Widespread flooding that killed at least 23 people, battered a million others and paralyzed the Philippine capital briefly eased on Wednesday, allowing rescuers on rubber boats to reach a large number of distressed residents still marooned in submerged villages.

Manila was drenched with more than half of a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours starting Monday. A typhoon in eastern China that has helped intensify the southwest monsoon in the Philippines blew further into the Chinese mainland, prompting Filipino forecasters to predict better weather the rest of the week. Government forecasters said the monsoon rains that overflowed major dams and rivers crisscrossing Manila and surrounding provinces would gradually abate and lead to sunny weather later this week after 12 days of relentless downpours. The deluge that began late Sunday was the worst since 2009, when hundreds died in rampaging flash floods.

“We’re still on a rescue mode,” said Benito Ramos, who heads the government’s main disaster—response agency. “Floods are receding in many areas but people are still trapped on their roofs.”

Ramos said the massive flooding turned half of Manila into “a water world” on Monday evening and into Tuesday. At least 23 died, including nine in a landslide in a hillside slum in suburban Quezon City and several others who drowned in outlying provinces. More than 1.2 million people were affected by the deluge, including 783,000 who fled from their inundated homes. With the receding floodwaters, some of the displaced have started returning to their homes but others stayed put despite the hard conditions in emergency shelters as rain clouds again darkened the sky Wednesday afternoon.

Chicago Tribune: Philippines rushes aid as more rains pound Manila

Clinton Hypocritically Warns Against Supporting Proxies in Syria. - Aiding proxies and terrorists to fight in Syria is precisely what the US has done and is doing. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned against the conflict in Syria descending into sectarian warfare because of “proxies or terrorist fighters” being sent to join the fight, forgetting that this is actually US policy.

“We have to send very clear expectations about avoiding sectarian warfare. Those who are attempting to exploit the situation by sending in proxies or terrorist fighters must realize that will not be tolerated,” Clinton said.

But Washington has been using proxy rebel militias, many of whom have ties to terrorist groups, to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad for months now. So what she really meant was that no one other than the US or its allies better send proxies to fight in Syria.

Ynet News: Russian general denies reports he was killed by FSA ;-) Russian General Vladimir Petrovich Kojye denied reports he was killed by Syrian rebels on Wednesday. "I wish to confirm that I am live and well," he told reporters in Moscow. He did not mention when he last visited Damascus.

The Israeli spy chief says Tel Aviv supports regime change in Syria, amid ongoing efforts by the anti-Syria governments to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

“I hope it (regime change in Syria) will happen, even though I don’t know when or how,” Dan Meridor, who also serves as the deputy prime minister of the Tel Aviv regime, said on Tuesday. He also expressed “hope” that the “new Syria will understand that joining Iran is a mistake that brings isolation from the Western world.”

The latest remarks by the Israeli official come as anti-Syria Western regimes along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have been supporting insurgents inside Syria.

PressTV: Insurgents in Aleppo likely received WMDs

Fighting continued yesterday in the escalating US proxy war in Syria, as Western-backed militias hostile to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fought Syrian Army forces in the northern city of Aleppo, near the Turkish border.

Western journalists reporting with the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) said that Syrian Army forces in Aleppo were bombarding the main city districts held by the “rebel” forces every 5 minutes. Syrian tank units southwest of Aleppo were reported to be shelling the Sunni-majority Salaheddin neighborhood and the nearby Seif al-Dawla district. There were also reports of clashes in the Hanano, Hamdaniyeh, and Al Bab neighborhoods in northeastern Aleppo. Reporting from Aleppo, CNN correspondent Ben Wedeman said that people were going about their daily business in much of the rest of the city, however. Aleppo, Syria’s commercial capital and the largest city in northern Syria, is emerging as a critical battleground in the US-led war to overthrow Assad.

The government security contractor formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide has admitted to the key facts behind 17 federal criminal charges, including illegal exports and unauthorized possession of automatic weapons, as part of an effort to end a long-running investigation into the firm's conduct. Blackwater, now known as Academi LLC, agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine on top of a $42 million settlement it reached earlier regarding civil arms export violations.

Side note: four former Blackwater security guards in Iraq are still facing prosecution in connection with the killing of 14 Iraqis in 2007. A district court judge threw out the case, but an appeals court revived it. In June, the Supreme Court refused to take the case, at least for now, leaving the four ex-Blackwater guards facing a trial.

US drones have launched multiple attacks today across Yemen, according to that nation’s state media, with the strikes killing 10 people all of whom were identified as “al-Qaeda” militants [CIA] in the report. - The strikes targeted several vehicles in the Bayda and Hadramut Provinces, and the media report claimed that Abdullah Awad al-Masri, a top bomb-maker for "al-Qaeda" [CIA] in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was reported slain in Bayda. It is the second flurry of drone attacks over the past few days, as a weekend strike against Hadramut Province also killed five people who were reportedly AQAP members, though none of them have ever been named.

