International investigation: The missile that struck flight MH17 was Russian-made

 NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands (Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner shot down in eastern Ukraine was hit by a Russian-made Buk missile launched from a village held by rebels fighting Ukrainian government forces, international prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The findings challenge Moscow's suggestion that Malaysia Airlines flight 17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014, was brought down by the Ukrainian military. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

Israel's Iron Dome shoots down stray 'projectile' fired from Syria

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system on Saturday shot down a stray "projectile" fired during fighting in Syria's civil war, Israel's military said.

There has been frequent spillover of fighting between the factions in Syria into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but, according to Israeli media, this was the first time Iron Dome was activated to intercept the errant fire.

Here's who'd win in a dogfight between Russia's and the US's top fighter jets

The newly brokered cease-fire between the US and Russia has paved the way for military cooperation in fighting terrorist elements in Syria, seemingly closing the book on a window in time where Russian and US jets were flying close enough to each other to risk a potential clash between world powers.

But how does Russia's air force stack up against the US?
During Russia's stint in Syria, four of their latest and greatest Su-35 Flanker jets flew sorties just miles from the only operational fifth-generation fighter jet in the world, the US's F-22 Raptor.
Given the fundamental differences between these two top-tier fighter jets, we take a look at the technical specifications and find out which fighter would win in a head-to-head matchup.

This is what Aleppo is

Aleppo is one of Syria's largest cities and one of its most divided. For years, control of the city has been split between President Bashar Assad's forces and the rebels fighting his authoritarian regime.

The fighting has set off a large-scale humanitarian crisis as civilians are bombarded daily and areas are cut off from receiving aid.

 Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president of the United States, was roundly mocked on Thursday when he appeared not to know what Aleppo was during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 

Putin failed to achieve his main goal at the G20 summit

One of the most significant things about the G20 summit was something that didn't happen.

Hangzhou didn't become Yalta. China didn't become Munich.

But Vladimir Putin sure wanted it to.

In fact, Russia's actions in and around Ukraine over the past month appear to have been, at least in part, a big psy-op in the run-up to the summit.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin sits before the start of the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou.

Moscow ginned up a fake crisis in Crimea in August, accusing Ukraine of sending a team of agent saboteurs to the annexed peninsula to carry out terrorist acts.
Feigning outrage, the Kremlin then abruptly pulled out of planned four-party talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande.

Palestinian leader Abbas was a KGB spy in the 1980s, Israeli researchers allege

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Soviet-era documents show that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas worked in the 1980s for the KGB, the now-defunct intelligence agency where Russian leader Vladimir Putin once served, Israeli researchers said on Thursday.

The Palestinian government denied that Abbas, who received a PhD in Moscow in 1982, had been a Soviet spy, and it accused Israel of "waging a smear campaign" aimed at derailing efforts to revive peace negotiations that collapsed in 2014. 

Poland just raised the stakes in a missile race between NATO and Russia

NATO and Russia are in a missile race, and Poland may have just raised the stakes.
The Polish government announced Tuesday that it would buy the U.S. Army’s Patriot air-and-missile defense system, a move widely seen as a response to Moscow’s upcoming deployment of nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.

                                                                   A US Patriot missile system

Five other NATO countries already deploy the Patriot system — which can knock down missiles, drones, and small aircraft — but none are as far to the east as Poland, nor so close to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave which is already bristling with missile systems and other advanced Russian military hardware.