Nationalist MP suggests community work for foreign military fleeing to Russia

Nationalist MP suggests community work

A Russian lawmaker has prepared a bill which would make foreign military servicemen who arrive in Russia fleeing combat to do community service for up to a month. The MP says that it is aimed primarily at Ukrainian soldiers and officers.
Mikhail Degtyaryov of the populist nationalist party LDPR told the Izvestia daily that his bill would force all foreign military personnel who find themselves on Russian territory in the course of combat in border regions to do one month community service. Refusal would be punished with a fine of 300,000 rubles (about $7900) or 15 days of administrative

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West should stop dragging Ukraine into NATO – Gorbachev

West should stop dragging Ukraine

Ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has again blamed the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine on the hasty and thoughtless breakup of the USSR. He noted that a peaceful outcome could only be reached through resumed dialogue between Russia and the US.
The former Soviet leader expressed these opinions in the afterword to his latest book of memoirs called “After the Kremlin” - soon to be released. The afterword was published before the book by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
Gorbachev writes that in his view the Ukrainian conflict can only be settled through dialogue, both inside the country and at an international

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Argentina passes law to reclaim default debt from New York

Argentina passes law to reclaim

Argentina’s Senate has passed a law that will let the country continue paying off its default debt by transferring international bond payments from New York to local banks, which would let other investors buy Argentine debt.
The scheme, to get around a US judge’s order to immediately pay back $1.6 billion to “vulture” hedge funds in Manhattan, is the initiative of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The bill passed by a vote 39 to 27.
The initiative proposes to begin challenging payments through third parties, and allowing them to trade their bonds for new debt issued under Argentine law. Argentina’s state Banco de la Nacion could become the

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Russia’s Gazprom to fall under new EU capital ban – sources

Russia’s Gazprom to fall under new

Russia's Gazprom Bank and oil producer Gazprom Neft will fall under new sanctions approved by the European Union on Friday, Reuters cited an EU diplomat as saying. The sanctions reportedly include a new ban on raising capital in the 28-nation bloc.
The sanctions were agreed against Russia for its alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis, the diplomatic source said.
According to The Financial Times, which managed to obtain a document outlining the sanctions, all Russian state-controlled companies with assets of more than one trillion rubles (US$27 billion) that receive more than half their revenue from “the sale or transportation of crude oil or

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Cameron must cooperate with Putin and Assad to defeat ISIS’ – former defense chief

Cameron must cooperate with Putin and Assad

Lord Richards, a former British defence chief, has advised David Cameron to form an unlikely alliance with Assad’s Syrian regime, Moscow and Iranian authorities to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants.
The former head of the British Armed Forces, who retired from the post in 2013, broke his silence on the prime minister’s failure to employ his strategic plan of containing President Bashar Assad along with fundamentalist militants in the region.
Lord Richard’s spoke with BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on Friday as global allied NATO leaders discussed tactical maneuvers to defeat IS

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UK to send 1,000 troops for NATO Spearhead Force

UK to send 1,000 troops for NATO Spearhead Force

The UK will contribute 1,000 personnel to a new multi-national rapid reaction force, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. He suggested the NATO "multinational spearhead force" could be deployed anywhere in two to five days.
The British prime minister announced the force, to be based in Eastern Europe, will be launched in response to alleged Russian military involvement in Ukraine and instability in the Middle East.
"To the east, Russia is ripping up the rulebook with its annexation of Crimea and its troops on the sovereign soil of Ukraine. To the south, an arc of instability bends from North Africa to the Middle East," Cameron

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Sierra Leone to enter ‘lockdown’ as Ebola death toll tops 2,000

Sierra Leone to enter ‘lockdown

Sierra Leone announced it will implement a four-day “lockdown” across the country in an attempt to contain the spread of Ebola. The Friday move came as the World Health Organization stated that the virus has so far claimed over 2,000 lives in Africa.
Beginning September 18, the nation will prohibit residents from leaving their homes for four days, with the hopes that health officials will be able to detect early-stage cases, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a presidential advisor in Sierra Leone, told Reuters.
“The aggressive approach is necessary to deal with the spread of Ebola once and for all,” he said.
Unfortunately, the news was accompanied by worsening statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), which announced on Friday that out

