MOSCOW (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reached a deal with Russia on Friday to build the South American country's first nuclear plant, as questions arose why a nation rich in oil and gas would feel the need to venture into atomic energy. The two nations also signed other energy agreements. Russia has cultivated close ties with Chavez's government to expand its global clout and counter U.S. influence in Latin America. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Russia plans to build two 1,200 megawatt nuclear reactors at the Venezuelan plant. The cost of Friday's nuclear deal wasn't immediately announced.

The deal is likely to raise concern in President Barack Obama's administration but continues a pattern of Russia pressing to export its nuclear expertise. Russia has just completed Iran's first nuclear power plant and recently reached new deals to build nuclear reactors in China and Turkey. It's talking with Indian officials about building a dozen of nuclear reactors there and also wants to build a nuclear reactor in the Czech Republic.

The Guardian: Russia and Venezuela strike nuclear power station deal.

At least four people have been killed in a "non-UN-sanctioned" [The UN has no business sanctioning/non-sanctioning murder.] US drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistan's security officials announced that on Friday US drones fired two missiles at Machi Khel village, east of Miranshah in North Waziristan tribal region. Pakistan has repeatedly condemned the US drone attacks, saying the strikes violate the South Asian country's sovereignty. The drone attacks, which were initiated by former US president George W. Bush and have continued under President Barack Obama, have drastically increased in recent weeks at a time when devastating floods have taken their toll on the South Asian country.

Following up on last month’s demands that Pakistan agree to yet another massive tax increase on “wealthy landowners,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stepped the issue up even more, threatening to withdraw all humanitarian aid from the nation unless they comply. Today it was even worse, as Clinton pressured the European Union to do the same. Between them, the US and EU have contributed more than half of the $1.5 billion in humanitarian aid for this year’s disastrous floods.

TWO IRONIC TOONS ~~ ‘JUDEN RAUS’ ~ Submitted by Alexsi.

Three NATO troops were killed Friday in Afghanistan in a surge of attacks that raised the death toll to 17 over the past three days for international troops in the country. One service member died Friday in an insurgent attack in the east and another was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, an alliance statement said. It did not give nationalities or exact locations of the attacks. France said a French soldier died Friday of wounds sustained in a clash in the Uzbin Valley east of Kabul the day before. On Thursday, eight NATO troops were killed in a spate of attacks, including four separate roadside bombings — the weapon of choice for insurgents who rely on guerrilla tactics to counter intensified NATO-Afghan operations.

It has been the deadliest year for international forces in the nine-year Afghan conflict. Troop numbers have been ramped up to turn the screws on insurgents and casualties have mounted. The escalating toll — more than 2,020 NATO deaths since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion — has shaken the commitment of many alliance countries, with calls growing to start drawing down forces quickly.

Former detainees at a secret U.S. prison in Afghanistan say jailers mistreated them by depriving them of natural light, failing to provide proper food and withholding Red Cross visits, a report said Thursday. In the report by Open Society Foundations, established by billionaire George Soros, former Afghan detainees say they were abused at the classified detention center on Afghanistan's U.S. Bagram airbase, north of Kabul. The jail, the existence of which is not openly acknowledged by Washington, is separate from the main U.S. prison in Afghanistan, also at Bagram and now housed in a new $60 million complex that U.S. officials plan to hand over to Afghan control. Bagram became a symbol of prisoner abuse after U.S. troops beat two prisoners to death there in 2002 in the first year of the 9-year-old war. Washington says treatment at all of its jails in Afghanistan is now in line with international law. In the report, former detainees said they were held in isolation cells with inadequate bedding and food, restricted from exercise and prevented from carrying out religious duties, which the report says is against U.S. claims its detention rules meet international requirements.

[Editor's Comment:] Typical of the Red Cross, this seems to be nothing but a kind of "limited hangout". Con-sidering what we now know about the torture that actually still goes on at Guantánamo, in the Abu Ghraib dungeon (Iraq) and at the US Bagram air force base outside of Kabul, we can be sure that people held in any secret U.S. prison have not just been deprived of "natural light". They also will have been deprived of pretty much everything else. Put bluntly, the people held in these places are being subjected to horrendous mistreatment and torture. These former detainees in the case at hand, may presumably have cut a deal with their jailers to cooperate with the Red Cross and and tell them watered-down stories of having been "deprived of natural light" in return for an to escape to freedom.

BBC: Fresh claims US is running secret prison in Afghanistan.

The building in which Israeli Occupation
Forces killed two Palestinian activists in
Hebron on Friday, 08 October 2010

During the reporting period, IOF killed two activists of the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, and wounded 9 Palestinians, including 6 children, in the Gaza Strip and a child in the West Bank.

