Speaking at the Morning Star event he condemned the 'mass slaughter of millions of young men on the Western Front and all the other places', but said he saw it as 'a war of the declining empires'. 'I'm not sure what there is to commemorate about the First World War.' 'It was a war between monopolies fighting it out for markets.'

The leader of al-Nusra Front - the al Qaeda-affiliate group in Syria - insisted on Wednesday that he is under orders from the organization's central leadership not to attack Western interests in Syria, but rather focus on toppling President Bashar al-Assad. Golani said "all options are open," for an attack on the West if his group felt compelled to act in self-defense, but he insisted that Nusra is focused on battling the Assad regime inside Syria. Golani also issued a threat to the Shia Alawite community of Syria, saying, "if the Alawites disowned Bashar al Assad, stopped supporting his regime, and if they stopped practicing their erroneous doctrine, we would forgive them." Assad himself is Alawite.

GROZNY, May 28. /TASS/. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Thursday the Islamic State (IS) militant group poses a threat to both the Middle East and Russia. "The IS terrorists have nothing to do with Islam. Their path contrasts with our religion. This has been proven by the leading Islam researchers. They are cutting, beheading and shooting innocent people, including Muslims," Kadyrov was quoted by his press service as saying. "The enemies of Russia want to see the Chechen Republic hit by the war," he stressed.

There are signs Israel may be at war again this summer. This time, not with Hamas in Gaza but with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Such a war may be the result not only of spillover from the Syrian war or ongoing Israeli-Hezbollah tensions. The deciding factor may be an Israeli calculation that war will shift momentum in the U.S. Congress decisively against the pending nuclear deal with Iran -- a deal that critics say will increase Iran's maneuverability in the region, including its support for Hezbollah.

ANKARA, TURKEY - Governments throughout the Middle East and well beyond look with suspicion on Turkey's role in the war against the Islamic State. "Turkey's policy is either a double or triple game,"  a former top Jordanian intelligence official was more direct. "They are collaborating with Daash, but they just don't say it," he said of Turkey, referring to the Islamic State by its pejorative Arabic acronym. Turkish officials see a different issue. "The question is not where Turkey is," the official said. "The question is who will be with Turkey when the mayhem starts. Our soldiers will be the primary target. And we don't want to be the heroes . . . we don't want to be left alone with this problem at the end of the day."

While this instability is making the West -- particularly the United States -- uncomfortable, it is also a direct result of the West's own stance towards dictatorships in the region prior to and during the Arab Spring. The West's shortsightedness in handling the Middle East throughout its modern history has directly contributed to its current devastation. The situation in Yemen today shows that even though the status quo under dictatorships may have appeared stable, beneath the surface volcanoes were preparing to erupt But the current misery in the Middle East still does not mean that the region was better off under dictatorships. The aftermath of dictatorships is always messy, and democratic transition is never linear.

Putin said even if "someone has done something wrong," Russia "has nothing to do with it." "Our American counterparts, unfortunately, are using the same methods to reach their goals and illegally persecute people. I don't rule out that this is the case in relation to FIFA," Putin said. "I have no doubt that this is yet another evident attempt to derail Mr. Blatter's re-election as FIFA president. We are aware of the pressure that he was subjected to in relation to Russia holding the 2018 World Cup."

"I will talk about the Zionism, which probably is the most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was mounted"

Is Poland getting ready for a possible war against Russia?

With the situation in Ukraine receiving most of the limelight in the past year, the similar situation between Russia and Georgia is being overshadowed.