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Ukraine peace plan: Withdraw military hardware, exchange POWs, open corridors

Ukraine peace plan: Withdraw military hardware

Both sides in the Ukrainian conflict have agreed to “all to all” prisoners of war exchange, hardware withdrawal and humanitarian aid access to the area. Kiev and rebel troops laid down arms as the main agreement – ceasefire- came into force at 15:00 GMT.
READ MORE: Kiev, E. Ukraine militia agree on ceasefire starting 1500 GMT Friday
The contact group in Minsk agreed on three key issues: ceasefire, exchange of war prisoners and humanitarian aid access, OSCE envoy Tagliavini told reporters. “We continued consultation and agreed on other issues. Among them are the ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops and the

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Expansionism and destabilization’: Russia lashes out over NATO spearhead force in E. Europe

Expansionism and destabilization

Moscow has accused NATO of using the Ukrainian crisis as a “pretext” to “push its military presence closer to Russia’s borders,” and says that plans for a new rapid response force will sabotage the peace process in eastern Ukraine.
READ MORE: At least 4,000 troops: NATO approves new E. Europe-based spearhead force
“The [expansion] plans have been harbored by NATO for a long time, and recent events have served as a pretext to put them into action,” said a statement published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, following

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Ukraine’s killing fields in 10 stories: RT reporter goes to Lugansk and Donetsk

Ukraine’s killing fields in 10 stories

Lugansk and Donetsk residents are now used to gunfire. RT’s Maria Finoshina crossed Ukraine’s southeast to see the aftermath of war there - and how it is the civilians who have carried the heaviest burden: relatives lost, homes destroyed, and hope gone.

‘Why is this happening? Why, God, why?’

“I worked all my life and what did I get for it,” exclaims a weeping elderly woman. “Why is this happening? Why, God, why?” Many of those left in the

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Porn not loading for hours? Blame ‘Internet Slowdown’ protest

Porn not loading for hours

Pornography tends towards the ‘harder, faster’ side of things. But porn-watchers could be in for slower, buffered videos next Friday as some of the world’s top adult film sites participate in a protest against the proposed loss of net neutrality.
READ MORE: Internet Slowdown protest: Top web companies to join strike for net neutrality
“We're in. Let's make some waves!” Pornhub proclaimed on Reddit.
The waves in question are about getting porn viewers to tear their eyes away from the motion of the ocean on screen ‒ long enough to realize what might happen if US authorities go ahead with a proposal to create

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Obama: We are readying new sanctions on Russia despite peace agreement in Ukraine

Obama: We are readying new sanctions

United States President Barack Obama said Friday that the US and European Union are still prepared to impose sanctions against Russia if the crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate following the signing of a ceasefire agreement.
Speaking in Newport, Wales at the close of a major NATO alliance summit, Pres. Obama expressed skepticism over a pact signed only hours earlier in Minsk during a meeting of representatives from Kiev, Lugansk and Donetsk, and said the US intends to go ahead with new sanctions

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Snowden leak exposes US plan to spy on foreign businesses for profit

Snowden leak exposes US plan to spy

A 2009 intelligence document provided to journalists by former government contractor Edward Snowden suggests the United States weighed someday conducting espionage to prevent losing its economic prowess to other countries.
The document, published first by The Intercept on Friday this week, outlines tactics the American intelligence community may implement in the future in the event of certain scenarios, including one in which “the United States’ technological and innovative edge slips” in the year 2025.
In the event that the US may lose that advantage, the Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review’s final report reads in part, then “a multi-pronged, systematic effort to gather open source and proprietary information through overt means, clandestine penetration (through

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European businesses call for no more sanctions

European businesses call for no more

The Association of European Businesses has urged the governments of the European Union and Russia to protect foreign investors from any “further retaliatory measures.”
The Moscow-based lobby group represents the interests of more than 600 European businesses in Russia, and has written a letter to all 28 heads of state and governments of the EU, as well to the Russian and Ukrainian leadership stressing that among its members “are global companies with businesses in sectors which would be directly affected by

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Losing momentum': ECB cuts interest rate to new record low of 0.05%

