This week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is releasing its latest report, the “Working Group II Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report.” Like its past reports, this one predicts apocalyptic consequences if mankind fails to give the UN the power to tax and regulate fossil fuels and subsidize and mandate the use of alternative fuels. But happily, an international group of scientists I have been privileged to work with has conducted an independent review of IPCC’s past and new reports, along with the climate science they deliberately exclude or misrepresent. Our group, called the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), was founded in 2003 by a distinguished atmospheric physicist, S. Fred Singer, and has produced five hefty reports to date, the latest being released today (March 31). So how do the IPCC and NIPCC reports differ? The final draft of the IPCC’s Summary for Policymakers identifies eight “reasons for concern” which media reports say will remain the focus of the final report. The NIPCC reports address each point too, also summarizing their authors’ positions in Summaries for Policymakers. This provides a convenient way to compare and contrast the reports’ findings.

Ecuador has said it will not deal with the coup-appointed government in Kiev and has called for fair elections. President Rafael Correa declared he would only negotiate with a “legitimate government” that represents the will of the Ukrainian people. ● In his weekly address to the Ecuadorian people, Correa explained why Ecuador had abstained from the UN General Assembly vote Thursday that passed a resolution condemning Crimea’s union with Russia. “We will not fall for a farce, we will only deal with a legitimate government,” said Correa, adding that Ecuador does not recognize the current government that is the product of a coup d’état. To win the support of Ecuador, Ukraine should hold democratic elections and establish a legitimate government chosen by the Ukrainian people, Correa said. Moscow has also decried the coup-appointed government that came to power in Kiev at the end of February following weeks of bloody protests in the Ukrainian capital’s Independence Square. "The current government is the product of devious machinations, to put to it mildly, clearly supported by hypocritical rhetoric from the West,” Correa said.

Thomas Gaist ■ The US National Security Agency (NSA) and British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have been engaged in aggressive surveillance operations against Germany’s political and corporate establishment and against more than 100 heads of state around the world, secret documents disclosed by Der Spiegel and the Intercept show. The classified files leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden to the two publications show that the NSA targeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and more than 100 other leaders of foreign governments as part of a program known as “Nymrod.” Heads of state listed on on the leaked files include, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, Peruvian President Alan Garcia, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Malian President Amadou Toumain Toure, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, and Ukrainian Prime Minister and oligarch Yulia Tymoshenko.

Reuters: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study
SMH: Edward Snowden documents show Malaysia is an Australia, US intelligence target
NSA reportedly targeted as many as 122 world leaders for surveillance

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy) returns to the programme for a detailed analysis of the crisis in Ukraine, and an assessment of the Western propaganda war being waged against Russia. Setting the discussion in the context of decades of US imperialism, and identifying the current crisis as largely agitated by Washington through its NGOs, Dr. Roberts reveals how Ukraine fits into the neocon game plan for world hegemony. But, as he explains, this insane goal for a nuclear "checkmate" by Washington against its geopolitical opponents on The Grand Chess Board is reckless in the extreme; for just like WWI, it could spiral out of control, but unlike WWI, it could lead to Armageddon. Video (AUDIO)

xymphora: Truth and moral clarity versus the elite bizarro lies ■ You should listen to this interview of Dr. Paul Craig Roberts by Julian Charles. My only quibble is his inability to explain what the neocons are really up to and why, but I understand his need to stay 'respectable'. Remember the United States achieved its power and wealth when it had high government officials like Roberts. You just have to laugh at the people in those positions now. "Ukraine - New Propaganda Meme: Fascists Are Russian Tools" This an extension of the elite conspiracy theory that the thugs employed by the Americans are actually working for Putin. What can you do? Go back to first principles, what the neocons are really up to and why. Target the people involved. Put a 100% economic boycott on their businesses until things change. Quite a few of them should be in jail on treason charges. This kind of pressure would work, and is the only thing that would work.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts on Another World Is Possible

"Let's Insert Obamacare Propaganda in the Movies and on TV" || Valerie Jarrett, the consigliore to the Obamas, recently ventured to Los Angeles to push the idea that Hollywood writers incorporate pro Obamacare messages in movies and TV shows. One simply quivers at the thought of it. One can just imagine what that would be like.

