Who was behind the May 2nd massacre inside Odessa’s Trade Unions Building?

What was the role of Oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi appointed by President Oleksandr Turchynov as governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Finance in today’s world has become war by non-military means. Its object is the same as that of military conquest: appropriation of land and basic infrastructure, and the rents that can be extracted as tribute. In today’s world this is taken mainly in the form of debt service and privatization. That is how neoliberalism works, subduing economies by indebting their governments and using unpayably high debts as a lever to pry away the public domain at distress prices. It is what today’s New Cold War is all about. Backed by the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) as knee-breakers in what has become in effect a financial extension of NATO, the aim is for U.S. and allied investors to appropriate the plums that kleptocrats have taken from the public domain of Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet economies in these countries, as well as whatever assets remain.

„Ich weise diese Information kategorisch zurück“, sagte die Sprecherin der Nationalgarde, Viktorija Kuschnir, zu RIA Novosti. Sie bestätigte jedoch, dass zehn Soldaten der Nationalgarde zur selbstproklamierten „Donezker Volksrepublik“ übergelaufen sind. Der Verbleib dieser Menschen sei ihr jedoch nicht bekannt.

A festival was held by the branch of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party in Ashrafiyet Sahnaya in Damascus Countryside.

The participants stressed that every Syrian should take part in the presidential vote as the participation would reflect belief in the homeland and its unity and the independence of its political decision.

They said that the elections will mark a democratic achievement in defiance of the plots of Syria‘s enemies and their takfiri agents, affirming that they will give their votes to candidate al-Assad, “ who reflects our aspirations for victory and recovery“.

An Egyptian court jailed more than 160 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to up to 15 years in prison on Sunday, pressing a crackdown on the Islamist group before a presidential election former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win.

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“Scheitert die Präsidentschaftswahl, kommen wir an einen gefährlichen Punkt. Europa wird nicht einfach zuschauen, wenn die Abstimmung von außen gestört wird”, sagte der Vizekanzler der “Bild am Sonntag” und fügte hinzu: “Dann würden wir auch über weitere Sanktionen reden müssen.”

Der plötzlich ausgerufene “Totale Krieg” in und um Nigeria, der aus den Schatten gesprungene Krieg in der Ukraine, die so bizarr salonfähig gewordene Gefahr eines Weltkriegs zwischen Westblock und Russland und andere rational scheinbar unerklärliche Konflikte und Spannungsfälle haben einen in Deutschland bis dato immer noch nicht verstandenen Hintergrund: Den drei Tage nach den Attentaten des 11. September durch den Kongress erteilten “Blankoscheck für perpetuierten Krieg”.

British Foreign Minister William Hague, speaking before the start of a meeting, said the Nigerian military was not organized in a way to deal effectively with the group, and offered military advisers to help structure them.

„There is determination to tackle this situation head on … to launch a war, a total war on Boko Haram,“ Chad‘s President Idriss Deby said.

(12.05.) No details available on what form the assistance might take.

Some 1,000 US troops arrive in Israel to participate in exercise held every two years, said designed to test joint response to missile attacks.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), congressional representative to the United Nations, will speak at the UN General Assembly on Monday, May 19th. The UN General Assembly is expected to adopt a consensus resolution recognizing the importance of a clear role for parliaments at the global decision-making level. The resolution – Interaction between the United Nations, national parliaments and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) – builds on a report by the UN Secretary General on the issue for the 68th General Assembly which documents intense interaction between the UN, IPU and the world of parliaments as a whole in the past two years.

Some lawmakers tried last year to repeal or update the law, but failed, even as President Barack Obama pushed Congress to make revisions.

Next week, exactly one year after Obama made his pitch, lawmakers in both chambers intend to try again.

(15.05.) “It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but 9/11 was a very difficult time in the history of this country,” said Reid, who voted for the law in 2001. “[But] I definitely think its something we should definitely take a look at. I think 9/11 is a long time ago, and it’s something that needs to be looked at again. I have no problem with that,” Reid added.

(15.05.) The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), approved by Congress three days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, was just 60 words long and has since been used to justify everything from indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay to drone strikes in Yemen against terrorist groups that didn’t exist when the twin towers fell.

(06.05.) The last one month has shown what happens when the military and security services take their eyes off the ball in the war against terror.

Experts on Boko Haram suggest that the kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria could not have been carried out without some degree of police or military cooperation.

(09.05.) Damning testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal that Nigerian security forces failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram‘s armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction of more than 240 schoolgirls on April 14-15.