Losing momentum': ECB cuts interest rate

The European Central Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates to 0.05% from 0.15% in a strong response to combat deflation. The move comes as the EU is struggling to boost its stagnating economy, which Draghi
“Growth recovery was losing momentum,” ECB President Mario Draghi said at the news conference after the announcement was made to cut rates further.
The ECB's main refinancing rate has been cut 10 basis points to 0.05 percent, its marginal lending facility was decreased 10 basis points to 0.3 percent, and its deposit facility decreased 10 basis points to stay in negative territory at -0.2 percent.
“The main reason is to make sure there are no misunderstandings that we’ve reached the lower bound. Now we are at the lower bound," Draghi

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Russia sees serious threat in FATCA

Russia sees serious threat in FATCA

Russia’s financial system is “threatened” by America’s new tax law that demands foreign banks report on all American citizens’ banking activities, the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service said Thursday.
The head of the financial monitoring authority Yury Chikhanchin likened the one-sided data exchange to turning Russian banks into spies for the Americans.
“Essentially, our financial institutions are becoming tax informants for the American economy. As similar systems start spreading to other countries, they can bring serious risks to our financial system,” Chikhanchin said at a banking forum in Sochi.
FATCA requires foreign banks to provide information on American clients, who have over $10,000 in deposits, to the US Internal Revenue Service

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Russia, Caucasus allies to form ‘security outline’ to counter NATO

Russia, Caucasus allies to form ‘security outline

Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia may soon enter a trilateral treaty on friendship and cooperation with further formation of a joint military bloc that would oppose NATO, a top diplomat has said.
South Ossetia’s ambassador to Abkhazia, Oleg Botsiyev, told popular Russian daily Izvestia that the planned coalition would be modeled on NATO’s structure and be allied with another Moscow-led military alliance on the post-Soviet space – the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (with Serbia and Afghanistan holding an observer status).
The diplomat said that the talks on the possible three-party union were still in process and it was yet undecided whether it would be a joint treaty

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Candidates in elections must prove their sanity – MPs

Candidates in elections must prove

A nationalist lawmaker suggests making politicians disclose their psychiatric problems to the public and punish those who try to hide them by removing them from polls.
Aleksey Zhuravlev, who heads the nationalist party Rodina (Motherland), and sits in the Lower House on the ticket of the center-left party Fair Russia, claims that the initiative was caused by personal experience.
“In the course of election campaigns, I sometimes encounter candidates who cause only bewilderment. I have to explain the simplest things to them – like what security is, what social solidarity and responsibility are, what healthy conservatism is. Sometimes our citizens say that certain

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Russian lawmaker suspects Google of spying for Kiev regime

Russian lawmaker suspects Google

A ruling party MP plans to ask Russian law enforcers to investigate Google’s alleged ties with the Ukrainian special services and possible leaking of Russian citizens’ personal data.
Evgeny Fyodorov of the United Russia party has accused Google of taking “an openly anti-Russian position” in an interview with popular daily Izvestia. He added that he possessed information that Google had signed a cooperation agreement with Ukrainian special services, in particular the Security Service of Ukraine or SBU.
“Google remains in the jurisdiction of the United States of America and the USA is now officially seeking to weaken Russia and destabilize the

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Welfare not warfare': Protesters march on NATO Summit

Welfare not warfare': Protesters march

Hundreds of protesters marched from the center of Newport in a show of opposition to the NATO Summit. There are reports of several marches taking place in other Welsh towns.
An estimated 500 NATO opponents made a three-mile trek to the venue in a peaceful protest through Newport. The turnout appears to be well below the 2,500 predicted by organizers.
Chants of “Welfare not warfare” and placards reading ‘Nuclear NATO No Thanks’ and ‘Stop NATO’ were seen and heard amongst the procession, which was followed by two police helicopters.

‘Red Block’ communists carrying hammer and sickle banners joined the

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2014 NATO Summit in Wales LIVE UPDATES

2014 NATO Summit in Wales LIVE UPDATES

World leaders are arriving for the NATO Summit held at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. The summit has been marked by protests and one of the largest security operations to ever take place on British soil. Ukraine and Islamic State will top the agenda.

