Trapped for a month in the San Jose mine, Chile, shift leader Luis Urzua has worked heroically to protect his men. About 700 metres underground, in the most traumatic of circumstances, Luis Urzua has no intention of relinquishing command of the 33 men in his care. Urzua, 54, went to work as usual on 5 August as shift foreman for the ill-fated group of Chilean miners who became trapped below the surface of the Atacama desert in the north of the country. Now he finds himself shouldering responsibilities of the most extraordinary kind.

"The hierarchy and power of a supervisor in the world of the miner is extremely powerful; it is a military discipline," said Dr Jaime Manalich, the Chilean minister of health, as he explained the ability of Urzua to organise the miners' increasingly sophisticated underground existence. "Natural selection is extremely strong in this world," said Manalich, who emphasised the "rigid system" of power which effectively makes a shift foreman "owner of the mine" during his typical 12-hour shift. "This is an extremely dangerous job, if you look at the statistics, this region of Chile has the highest worker mortality rate in the nation and that is led by mining."

For Urzua, the command challenges began within moments of the mine collapse – he quickly ordered his men to huddle while he took three miners and scouted up the tunnel, searching for information on the massive cave-in. Correctly deducing that the men were trapped, Urzua instituted a set of rules and regulations that were both methodically rigid and crucial to the men's survival. He ordered that the mine's stash of emergency food be rationed into minimal portions – two spoonfuls of tuna fish and half a glass of milk every 48 hours.

Despite US announcement of complete withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, Washington will reportedly keep thousands of soldiers in the war-torn nation. American military experts said the remaining forces are expected to stay in Iraq beyond 2011 as a 'peacekeeping force' for a decade, AFP reported. Last week, US President Barack Obama declared an end to Washington's combat mission in the war-ravaged country. However, about 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq supposedly on training and advisory roles until a complete pull out.

As Tyler Durden pointed out last week, the IMF has now abandoned any cap on the bailouts it gives, and the U.S. is the largest funder of the IMF.

Now, the New York Times says that the U.S. is going to bail out Afghanistan's biggest bank:
Details of the deal, including how much each government would contribute, were still being worked out on Saturday between the Central Bank of Afghanistan and the United States Treasury Department, officials said...

Top officials at Kabul Bank and a senior leader at the Central Bank declined to comment publicly on the proposed bailout, which was still being negotiated. However a manager at the Central Bank and a senior American official confirmed what the American official called an "intervention."

Not surprisingly, there have been numerous allegations of corruption at the Kabul Bank.

Update: The New York Times has updated their story with comments from U.S. Treasury officials insisting that no American money will be used to recapitalize the Kabul Bank:

"No American taxpayer funds will be used to support Kabul Bank," said Jenni LeCompte, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

[If this is so, it would mean that the CIA's heroin profits might be used to shore up CIS's own Afghan banking system. ]

Israeli spy planes have again violated Lebanon's sovereignty, conducting overflights amid increasing tension between the two sides. According to an army statement, an Israeli reconnaissance plane on Saturday entered southern Lebanon, loitering around for some time. The statement said that a similar plane had flown into the airspace over the southern border town of Naqoura the day before. The overflights contravene the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which obliges Israel to keep out of Lebanon following its 2006 war on the country, which left some 1,200 Lebanese martyred.

Israeli war planes have bombarded the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis and tunnels in the city of Rafah, leaving a number of people wounded. At least one person was killed and three others were injured in the airstrikes in Rafah and one more is missing, a Press TV correspondent quoted witnesses as saying on Saturday night. Israeli jets are still flying low over the Gaza Strip, and the Gazans are bracing for more attacks. Israeli forces also fired rockets at farmlands in Khan Yunis. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the rocket attacks.

Israel has repeatedly launched air and ground attacks on Gaza since the deadly 22-day war it waged against the territory from late December 2008 to mid-January 2009. Israel regularly pounds the network of tunnels underneath the border between the blockaded coastal enclave and Egypt, saying the Palestinian resistance fighters are smuggling weapons through the tunnels. However, the Palestinians reject the accusations, arguing that the tunnels are their last resort for bringing in the basic necessities they have been deprived of for years under a crippling Israeli siege on the impoverished territory, which is home to about 1.5 million people.

Brother Mazin Qumsiyeh send me his 50 ways to act for Peace with Justice, I prefered to take it from Hasbara outlet, the Desert Peace, where the outlet added: "Peace with Justice CAN BE ACHIEVED….. Here’s how to start;" I made it 51. [It really] should be No. 1:

Never, ever lay [down] arms until Peace with Justice is realized.

On 1 September the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security forces launched an unprecedented arrest campaign against Palestinians affiliated with the Hamas party in the occupied West Bank. The arrest sweep followed attacks earlier in the week against Israeli settlers in Hebron and Ramallah. The PA's Preventative Security Services and the General Intelligence Services arrested and detained at least 350 Palestinians from all West Bank governorates, according to a press release from the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.

Four Israeli settlers from the Beit Hagai settlement were killed on Tuesday evening near the city of Hebron, when they were shot dead while driving on Route 60, the highway that connects Jerusalem to the settlements in the southern occupied West Bank. Approximately 24 hours later, two Israeli settlers were shot and injured in their car while driving near Ramallah and the Kochav Hashachar settlement. The al-Qassam Brigades -- Hamas' armed wing -- claimed full responsibility for both attacks, according to Ma'an News Agency.

Khalid Amayreh: Fascism in Ramallah
AWIP: Hamas claims responsibility for the killing of 4 Israeli settlers.

Last week, an Israeli military court convicted Abdallah Abu Rahmah, whom progressive Zionists have called a "Palestinian Gandhi," of "incitement" and "organizing and participating in illegal demonstrations" for organizing protests against the confiscation of Palestinian land by the "Apartheid Wall" in the village of Bilin in the West Bank, following an eight month trial, during which he was kept in prison.

The European Union issued a protest. But as far as I am aware, no U.S. official has said anything and no U.S. newspaper columnist has denounced this act of repression; indeed, the U.S. press hasn't even reported the news. To find out what happened, someone could search the wires where they'll find this AFP story, or go to the British or Israeli press.

Good comment from Emmy. I should add the context that WiliLeaks is in the middle of permanently establishing itself in Sweden, largely due to the fact that Sweden is one of the few countries to provide legal protection to whistleblowers. "Mr. Assange also said that he had applied for a permit to live and work in Sweden just days before the accusations against him were made, and leaked to Expressen, and he was concerned that the case might damage his chances of moving to the country to take advantage of its laws protecting members of the press."

The Americans are using the Swedish government to make it appear that Assange is some kind of serial rapist, thus making his move to Sweden, and the establishment of WikiLeaks in Sweden, impossible. The Swedes aren't hiding their corruption very well, and one would hope that this American intelligence manipulation of the Swedish legal system would become a political issue in Sweden.

If you believe you are free, then why do you pay taxes to a private institution?

Rick Rozoff views the United States’ growing arms exports to Middle East countries, which will spend an estimated 100 billion dollars on arms from the US by 2014, and the lost opportunities for development in a region that “has known the least peace in the past 60 years and that is in most need of it”.

The internet has provided the world with, if nothing else, instantaneous access to news and in-depth information previously available only to governments and think tanks. It has also allowed for the exchange of data and analyses between groups and individuals around the globe, in part by making one tongue, English, the language of the World Wide Web. It remains to be seen whether the keystroke is mightier than the sword.