War

French intelligence authorities may have been complicit in the Charlie Hebdo attacks last year, as evidence has emerged that police may have armed suspect Amedy Coulibaly with the weapons used to commit the attacks.  It is also now known that the intelligence agencies had been keeping an intensive surveillance on the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly months before they committed the attacks. Wsws.org reports: Already last year, it was hard to understand how individuals known to the intelligence services could have prepared such attacks without being detected.

Russia have expressed their horror at the downing of two US Marine helicopters by Turkey last week, which killed all 12 soldiers on board.  A Turkish Air Force fighter jet fired a two American CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters being flown by the US Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) over Kurdish held territory in Syria. US forces had been dispatched from Ayn al-Asas Airbase in Iraq for a routine re-supply mission of US and British troops embedded within the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG), who were fighting ISIS militants near the Turkish border.

A doomsday machine contained within a briefcase is always within the vicinity of US president Barack Obama. The mysterious “Nuclear Football” has the power to destroy the world within minutes and it follows the president wherever he goes. The device known as the “President’s emergency satchel” follows him even in the White House. The black leather bag contains the necessary tools for the president of the United States to facilitate a nuclear attack that could lead to Armageddon and an era of radiation sickness.

Angry protesters clashed with police and stormed the the parliament building in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau on Wednesday. The demonstrations started after lawmakers approved the appointment of a pro-EU politician Pavel Filip as the new  prime minister. Police reportedly detained several protesters after they broke into the parliament building. RT reports: Some police officers were reportedly dragged out of the building by the demonstrators. According to some reports the protesters also used tear gas against police. One police officer was reportedly injured.

Scott McConnell reports on Kasich’s improving position in New Hampshire, and comments on his foreign policy views:

On foreign policy, Kasich seems understated but fairly hawkish: in two events I’ve heard him say Assad is a butcher who must be overthrown, and that he would arm the Ukrainians to resist Putin. I don’t know how fervently he believes this—he certainly isn’t making it a campaign feature. He’s domestically focused.