Thursday, September 4

21:42 GMT:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said NATO wants a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis and is ready to talk to Russia, but at the same time it is prepared to use more sanctions.
"We're also prepared to lend weight to our political demands by imposing further sanctions," Merkel said at the NATO summit in Wales on Thursday. "But the message is that we want a political solution; we and especially the Ukrainian president are, of course, prepared to speak to Russia about

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UK doesn’t need Assad’s permission to launch airstrikes in Syria – Cameron

UK doesn’t need Assad’s permission

Britain could conduct airstrikes in Syrian regions captured by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said. He added that he did not need permission from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Speaking at the start of the NATO summit in Wales on Thursday, Cameron said he did not recognize Assad as a legitimate leader, labeling him as “part of the problem.”
“We have got to understand that Assad has been part of the creation of IS, rather than part of its answer," he said.
The statement seemingly rejects proposals made earlier this month by MPs suggesting that the UK temporarily ally with Assad to put down the

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Illegal immigrants make 10% of California’s workforce, staying in US longer

Illegal immigrants make 10% of California

There were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the US in March 2013, including some 2.6 million living in California ‒ which makes up 10 percent of the state’s workforce, according to two new studies released Wednesday.
Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (USC’s CSII), in conjunction with the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC), published a study on the contributions of non-citizens in the country’s most populous state. The report includes updated information on demographics, labor force participation, economic contributions, entrepreneurship and the numbers of eligible voters among all immigrants.
Overall, people who have moved to the US contribute nearly $650 billion

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Former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell found guilty of corruption

Former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell

Robert McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia from 2010 through earlier this year, was found guilty by jury on Thursday of 11 counts involving corrupt conduct carried out while running the state.
Both the ex-governor and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were indicted earlier this year on multiple counts each of conspiracy, bribery and extortion stemming from accusations that they improperly accepted $177,000 in gifts and cash while in office from vitamin executive Jonnie Williams.
From a federal courthouse in Richmond, VA early Thursday afternoon, a jury convicted Mr. McDonnell on 11 of the 13 counts he faced; his wife was found guilty of nine counts, and both were acquitted on bank fraud charges.
Eyewitnesses reported from the state capital that the McDonnells sobbed

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Limits to Growth’ vindicated: World headed towards economic, environmental collapse

Limits to Growth’ vindicated: World headed

Australian researchers have shown that a book written ‒ and written off ‒ four decades ago accurately predicted where the world would be in terms of resource allocation and the environment. And that does not bode well for the future of humanity.

Image from Amazon.com

Researchers from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne used data from the last 40 years to compare to predictions made by the authors of the 1972 book “Limits to Growth.”

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Promoting peace and stability’: NATO warships enter Black Sea

Promoting peace and stability

A US Navy destroyer and, reportedly, a French frigate have entered the Black Sea, as NATO builds up its presence in the region while tensions remain high in Ukraine. Another two warships are expected to arrive in the area by the end of the week.
The US Navy 6th Fleet official command has confirmed on its official Twitter account that the destroyer USS Ross, (DDG 71), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, is now in the Black Sea.
“USS Ross enters Black Sea, promoting peace and stability while working with NATO allies and partners,” a statement said.
The US Navy has stressed that “the Ross’ presence in the Black Sea serves to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to strengthening

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Demilitarized zone, OSCE monitoring among E.Ukraine militias’ peace proposals

Demilitarized zone, OSCE monitoring

The self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have come up with their own proposals to stabilize the situation in south-eastern Ukraine, which include a temporary ceasefire, a demilitarized zone, flight bans for Kiev and OSCE monitoring.
The first and most important step should be the announcement of a temporary ceasefire by both the Ukrainian military and the self-defense forces starting from 15:00 local time (12:00GMT) on September 5, the Donetsk and Lugansk representatives told Interfax news agency. The leadership of the two republics proposed to “carry out international control of the implementation of the terms of the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation under the authority of the OSCE (Organization for Security

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Did he mean Alaska?’ Obama wrongly blames Russia for ‘trying to return lands lost in 19th century’

