In their first phone conversation since 2010, the Israeli PM has apologized to Turkish PM Erdogan for deaths in the Gaza flotilla raid, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. Israel also agreed to compensation for bereaved families. Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepted the apology and agreed with his Israeli counterpart on the need to normalize the relationship that deteriorated after the UN report in 2011... 

US President Barack Obama (L) speaks alongside acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas (R) at the Muqata, the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 21, 2013. US President Barack Obama has said that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank must end, adding that Palestinians deserve an independent and sovereign state. Obama also said he is “deeply... 

94.5% said YES to Zimbabwe’s new constitution Zimbabwe’s official election body says 94.5 percent of Zimbabweans have supported a new constitution, which strengthens human rights and limits presidential powers. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission made the announcement in the capital Harare on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Judge Rita Makarau, the chairwoman of the commission, stated... 

Cypriot MPs vote on a controversial bailout package during a parliament session in Nicosia on March 19, 2013. The Cypriot parliament has voted against a revised bank deposit levy. The tax was meant to shave 9.9% off any deposits over €100,000 and has since caused uproar in the country. Thirty six deputies voted against the proposal to tax bank deposits in the 56-member chamber, while 19 abstained.... 

Admiral James Stavridis, commander of US European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) NATO’s supreme commander says the alliance is drawing up contingency plans for a possible military intervention in Syria. Admiral James Stavridis, commander of US European Command, said at the Senate Armed Services Committee that US military would be ready to take part in the aggression,... 

In another break from Republican Party orthodoxy, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has said that America’s illegal immigrants should be integrated into the tax system in a program that would eventually lead to the possibility of citizenship. Speaking about immigration issues at the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Paul said “Let’s start that conversation by acknowledging we aren’t... 

North Korea has threatened to take military action against the United States and its allies if Washington continues to fly nuclear-capable bombers over the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang denounced the joint US-South Korea military exercises and said the drills were an unpardonable provocation and rehearsals for invasion, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday. “The US is introducing... 

Romania’s Defense Minister Mircea Dusa Bucharest says the United States is going ahead with deploying controversial anti-missile interceptors in Romania despite opposition from Russia. Romanian Defense Minister Mircea Dusa says the missile system will most likely be deployed in 2015. “I have very serious assurances from the American side that the investment in Romania will continue,” said... 

Militants in Syria Syrian planes have bombed a Lebanese border town in eastern Bekaa Valley, the first such attack during the country’s ongoing crisis, according to a Lebanese army source. The warplanes entered 1 kilometer into Lebanese airspace and struck the town of Kerbet Younan in the Wadi al-Khayl region of Arsal, where the majority of Sunni Muslim residents support Syrian rebels fighting to... 

Britain and U.S. spying agencies had ignored intelligence before invasion of Iraq that the country had no active weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), it has been revealed. MI6 and CIA had been told through secret channels by Saddam’s foreign minister and his spy chief that Iraq had no WMDs, media reports said. This is while that former Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament in the run-up to the... 

Every military resource the US has, including nuclear arms, will be available to its ally South Korea in the confrontation with its northern neighbor, US Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter pledged in Seoul. “We remain steadfast to our commitment to extended deterrence offered by the US nuclear umbrella,” Carter said after talks with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin. “We’ll... 

The CIA is considering a secret contingency plan to expand the US drone strikes to Syria, former and current American officials say. The officials said the Counterterrorism Center, which runs CIA’s drone operations in Pakistan and Yemen, has recently tasked some of its agents to collect further intelligence on the situation in Syria, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday. The targeting officers,... 

Russian Iskander high-precision missile system The United Stated is abandoning a key part of its Eastern European missile defense plan due to development problems and funding, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has announced. The focus, he said, will be shifted to perceived threats from North Korea. Interceptors in Poland and Romania, the deployment of which had been the source of heavy criticism from... 

There truly is no rest for the wicked, and Monsanto is at war once again against health conscious consumers with the latest ‘Monsanto Protection Act‘, managing to sneak wording into the latest Senate legislation that would give them blanket immunity from any USDA action regarding the potential dangers of their genetically modified creations while under review. The USDA would be unable to act against... 

Will launching a catastrophic military offensive against the Islamic Republic of Iran be the defining moment of US President Obama’s two-term presidency? Against all common sense and uncommon wisdom, it looks increasingly possible that Barack Obama, the Democratic leader who once-upon-a-campaign seduced the world by pledging to “sit down and talk with America’s enemies,” will resort to armed...