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Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

Courtesy of the author The genius of Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- “The Wall” -- is the visitor’s overwhelming sense of loss. The names of the dead, on 140 black granite panels, appear infinite in number. It has been 32 years since The Wall was dedicated. It has become a place of healing, where Americans could separate the sacrifice of the warriors from what had become America’s most unpopular war. Back then, a young veteran, Jan Scruggs, took $2,000 of his own money and began raising the $8.4 million in private contributions to build what...

On Tuesday, the state-backed China Oilfield Services Limited said the billion-dollar platform, which had been drilling in the heart of highly contested waters claimed by Vietnam, had “precisely extracted the related geological data as planned” and was being redeployed to sea blocks off China’s Hainan Island. (Please see full article at link)

China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension. Michael Fuchs, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Strategy and Multilateral Affairs, said no country was solely responsible for escalating tension in the region. But he reiterated the U.S. view that "provocative and unilateral" behaviour by China had raised questions about its willingness to abide by international law. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain...

Above: Employees of the nightshift at Lowe’s in Staten Island, New York - David, Marcus and Souleyman - get to work.by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsVeteran Michael Sulsona had been waiting on a new wheelchair from the VA for years. But as with so many vets suffering under scandalous conditions in the VA system, he got nowhere. His wheelchair was rickety and always seemed on the verge of collapse. Then one day it did exactly that-- right when he was shopping in a Staten Island-area Lowe's. But what happened next That’s when three strangers stepped right in to help...

---snip--- Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines have been forming an alliance against China, as China has been moving to annex other countries' territories in the South and East China Seas. Relations between Vietnam and China have become particularly hostile since China deployed an oil rig in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). (See "China's neighbors react to new South China Sea claims" from last week.) Now Australia is signaling that it is also joining this alliance. The change in policy was indicated in a statement by Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, during a visit by Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe to...

From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011. But threats to the region's biodiversity mean many of the new species are already struggling to survive, the conservation group warned. "The good news is new discoveries. The bad news is that it is getting harder and harder in the world of conservation and environmental sustainability," Nick Cox, manager of WWF-Greater Mekong's Species Programme, said.

CNN's "The Sixties" episodes started out giving me feelings of nostalgia, as I grew up in that era. The Beatles coming to America and all the great 60's TV shows brought a smile to my face! But then they started getting into the Vietnam War which I really didn't pay attention to until I enlisted in 1969 and spent a year there. I guess I missed the obvious bias of Walter Cronkite etal as they declared us baby killers. One of the CNN segments quoting CBS said US Forces were killing 25,000 Vietnamese civilians a year. Bull crap! Vietnam is...

Independence Day is the yearly pinnacle of patriotism. But, as the media in the 1960s and 70s reported, Americans did not seem very patriotic when it came to the Vietnam War. What if what we know about Americans’ lack of support for our troops in Vietnam is wrong?

History is written by the victors. But it doesn't take a lot of digging to reveal that the history of Vietnam -- written by the American Left -- is not the story of America losing the Vietnam War. America WON the Vietnam War. What America lost was the Vietnam PEACE. In his latest hard-hitting Firewall, Bill Whittle shows how that happened and how the exact same thing is happening in Iraq, as the Left once again tries to pull defeat from the jaws of victory. ------------------ TRANSCRIPT: LAST HELICOPTER OUT OF BAGHDAD Hi everybody. I’m Bill Whittle and this is...

On Monday night, University professor and former Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers joined Fox News Channel host Megyn Kelly where he was grilled over his past violent activities and his controversial views. The interview became heated when Kelly and Ayers argued over whether the violence he advocated is equivalent to the violence perpetuated by the United States in conducting operations overseas. “You sound like — with respect — Osama bin Laden,” Kelly said when Ayers asserted that it would be “fair and balanced” for American media outlets to examine the violent history of the United States as thoroughly as they...

While his government’s focus remains squarely on domestic issues, Mr Modi is also charting a rather ambitious foreign policy course. He has already visited Bhutan and his future destinations over the next few months are likely to include Japan, Brazil, Southeast Asia, Australia and Nepal. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign minister has saluted the new Modi government for injecting “new vitality into an ancient civilisation”.

HANOI, Vietnam — The day after tough talks between Vietnam and China that made no progress over a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea, the Chinese government said Thursday it was sending a second rig to waters close to Vietnam.

In 1961, France's Charles de Gaulle told President John F. Kennedy that in Vietnam the U.S. would sink "step by step into a bottomless quagmire," however much it spent "in men and money." President Kennedy had begun sending more advisors to Vietnam to help the Diem regime, increasing their number to 800 in 1961. Kennedy refused his military advisors advice to send combat divisions to Vietnam, but he increased the number of so-called advisors and aid to the Saigon regime.

President Barack Obama, on Dec. 12, 2011, called Iraq "self-reliant and democratic." He praised that country, calling it a "new Iraq that's determining its own destiny -- a country in which people from different religious sects and ethnicities can resolve their differences peacefully through the democratic process." Obama said, "I have no doubt that Iraq can succeed." He campaigned to end the war in Iraq. He did -- at least he ended America's military involvement in the war. He pulled out all the troops, without leaving a residual force behind as we did, for example, in South Korea, where we...

While Al Qaeda has been taking over Iraq, Obama and Kerry have kept a laser focus on oceans. Obama ordered the Department of Defense to fight mislabeled seafood and Kerry kept tweeting about Leonardo DeCaprio and the oceans. Then he opened up for questions on Twitter and the ones he got, he didn’t like much. Typo Dynamofo @TypoDynamofo Follow #OceanChat How is it you have time to chat with Iraq in flames and a major crisis in Israel? #tcot 8:53 AM - 17 Jun 2014 Typo Dynamofo @TypoDynamofo Follow John Kerry ? @JohnKerry Follow .@TypoDynamofo: 1/2 Have talked to 3...

There was a time when we would honor symbols of excellence that had some significant achievements that deserved our adulation. Whether it be enormous talent, superior intelligence, political or business success, etc. there would be something in the makeup of one's character that generated praise. I am having a very difficult time figuring out now why so many liberal icons come up short on substance unless it's thanks to media dishonesty. Two of the most dubious icons who continue to garner liberal endorsements are Jane Fonda and Hillary Clinton. Last week Jane Fonda was presented with the American Film Institute's...

<p>The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.</p> <p>The embassy, a beige fortress on the banks of the Tigris River within the heavily-secured Green Zone, where Iraqi government buildings are also located, has the largest staff of any United States Embassy.</p>

Don't judge platoon I am not in position to judge Mr. Bergdahl, but I get a strong case of nausea when I read political and military experts passing judgments against his platoon. These political and rear-echelon military experts sitting on their fat fannies in air-conditioned offices calling them a raggedy bunch, undisciplined and wearing headbands and cut-off T-shirts. What do they expect? Those guys on outposts in dangerous territories are trying to survive, not go on parade. I can recall duty in the Pacific in WWII where our uniforms consisted of even less. If those so quick to judge those...