Washington Post political correspondent David Broder has kind words for President Barack Obama in in his opinion column Sunday, arguing that it isn't the president's fault the economy is stuck in reverse. But the four-decade-plus veteran of Washington politics offers a startling solution to the president's political and economic woes: March off to war with Iran.

The president, who is "much smarter" and "more inspirational" than any of his opponents, could benefit from a confrontation with Iran because it would strike up a war machine that would pull the US out of economic stagnation, Broder argues. He writes that there are "essentially" two ways that an economy can be grown: Through the natural economic cycle, and through war.

An explosion occurred in Istanbul's Taksim Squake on Sunday morning. Istanbul Police Chief Huseyin Capkin said that 22 people including 12 policemen and 10 civilians were injured in the explosion which occurred at a spot where police officers were waiting at around 10:30 a.m. The injured people were rushed to nearby hospitals. Meanwhile, security forces found a body at the scene. Capkin said that an investigation was under way to determine whether the explosion caused by a suicide bomber. The scene of the attack was cordoned off and tight security measures were taken. Mutlu said about Sunday morning's explosion in the central Taksim Square, "it appears to be a terror act"

Ten years ago today a Palestinian child, aged 12 was killed by Israeli sniper fire. Literally adding insult to injury, the zionists claimed that this incident was ‘staged’ by the Palestinians as a publicity stunt. One often wonders how low the zionist can sink, this was truly one of the lowest levels ever.

Mohamed al-Durrah would have been 22 years old now, perhaps entering his second or third year at university or preparing for marriage, but he was murdered at 12...Mohamed is not the only one…. From the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 until the end of this September, Israel has killed 1859 – one thousand eight hundred fifty nine – children under the age of 18.

No matter how many peace talks are held, no matter what the international community “contribution” is, or what the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah says and promises, Zionism keeps on killing, maiming, stealing… in short, practicing slow motion genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. How many more Muhammad al-Durrahs will face his fate in the next ten years?

Democratic voters are closely divided over whether President Barack Obama should be challenged within the party for a second term in 2012, an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks Poll finds. That glum assessment carries over into the nation at large, which is equally divided over whether Obama should be a one-term president. A real Democratic challenge to Obama seems unlikely at this stage and his re-election bid is a long way off. But the findings underscore how disenchanted his party has grown heading into the congressional elections Tuesday.

The AP-KN poll has tracked a group of people and their views since the beginning of the 2008 presidential campaign. Among all 2008 voters, 51 percent say he deserves to be defeated in November 2012 while 47 percent support his re-election — essentially a tie. Among Democrats, 47 percent say Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination and 51 percent say he should not be opposed. Those favoring a contest include most who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's unsuccessful faceoff against Obama for the 2008 nomination. The poll did not ask if Democrats would support particular challengers.

UK troops face 90 new claims of abuse in Iraq. A specialist team appointed by the government to investigate claims of abuse by British troops in Iraq has received 90 complaints involving 128 Iraqi civilians. The files, relating to allegations between March 2003 and July 2009, have been sent to Geoff White, a former head of Staffordshire CID, who heads the Iraq historic allegations team. The unit, the creation of which was announced in March, comprises 80 staff including military investigators and former Scotland Yard homicide detectives. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The team is investigating all alleged cases of abuse by UK service personnel in Iraq and will identify any action that needs to be taken. We anticipate this should take around two years." White has met Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, who will begin a case in the high court on Friday on behalf of 142 Iraqis who claim they were abused by British troops in the aftermath of the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

Employing baseless fear mongering about the (no longer existent) ACORN and other liberal groups that are supposedly trying to steal next week's elections, conservative "anti-voter-fraud campaigns are popping up across the country, but their biggest rollouts have tended to be in lower-income areas with large minority populations." From the Illinois Republican Party and Tea Party groups to the right-wing astro-turfing group American Majority Action, a startling number of right-wing groups have rolled out aggressive campaigns to "block Democrats…err, voter fraud, at the polls," as Mother Jones' Suzy Khimm sarcastically noted.

While campaigns and political parties have long dispatched trained poll watchers and election judges to the polls to look for irregularities, this year, conservative groups are turning to grassroots activists with little or no training in thinly-veiled efforts to suppress liberal voter participation. Right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin announced on Fox News that "we are all voter-fraud police now," while American Majority Action lets anyone with an iPhone become a poll watcher with their Voter Fraud app.