An Interview With Valerie Jarrett Over Her Efforts to Push Pro-ObamaCare Messaging Into TV Scripts

US Presidesnt Barack Obama’s hegemonic policies regarding Russia are pushing the world into a new war, an analyst writes in a column for the Press TV website. “Obama overthrew the Ukrainian government in order to be able to stuff the country into NATO, throw Russia out of its Black Sea naval base, and put US missile bases in Ukraine on Russia’s border,” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column for Press TV on Saturday. “Obama is angry that his plan didn’t pan out as intended, and he is taking his anger and frustration out on Russia,” he added. The analyst pointed that Obama’s demand for more NATO troops to be stationed in Eastern Europe and the buildup of military forces on Russia’s borders to allegedly protect Poland and the Baltic states is yet another provocation by Washington that could trigger a war with Moscow. “Today the drive to war is blatantly obvious. The lies are obvious, and the entire West is participating, both media and governments,” he added.

Paul Craig Roberts: Pushing Toward The Final War

The West is inconsistent in not recognizing the Crimea referendum as legitimate, while recognizing the military coup in Kiev, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said. He accused the EU and US of duplicity and described sanctions as a “dead-end track.”If the West accepts Kiev’s coup-appointed government then it must, in turn, accept the legitimacy of Crimea’s referendum to join with Russia, Lavrov told Irada Zeinalova, the host of the “Sunday Time” analytical program on Russia’s Channel One TV.

New leaked NSA documents published in Der Spiegel and The Intercept appear to reveal more details about how that agency targeted a list of world leaders that is larger than previously thought. The documents, leaked to the publications by Edward Snowden, contain a list of 11 world leaders that have been targeted by a system known as Nymrod — however the document implies the actual number targeted was 122. Nymrod is reportedly a system designed to automatically extract citations ("cites") out of a multiplicity of sources, including voice and computer communications. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is listed by name, as are more obvious targets like Syrian president Bashar Asad and former Ukranian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Various leaders apparently have "cites" automatically added to to a "Target Knowledge Database." The documents described by Der Spiegel also detail a broad effort from the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to target German internet companies like Stelar, Cetel, and IABG. GCHQ reportedly targeted engineers and employees and attempted to identify "access chokepoints" where it would be better able to monitor communications. The NSA also reportedly received permission from a US court to monitor communications in Germany more broadly.

The western mainstream media’s role in a promoting any war or conflict can never be underestimated – as history has demonstrated time and time again, with their willingness to blindly promote the international corporate and shadow government’s foreign policy objectives – which always result in the death of countless innocents. It must stop.

This is the story about a film which none of were supposed to see. Not because the film wasn’t up to professional journalistic standards, or that it was of poor quality. It was neither of those. Against the odds and the establishment-owned international media syndicate, award-winning filmmaker and journalist John Pilger reveals one of the most damning indictments of American and British mainstream media. The content of this timeless film is stunning, and show beyond any reasonable doubt, that our media are not only complicit in advancing conflict around the globe, but are actively engaged in pushing it on behalf of those who seek to profit from international conflagrations. Note also the text of the letter between Pilger and Noam Chomsky, revealing how even at the highest levels of the ‘liberal left’ there are financiers who act as information controllers and gatekeepers. John Pilger has made twenty five documentaries, but this one did not receive a warm reception in Barrack Obama’s America. The makers were dis-invited from the US premiere just 48 hours before they got on a plane to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The sponsor, uber-liberal multi-millionaire, Patrick Lannan, had a flunky send them at ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ e-mail. The reason for the ban? No explanation. Here’s the letter written by John Pilger about what happened…

This is perhaps best article on what actually happened in the Ukraine and Crimea: the story is a little different than what you’ve been hearing on TV or reading in the newspapers, at least if you’re in most of the West. The author does leave out some bits (like the Tatars boycotting the Crimean referendum), but overall it’s accurate. Meanwhile the new PM in the Ukraine is imposing IMF austerity measures, like removing subsidies on Gas (50% increase) and cutting pensions (50%) cut. He says he’s on a Kamikazee mission. That’s because he’s not elected, so he can do thing that an elected leader could never do. Which is to say: there is a coup, backed by a popular uprising in the capital, which puts in place an unelected government, which does things that elected governments repeatedly refused to do. The East and South of the country, which voted in the last elected government, is unhappy with this.