Did he mean Alaska?’ Obama wrongly

Barack Obama has opened himself to widespread ridicule in Russia after making a history gaffe in a keynote speech in Estonia. Accusing Moscow of imperial ambitions, the US President suggested Russia is trying to return some lands it “lost” 200 years ago.
“Reaching back to the days of the czars, trying to reclaim lands lost in the 19th century is surely not the way to secure Russia’s greatness in the 21st century,” Obama said to the rapturous applause of his Estonian audience in Tallinn hall, where he was promising to defend the Baltic States from the Kremlin. It was a neat and dramatic soundbite – contrasting the ages of monocles and crowns with

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Most convincing evidence’: Russian embassy trolls NATO with toy tanks

Most convincing evidence’:

Some of Russia’s diplomats have joined a digital diplomacy row as they trolled NATO by “leaking” on Twitter the alliance’s “most convincing evidence” of Russian troops’ alleged presence in Ukraine.
The Twitter account @RussEmbassyUAE, which is the official Twitter of the Russian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates, posted a picture of tiny toy trucks, tanks and armored vehicles all lined up on the ground, with the words: “#NATO's latest evidence of #Russian armor invading #Ukraine has been leaked! Seems to be the most convincing ever!”
Users on the social media network seem to have liked the “toy tweet” – the picture was retweeted over 1,000 times and nearly 500 people added

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Kiev & self-defense forces ready for Friday ceasefire if Minsk talks successful

Kiev & self-defense forces ready

The Ukrainian president and the heads of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have said they are ready to order a ceasefire if peace talks in Minsk, Belarus on Friday are successful.
"At 14:00 local time (11:00GMT Friday), provided the [Minsk] meeting takes place, I will call on the General Staff to set up a bilateral ceasefire and we hope that the implementation of the peace plan will begin tomorrow," Petro Poroshenko said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Wales on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Poroshenko expressed “great hope” that the peace process in Ukraine will commence in Minsk on September 5, when

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US, EU preparing new round of economic sanctions against Russia

US, EU preparing new round

The United States is planning a new round of sanctions aimed at the Russian Federation over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, and the European Union is reportedly on the verge of doing the same.
Reuters reported on Thursday that the White House is working on a new wave of sanctions against Russia, which may be imposed in tandem with embargoes expected to be announced by European Union representatives later this week. The newswire made the announcement as the White House participated in a conference-call with reporters.
According to Reuters, Deputy White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters that the new penalties were being finalized, but neglected to give details concerning what specific sectors will be

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Beslan school decade after tragedy

Beslan school decade after tragedy

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EU considering banning Russian state firms borrowing - report

EU considering banning Russian state

The EU is considering forbidding all Russian state-owned firms from borrowing or raising money on European capital markets in the possible next round of sanctions against Russia being prepared by the European Commission.
This and other proposals were discussed at a meeting of European ambassadors in Brussels on Monday, Reuters reports citing diplomatic sources. The EU governing body is due to prepare a final draft by Wednesday and members will make a decision on the final shape of the latest round of sanctions by Friday.
At the end of July, the EU stopped five Russian banks, including the country’s largest lender Sberbank, from raising funds on its capital

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EU prepares emergency ‘Plan B’ blueprint in case Russia halts gas - report

EU prepares emergency ‘Plan B’

The European Union may ban the ‘re-selling’ of gas and limit industrial use as part of a contingency plan to create a stockpile for next winter, in case Russian gas stops flowing through Ukraine, according to a European Commission source.
Foreseeing a possible halt in supplies over the political standoff between Russia and Ukraine, Europe has an emergency plan to stock up on energy supplies, the source told Reuters.
"In the short-term, we are very worried about winter supplies in southeast Europe," the source, who has direct knowledge of the Commission’s energy emergency plans, told the news agency. Europe gets a large proportion of its energy from Russia, which supplies about 30 percent of its natural gas needs, as well as oil and coal. The EU has urged Ukraine to

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Prosecutors vow to seize $800mn worth of Berezovsky’s foreign assets

Prosecutors vow to seize $800mn

Russian law enforcers will press for the seizure and sale of the late Boris Berezovsky’s property, including luxury real estate in Europe, in order to compensate his creditors, claims the spokesperson for Prosecutor General’s Office.
Marina Gridneva told RIA Novosti that the Prosecutor General’s Office would seek the maximum available settlement of Berezovsky’s debts and confiscation of the property that was purchased with ill-gotten funds. She emphasized that the Russian justice system would not be obstructed by the physical location of the property or its nominal belonging to some ‘front’ people or firms.
British press earlier reported that Berezovsky property was worth about