[Al Jazeera: Thousands affected in Benin floods -VIDEO]

A total of 21 people have been killed and more than 82,000 have been affected by flooding in Togo in recent months, the government said on Friday. The figures were released as neighbouring Benin continues to battle floods that have hit 680,000 people. In total, the rainy season has seen more than 300 people killed in west and central Africa, with 1.5 million affected.

A statement from Togolese Communications Minister Djimon Ore said the toll given on Friday was a "complete evaluation" put together by teams assembled with the help of the United Nations. A previous toll released over a week ago said about 10 people had been killed and nearly 3,000 affected.

In Benin, an airlift of 1,500 tents arrived on Thursday, with another 1,500 expected on Friday. Almost two-thirds of Benin has been hit by flooding, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 100,000 homeless. There have also been 800 cases of cholera detected across the country, an outbreak that has led to at least seven deaths. In Nigeria, 118 people have died as a result of the flooding.

Examiner: Floods devastate West and Central Africa killing 397 and affecting 1.8 million

With double-digit poll lead, ruling party candidate Dilma Rousseff expected to become country's first female president.

Voting has opened in Brazil for a landmark presidential poll that opinion surveys suggest may see a female candidate being elected the country's president for the first time.

On the eve of Sunday's vote, four opinion polls showed Dilma Rousseff, the candidate of the ruling Workers' party, with a double digit lead over her rival Jose Serra.

Four opinion polls released on Saturday gave Rousseff a lead of between 10 and 13 percentage points, following a televised debate between the candidates late on Friday. Rousseff struck a confident note on Saturday while speaking to reporters.

"I will govern for all Brazilians. There will be no discrimination of parties. I won't govern only for my coalition," she said. [Andre Vargas, communications secretary for the Workers' party, predicted a win for Rousseff with a comfortable margin.] "We should win with a minimum advantage of 10 percentage points and a maximum of 15 points,"[ he said.]

Al Jazeera: Brazil's future

The Forward's Nathan Guttman has a fine piece of reporting up about how the Israeli right is hoping that the Congress will change hands next week. The best part of the piece is where the Congressional Democrats protest, Hey we love Israel just as much, even more! Read this with your eyes open. I know, that's hard. The juice comes at the end. And tell me, will Gary Ackerman have to eat his words, or lose his job, ala Rick Sanchez and Helen Thomas? Will Howard Berman, Henry Waxman, Sander Levin, or Barney Frank speak a word of criticism? Will the Obama administration? And you ask why the Obama administration folded on settlements?

Turkey has termed Israel as the source of Middle East's instability saying the threat which Tel Aviv poses to Ankara has reached its highest level. Amending the country's foreign policy vis-à-vis Tel Aviv, Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) stated that "the region's instability stems from Israeli actions and policy," Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on Saturday. The political footwork, the council said, "could lead to an arms race in the Middle East." The comments come amid Israel's continued refusal to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its silence on its widely-reported possession of hundreds of nuclear warheads. The MGK also called Israel "a central threat to Turkey." Similar form of addressing was used by Turkey some 60 years ago, Ha'aretz said.

At least 15 people have been injured after a bomb blast rocked a main square in the Turkish business city of Istanbul, the country's media report. The explosion took place at the Taksim Square, located at the European part of the city, a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday. Police said that the incident reportedly targeted Turkish anti-riot police, adding six of the injured were civilians and the rest were police officers. Two of the wounded people were in serious condition, according to police. The Taksim Square is a major busy shopping and tourist district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn. The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow. But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children. They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin - one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body - that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

Obama's "scare the Americans into voting Democratic" plan is already in trouble. The official story on Friday October 29th was that an unnamed ally issued a warning for British authorities to be on the lookout for a suspicious package sent from Yemen to Great Britain on a UPS flight. A search of the UPS flighty on the ground in Britain yielded a package containing a printer toner cartridge sprayed with a white substance that looks like plastic Christmas tree snow. To make the "toner cartridge of death" look even scarier, a circuit board was attached to the outside with wires. Careful analysis of the card itself suggests it is a circuit card from a TV set, most likely the tuner, circa 1980s. Note carefully there is no battery to power this object, nor were any detonators found.

But the story gets better! The original claim was that the suspicious package originated in Yemen and flew to Britain on an aircraft owned by UPS, and the media showed us all the video of a UPS aircraft being stopped and searched on the runway in Britain. But there is a problem. There are no UPS aircraft flying in and out of Yemen!

