"NYPD officers shot and killed a man with a large knife who they were chasing near Times Square Saturday afternoon. Police said the man, who they observed smoking marijuana, became belligerent when officers approached him. He was shot dead after he threatened officers with the knife, police said. The man had no identifcation on him, officials said. No officers were injured in the incident, which took place over a number of blocks and ended with the shooting at 38th Street and 7th Avenue, an area generally crowded with pedestrians. Witnesses to the shooting described a chaotic scene in Midtown." - NBC 4 News

Monitors are meant to watch for suspicious passengers, but agents at Logan airport say co-workers unfairly target minorities. - An initiative to flag potential terrorist threats at an Boston airport has led to to widespread racial profiling of passengers, it was reported Sunday. A report by the New York Times found that more than 30 federal officers involved in the "behaviour detection" programme at Logan International Airport said that the operation targets black and Hispanic people as well as those of a Middle Eastern appearance. The claims will come as an embarrassment to air security chiefs, who had been touting the initiative as a model for transport hubs across the US. It also comes at time when the Obama administration has attacked the use of racial profiling by law enforcement authorities in Arizona and elsewhere. The programme was brought in to allow officers to stop, search and question passengers deemed to be acting "suspiciously".

New York Times: Racial Profiling Rife at Airport, U.S. Officers Say

Ryan has been meeting with top neocons and blindly supports the violent US Empire. - Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has chosen Rep. Paul Ryan to run for his Vice President slot and although Ryan has built an unearned reputation as a deficit hawk, the pick has also pleased foreign policy hawks. Rep. Paul Ryan made a name for himself as the chairman of the House Budget Committee as someone willing to put forth deep cuts in government spending. Last year he authored a spending bill that was advertised as slashing $38 billion in government spending, even though the Congressional Budget Office found he would actually only cut $325 million overall, which is which is inconsequential enough to the overall budget for it to have not happened at all.

Raw Story: Cheney on Ryan: ‘I can’t think of a better choice’ for VP
The Richmonder: Ryan has an insider trading problem
Michael Rectenwald: The Ryan Choice
Patrick Martin: Ryan pick marks further shift to the right in US presidential campaign
Justin Raimondo: The Marketing of Paul Ryan - Romney's 'libertarian' running mate is anything but

A horrific amateur video appeared on YouTube, apparently showing an atrocity against public service workers in Syria. The footage displays a crowd of people callously throwing the bodies of slain postal workers from a post office rooftop.

The video, the source of which could not be independently verified, shows several dozen people having surrounded the staircase of the building, some of them chanting “Allahu Akbar!” They watch corpses being thrown out and rolled down the steps. Also, several people have got to the roof and are throwing down the apparently dead bodies of post servants. As they hit the ground, the crowd rushes in to catch the appalling images on their mobile phones.

The video caused online outrage and heated debates on Twitter as to who the people committing the atrocity might be. The majority allege they are Free Syrian Army supporters who intentionally target civil servants backing the regime. RT’s correspondent on the ground Oksana Boyko reports that around one-and-a-half million of the country's civil employees have now become targets. Doctors, teachers and municipal workers risk kidnapping or assassination for simply doing their jobs. "Documents confirm Syria's armed opposition has a hit list with scientists, engineers, doctors and civil servants on it,” Ammar Safi, a plastic surgeon from Damascus, told RT. His brother, Faris Safi was one of Syria's most experienced civil pilots. US-educated, he logged more than 20,000 hours around the globe. He was coming home from the airport when gunmen attacked his car. Earlier in August another amateur video blew up the global network.

Netanyahu regime 'leaks' phone conversation with UN's Ban Ki Moon to shame him over decision to attend Non-Aligned Movement Conference (NAM) in Tehran, Iran. Pulls "antisemitic" card. - Haaretz in their report titled, "UN chief angered over Netanyahu's 'leak' of private talk on Iran, sources say," claims, "United Nations Secretary General Ben Ki-moon has been angered over what he considered to be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "leaking" of the contents of a phone conversation between the two regarding the UN chief's planned visit to Tehran." During the alleged phone conversation, Netanyahu expressed "disappointment" that Ban Ki Moon would be attending the conference claiming he, "saw no reason to visit a country whose government is anti-Semitic and openly declares its intention to destroy Israel." It is claimed Netanyahu also mentioned Teheran's alleged statements about "annihilating the Zionist entity." Haaretz did not clarify that the statement Netanyahu is referring was both translated incorrectly and taken purposefully out of context. Haaretz also fails to mention that accusations against Iran of being "anti-Semitic" are ludicrous at face value, as the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabs being Semites) is one of Iran's closest allies, while the largest population of Jews in the Muslim World resides peacefully in Iran.

