Video transcription Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. To talk more about Libya, we are joined by Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College. He is the author of several books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Islamist militants in Libya say they’ve solidified control of the capital Tripoli after taking over the main airport and ousting rival militias. Libya is facing its worst violence since the U.S.-backed ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. To talk more about Libya, we’re joined by Vijay Prashad in part two of our interview. Professor of international studies at Trinity College, he’s the author of a number of books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter and his most recent, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Vijay. Talk about what’s happening in

Militant Islamist fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014. (Reuters) Both the Islamic State militants and the Syrian government have committed crimes against humanity during the civil war in Syria, a report by a special UN panel says. The report, conducted by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, accuses the Islamic State militants of “widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population” in Syria. "In areas of Syria under ISIS control, particularly in the north and northeast of the country, Fridays are regularly marked by executions, amputations and lashings in public squares," the four-member commission said in a statement. “Bodies of those killed are placed on display for several days, terrorizing the local population. Women have been lashed for not abiding by ISIS’s dress code. In Ar-Raqqah, children as young as 10 are being recruited and trained at ISIS cam

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Ukrainian soldiers in a tent camp in Rostov Region on 4 August, 2014. (RIA Novosti / Julia Nasulina) A group of 62 Ukrainian troops have crossed into Russia’s Rostov Region seeking shelter to save their lives amid an intensified counteroffensive recently launched by anti-Kiev militia in southeastern Ukraine. “Today, 62 servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces turned to Russian border guards asking to let them into the Russian territory near Russia’s settlement of Shramko, Matveyevo-Kurgansky district, with the aim to save their lives,” the spokesman for the FSB's border guard office in the Rostov Region, Nikolai Sinitsyn, told Itar-Tass news agency on Wednesday. They were allowed to cross and provided with a transit corridor on the principles of humanism, but only after they left their weapons on the Ukrainian side of the border, Sinitsyn added. This case became the latest in a series of similar incidents where a total of over 500 Ukrainian troops crossed into Rus

Image by @PaulaSlier_RT Kiev forces have shelled residential areas in the center of the rebel-held town of Donetsk, killing at least three people and damaging several apartment blocks, a kindergarten and a cultural center. On Wednesday, Kalininsky District in the center of the city came under artillery fire from the government forces. RT’s Paula Slier arrived on the scene less than half an hour after the shelling when the local residents were “still in shock”. One of the missiles directly hit a passenger car on Shevchenko Boulevard, turning the vehicle into a torch. “There’s a car where three people have died and the bodies are badly burned inside,” Slier said.  Another missile hit the roof of the Youth Culture Center as several fire brigades were working to put out the fire caused by the explosion, she added. According to the City Council, a kindergarten and two apartment blocks were also shelled in the area. “We’re hearing from the militia that there were around six, seven hits at