There was a major tsunami watch, earlier.

Next came a billboard showing a man's face, with foreign coins flowing down upon it.

Ukrainians also talk of an otkat ekonomiya ( kickback economy ), in which Russian money percolates throughout the Ukrainian elite.

Next came a billboard showing a man's face, with foreign coins flowing down upon it. The line read, Roma takes care of the Family, the Family takes care of Roma.

Letters from Indian soldiers in Europe to their families back home bespeak cultural dislocation and tragedy. The shells are pouring like rain in the monsoon, declared one.

What we know is that Putin has decided to come to the aid of Bashar al Assad s embattled regime. Russian bombs and missiles are now raining down on an array of armed groups that have been fighting Syrian government forces, which has given the regime the breathing space that Russia s intervention was intended to provide.

Even as Israeli bombs fell on Beirut and Tyre, Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most conservative Arab Muslim state of all, openly condemned the actions of the Shia Hezbollah in instigating conflict with Israel.