Yemen News Agency: Yemen says UPS planes never take off or land in it
SOTT: Crass Phony Terror Alert Over Printer Cartridges

The United Arab Emirates' Civil Aviation Authority has rejected claims that a US-bound Emirates' flight from Dubai contained "suspicious" parcels from Yemen. Fighter jets were scrambled on Friday to accompany an Emirates plane into New York's JFK airport after a security alert, US media reported. Emirati authorities, however, said flight 201 carried no 'suspicious' cargo from Yemen as claimed by US-Canadian military agency NORAD. UAE officials rejected the claim and said the plane was not a source of threat.

Antiwar: Arrest in Yemen in bomb plot; more suspects sought
Antiwar: Obama Vows to ‘Destroy’ al-Qaeda in Yemen

McDonald’s sells itself as the ultimate happy place. But this election season, a local McDonald’s franchise in Canton, Ohio is telling employees how to keep the company happy: vote Republican.

Along with their recent paychecks, employees received a pamphlet from their employer on company letter head that stated “as the election season is here, we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future.” While pointing out that the vote is the employee’s “personal decision,” the pamphlet explicitly states, “if the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected we will not”.

The "right people" are John Kasich, Rob Portman, and Jim Renacci for this franchisee.

In explicitly endorsing gubernatorial candidate John Kasich (R), Senate candidate Rob Portman (R), and House candidate Jim Renacci (R), the pamphlet — which was directly inside the envelope with the paycheck — appears to directly violate Ohio Revised Code regarding elections:

No employer or his agent or a corporation shall print or authorize to be printed upon any pay envelopes any statements intended or calculated to influence the political action of his or its employees; or post or exhibit in the establishment or anywhere in or about the establishment any posters, placards, or hand bills containing any threat, notice, or information that if any particular candidate is elected or defeated work in the establishment will cease in whole or in part, or other threats expressed or implied, intended to influence the political opinions or votes of his or its employees.

Iran has criticized the United States for allocating $100 billion to proliferation of its nuclear weapons, saying it contradicts Washington's claim of supporting a nuke-free world. Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei condemned the US nuclear double standards, saying Washington advocates a nuclear-free world on the one hand, while it continues to develop and modernize its nuclear arsenal on the other.

“The US plan to develop and modernize nuclear weapons … to which a budget of more than one hundred billion dollars is allocated, is in direct contradiction to the White House slogans on a nuke-free world,” Khazaei told the UN General Assembly's Disarmament Committee.

The Iranian envoy also referred to the US nuclear bombardment of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saying the existence of thousands of nuclear warheads in the arsenals of nuclear countries continues to cast a “shadow of fear” over the world.

An Israeli commander has confessed to crimes committed by the Israeli army during the 22-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip, a report says. Colonel Ilan Malka, who headed the Givati Brigade during the December 2008-January 2009 war against Gaza, has admitted to the killing of civilians during the Israeli incursion into the coastal sliver, the Arabic-language Al-Alam television network reported on Saturday.

Malka had earlier told Israeli investigators that he did not know there were civilians in a building that came under attack on January 5, 2009 after he ordered the strike. Eyewitnesses, however, say Israeli military razed the building after the attack in order to obliterate traces of their crimes. The deadly attack, which was denounced by the United Nations as "one of the gravest" of the offensives of the war, claimed the lives of 22 members of the Samuni family, ten of whom were minors. Twenty-nine members of the family, who lived in Gaza City's Zaitun neighborhood, were killed, and 49 others were injured in the war.

Photo: Ivar Fjeld

The Israeli Tourist Ministry recently invited the rescued Chilean miners to visit the ‘Holy Land’….. if they accept the invite they might still be able to smell the smoke from today’s hate fire...

A hundred year old church was burned Friday by right-wing Israeli settlers, who broke a number of windows of the church and hurled Molotov cocktails inside. The damage to the church was substantial, with burn damage throughout the first floor of the building.

The church was built in Jerusalem in 1897, and housed the Palestinian Bible College until 1947, when parishioners were pushed out by Jewish armed gangs during the violence accompanying the creation of the state of Israel.

Christians make up 2% of the population of both Israel and the Palestinian Territories – the number used to be around 15%, but many Christians from the Holy Land have emigrated due to the harsh conditions of the Israeli occupation, and discrimination against them by the Israeli state.

This is not the first time that Israeli right-wingers have destroyed churches and church property – a number of Chrisitan churches were destroyed during the second initfada (uprising) that began in 2000, and many more were destroyed by Israeli forces during the 1948 and 67 wars.