Paul Craig Roberts: Western Looting Of Ukraine Has Begun ■ It is now apparent that the “Maiden protests” in Kiev were in actuality a Washington organized coup against the elected democratic government. The purpose of the coup is to put NATO military bases on Ukraine’s border with Russia and to impose an IMF austerity program that serves as cover for Western financial interests to loot the country. The sincere idealistic protesters who took to the streets without being paid were the gullible dupes of the plot to destroy their country.

Michel Chossudovsky: IMF “Shock Treatment” for Ukraine: Collapse of the Standard of Living ■ It is worth recalling that following the instatement of a coalition government on February 23, the interim (puppet) prime minister Arseny Yatsenyuk casually dismissed the need to negotiate with the IMF. Yatsenyk intimated that Ukraine will “accept whatever offer the IMF and the EU made”. Prior to the conduct of negotiations pertaining to a draft agreement, Yatsenyuk had already called for an unconditional acceptance of the IMF package: “We have no other choice but to accept the IMF offer”.

Stephen Lendman: Plundering Ukraine for Profit ■ On March 27, an IMF press release headlined "IMF Staff Level Agreement with Ukraine on US $14 - 18 billion Stand-By Arrangement." Nikolay Gueorguiev is IMF Mission Chief for Ukraine. He's loan shark chief in charge of plundering it for profit. He issued a statement, saying in part: "The mission has reached a staff-level agreement with the authorities of Ukraine on an economic reform program that can be supported by a two-year Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF." "The financial support from the broader international community that the program will unlock amounts to US$27 billion over the next two years." "Of this, assistance from the IMF will range between US$14-18 billion, with the precise amount to be determined once all bilateral and multilateral support is accounted for." Gueorguiev ludicrously said Ukraine "achieved some stability." It "faces difficult challenges," he added. He lied claiming IMF's goal is "restor(ing) macroeconomic stability and put(ting) the country on the path of sound governance and sustainable economic growth while protecting the vulnerable in the society." IMF policy is polar opposite. It's financial terrorism.

President Obama appeared in an interview with CBS News on Friday and continued his campaign of ultimatums and threats against Russia in retaliation for last week’s incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation. ● Obama demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from the Ukraine border, repeating claims by US officials and the media that Moscow has amassed thousands of troops and is threatening an invasion. He tied this new demand to his earlier insistence that Russian President Vladimir Putin hold official talks with the newly installed, rabidly anti-Russian and right-wing US puppet government in Kiev. This would effectively constitute Russian recognition of the regime that took power last month in a fascist-led putsch. Moscow has refused to recognize the Western-backed government.

RT.com: Russia has no intention to send troops into Ukraine – Lavrov
RT.com: US targets Russia with further sanctions
Antiwar.com: Russia Foreign Ministry Announces New Sanctions against US, EU

A UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) report delivered in mid-March harshly criticized the United States, citing a laundry list of human rights violations both on American soil and in countries around the world. ● The report, compiled from the testimony of 18 independent experts, detailed rampant violations by the US government of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The report condemned the US for failing to punish high-ranking military officers and private contractors for crimes, including torture and targeted killings, saying that only a “meager number” of criminal charges had been pressed, and against low-ranking personnel at that.

Stephen Lendman: UN Report Denounces US Human Rights Record

xymphora ■ "R2P: The Tables Turn on the West in Crimea" It is funny that the only time R2P has ever legitimately been used is by Putin to protect Crimea - with the unambiguous total support of its population - from the ravages of the Ukrainian coup government. Otherwise, it is the dirtiest of tricks used by the Jews and their paid employees (monsters like Samantha Power and Michael Ignatieff) to shamelessly breach international law in order to start Wars For The Jews. Related: "Exposed: Obama states Kosovo left Serbia only after referendum, but there was NO referendum at all" I know the American government looks highly incompetent these days, but it is not that incompetent. This was a lie Barry knew he could get away with as he knew for certain neither the American mainstream media nor his political opponents would dare mention it. The overwhelming results of the Crimea referendum are a bit of a problem for the American propagandists.

Brother Nathanael Kapner ■ I’m calling for a Nationalist Convention on Monetary Reform. The world money system is coming unglued and will be replaced by something worse or something better.

What system do we need to create our own money and make us prosperous again? Let’s look at history for countries with spectacular success. Keep in mind if the Jews hate a country you know [that country] is doing something right. Now, who do Jews vilify most? Hitler’s Germany. So let’s start there.

