG squads, confronted the aggressors. Today there were no dead or wounded among the militiamen," he specified.

The Syrian people's forces arrived in Afrin to voluntarily defend their land. Afrin is part of the Syrian territory. Our doors are open to anyone who intends to fight against Turkey and the groups it supports," he said.

The "open-air prison" of Gaza is "on the brink of collapse," with Palestinians verging now on an unlivable situation, author Norman Finkelstein told RT's Going Underground.

Finkelstein, author of the book Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom, believes the "point of no return" has been reached when it comes to Gaza. "Seventy percent of the people of Gaza are refugees. More than half are children. They're trapped, there's no way out," he told the host, Afshin Rattansi.

"Ninety-five percent of the water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption. Each day, when a child drinks water, the child is poisoning him- or herself but they can't leave. They're caged in. As your former [Prime Minister David Cameron] put it, Gaza is an 'open-air prison.'"

The difference between Gaza and the rest of the world, according to Finkelstein, is that the rest of the world "has an option to flee" any bad situation.

Keller police are collaborating with the town of Westlake to build a police substation on the Westlake Academy campus

The academy's board of trustees approved the plan in early February, before a school shooting killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla.

Keller Police Chief Michael Wilson said the plan for a substation addresses policing complexities created by the state charter school's corporate-style layout.

"[The layout] offers a ton of advantages for students and staff but poses challenges to safety," Wilson said. "[The substation] is a nontraditional approach to a nontraditional learning environment."

The plan comes after a series of mass shootings that have motivated schools to look for better methods and enforcement to prevent such tragedies in schools.

Hundreds of students in Maryland on Wednesday walked out of class and began marching toward the U.S. Capitol to demand action on gun control.

Students at Montgomery Blair High School in Montgomery County planned a walkout through social media, according to a reporter from ABC 7.

According to Fox 5, students at Richard Montgomery and Bethesda-Chevy Chase high schools are also taking part in a walkout.

The students will finish the rally at the Capitol.

A week after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a Parkland, Florida school, the state legislature is facing backlash over dropping a gun control bill yet finding time to debate the ills of pornography.

In Tuesday's session, the Florida House of Representatives voted 36-71 against passing House Bill 219 in a matter of three minutes. The bill would have prohibited the sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines and required "certificates of possession" for lawfully-possessed firearms, among other measures.

The bill had not been heard in the House committees since representative Kionne McGhee, [D-Miami] submitted it last October. A January 10 senate bill was likewise ignored.

An hour later, Rep. Ross Spano turned the lawmakers' attention to more pressing matters: pornography. The bill (HR 157) argued that it was "creating a public health risk" and was "contributing to the hypersexualization of children and teens."

Ali's daughter, Noor, is adamant her father was killed by the same people who had made him seek refuge in Finland in 2015.

A man who was denied asylum by Finland's immigration service has been shot dead just weeks after his return to Iraq, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

Ali had said he sought refuge in Finland for being an "incorruptible" researcher on human rights and corruption. In a YLE documentary aired at the start of 2017, Ali said that this made him a danger to many implicated in corruption.

A man in his 20s crashed his car through the emergency room entrance at Middlesex Hospital Thursday morning and apparently set himself on fire, Mayor Daniel Drew said.

Drew said the act was intentional, but he would not speculate on the motive. The FBI, state police and Hartford bomb squads responded to the hospital, located at 28 Crescent St., and went to the man's home at 66 Milardo Lane on Thursday afternoon, officials said. When asked whether the incident is being investigating as a possible act of terrorism, Drew said officials are not speculating what the man's motives may have been.

Officials said the car crashed through the hospital doors at about 10 a.m. A number of gas cans were found in the vehicle, prompting evacuations of the hospital and nearby homes.