Haaretz: J'lem church officials suspect extremist Jews behind arson
Maan News: Church officials say arson behind Jerusalem fire

'Terror Threat' a Big Political Win for Obama, Dems. Though the administration has declined to raise the terror alert level, the very public nature of the Yemen bomb plot is seen as giving President Obama and incumbent Congressional Democrats a much-needed political shot in the arm, conveniently enough just days before the midterm elections. The plot gave an opportunity for President Obama to look “presidential,” experts say, as he gave a high profile speech vowing “any steps necessary” to see al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate destroyed.

The fact that by all accounts no explosives appear to have actually gotten to the United States also likely plays to the administration’s advantage, and indeed the advantage of all incumbents, who can claim that the “system worked” in this regard even as they promise major new foreign policy ventures in retaliation.

Mohammed al-Shaibah, Air Cargo Director for Yemenia Airways said to Yemen Post, "No UPS cargo plane left Yemeni lands over the land 48 hours. These accusations are false and baseless." He added, "No UPS or DHL cargo packages heading to Chicago through Yemen took place in the last 48 hours as well." "All packages are checked very carefully in Yemen, and there is no evidence to prove that this package came through Yemen." CNN reported the suspicious package, which contained a "manipulated" toner cartridge, tested negative for explosive material, the source said, but it led to heightened inspection of arriving cargo flights in Newark, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a UPS truck in New York.

Antiwar: Yemen Officials: Packages Didn’t Come From Yemen -Officials Insist No Cargo Planes Even Left Yemen in Last 48 Hours
Yemen Post: No U.S. Commercial or Private Plane left Yemen to the U.S. over last 48 hours; Yemeni Official
The Guardian: [RE: Pakistan] Barack Obama accused of exaggerating terror threat for political gain (Pakistani diplomat launches scathing attack on White House)
Truth is Contagious: Obama Issues Fake Terror Alert On Eve Of Elections

Lots of people have weighed in to condemn the planned execution of Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi official who was condemned to death this week, including the Vatican, Russia, and Amnesty International. Let me add my voice to theirs.

The hanging judge in this particular kangaroo court is a former aide to Prime Minister Maliki, who ran for election on Maliki’s misnamed State of Law coalition. It’s clear that Maliki wants to use the execution of Tariq Aziz, a Roman Catholic, to build support for his party among the most extreme Shiite partisans. Like Maliki’s support for the pre-election shenanigans in January, when Iran and Ahmed Chalabi maneuvered to exclude hundreds of legitimate candidates from running over charges of connections to the old Baath Party, Maliki wants to wave the bloody shirt of Tariq Aziz to rally his supporters. The fact that he’s not a Muslim makes that even more popular among Shiite radicals.

Bill Van Auken: Tariq Aziz faces judicial murder in Iraq.

'Undesirables' are swept from the streets before being detained without trial, say human rights groups. UN funding is being used to run a brutal internment camp for the destitute in Cambodia where detainees are held for months without trial, raped and beaten, sometimes to death, former inmates have told the Guardian.

The Prey Speu facility, 12 miles from Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, is officially described as a "social affairs centre" offering education and healthcare to vulnerable people. But human rights groups and former inmates say the centre is an illegal, clandestine prison, where people deemed "undesirable" by the government – usually drug users, sex workers and the homeless – are held for months without charge. Men, women and children are housed together in a single building and are regularly beaten with planks, whipped with wires or threatened with weapons, according to witnesses.

A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower. The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings. Although the official list of the top 500 fastest machines, which comes out every six months, is not due to be completed by Mr. Dongarra until next week, he said the Chinese computer “blows away the existing No. 1 machine.”

Law enforcement officials are investigating reports of suspicious packages on cargo planes in Philadelphia and Newark, N.J., as well as an overnight stop of a plane in London with suspicious cargo onboard, bound for Chicago. According to a CNN broadcast report, the action was taken after an IED disguised as a toner cartridge was found on a cargo plane from Yemen to Chicago. Law enforcement sources, though, were offering differing reports on whether the package had explosive materials. That flight was stopped in London at the time. Law enforcement sources told CNN they were acting on a tip in the last 24 hours from an unnamed "ally" that cargo coming from Yemen headed for "synagogues" in Chicago.

Take all your money out of Bank of America.

Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has told his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, that there is "enough space" in the world for both countries to develop. His comments came during a meeting on the sidelines of a regional meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Mr Wen said he would visit India this year.

China is India's largest trading partner; two-way trade volumes surpassed $50bn (£31bn) in 2008. The two nations fought a brief border war in 1962, but ties have improved. Tensions remain, however, between the rising regional powers over their shared 3,500-km (2,170-mile) border, decades on from the conflict, which China won.

