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US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters in New York City on January 27, 2017 (Photo by Reuters) The United Nations Security Council has announced an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s recent launch of a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The United States, Japan, and South Korea on Sunday requested the meeting on an “urgent basis.” North Korea launched the missile near the western city of Kusong on Sunday. It flew east about 500 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) later on Monday confirmed that Pyongyang had “successfully” tested a “surface-to-surface medium long-range ballistic missile.” The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, “expressed great satisfaction over the possession of another powerful nuclear attack means, which adds to the tremendous might of the country,” the KCNA said. A man wat

The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, in an undated photo. Military experts in the region say that the country is still years away from achieving capabilities that it has claimed, like striking the continental United States, as well as its military bases in the Pacific. KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES SEOUL, South Korea —  North Korea  said on Monday that it had successfully tested a new nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile, claiming important progress in being able to strike its enemies with long-range missiles tipped with nuclear warheads. Confirming  the missile test  detected by the United States and South Korean authorities on Sunday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said it had launched an intermediate-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile named Pukguksong-2, or Polaris-2. North Korea’s leader,  Kim Jong-un , inspected the test, the news agency said. “He expressed great satisfaction over the possession

President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered an abrupt joint statement Saturday night, addressing reports that North Korea test fired a ballistic missile into its eastern sea. "I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%," Trump said. In his remarks, Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable." Trump and Abe made their remarks from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not take questions from reporters. The launch was North Korea's first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to Trump's new administration. But details of the launch, including the type of missile, were scant. There was no immediate confirmation from the North, which had recently warned it is ready to test its first intercontinental ballistic missile. The reports come as Trump was hosting Abe and just days before the North is to mark the birth

Iran's Rouhani says military power 'purely defensive' by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Feb 9, 2017 President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday Iran's military power was "purely defensive", after tensions with the United States over its missile programme and a nuclear deal soared following Donald Trump's inauguration. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has showed that it doesn't intend to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries," Rouhani told foreign diplomats in Tehran, according to the ISNA news agency. "Our military power is purely defensive," he was quoted as saying. The comments from Rouhani, a moderate expected to run for re-election later this year, come after the war of words between Iran and the US spiked following Tehran's announcement of a ballistic missile test and Trump's controversial travel ban. "At the current time, we must not allow some to create an unhealthy climate by conjuring illusions,&qu

All 28 NATO allies fully support Ukraine as it faces the worst upsurge in fighting against pro-Russian rebels in two years, alliance deputy head Rose Gottemoeller said Thursday. US President Donald Trump has stoked concerns in NATO and Europe by dubbing the alliance "obsolete" and taking a softer stance on Russia, in marked contrast to his predecessor. "There was unanimity around the NATO-Ukraine Council table, strong support from all allies for Ukraine," she told reporters after talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The US-led alliance had stood by Ukraine since "Russian aggressive actions" began in 2014 and it would not recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea early that year, she said. The recent fighting was the worst in two years, with OSCE monitors reporting more than 10,000 violations of the Minsk ceasefire accords on one day, she said. "We are deeply concerned by the recent spike in vi

In this file photo, an explosion is seen following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip. At least two Palestinians have lost their lives when the Israeli military carried out an airstrike against an area on the border between Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula and the besieged Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said the attack targeted a tunnel which Gazans use to bring basic needs into the coastal enclave in the border town of Rafah early on Thursday, leaving two Palestinians dead and five others injured. The sources identified the deceased as 24-year-old Hessam Hamid al-Soufi and 38-year-old Mohammad Anwar al-Aqra’, both residents of Gaza City. Two of the injured are in critical condition. The victims have reportedly been taken to the Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah to receive treatment, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported. The airstrike came shortly after the Israeli military claimed that it had intercepted several rockets fired f