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Russia to adjust military doctrine due to NATO expansion, Ukraine crisis

Russia to adjust military doctrine due to NATO

Moscow is to review its military doctrine, a move that is caused by expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe, problems of missile defense and the crisis situation in neighboring Ukraine, says an official from the Russia’s Security Council.
“I have no doubts that the issue of drawing of military infrastructure of NATO member-countries to the borders of our country, including via enlargement, will remain one of the external military threats for the Russian Federation,” Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of the

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GCHQ backlash? Anonymous website shut down following privacy rights protest

Anonymous website shut down following

Anonymous UK’s website was recently targeted and taken down in the midst of a four-day privacy rights protest organized by the collective. The demonstration was held outside Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
A spokesman for the hacktivist group believes the targeted attack was carried out by GCHQ officials.
The protest, which began outside Britain’s Cheltenham-based spy base last Friday, was launched to highlight the erosion of Britons’ privacy rights against a backdrop of increasing mass surveillance. But prior to the

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Channel change: RT moves from UK’s Freeview 85 to 135 on Sept 3

Channel change: RT moves

From September 3, RT can be found on a new digital channel. The global news network will be moving from Freeview Channel 85 to Channel 135. Six news channels in total will be affected by these planned schedule changes, including BBC News and Sky News.
Freeview is the UK’s most prolific digital terrestrial television service, with more than 55 million viewers nationwide. While RT has been broadcasting in Britain since 2006, Freeview has been the channel’s platform of choice since 2010.
As a progressive international news channel with over half a million

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Yellowstone supervolcano eruption would be disastrous for entire US – study

Yellowstone supervolcano eruption

If the massive supervolcano at Yellowstone National Park erupted again, scientists believe it would blanket much of the United States in ash and potentially sever communication as well as travel between the country’s coasts.
According to a new study published by the US Geological Survey, cities about 300 miles away from the volcano’s location in Wyoming would be covered in up to three feet of ash as a result of a supereruption, the largest kind of volcanic eruption possible. More than 240 cubic miles of material would be expelled into the atmosphere, reaching cities like New York and Los Angeles on both sides of the United States.
In fact, the resulting ash cloud, or “umbrella,” as scientists called it, would be so strong that it would overpower normal wind patterns in North

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Gone from CNN, Piers Morgan says he wants his show to be remembered for Alex Jones gun debate

Gone from CNN, Piers Morgan

News anchor Piers Morgan’s tenure with CNN officially ended on Tuesday this week, and according to a tweet sent by the British journalist, an exchange with radio host Alex Jones was among the highlights of his career there.
"If I'm to be remembered for anything [at] CNN, I'd like it to be this" Morgan told his 4.23 million Twitter followers on Tuesday along with a link to a YouTube clip of his infamous gun debate with Jones in the wake of the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Both the Brit and Jones made headlines in their own right last year when

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Fake cell phone ‘towers’ may be spying on Americans’ calls, texts

Fake cell phone ‘towers’ may be spying

More than a dozen “fake cell phone towers” could be secretly hijacking Americans’ mobile devices in order to listen in on phone calls or snoop on text messages, a security-focused cell phone company claims. It is not clear who controls the devices.
READ MORE: Tracking everywhere: Private companies offer worldwide spying tools
ESD America, which markets heavily-encrypted cell phones built within the body of a Samsung Galaxy S3, said it was able to locate numerous towers intercepting mobile communications – but does not know who is

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US prepares military drill in W. Ukraine for mid-September

US prepares military drill in W

The US and its allies are preparing to stage a military exercise in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border, in mid-September. The joint drill will involve over 1,000 troops from the US and Europe, as well as from Ukraine.
READ MORE: Estonia wants NATO bases on its territory as military bloc plans expansion
Initially planned for mid-July, the exercise – code-named 'Rapid Trident' – was halted due to a significant escalation in the conflict between Kiev and the southeastern regions of Ukraine.