The toll climbed to 408 dead and 303 missing four days after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami, officials said Friday. The National Disaster Coordinating Agency said 270 people were seriously injured and 142 had minor injuries. More than 22,000 people have been displaced or affected by the tsunami, which swept up villagers and their homes without warning, the agency said. The government is considering relocating some residents in the earthquake-prone islands near Sumatra, the state-run Antara news agency said.

The quake struck at 9:42 p.m. Monday, triggering a tsunami warning. Its epicenter was 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Padang, at a depth of 20.6 kilometers (12.8 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The magnitude was revised from a preliminary 7.5. The remoteness of many Indonesian islands left residents without warning, and continued to limit communications and stymie rescue and recovery efforts.

More than 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip lack access to basic humanitarian supplies such as shortage of water resources.

Many Palestinians are forced to purchase bottled water for their daily needs, as water coming from their taps has run dry, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

The Gaza aquifer is the only source of water for residents of Gaza. Reports show that 90 percent of its water is not suitable for human consumption due to high levels of nitrate and salinity.

In an interview with Press TV, public health coordinator Tracey Wise said, "Because of such limited amounts of water in Gaza that's acceptable for human consumption, mostly this is the shallow, coastal aquifer, and this aquifer is being over-pumped, so much water is being taken out to supply the needs of Gazans, that you have much more intrusion of sea water." "And then also you have upwelling of this very, very old water that has high salinity and high concentrations of other pollutants," she added.

Meanwhile, Israel has installed huge pumping stations all along the shared border, diverting water before it reaches the aquifer of Gaza. During the Gaza war, bombs completely destroyed three water wells and much of the water system infrastructure in Gaza.

Jason Godesky: Israel’s Water Wars
Stephen Lendman: Israel Threatens War with Lebanon.
Mitchell Prothero & Peter Beaumont: Israel Will Go to War over Water
Christian Science Monitor A Lebanese-Israeli water conflict threatens to boil over [October 21, 2002]

Ehab Zahriyeh, Press TV, New York

Just 504 people out of 101,248 searches under counter-terror powers last year were held for any offence, Home Office reveals. More than 100,000 people were stopped and searched by police under counter-terrorism powers last year but none of them were arrested for terrorism-related offences, according to Home Office figures published today. The statistics show that 504 people out of the 101,248 searches were arrested for any offence – an arrest rate of 0.5%, compared with an average 10% arrest rate for street searches under normal police powers. The figures prompted the former Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis to call for the controversial policy to be scrapped.

I passed up the obvious title: "Heckuva Job Larry!" That was the moment of President Obama's appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that set all Americans cringing. Yes, he really said that Summers "did a heckuva job." The candidate that was gifted the opportunity to run against the legacy of one of the worst presidents in U.S. history has, as president, used Bush as his role model to continue many disastrous policies. It was strangely fitting that he would channel Bush's infamous praise ("Heckuva job Brownie") for the FEMA chief who failed New Orleans so badly in the hurricane.

President Obama understandably wishes to focus attention on the economic disaster he inherited from President Bush. But Jon Stewart's question to him, which led to the president's gaffe, correctly asked about the message that Summers' appointment sent about the administration's commitment to fundamental change.

Omar Salem Shehab tells of torture at hands of notorious Iraqi police unit and says US forces were involved in his capture. During the foreboding months of 2005, one police unit struck more fear into Iraqis than the entire occupying US army. They were known as the Wolf Brigade.

Brutal even by Iraqi standards, their soldiers and officers seemingly answered to no one. They were seen as indiscriminate and predatory. The unit's reputation had been known Iraq-wide and results of their numerous raids are still bogged down in Iraq's legal system. But the full range of their abuses and close co-operation with the US army remained in the shadows until the WikiLeaks disclosures showcased them in stark detail.

Israeli Rabbi: Don't Sell Housing Or Land To Non-Jews - Selling a house or land in Israel to anyone who is not Jewish is forbidden, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said during a Thursday morning halacha lesson. The rabbi cited the halacha as saying that the property should be sold to a Jewish buyer, even if he offers a lesser amount for it.

Dozens of students, Shas leaders among them, attended the lesson in the rabbi's Jerusalem home. "The words were perceived by those who were present as normal discussion of the halacha, and not within a context of current events," said one student who did not want to be identified. He added that the rabbi spoke of a known and accepted law of the halacha, one that no one disputes. It should not be perceived as a reinforcement of a recent ban on selling property to Arabs declared by Safed rabbis, he said.

