Obama continues to support the brutal Bahraini dictatorship, valuing ruthless control of the Persian Gulf over democracy. - The US-backed dictatorship in Bahrain has banned all rallies and protests in the country, the latest repressive measure imposed on the population in response to persistent pro-democracy protests that have not let up for almost two years now. Lt. Gen. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s interior minister, issued a statement on Monday essentially announcing that freedom of expression in Bahrain is a threat to the state and inserting lies about the pro-reform movement’s ties with “extremism.” The Obama administration, contrary to its own propaganda about being on the side of the people in the Arab Spring, has continued to lend economic, military, and diplomatic support to the tiny Persian Gulf monarch throughout its brutal repression of peaceful demonstrators since early 2011, when forty-seven unarmed protesters were shot and killed with live rounds by security forces. Banning all protests and demonstration is a dramatic violation of basic rights, but it is only one aspect of the repressive, martial-law type responses from the US-supported dictatorship. Others have included systematic torture, beatings, weaponizing tear gas, imposing curfews, harassing well-known activists, show trials and detentions, and cracking down on press freedoms, among many others.

There's A Huge Plan In The Works To Give The UN Control Of The Internet. - When delegates gather in Dubai in December for an obscure UN agency meeting, fighting is expected to be intense over proposals to rewrite global telecom rules to effectively give the United Nations control over the Internet. Russia, China and other countries back a move to place the Internet under the authority of the International Telecommunications Union, a UN agency that sets technical standards for global phone calls. U.S. officials say placing the Internet under U.N. control would undermine the freewheeling nature of cyberspace, which promotes open commerce and free expression, and could give a green light for some countries to crack down on dissidents. Observers say a number of authoritarian states will back the move, and that the major Western nations will oppose it, meaning the developing world could make a difference.

For decades, almost half of Germany's gold has been stored deep below the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Now, with the euro crisis swirling, German politicians are asking their central bankers to take stock of the reserves. Some even say that the gold should be shipped home.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds 1,536 metric tons of German gold, nearly half of Berlin's reserves. This enormous hoard of gold is stored in the fifth subfloor of the bank's building on Liberty Street, 25 meters (80 feet) below street level, and 15 meters below sea level. Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann wanted to personally convince Peter Gauweiler that the German gold was still where it should be. Early this summer, the head of Germany's central bank took the obstinate politician from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), a party that is a member of the government coalition in Berlin, and a number of his colleagues into the Bundesbank's inner sanctum: the gold vault. But even this personal inspection wasn't enough to reassure the visiting member of parliament -- on the contrary: "The Bundesbank monitors its domestic gold in an exemplary fashion," Gauweiler says, "and this makes it all the more incomprehensible that the bank doesn't look after its reserves abroad." For quite some time now, Gauweiler has been pestering the government and the Bundesbank with questions concerning where and how the country's reserves are stored, and how often they are checked. He has submitted requests and commissioned reports on the topic. Last week, Gauweiler celebrated his greatest triumph to date in his gold campaign, which has been a source of some amusement for many fellow German politicians: A secret report by the Federal Audit Office had been made public -- and it contained stern criticism of the German central bank in Frankfurt. The Bonn-based auditors urged a better inventory system, including quality checks. This demand, which even the bank's inspectors saw as nothing more than routine, alarmed the Berlin political establishment. Indeed, the partially blacked-out report read like the prologue to an espionage thriller in which the stunned central bankers could end up standing in front of empty vaults in the US.

War on Iran would destabilize the region, harming the interests of Arab regimes and worsening the lot of Arab populations. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to convince Arab states that an Israeli military strike on Iran would benefit their interests and that “a feeling of relief would spread across the region” immediately following an attack. After failing to pressure the Obama administration to back a preventive Israeli strike on Iran before the US presidential elections, Netanyahu has continued to make veiled threats of war catered for different audiences. In an interview with a French magazine, Netanyahu pushed back against the claim that an Israeli strike on Iran would destabilize the region and worsen tensions.

Iraq's air force has found out Israeli company RADA has planted information recording systems in its F-16 fighters recently purchased from the American Lockheed Martin Company, a media report said. - The Iraqi air force in a letter to Lockheed Martin Company (the manufacturer of F16 aircraft) has questioned the company about the installation of RADA information systems onboard its F16 aircraft, Akhbar Al-Khaleej quoted Iraqi air force officials as saying. The F16 fighters purchased by Egypt, Turkey, Oman, and Iraq have also information systems manufactured by Israeli RADA Company, it cited the Iraqi air force letter as saying. Iraq signed a new contract in June to buy its second set of 18 F-16 fighters from the United States as part of a deal to purchase 36 of the jets to rebuild its air force. Baghdad signed an initial deal for the first set of 18 jets in September 2011 valued at $3bln.