PressTVGlobalNews: Tehran Conference belies US Syria claims: Webster Tarpley - VIDEO

An American guided missile destroyer has collided with a Japanese-owned bulk oil tanker near the entrance to the Persian Gulf. - "No one was hurt Sunday morning when a US Navy guided missile destroyer and a large Japanese-owned merchant vessel collided near the Strait of Hormuz," the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet confirmed in a statement. Photos showed a breach about 10 feet by 10 feet (three by three meters) in the hull of the USS Porter. The destroyer USS Porter was on a scheduled deployment to the Fifth Fleet when the incident occurred at approximately 01:00 a.m., it added. Despite the damage caused to the destroyer, it is "able to operate under its own power," the Fifth Fleet said, adding that the collision "was not combat-related." The Navy has launched an investigation to find the cause of the incident. There were no reports of spills or leakages from either the destroyer or the Japanese tanker MV Otowasan, it added.

Reuters/Yahoo: Strait of Hormuz open after tanker, U.S. navy ship collide

Venezuela is training a "guerrilla army" aiming to be a million strong by 2013 to fight off a possible US invasion, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday. - "Plan Sucre" -- apparently crafted with input from close ally and fellow US foe Cuba -- covers the legal, logistical and other angles necessary to "transform a professional army into a guerrilla army," Representative Maria Corina Machado told El Universal newspaper. The former presidential candidate said she had obtained a copy of the plan, printed by an institution affiliated with the national army.

"The strategic objective is to build a new Bolivarian military doctrine" that would prepare Venezuela to be successful in a prolonged popular war against "the empire," or the United States, Machado said, citing the document. "This is clearly a proposal with Cuban inspiration and advice."

She said the military plan also provides for strengthening the guerrilla force at the expense of the regular army. The plan calls for "strengthening the territorial militias, in order to ensure the necessary strength for the overall defense of the nation, targeting recruitment levels of one million by 2013 and two million by 2019," Machado said, citing the document.

This video was linked to in the article I posted yesterday by Justin Raimondo, but it is so opprobrious and defamatory in and of its own right, I thought I would highlight it and do an entire post around it—for what you’re about to watch is one of the most despicable performances by a mainstream media reporter I have seen in a long time.

In his article, Raimondo discussed how Syrian Christians currently are suffering what could only be described as a “pogrom.” That pogrom is being carried out by NATO’s death squads. The mainstream media have of course been giving coverage to the Syrian conflict, loads and loads of it, but in their version of events, the death squads are freedom fighters. I myself have documented how the media’s lies and distortions have reached almost unprecedented levels since the Syrian conflict began. We have literally seen reality turned upside down. I don’t know the name of the reporter in this video, but he apparently works for Sky News. Now consider the gravity of the sacrilege: here is a man drawing a paycheck from Rupert Murdoch speaking to a member of the very community of people under attack—and calling her a liar. “Do you know that there will be some people watching this who think you’re lying?” he says to her. When a journalist asks a question like that it is pretty much tantamount to calling the person a liar.

Quite interesting—is it not?—that he would disparage her in this manner just after she has finished discussing what she refers to as the “disequilibrium” in the media’s coverage of the conflict. She tells him that a total of 80,000 Christians, from two different areas, have been displaced, but points out that this seems to have made no impression on Western journalists covering the situation. And it seems to make no impression on him either. Perhaps he thought she was lying.

In the YouTube description of the video, the nun is identified as Mother Agnes Mariam De Le Croix.

Iran's Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid Dastjerdi said the recent twin quakes in Northwestern Iran have killed 306 people and injured 3037. - "The total number of those killed in the recent quakes in the East Azerbaijan province stood at 306," Dastjerdi told the Iranian lawmakers in an open session of the parliament here in Tehran on Monday. She said a number of 3037 people have also been injured by the quakes, adding that 116 aftershocks have been registered in the area in the last few days. An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale jolted Ahar in East Azerbaijan province at 16:00 hours local time (1130GMT) Saturday. The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 46.8 degrees in longitude and 38.4 degrees in latitude. Almost an hour later another quake with magnitude 6 on the Richter scale jolted Varzaqan at 17:04 hours local time (1234GMT) in the same province. The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 46.7 degrees in longitude and 38.4 degrees in latitude. Also, head of Iran's Red Crescent Society Abolhassan Faqih said the two quakes "have damaged 230 villages in Varzaqan, Haris and Ahar regions from 70 to 100 percent".

Russia Today: Over 300 dead, at least 3,000 injured after 2 quakes strike Iran - VIDEO
New York Times: At Least 300 Dead in Iran Earthquakes