In the West Bank, on 08 October 2010, IOF killed two Palestinian activists affiliated to the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), in Hebron. The two activists were killed in an wide-scale military operation that IOF implemented in a residential neighborhood in the south of Hebron. During this operation, IOF shelled a number of houses claiming that the two activists were hiding inside them.

On 11 October 2010, a Palestinian child was wounded in Silwan village, south of the old town of Jerusalem, when IOF fired at children who demonstrated in protest to the detention of 4 children.

During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall. As a result, a Palestinian child was wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation or sustained bruises. IOF also arrested 3 Palestinian civilians and 4 international human rights defenders. The human rights defenders were released later.

In the Gaza Strip, on 07 October 2010, IOF attempted to extra-judicially execute a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, but he survived the attempt as he and another 4 civilians, including two children, were wounded.

During the reporting period, two minor Palestinian workers were wounded when Israeli soldiers stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at them while collecting raw construction materials.

Also during the reporting period, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in two separate incidents in the northern Gaza Strip.

Defense lawyer says Phoenix police officer indicted on murder charge in on-duty shooting. A Phoenix police officer has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge for the on-duty shooting of a suspect, his lawyer said Thursday. Officer Richard Chrisman was served a summons on the indictment, attorney Craig Mehrens said. The indictment also charged him with aggravated assault and misdemeanor cruelty to animals. He had been previously charged with aggravated assault but remains free on bail. Chrisman allegedly pulled his pistol, put it against 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez's head and told him he didn't need a warrant when Rodriguez ordered him out of his house on Oct. 5. Over the next few minutes, Chrisman shocked Rodriguez with a stun gun, shot his pit bull, then finally fatally shot Rodriguez, according to a court document.

Founder Julian Assange hits out at decision by Moneybookers, which collects the whistleblowing website's donations. The whistleblowing group WikiLeaks claims that it has had its funding blocked and that it is the victim of financial warfare by the US government. Moneybookers, a British-registered internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, emailed the organisation to say it had closed down its account because it had been put on an official US watchlist and on an Australian government blacklist. The apparent blacklisting came a few days after the Pentagon publicly expressed its anger at WikiLeaks and its founder, Australian citizen Julian Assange, for obtaining thousands of classified military documents about the war in Afghanistan, in one of the US army's biggest leaks of information. The documents caused a sensation when they were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and German magazine Der Spiegel, revealing hitherto unreported civilian casualties.

The demise of CNN and its hostile takeover by neo-conservatives who turned CNN News into an echo chamber for Israel supporters and neocons and Headline News into a tabloidish concoction of crap news was brought about by a concerted effort by Time Warner executives to embarrass CNN founder Ted Turner and force him out of the corporate leadership, according to informed sources in Atlanta who spoke to WMR.

Robert Wyatt and Gilad Atzmon, Ros Stephen

Self-proclaimed anti-Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and prog rock legend Robert Wyatt have joined forces to make musical magic and "political noise".

This is a sad story with a jolting soundtrack made of the howl of a saxophone and the wail of a clarinet. It's a story of displaced persons who have no other country, featuring war criminals, Nazi-hunters and God in a cameo role, tempered by large daubs of irony and a few crumbs of hope.

Morning. Rain. Rail strike. Soho, London. Who is the huge chuckling fellow in the Italian cafe who is polishing off a schnitzel sandwich (washed down with tea ) and welcomes me with comments like "There is no light at the end of the Israeli tunnel"? Or, "I think there is something untenable, simply untenable in the fact that the Jews, who suffered so much racial discrimination, should establish a state that is founded on race laws." And, topping the charts, "I am dead against the existence of the Jewish state." It's still early in the morning, let me remind you. I-am-dead-against-the-existence-of-the-Jewish-state-and-pass-the-sweetener-please. Good morning to you, too, Gilad Atzmon.

The fact that the cafe is across from Ronnie Scott's famous jazz club offers a subtle hint about Atzmon's identity. He is one of the most acclaimed and in-demand jazz musicians in the world and he only enhances his glory - or totally destroys it, it depends whom you ask - when his mouth isn't otherwise occupied with a saxophone (or a schnitzel ).

The Guardian: Jazza festival - review [Gilad's Blog]

The Ghosts within by Gilad Atzmon [Gilad's Blog]

Iceland’s government will this week present a bill allowing debtors to walk away from obligations that exceed asset values and to nullify personal bankruptcies after four years, Internal Affairs Minister Ogmundur Jonasson said.

“All Icelanders can see that our society is currently in turmoil,” Jonasson said in an interview in Reykjavik. “We’re therefore required to sit down at the table and offer solutions; I don’t anticipate that the people running financial institutions will disagree.”