The so-called 99 per cent have come together in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, with Occupy Wall Street using its grassroots strength to organize relief efforts and help those worst effected by the storm.

Some 750,000 New Yorkers are still without power and at least 18 have been killed, as large swaths of New York City remain underwater. Starting in the Lower East side and moving through New York's five boroughs, OWS volunteers have teamed up with international environmental organization 350.org and people-powered disaster aid group recovers.org, to help bring together those in need with those wishing to aid the relief effort. With social media as their beacon, OWS is using the limitless organizational power of the web to make a real impact on the ground with the help of local churches and city agencies. Occupy asked those wishing to get involved to tweet using the hashtag #SandyVolunteer and for those who need help to tweet using the hashtag #SandyAid. They have also set up a Facebook page to help coordinate logistical efforts.

ConnectMidMissouri: Could Hurricane Sandy delay the election?
Russia Today: Nowhere to run: Homeless battle elements as Superstorm Sandy hits
Hurricane hammers NY: 10 dead, houses destroyed by fire, freak floods in subway - PHOTOS

No doubt about it, David Barboza of the New York Times has achieved a journalistic coup. His deep dive into the financial wherewithal of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s family exposed a total net worth of a staggering $2.7 billion. Other journalists, of course, have investigated the family holdings of Chinese leaders: a team of Bloomberg reporters broke the secrecy barrier with reports on the wealth of Bo Xilai’s family, and last June published an in-depth look into the burgeoning financial holdings—almost $400 million—of soon-to-be Chinese President Xi Jinping’s extended family. Frankly, anyone who spends much time in China knows about the oligarchic nature of the Chinese elite, but the extent and distribution of the Wen family wealth is eye-opening. The implications of the NYT article, moreover, go well beyond simply another story about the ability of another Chinese leader’s family to profit from political connections. The piece has the potential to significantly influence the broader near-term Chinese political landscape in a couple of respects.

A political expert says the European Union’s decision to block Iranian broadcasting is essentially a declaration of war against the Islamic Republic, Press TV reports. - “They want to silence Press TV and they want to silence any voice from Iran,” Ralph Schoenman, a political commentator from Berkeley, told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “We have to understand that this is part of essentially a declaration of economic and overall war against the population and the nation of Iran by the American imperialism and by the NATO countries,” Schoenman stated. The expert referred to a recent debate between US presidential hopefuls, where incumbent President Barack Obama bragged about his administration’s unprecedented restrictions against Iran while his Republican rival Mitt Romney called for yet tougher sanctions.

[General Strike: I Will Not Pay Until The Overthrow
(of The Current Regime)] (Photo: E. Theodoropoulos)

The General Confederation of Greek Workers and the Greek Civil Servants’ Confederation have organized a demonstration and march on Wednesday in central Athens against austerity measures, particularly in the areas of health care and education.

The Greek public water company is waging a class war against renters and working on behalf of landowners. This company has an obligation to protect the public interest, yet in the last 6 months has proven that they have no regard for the fact that water is a human right. As reported in a previous post, upon the landlord’s request, the Greek water company terminated water service to a flat where a family of six resides, showing that they consider renters second-class citizens. The water company is waging a class war on consumers who rent. This important issue illustrates how Greek society behaves. The said family of six have spent five days without water and still have no water, even after paying money they owed to the water company. The water company is punishing renters and supporting vindictive landlords.

Russia Today: Greek journalists go on strike, alleging state censorship
Stephen Lendman: Greek Whistleblower/Journalist Risks Imprisonment

On October 30, British sociologists with London’s Legatum Institute revealed their annual prosperity index featuring the world’s ten happiest nations among 144 developed countries. The raking was determined by eight key factors: economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, health, safety, personal freedom and social capital. The biggest shock was the US dropped out of Top Ten, landing only 12th, an astonishing result the researchers attributed to staggering economic growth and rocketing foreign debt. The country of fjords, Norway landed atop the chart thank to the world’s highest social security and safety.

The Telegraph: The 10 most prosperous countries in the world – in pictures - Legatum recently published its 2010 Prosperity Index, which ranks 110 countries – covering 90pc of the world's population. Each nation was evaluated according to 89 variables sorted into eight subsections: economy, entrepreneurship, governance, education, health, safety, personal freedom and social capital. The UK ranked 13th.