-TSS-

The propaganda-mill is spinning around at full gear. The latest news is that the bodies of the accident have been looted. True or false, difficult to tell, but I wonder is it some thing about cultural differences as in western countries looting bodies is considered as extremely disgraceful when as the mindset in the former Soviet republics is that it is just stupid to leave good stuff lying around especially when the owners wont need it any more.

I think the conspiracy- theory was that the Ukrainian government shoot down the plane because they thought it was Putin's plane but after having realized their mistake placed the blame on the rebels. Very very implausible even for a conspiracy- theory but millions of people in Russia take it seriously.

I'm sure that many, if not most, ethnic Russians in Eastern-Ukraine truly don't feel like being part of the same nation with Ukrainians and therefore support secession but certainly not all of them support secession and especially not through an armed uprising. Similarly, certainly as many ethnic Russians would in principle support secession the very obvious fact that these guys who lead this Republic of Donetsk are clearly nutjobs makes many people think again the wisdom of the idea of secession.

Looking at this incident from a cynical point of view now the Ukrainian government has a free hand to massacre the rebels as much as they like without having to fear international condemnation.

Not meaning to be a doom-mongerer but this incident could be the 2014-equivalent of Sarayevo.

Many people seem to have very fixed and sharp opinions on the ME-conflict despite having little or no experience of having been there on the ground itself. On the other hand, you don't need to be an astronaut to be able to talk about astronomy.

Youre right. The first news put the victim-toll of the US-citizens higher but apparently there was only one.

Until now the US has maintained a low profile in the Ukraine-conflict and understandably so as they have nothing to gain or win from it but plenty to lose. However, as there were so many US-citizens among the victims of the downed plane the US has no alternative but to take a more active role in the efforts to solve the conflict and stop it from escalating further.

Ukraine categorically rejects the possibility that the rebels could have stolen missiles from the Ukraine army and as the rebels themselves were not known for having missiles capable of this act there is only one conclusion.

Apparently it was much more expensive and time-consuming for the airliner to use a safer but longer route to the destination. It is nice to know that these airliners have got their priorities straight.

The Ukrainian air-space was shut for up to 6500m but not above that as it was thought that the rebels wouldn't have had missiles capable of reaching over that altitude. The propaganda-mill is currently on overdrive as to explain what has happened and why. Apparently it was an error but you don't get away with errors like this one by saying: oops,I'm sorry.

If it turns out to be Russians instead of the Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine expect the Russians cowardly back away and deny. Wouldn't be the first time.

In Europe catholicism is in the doldrums. Good! We don't need any medieval superstition originated in the desert. Unfortunately, catholicism is very vibrant in Africa. Christianity and especially the catholic branch of it is the second fastes growing religion in Africa only after islam. Nowadays in France for example many, if not most, parish priests of the catholic church are from the former colonies because understandably the indigenous people are no longer interested in the career of a priest. It's a bit symbolic really; the Europeans brought the religion to their colonies and now the colonies are kind of bringing it back to the former main-country.

If the pope says that you can count on it to be an underestimation.

It could be time for bold moves in Ukraine as the world-attention is once again focused on the Middle-East conflict.

That's it! Germany wins! Deservedly!

I hope you're right. I can only see two possible outcomes; either Argentina will win 1-0 after 90 or 120 minutes or if Germany know how to crack the Argentinian defence of steel Germany wins 4-0.

Hamas are cowards who hide behind the backs of civilians while carrying out their operations. Anyone who disagrees with that statement is either very biased or is living in some cloud cuckoo-land. Having said that, it is rather exceptional that a civilian crime, albeit very heinous one, is dealt with by carrying out a military operation.

So, either a European team wins for the first time in South-America or Argentina throws salt to the wounds of the Brazilians by winning on their soil, which they would never stop reminding about. After all, the two countries are arch-enemies, not just in sports but they are not very close friends in political terms either. Therefore, no doubt who the Brazilians will be cheering for, sod any South-American solidarity.

I think Argentina will snatch it and all the Messi-hype will reach new proportions.

It was something of a mental-breakdown for Brazil. Don't get me wrong, Germany were magnificent, probably no team could have beaten them in their yesterday's form but the Brazilians really imploded and it seems that they couldn't handle the enormous pressure that was facing them in front of their home-crowd and 200m people expecting them to win. Yesterday's catastrophe for Brazil could really be harmful for those players themselves; Even though many of them are young enough to still have many years of active playing-career ahead of them and opportunities to become champions even if some of them do they will be reminded of yesterday's match for the rest of their careers.

I'm beginning to have doubts about getting my prediction correct that Brazil would win the world cup. At this rate they will not only not win it but end up with a negative overall goal difference. Nevertheless, brilliant stuff from Germany to expose the weakness of Brazil.

I wonder why the semifinals are played on separate days. Now Brazil or Germany will have an advantage of one more day to rest and prepare for the final.

I must say that I have no idea whatsoever who are the current baseball-, basketball-, American football champions. Perhaps it is something of general knowledge on the American continent to know those or otherwise you would make yourself seen as rather ignorant. I know the current NHL-champions though but that's only because I am from Finland which is the only country together with Canada where hockey reigns supreme as spectator sport. Btw, Selänne's wife has made it clear that the family won't move to Finland now that Selänne's career is over. Perfectly understandable and for once in some context it is the woman who has the brains.

FIFA is obsessed about the USA because of all the potential money there is to be made. It is just not foreseeable that Americans would ever view soccer else as a nice sport played every four years and cheer for the US-team until they get crashed out and after that those same people revert to old US-sports. I must say that while I understand that many Americans view soccer as boring I must likewise say that American football is unbelievably boring to watch. A game lasts 2-3 hours out of which only a miniscule proportion of the game there is actual game not to mention the commercial breaks. But perhaps it is a cultural thing. I didn't grow up watching American football therefore I just can't appreciate its glamour and glory.