Votes cast by Somali parliamentarians are counted in the first round of the presidential election on Wednesday in the capital, Mogadishu. Farah Abdi Warsameh/ AP A surprise winner has been declared in Somalia's presidential election — Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, a former prime minister and the popular favorite who was running against the incumbent president. Somali lawmakers cast their votes in a heavily fortified airport in a country plagued by regular militant attacks. Twenty candidates were  whittled down to three  after the first round — including the incumbent, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who had been accused of vote-buying. According to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Somalia, Mohamud won the most votes in the first round, followed by Farmajo, a former prime minister and the eventual winner. "And even though the process was rife with corruption from all sides, a vote for Farmajo is seen as a vote against corruption," as NPR's Eyder Peralta reports from Nairobi, Ke

A political analyst has described as "ludicrous" the US policy of demonizing Iran as a threat to the world stability and "sponsor of terrorism." Robert Inlakesh has criticized the United States for spreading Iranophobia, saying that labeling Iran as “the biggest problem and the biggest cause of terrorism in the world is complete lunacy." US President Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Fox News that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “terrorist state number one.” Inlakesh noted that Washington's anti-Iran policy is not reasonable because “Iran is one of the only [players] keeping the region from completely falling apart.” An image released on January 7, 2017 shows people gathering amidst the debris at the site of a car bomb attack in the town of Azaz in northern Syria. (Photo by AFP) The United States is angry with Iran over its steadfastness in opposing American regime change policy in the Middle East, he said, noting that Washington and its region

US Bradley fighting vehicles that will be deployed in Latvia for NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve wait for an unload in Garklane, Latvia February 8, 2017. (Photo by Reuters) The United States has deployed a number of tanks and other weaponry in the Baltic state of Latvia, part of the NATO military alliance's  expansion towards Russia’s border. Accompanied by the US Army's 3rd Brigade, 225 soldiers, 15 M1 Abrams tanks, six Bradley fighting vehicles and other military equipment arrived in Latvia’s northern municipality of Garkalne, Vidzeme, on Wednesday. The soldiers, who will be replacing those from 173rd Brigade, will operate in Latvia as part of NATO’s Atlantic Resolve operation, which is aimed at deterring what the US-led alliance calls “Russian aggression.” Earlier this week, over 50 units of US military equipment, including four battle tanks and 15 infantry fighting vehicles were deployed to Tapa, a city in northern Estonia, another Baltic state. “The movement of

An American activist has slammed the US government for supplying militant groups in Syria with weapons, describing the United States as the source of violence around the globe. “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is the United States government,” said Dakotah Lilly, from the Organization of Students and Youth for a New America (SYNA). “The United States has absolutely no problem with arming Wahhabi terrorists in Syria” and it has good relations with extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa, Lilly told Press TV’s Top 5 on Wednesday. He also rejected US President Donald Trump's claims that the controversial travel ban on 7 Muslim majority countries was aimed at securing America. Back in January, the new US president signed an executive order to impose a 90-day entry ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. The US administration is using hate crimes as a pretext to blame Muslims for the domestic violence in the country, Lill

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, at the White House on Tuesday. Mr. Spicer denied reports that the purpose of the attack in Yemen was to capture or kill any specific Qaeda leader. WASHINGTON — Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the  first commando raid authorized by President Trump ,  Yemen  has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country, according to American officials. Grisly photographs of children apparently killed in the crossfire of a 50-minute firefight during the raid caused outrage in Yemen. A member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, Chief Petty Officer William Owens, was also killed in the operation. While the White House continues to insist that the attack was a “success” — a characterization it repeated on Tuesday — the suspension of commando operations is a setback for Mr. Trump, who has made it clear he plans to take a far more aggressive approach aga

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to a group of Belgian reporters in this handout picture provided by SANA on February 7, 2017, Syria. SANA/Handout via REUTERS Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to a group of Belgian reporters in this handout picture provided by SANA on February 7, 2017, Syria. SANA/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said U.S. President Donald Trump prioritizing the fight against jihadists by Islamic State was promising although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. Trump has indicated he might cut U.S. support for Syrian rebels and might help Syria in the fight against Islamic State. He has made defeating Islamic State a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days. Assad was quoted by SANA as telling a group of Belgi