Today on this live Sunday edition, guest hosts and Infowars crew members Aaron Dykes and Rob Dew take on the open hypocrisy of Western forces admittedly allying with, aiding, arming and otherwise cheering on al Qaeda in the attempt to topple Assad's regime in Syria, while destabilizing Iran and other opponents in the region. Then, Alex Jones joins by phone with breaking news about attempts to bring martial law to Texas, and further merge military and police in violation of Posse Comitatus, this time against the supposed threat of IEDs and roadside bombs in the homeland. It's all part of the Orwellian attempt to flip the script on terrorism and occupy America, demonizing its patriots as domestic terrorists and hardening the total takeover.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that new intelligence information indicates “Iran has made greater progress on developing components for its nuclear weapons program than the West had previously realized,” although it offered almost no evidence for this anonymous claim. - These are old accusations that have already been discounted. Similarly anonymous sources – from Israel and some other unnamed country or countries – were published in the press months ago. As Inter-Press Service’s Gareth Porter reported in March, the photographs lack credibility, were unconvincing to at least four of six diplomatic sources sought out by the Associated Press, and were not conducive to US intelligence. The current US assessment, according to the most recent National Intelligence Estimate, is that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and has not restarted it.

Activists threaten legal action over failure to investigate. - Thousands of UK Workers 'Blacklisted' Over Political Views. Corporations in the UK used a secret "blacklisting" database to screen out ‘left wing trouble-makers’ and union sympathizers as potential job recruits. Corporations in the UK who used a secret "blacklisting" database to screen out ‘left wing trouble-makers’ and union sympathizers as potential job recruits are facing renewed scrutiny after the UK-activist group Liberty called for a fresh investigation Monday night. The blacklist scandal first broke in 2008, when the UK media revealed that more than 40 leading employers had subscribed to the vetting service provided by The Consulting Association, which had surveillance files on more than 3,200 workers, including political activists, shop stewards and health and safety representatives. Police seized the database three years ago and Ian Kerr, the founder of The Consulting Association, was fined only about $7,500. Invoices were discovered showing that 44 companies had paid to access the names on the list. But full details of the material it contained only emerged as workers began to pursue legal action over their inclusion.

German police have arrested a NATO employee who worked at an American air base for allegedly copying classified NATO information and stealing "state secrets," a German prosecutor's office announced today. The suspect, identified only as Manfred K., 60, is accused of having copied classified data he accessed through his civilian position with NATO at Ramstein Air Base "with the intention of passing the obtained data on to unauthorized third parties," according to a translation of the German prosecutor's statement by Agence France Presse.

CIA Rapped for Vietnam Soldier Record Delays - A federal judge has rejected a bid from the CIA to end a nine-year battle over secret records about soldiers in the Vietnam War who were labeled prisoners of war or missing in action. Roger Hall, Studies Solutions Results Inc. and Accuracy in Media filed suit in 2004 after not getting a response from the government about their request for documents relating to the POWs and MIAs a year earlier. Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the CIA in 2009 to divulge all nonexempt records, to search its database for 1,700 names, and to explain its reasons for nondisclosure. But the CIA said it would look for just 31 of the files because it felt that searching for 1,700 names without additional identifying information would be unduly burdensome. Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found the argument unpersuasive on Friday.

In world's 1st commercial deep-sea mining project, Canadian firm will mine for gold & copper in Papua New Guinea's seabed, despite vehement objections over threat to marine life - Nautilus Minerals has been granted a 20-yr license.

A "new frontier" in mining is set to be opened up by the underwater extraction of resources from the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea, despite vehement objections from environmentalists and local activists. Canadian firm Nautilus Minerals has been granted a 20-year licence by the PNG government to commence the Solwara 1 project, the world's first commercial deep sea mining operation. Nautilus will mine an area 1.6km beneath the Bismarck Sea, 50km off the coast of the PNG island of New Britain. The ore extracted contains high-grade copper and gold. The project is being carefully watched by other mining companies keen to exploit opportunities beneath the waves.

The Deep Sea Mining (DSM) campaign, a coalition of groups opposing the PNG drilling, estimates that 1 million sq km of sea floor in the Asia-Pacific region is under exploration licence. Nautilus alone has around 524,000 sq km under licence, or pending licence, in PNG, Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji. "PNG is the guinea pig for deep-sea mining," says Helen Rosenbaum, the campaign's co-ordinator. "The mining companies are waiting in the wings ready to pile in. It's a new frontier, which is a worrying development.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the US government is immune to wireless wiretapping lawsuits in a decision that the plaintiff’s attorney says releases Washington and the White House from ever being held accountable for spying on citizens. - A three-judge panel serving the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California canceled an attempt from the attorney representing the now-defunct al-Haramain Islamic Foundation to hold the federal government accountable for wiretapping his clients without a warrant, despite previously winning a federal case on the argument that the interception of phone records occurred illegally.

Russia Today: Obama fights ban on indefinite detention of Americans

A federal appeals court issued a ruling this week that could embolden authorities in Tampa and Charlotte to keep a tighter rein on protests at the upcoming Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that it was constitutional to limit demonstrations at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York to areas where they may not have been seen or heard by many convention attendees. "We conclude that the restriction on speech was a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction," Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote, in an opinion joined by Judges Pierre Leval and Debra Livingston.