AWIP: Palestinians should perish from this world: Ovadia Yosef
Khalid Amayreh: Major rabbi says non-Jews are donkeys, created to serve Jews

Imagine this: You want to move to a new town but before you can do so, you’ll have to submit an application to a committee that has to approve admission of new residents. And not just that — you can be excluded for the simple reason that in the committee’s opinion, you wouldn’t fit in. “Sorry, you’re not the kind of person suitable to live in our town.” That will be the effect of a new law now moving through Israel’s parliament, and once enacted it will be used to keep Israeli Palestinians out of Jewish towns.

American unmanned planes fired two missiles at a house in a Pakistani tribal region close to the Afghan border on Thursday, killing seven alleged militants, the latest in a barrage of such attacks, intelligence officials said. The strike in North Waziristan was the third attack assassination there in the past 24 hours.

The region is home to hundreds of Pakistan and foreign Islamist "militants", many belonging to or allied with "al-Qaida" and the Taliban. It is also the base of a powerful insurgent group that U.S. officials say is behind many of the attacks just across the border in Afghanistan.

Thursday's strike in the Datta Khel area killed five unidentified "foreign" and two local militants, three intelligence officials said. They did not give their names in line with the policy of the agency they work for. It is all but impossible to independently verify the accounts of intelligence officials. The region is too dangerous for outsiders to visit the scene of the attacks and U.S. officials do not acknowledge firing the missiles, much less discuss who they are targeting. Two other attacks Wednesday killed seven "suspected militants" [= innocent civilians].

Protest/Counter-Protest Demonstrators rally outside Ricky’s NYC in Brooklyn Heights on October 26. At left activists hold signs supporting a boycott of Ahava. At right, an opponent of the boycott. (Photo Shulamit Seidler-Felder).

The Middle East conflict has inflamed college campuses, bedeviled political campaigns and sparked street demonstrations. But cosmetics stores are the latest, and perhaps least likely, sites so far to bear witness to the sprawling nature of this ever deepening dispute.

At Ricky’s NYC in Brooklyn Heights — part of a self-described “edgy, ultra-hip” chain of New York costume and beauty supply stores — protesters banged drums, blew trumpets and marched around with fright masks in front of display windows stocked with bright colored packages of lotions and potions on October 26. The protesters were dramatizing their contention that the store’s Ahava beauty products add an ugly dimension to its offerings. Led by the groups CodePink and Brooklyn for Peace, some 40 demonstrators condemned the Israeli company and the store because Ahava’s products are manufactured at a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The anti-Ahava campaign has been going on for more than a year. But at Ricky’s and elsewhere, counter-protesters have now emerged. About 15 of them made a point of buying Ahava products from the store. Then, clustered right next to the anti-Israel group, they chanted slogans such as “Not one inch!” Some carried signs claiming that there was “no such thing as Palestinian people.” As the anti-Israel protesters chanted “Ahava’s a beauty cream killing Palestine’s hopes and dreams,” a gaggle of girls shrieked the words of the Shema prayer in an effort to drown them out.

It’s boycott versus “buycott” in the latest twist to the Israel-Palestinian dispute. But here, shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer have replaced territories, terrorism and occupation as the focus of contention.

An unknown group handed out misleading fliers to voters in a primarily African American polling place in Houston, Texas, reports KTRK. The fliers, which were handed out near an early voting location Tuesday night, claimed that "Republicans are trying to trick us" and said that voting Democrat was actually voting for Republicans.

"When you vote straight ticket Democrat, it is actually voting for Republicans and your vote doesn't count," says the flier. "We are urging everyone to VOTE for BILL WHITE. A VOTE for BILL WHITE is a VOTE for the ENTIRE DEMOCRATIC ticket. We have fought too hard to let Republicans use voting machines to deny us our basic rights. We must guard the change and NOT VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET DEMOCRAT! YES WE CAN!" Democrat Bill White, the former Mayor of Houston, is currently running against Republican Governor Rick Perry.

"I expect this to be illegal because it's so inaccurate, no political group would want to associate itself with a lie, this is the under the table stuff that we see in elections," said Dr. Richard Murray, political consultant for KTRK.

The New York Times' John Burns yesterday responded to (and complained about) criticisms -- voiced by me, Julian Assange and others -- over his gossipy, People Magazine-style "profile" of Assange, which his newspaper centrally featured as part of its coverage of the WikiLeaks document release. In a self-justifying interview with Yahoo! News' Michael Calderone, Burns makes several comments worth examining.