This file photo shows a missile being fired from the direction of Yemen toward Saudi Arabia. Yemen's local media have reported a ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. The Yemeni army made the announcement of their first ever attack on the city via a  statement  released by the official state Yemen news agency on Sunday. In the statement, they claimed that the missile had been launched at a Saudi military base located to the west of the capital in retaliation for the kingdom’s relentless war against their country. It went on to stress that the attack shows that Riyadh is well within the range of Yemen’s missiles. Saudi officials have not made any comments on the reports yet, but locals have said on Twitter that the missile struck a military camp to the west of al-Mazahimiyah town near Riyadh. The regime in Riyadh has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to reinstall the country’s ex-government and crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Saudi Arabia has pounded the port of Hudaydah in Yemen to stop the shipping of humanitarian aids into the war-ravaged country. Saudi forces have also prevented ships from entering the Yemeni port for over 20 days. The United Nations has voiced concern about the severe consequences of a long-term Saudi-imposed blockade on Yemen, which is facing a humanitarian crisis. Senior editor of Veterans Today from Ohio, Gordon Duff, believes that Russia is the power that can stand against the US-Saudi agenda in Yemen and stop the crippling war against the impoverished Arab state. “This is the war that is never going to end” unless the United Nations Security Council and one of its five permanent members, especially Russia, steps in to open the ports in Yemen, control humanitarian aid and bring about a reasonable ceasefire, Duff told Press TV. “There is a huge amount of silent complicity in the war on Yemen, which has been fought as a war against the people,” but Moscow has the capability to interv

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani gestures as he speaks during a ceremony marking National Day of Space Technology in Tehran, Iran February 1, 2017. President.ir/Handout via Iran said on Monday a recent missile trial launch was not intended to send a message to new U.S. President Donald Trump and to test him, since after a series of policy statements Iranian officials uite well". Iran test-fired a new ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to impose some new sanctions on Tehran. Trump tweeted that Tehran, which has cut back its nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers easing economic sanctions, was "playing with fire". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: "Iran's missile test was not a message to the new U.S. government. "There is no need to test Mr Trump as we have heard his views on different issues in recent days... We know him quite well." Iran has test-fired seve

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani says   the Syria conflict cannot be resolved through political approaches as long as terrorist groups, including Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, an affiliate of al-Qaeda formerly known as al-Nusra Front, are operating in the Arab state and supported by certain regional countries. He said some regional countries have expressed concern over the political initiatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey in Syria and do not have any sympathy for people in war-ravaged countries, but are worried that the terrorist groups they have been supporting are losing ground and on the decline. An author and journalist believes as long as the United States supports the terrorists groups in Syria, there is no possibility of a political solution to the conflict in the war-torn country. “I have said many times and I have wrote in many articles that as long as Obama remained in power, there was no possibility of a political solution to the

The British government’s extensive arms deals with Saudi Arabia are part of a Zionist plan to wage a major war against Muslim countries in the Middle East, says an academic in London. Professor Rodney Shakespeare made the remarks while discussing a new poll that shows a majority of Britons oppose London’s weapons sales to Riyadh. Conducted by Opinium on behalf of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the survey showed that almost 62 percent of British people think selling arms to Saudi Arabia, the UK’s largest arms customer, was “unacceptable.” The UK government has been under immense pressure by human rights groups to end arms shipments to the Saudis. The UK government has sold over £3.3 billion worth of arms – including fighter jets, bombs and missiles – to the Saudi regime since it attacked Yemen in March 2015. The war has killed at least 11,400 people in Yemen, according to local sources. “There is an issue bigger than the sale of arms by the UK to Saudi Arabia,” Shakes

An alliance of U.S.-backed militias started a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa on Saturday, aiming to complete its encirclement and sever the road to militant strongholds in Deir al-Zor province. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement the action was being undertaken with "increasing support from the (U.S.-led) international coalition forces" through both air strikes and backing from coalition special forces on the ground. The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, launched its multi-phased campaign in November aimed at encircling and ultimately capturing Raqqa. It is the main U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Islamic State is also being fought in a separate campaign by the Turkish army and Syrian rebel groups northeast of Aleppo, and on several fronts across Syria by the Syrian government backed by the Russian air force and Iranian-backed militia. Jordan, part of the U.S.-led coal