From 1934 to ‘39 under Gottfried Feder’s monetary program, Germany pulled off an economic miracle. Feder convinced Hitler to bypass international Jewish finance and have public works funded by state-created money. This gave Germany a huge economic advantage because they didn’t need to get capital from the Jews and pay them interest. The Jews decided Germany was a threat to their financial racket and had to be stopped. The rest is history.

The Japanese did the same in the early 1930’s. They broke the shackles of interest via the money-creating power of the government. They increased manufacturing by 140% and their GDP by 250% in the middle of the Great Depression. You couldn’t get a clearer contrast between the right system and the miserable system the Jews impose on us. Japan had to be taken out. So Roosevelt—surrounded by Jewish advisers—provoked Pearl Harbor and sacrificed thousands of Americans so Jewish bankers could destroy the evidence of Japan’s financial success. After the war, the Japanese pretended to follow the western model. But secretly, as Ellen Brown points out in her “The Public Bank Solution,” they instituted state-guided money creation. Today, you’ll hear ‘financial experts’ claiming that Japan is in ‘big trouble’ because they have the highest Debt-to-GDP ratio in the world and are stagnating. Don’t believe it. It’s just a cover. Japan wants to LOOK unsuccessful to come in under the radar. Japan is increasing its exports. It’s one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Why? Because they’re nationalists, that’s why. Yes, they have debt. But it’s to themselves, not to the Jews. Their economy is sound and ours is not.

So how do we get debt-free money here? End the Fed. We get rid of the debt the Jews of the Federal Reserve gouge us with and go back to having our own government…issue our own national money…debt-free…as the Constitution says. We can become a strong and free nation once again.

A wide-ranging United Nations report released Thursday strongly criticizes the United States for a host of human rights concerns — from jailing the homeless and sentencing juveniles to life sentences, to drone warfare and spying by the National Security Agency. While the U.N. praised some steps the U.S. government has taken, like curbing human trafficking and a 2009 ban on Central Intelligence Agency torture and secret detention, the report’s authors found the U.S. wanting on 25 human rights issues.

UK secret service has threatened to shut down Guardian daily for covering reports about revelations of American whistleblower Edward Snowden. Paul Johnson, Guardian deputy editor, said at the Radiodays Europe conference in the Irish capital, Dublin, that the daily was threatened for printing Snowden’s disclosures of mass espionage activities by the US.

“We were threatened that we would be closed down. We were accused of endangering national security and people’s lives. It left us in a very difficult position,” he said. Johnson also said that he had been informed by a senior civil servant that “prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the foreign secretary, the home secretary and the attorney general have got a problem with you.”

The Turkish government has blocked Youtube, only hours after the publication of leaked audio in which Foreign Minister Davotoglu, Intelligence Chief Fidan and Military Top Bras discuss war plans against Syria. The Foreign Ministry recognized the authenticity of the recording and called it a wretched attack. The conversation focuses on launching a false flag attack to create a pretext for an aggression against Syria. || Not more than one week after blocking Twitter because of leaked audio recordings which revealed the AKP’s and Prime Minister Erdogan’s involvement in corruption and other scandals, the Turkish government has now blocked Youtube, reports Aydinlik Daily. The decision to block Youtube came just hours after the release of yet another obtained audio recording. This time, of Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Davotoglu. In the recorded phone conversation, Davotoglu discussed plans to invade Syria with high-ranking military officers and security officials, including intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, reports Aydinlik Daily. The Turkish Foreign Office has reportedly confirmed the authenticity of the recording, although it stated that it had been partially manipulated. The Foreign Office described the leaked tape as a “wretched attack”.

RT.com: YouTube ban: How Turkish officials conspired to stage Syria attack to provoke war

Paul Joseph Watson: Media Buries Bombshell Admission of Turkish Government Planning False Flag Attack || Turkish government officials were caught red-handed in a leaked audio tape planning a false flag terror attack as a pretext to invade Syria, but the mainstream media completely buried the key aspect of the story and made it all about Prime Minister Erdogan blocking YouTube.