Now, as the fighting between the two sides continues, the US Army’s European Command (EUCOM) plans to go ahead and stage the exercise on

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Israel ploughing ahead with settlement plan despite criticism at home and abroad

Israel ploughing ahead with settlement plan

Despite a rift within the Israeli cabinet and international condemnation, Israel is determined to go ahead with plans to acquire 400 hectares in the West Bank, with the foreign minister saying it reflects “a wide-ranging consensus in Israeli society.”
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, said the country stands behind its decision to appropriate the land in the West Bank, a move that has already stoked tensions with Palestine and around the globe.
Speaking at a media conference with US Congressman Ed Royce, Liberman said "Gush Etzion reflects a wide-ranging consensus in Israeli

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HRW: Civilian death toll in E. Ukraine rising due to 'indiscriminate and unlawful' shelling

HRW: Civilian death toll in E

Human Rights Watch has condemned the illegality of Ukrainian actions in east Ukraine, ascribing direct blame to Kiev for the rising death toll in the Lugansk Region, which by local estimates has reached 300 since May.
The organization visited the city on August 20-22, performing a survey of the situation and carrying out interviews with locals who in one way or another were affected by the heavy bombardment, which had people cowering in fear in basements for weeks without water or electricity.
Ever since Kiev’s attempts to retake the city from the local defense forces, massive power cuts, food and water shortages, and network

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Obama orders 350 additional troops to Iraq

Obama orders 350 additional troops to Iraq

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday authorized the deployment of an additional 350 American troops to Iraq, where they will be charged with protecting US diplomats and facilitates in Baghdad.
According to Reuters, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said the deployment means that 820 American military troops will be operating in Iraq as part of the US effort to beef up diplomatic security against Islamic State militants.
In a separate statement, the White House press secretary added that troops will not serve in a combat role, and that the approval comes after a

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Beslan school decade after tragedy

Beslan school decade after tragedy

The Beslan school hostage crisis began on September 1, 2004, at School No. 1 in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia, after an armed group of terrorists took hundreds of school children and adults hostage during the first academic day.

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Russia-led military bloc ready to send peacekeepers to Ukraine

Russia-led military bloc ready to send

The head of the CSTO says its peacekeepers are ready for any operations, including in Ukraine, but their deployment requires the go-ahead from leaders of all member-countries.
"Deployment of the CSTO peacekeeping force can be ordered only by the Collective Security Council – the supreme body formed with heads of state of the member countries. By a joint decision these leaders can order the use of peacekeepers both on the territory of the member-states and also outside their borders,” General-Secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Nikolay Bordyuzha, stated on Friday.
“The CSTO peacekeeping force was formed several years ago and its units have already completed the training in combat cooperation. The

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Massive privacy breach? Dozens of celebrities’ nude pics leaked online

Massive privacy breach

Dozens of celebrities could be affected by what appears to be the largest privacy breach in history in which the anonymous perpetrator released a handful of stars’ nude photos and shared a list of the alleged victims of the hack.
More than 100 A-Listers have reportedly fallen victims to a hacker, who shared the photos online, exposing photos of Hollywood’s celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Keegan and Kristin Dunst.
Although not all of the pictures’ authenticity could be confirmed, Jennifer Lawrence's representative already said that the movie superstar's photos

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Hoax terror attack warning for London Tube spreads on social media

Hoax terror attack warning for London

Warnings of an imminent terrorist attack on London’s Tube network were a ‘hoax’, say police. This follows the raising of the UK’s terror threat level from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’ on Friday in response to the domestic threat posed by ISIS.
Circulated by text and social media over the weekend, the message claimed to cite leaked information suggesting police were readying themselves for a substantial terrorist attack on the London Underground, which was targeted in the 7/7 attacks of 2005.

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British rocker mom joins ISIS, vows to 'behead Christians with blunt knife'

British rocker mom joins ISIS

A British mother of two and former musician, who is believed to have gone to Syria to join the militant terror group Islamic State with her jihadist husband, has threatened to "behead Christians with a blunt knife."
Calling herself Umm Hussain al-Britani, the woman has been identified by investigators as Sally Jones, from Chatham in Kent, a former member of an all-girl rock band.
She warned, “You Christians all need beheading with a nice blunt knife and stuck on the railings at Raqqa ... Come here I'll do it for you!” she

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