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir’s coalition is holding talks with the lenders today to thrash out housing market reforms after about 8,000 protestors gathered outside parliament last week to show their anger over rising homeowner insolvencies. The International Monetary Fund, which is leading Iceland’s $4.6 billion bailout, estimates that 63 percent of the island’s loans are non-performing.

Never before seen news footage on the day of 911. Eye witnesses confirm explosions in the basement before the planes hit the WTC. Proof that the bank vaults were broken into and the gold bullion stolen before the towers were demolished.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A key suspect in the killing of a Hamas operative in Dubai has been arrested abroad but details of the capture are secret, according to Dubai's police chief. The arrest took place in a Western country about two months ago, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said in comments published Monday in The National newspaper. After the Jan. 19 killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the group's military wing, Dubai police requested international help in trying to track down suspects in the slaying. Authorities in the Emirates say a hit squad involving more than 30 members — many of whom had traveled to Dubai on fraudulent passports and were captured on security cameras in the Gulf state — was responsible for the killing, which took place at an airport hotel. Tamim has repeatedly accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the killing. Mossad has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

BEIRUT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday Israel was doomed to perish as he addressed thousands of supporters of Hizbullah at a rally in Bint Jbeil, just four kilometers from the Israeli border. Ahmadinejad’s tour in south Lebanon drew sharp criticism from the US and Israel as tensions ran high on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Israeli officials have said the tour represented an attempt to set up an advanced front line for a proxy war between Iran and Israel.

“Bint Jbeil is alive and today stands proud and cherished against all enemies whereas the Zionists are mortal after the sons of Bint Jbeil made the enemy taste defeat,” Ahmadinejad said while supporters chanted “death to Israel.” (Bint Jbeil was heavily bombed in the 34-day war with Israel in 2006.) “There is no option before the Zionists but to surrender to facts on the ground or return to their original countries,” Ahmadinejad said. “Palestine will be liberated through force and the belief of the resistance,” he added.

Daily Star: Ahmadinejad: 'Friends are being framed'.
HuffPo: Ahmadinejad Deploys 'Soft Power' in Lebanon
LA Times: ISRAEL: Iranians at the gates — what to do?

BINT JBEIL: They have been waiting for over three hours in the broiling sun. Tens of thousands heave and sway, shouting and sweating in equal measure as music pumped through giant speaker stacks struggles to maintain feverish levels of anticipation. Bint Jbeil’s sporting stadium cuts a sea of red, green and yellow, Iranian, Hizbullah and Amal flags wafted with enough enthusiasm to provide the hint of a sating breeze. Pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are held aloft here and they but seem to be used best as makeshift sun blocks. The masses that have squeezed inside and the hundreds more who cling precariously to rooftops and balconies of surrounding flats have turned out in force to show their appreciation for president Ahmadinejad, for what he has provided and for what his presence here, less than five kilometers from Israel, represents. “In 2006 Israel tried for 33 days to break Bint Jbeil. They tried to destroy our town,” says a 35-year old electrician, declining to be named. “This place is very important for Israel. They could not take the town because everyone in Lebanon joined forces to repel them. That’s why Nejad has come to us today.”

The Guardian: Hezbollah gives Ahmadinejad a hero's welcome in southern Lebanon.

Cheney apparently never personally apologized; Whittington kept bloodstained vest to warn children about firearms safety; Conservative media watchdog complains Washington Post published article to hurt Republicans in polls.

"And with all the speculation that various hunting protocol may have been breached by Cheney, a man that was misrepresented as Whittington's 'old friend' and 'hunting buddy' -- the two had met only a few times -- the only thing that the Texas attorney is left with is a good story and a blood-spattered memento of his ill-fated hunting trip with the Vice President."

The row over the expulsion of Roma this summer prompted Brussels to give France an Oct. 15 deadline to incorporate European law on migration or face legal proceedings. With days to go Paris is complying with the demand.

France is moving to adapt its immigration rules just days before an EU ultimatum runs out that could have dragged Paris before the courts over its controversial expulsion of Roma people.

French Immigration Minister Eric Besson announced this week that the government would be drawing up appropriate legislation this week that would ensure that France was correctly incorporating the EU's 2004 regulations on the freedom of movement into its national legislation. He said the law would go before parliament by December or January.

At the end of July President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a controversial speech that raised the ire of Brussels. He announced that his government would be taking a tougher line on crime and specifically, that he could not accept the presence of illegal encampments of Roma people in France. The authorities have since cleared over 50 camps and repatriated over 1,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria, either forcibly or after paying them to leave. According to French immigration rules, people from the two new EU states need work or residency permits if they wish to stay in the country longer than three months. What appeared to be the targeting of a specific ethnic group for expulsion raised a diplomatic storm and France came in for tough criticism, particularly from the European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who compared the deportations to those during World War II.

AWIP: The persecution of Roma—under the Nazis and today