Here Is The YouTube "Start A False Flag War With Syria" Leaked Recording That Erdogan Wanted Banned (A full translation can be found here):

Ahmet Davutolu: “Prime Minister said that in current conjuncture, this attack (on Suleiman Shah Tomb) must be seen as an opportunity for us.”
Hakan Fidan: “I’ll send 4 men from Syria, if that’s what it takes. I’ll make up a cause of war by ordering a missile attack on Turkey; we can also prepare an attack on Suleiman Shah Tomb if necessary.”
Feridun Sinirliolu: “Our national security has become a common, cheap domestic policy outfit.”
Ya?ar Güler: “It’s a direct cause of war. I mean, what’re going to do is a direct cause of war.”

Feridun Sinirolu: There are some serious shifts in global and regional geopolitics. It now can spread to other places. You said it yourself today, and others agreed… We’re headed to a different game now. We should be able to see those. That ISIL and all that jazz, all those organizations are extremely open to manipulation. Having a region made up of organizations of similar nature will constitute a vital security risk for us. And when we first went into Northern Iraq, there was always the risk of PKK blowing up the place. If we thoroughly consider the risks and substantiate… As the general just said…
Yaar Güler: Sir, when you were inside a moment ago, we were discussing just that. Openly. I mean, armed forces are a “tool” necessary for you in every turn.
Ahmet Davutolu: Of course. I always tell the Prime Minister, in your absence, the same thing in academic jargon, you can’t stay in those lands without hard power. Without hard power, there can be no soft power.

To summarize: a recording confirming a NATO-member country planned a false-flag war with Syria (where have we seen that before?) and all the Prime Minister has to say is the leak was "immoral."

In sweeping rebuke of Moscow, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and deemed the referendum that led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula illegal. ● The vote on the Ukraine-sponsored resolution was 100 countries in favour, 11 opposed and 58 abstentions. While Ukraine has a lot of sympathy among the 193 U.N. member states, Russia has a lot of clout. Both sides lobbied hard ahead of the vote, and diplomats had predicted a significant number of abstentions and a maximum 80 to 90 countries supporting the resolution. So the high number of “yes” votes, representing more than half the 193 U.N. member states, was a sign of international anger at Moscow’s slow-motion military invasion of Crimea.

PressTV: Russia slams UN resolution on Crimea secession - Video

CS Monitor: Russia accuses West of 'shameless blackmail' in UN vote on Ukraine || Russia hit out in a blistering statement today against a UN resolution that declared invalid Crimea's referendum to secede from Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Western states used the "the full force of the unspent potential of the cold war-era propaganda machine" to push through the vote, which passed Thursday. "It is well-known what kind of shameless pressure, up to the point of political blackmail and economic threats, was brought to bear on a number of [UN] member states so they would vote 'yes'," the statement said, according to Reuters. "This counterproductive initiative only complicates efforts to resolve the domestic political crisis in Ukraine."

Dr. Roberts: “That government (in Ukraine) is conducting extraordinary propaganda against Russia, claiming that Russian troops are massed on the border and are going to invade Ukraine. So they are creating this image which helps foment war. Here’s the great danger in all of this....“What does this do to Putin? Putin has been very low key. He’s been very diplomatic. He sits there and watches this and he says:

“What are these Americans up to? Here they bring a direct strategic threat to Russia, right here in my backyard. They are trying to put Ukraine in Nato so they can put missile bases on the Russian border with Ukraine. They tried to grab Russia’s only warm-water naval base, the port we’ve had since Catherine the Great in the 18th century. Why are they doing this? Why these amazing provocations against Russia?”

... So that’s what the idiots in Washington have brought about. They’ve convinced a nuclear power that can wipe the United States off the face of the Earth, and certainly Europe, that they cannot be trusted. They’ve made it impossible for the Russian government to work with them. They are demonizing Russia, trying to isolate it, trying to punish it for doing nothing -- except not collapsing before American aggression. And so what can he (Putin) do? Prepare for war. This is extremely dangerous. Any government that is so reckless as Washington is, to create this impression in the government of a strategic nuclear power, any government that would do this is insane. This is a form of recklessness and irresponsibility on the part of the Obama regime and its European puppets that is insane. The whole world is at stake.” To listen CLICK HERE.