Barry Grey: New York Times tries character assassination against WikiLeaks founder Assange

[QQ] October 14, 2009, the 30th annual awards ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund took place at the Asia Society in New York City. Lu Guang (卢广) from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”

Lu Guang (卢广), freelancer photographer, started as an amateur photographer in 1980. He was a factory worker, later started his own photo studio and advertising agency. August of 1993 he returned to post-graduate studies at the Central Arts and Design Academy in Beijing (now is the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University). During graduate school, he studied, traveled all over the country and carved out a career, became the “dark horse” of the photographer circle in Beijing. Skilled at social documentary photography, his insightful, creative and artistic work often focused on “social phenomena and people living at the bottom of society”, attracted the attentions of the national photography circle and the media. Many of his award winning works focused on social issues like, “gold rush in the west”, “drug girl”, “small coal pit”, “HIV village”, “the Grand Canal”, “development of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway” and so on.

Imagine the look of contempt on Karl Rove's face this past Sunday as he swaggered toward his star turn on CBS's Face the Nation only to be served with our subpoena sanctioned by the Secretary of the State of Ohio. The federal subpoena orders Rove to testify in deposition. Our attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, intends to ask Mr. Rove about his role in the theft of the 2004 election, and to discuss his orchestration of tens of millions of corporate/billionaire dollars in the one coming up on November 2, 2010. As co-counsel and plaintiff in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit, we have fought for six years to win justice and full disclosure in an election that Rove stole for George W. Bush.

BradBlog: E-Voting Systems Left Unattended at UT Poll Site

Christine O'Donnel snaps her fingers and beckons a spokesman to her side after the host of "The Rick Jensen Show" asks her some questions she doesn't like. She later threatened to sue the station if they released this video. The guy in the video is Rick Jensen.

WDEL 1150AM: O'Donnell campaign apologizes to WDEL. The Christine O'Donnell campaign is apologizing to WDEL after it demanded that video of an O'Donnell appearance on "The Rick Jensen Show" be destroyed and threatened a lawsuit if it wasn't.

Daily Telegraph: Sarah Palin gives clearest indication she will run for president in 2012

France has dispatched a nuclear-powered warship to the Persian Gulf as part of an unprecedented buildup of naval and air power in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is now en route to the region and will arrive there at the end of October, when a quarter of the world's nuclear aircraft carriers will gather in the "stratgeic waters". The French carrier is accompanied by two frigates, an attack submarine, a re-fuelling tanker, 3,000 sailors and 27 aircraft. "The force would help allied navies fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and send jets to support NATO in the skies above Afghanistan," said the commander of the group, Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard. -This is while new opinion polls show that a vast majority of the French are against any military presence in Afghanistan and want an immediate withdrawal of troops from the war-torn country. There are currently over 31 warships docked in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, nineteen of them belonging to the United States.

A child at the morgue - Matthewgood/flickr

Loss of life: At least 122,000 civilians were killed during the US-led occupation of Iraq, 15,000 more than previously thought. The civilian toll accounts for 80 per cent of all deaths in the Iraq conflict.

The numbers of dead were recorded by coalition troops throughout the conflict. The leaked documents provide the first view of these numbers.

Iraq Body Count (IBC), a London-based group has been analysing the numbers for the past two months, comparing them to an extensive database of civilian deaths in the war it had built up from media reports and other public records.

From IBC’s analysis the US files identify more than 15,000 civilian deaths that never appeared in media reports or public records. This new information pushes the total number of fatalities in the war, including combatants, to more than 150,000.

There are 52,000 war logs that record deaths in Iraq – this includes civilian and coalition casualties, as well as those classed as “enemy kills”. IBC intends to complete a thorough analysis of every file, a process that could take several years. Already IBC has uncovered thousands of deaths that were never known about. In some, scores of Iraqi civilians were killed in a single incident.

Related article: Hundreds of civilians gunned down at checkpoints
Der Spiegel: Hellfire from the Sky: Iraq War Logs Reveal Details of Dubious Apache Attacks

US drone strikes launched a pair of drone strikes against North Waziristan Agency today, killing at least eight people and wounding another 12. The strikes destroyed a car in the village of Datta Khel, then destroyed a home in Mir Ali. Pakistani sources termed all eight of the slain people “suspects,” but the 12 wounded people were transported to local hospitals and none of them appear to have been arrested or charged with anything as the result of the US attack. The Obama Administration has dramatically increased the number of drone strikes against North Waziristan over the past few months, with officials terming almost everyone killed a suspect, though few have actually been named.

Iran says the US and Europe with efforts to hide human rights violations in their own countries ahead of a review of US human rights records by the UN Human Rights Council. In less than two weeks, the Human Rights Council will, for the first time ever, assess the human rights status of the United States as part of the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism which will assess the human rights situations in all 192 UN member states.