With Russia effectively elbowed out of the way, for now, the international bankers are already moving in and dictating the terms for Ukraine’s ‘bailout’. Just as they did in Iraq and Greece. ● Once again history is repeating itself. Having undergone regime change in all but name and been ‘freed’ from its ties to Russia, Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday voted in favour of laws to comply with new austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund. In return the Ukraine will get a $14-18 billion bailout package. Or, to be more precise a loan with strings attached. However, the Ukrainian parliament didn’t swallow the IMF measures without a struggle.

xymphora: 80 || "Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday the price the country would pay for Russian gas, which accounts for over half of Ukrainian gas imports, would soar by almost 80 percent from April 1 as the seizure of Crimea had rendered a cheaper gas deal obsolete." Also: "On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund threw a financial lifeline, agreeing to stump up $14-18 billion as part of a two-year bailout package in exchange for tough economic reforms." ● I don't know how they can call it a 'financial lifeline' with a straight face. It represents a number, some multiple of which will be extracted from Ukraine. The paltry American billion, so hard fought in Congress, is a loan guarantee, which means it will be used to pay off some financial institution which claims to be owed money by Ukraine. Real Ukrainians won't benefit from any of this, and in fact it just represents the beginning of massive economic plunder by the banksters. The 'tough economic reforms' means austerity, a war on poor and middle class Ukrainians (see Greece for a hint of the future). Of course, Ukrainian gold is now safely out of the hands of Ukrainians...

Yahoo: US Lawmakers rush to pass bill to aid [loot] Ukraine
Jason Ditz: IMF Agrees to $27 Billion Ukraine Bailout
Michel Chossudovsky: IMF “Shock Treatment” for Ukraine: Collapse of the Standard of Living

kenny's sideshow ■ When Obama mentioned the unequivocal respect of the 'Rule of Law' at the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague, he must have been talking about the US in some alternate universe. Billions of taxpayer dollars spent to overthrow the government of Ukraine for political power purposes seems unlawful to me as do the many examples of illegal wars, occupations and destruction inflicted upon various parts of the world by the US, NATO and others.

Stephen Lendman: Obama Sells Confrontation with Russia
Patrick Martin: Obama’s speech on Ukraine: Propaganda and lies [Sound starts at the 0:33 mark - censorship?]

The interview starts at the 2:30 minute mark. English transcript

The United States is set to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to save the so-called peace talks between Palestinian Authority (PA) and Tel Aviv, reports in the Israeli news media say. ● With the talks on the brink of collapse, US officials have offered to release Pollard, 59, as a carrot to Israel to break the deadlock over a scheduled release of Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, Israeli army radio reported on Wednesday. Pollard, a former US Navy analyst, was arrested in 1985 for providing Israel thousands of classified American documents. In 1987, a US court sentenced him for life in prison. Washington has so far rejected repeated Israeli appeals for his freedom. Citing Israeli officials, the radio said the offer was made as part of a deal between Washington and Tel Aviv which would guarantee that Israel releases a fourth tranche of Palestinian prisoners to restart direct talks between the PA and the regime in Tel Aviv.

Moscow’s actions in the Crimea are comprehensible, former German chancellor, Helmut Schmidt said, criticizing the Western reaction to the peninsula’s reunification with Russia. ● President Vladimir Putin’s approach to the Crimean issue is “completely understandable,” Schmidt wrote in Die Zeit newspaper where he’s employed as an editor. While the sanctions, which target individual Russian politicians and businessmen, employed by the EU and the US against Russia are “a stupid idea,” he added. The current restrictive measures are of symbolic nature, but if more serious economic sanctions are introduced “they’ll hit the West as hard as Russia,” Schmidt warned. He also believes that the refusal of the Western countries to cooperate with Russia in the framework of the G8 is a wrong decision. “It would’ve been ideal to get together now. It would certainly do a lot more to promotion of peace than the threats of sanctions,” the ex-chancellor explained.

Google Translate: Independent decision whether parents vaccinated their children not their constitutional right and obligation of vaccination in accordance with the law and the Constitution, the Constitutional Court found in its decision rejecting the proposal of reviewing the constitutionality mandatory immunization of children. The proposal was submitted couple Gašprotiæ from Graèišæe and society Life or vaccination from Zagreb. The obligation of vaccination in recent months is extremely sensitive topic in public, especially after a series of applications of adverse effects on the health of children. That some of the mandatory vaccines in Croatia showed no significant adverse effects have led proponents as an argument to the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, they relied on the case of Soile Lautsi against the state of Italy, which are from Italian classrooms crucifixes removed because the European Court of Human Rights found that the cross in the classroom violates the right of parents to raise their children according to their own beliefs.