PressTV: Larijani slams US human rights abuses

The Haitian president, Rene Preval, said his state was subjected to a biological attack in order to completely destabilize the already extremely complicated situation. The cholera imported from another country is rampant throughout the state. Haitian President Rene Preval said on Saturday that the cholera epidemic affecting the country since the beginning of the week was" imported. Preval, however, does not want to name the criminal. "It would be irresponsible and dangerous to identify a country as a source of the epidemic that has killed 210 people", said the Haitian leader to station Radio Kiskeya in Mirebalais, one of the areas affected by the disease.

[Image by Bendib] [FPJ] Israel has been subject to some bad publicity recently. In 2008-09, it launched a brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip that killed over 400 Palestinian children. In May, 2010, bumbling Israeli commandos murdered nine nonviolence activists on the relief flotilla Mavi Marmara. It only got worse for Israel when it was revealed that soldiers stole and sold personal items such as laptops from the ship. Last week, former Israeli soldier Eden Abergil posted photos onto Facebook showing her preening in front of blindfolded and despondent Palestinian prisoners, in some instances mocking those prisoners with sexual undertones. The photos were part of an album entitled “IDF—the best time of my life.”

[T]hese recent episodes merely extend an age-old list of Israeli crimes and indignities that illuminate a depravity in the Zionist enterprise itself. Americans now have all the evidence they need for a reasonable and morally-sound conclusion, that Zionism produces a cruelty and truculence that they bankroll with their taxes and legitimize with either silence or consent. As a result, I am not arguing that Americans should reassess their level of support for Israel. I am arguing that Americans should oppose Zionism altogether. Perhaps in this way we might begin the long and difficult process of redeeming our own nation of its imperial sins.

MEMO: New photographs reveal IDF's "purity of arms" claim to be a sick joke

Assange fumed openly about John Burns and Ravi Somaiya's expose from this past Sunday's Times that characterized the WikiLeaks mastermind as increasingly paranoid, erratic, and dangerously egotistical.

"It's a smear piece, and more tabloid behavior by the Times," [Assange said of the article.] "Is it that only journalists with bad character work for the Times?"

he added, before quickly shifting gears to argue that that the paper is beholden to the US military-industrial complex and, as a result, too often confuses a false sense of balance with accuracy. WikiLeaks, Assange maintained, is free from the political constraints that tie the hands of a mainstream media organization like the Times, and so does not have to make editorial concessions to the Pentagon that could compromise its accuracy. For Assange, the Times's allegedly compromised sense of accuracy clearly extends to the "terrible" article by Burns and Somaiya that seeks to analyze -- though, he would say impugn -- his character and motives.

Forget China or Al Qaeda. In a twist that would have been inconceivable even a few months ago, the WikiLeaks.org Web site is being proposed as the first public target for a U.S. government cyberattack. After the shadowy, document-leaking organization distributed nearly 400,000 classified documents from the Iraq war on Friday, Washington officialdom responded with a torrent of denunciations alleging violations of national security and endangering U.S. military operations. In a rare point of congruence, The Washington Post and The Washington Times both criticized the release, with the smaller paper arguing that WikiLeaks' offshore Web site should be attacked and rendered "inoperable" by the U.S. government. Some hawkish conservatives followed suit, including Christian Whiton, a State Department adviser under President George W. Bush, who wrote a column calling on the U.S. military to "electronically assault WikiLeaks and any telecommunications company offering its services to this organization." Their target's actually not that far away. WikiLeaks' Web site is now hosted on Amazon.com servers on United States soil near San Jose, Calif.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

NPR: Fears Hundreds More Dead In Indonesia Tsunami
OneIndia: Indonesia struggles as twin disaster tolls mount
HeraldSun: Indonesian tsunami death toll hits 343, with 338 still missing
ABC Gold Coast: Surfers survive tsunami

WSWS: Hundreds dead after two Indonesian disasters The remote Mentawai islands off the west coast of Sumatra were devastated on Monday night after a 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across coastal areas. Poor weather has hampered efforts to assess the extent of the damage and to get relief supplies to the islands. The first photos from North Pagai showed trees flattened and buildings badly damaged with broken walls. According to World Vision project manager Ita Balanda, at least 7,900 families had been affected. Many had lost their homes, which were simply swept away. Surf Aid official Andrew Judge said: “[The] limited hospital services are overwhelmed.” Images from the village of Muntei Baru-Baru showed dozens of bodies, including those of women, young children and babies, laid out in the open.