NATO foreign ministers are expected to discuss Turkey’s request for the deployment of Patriot missiles along its border with Syria. - Before announcing their approval during a meeting in the Belgian capital Brussels on Tuesday, the ministers are to hold a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov is expected to reaffirm Moscow’s opposition to foreign intervention in Syria. Last month, the Russian foreign minister said the move by Turkey could spark regional conflagration and an armed conflict involving NATO as well. According to Turkish sources, NATO launched a new military base in the country’s western province of Izmir earlier this week.

Russia Today: US Senate vote pushes for Pentagon military action in Syria
Global Research/Russia Today: Chemical Hype Behind Patriot Games on Syria Border - VIDEO

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined US President Barack Obama in the psychological war on Damascus, claiming that the Syrian government might use chemical weapons. - Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Tel Aviv regime would monitor the ‘potential use of chemical weapons’ in Syria. On Monday, Obama said in reference to the Syrian government, “The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.” Damascus strongly dismissed the US allegations.

PressTV: Russia rebuffs West’s claims on Syrian WMDs
Russia Today: Israel rejects UN call for nuclear transparency
Tony Cartalucci: US Repeats Syrian Chemical Weapons "Warnings"

A Syrian man moves his belongings from his damaged shop
in the Old City of Aleppo, November 12, 2012.

Images taken in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo show shop owners selling goods out on the streets due to the destruction of their stores by the militants fighting the country’s government.

The militants, mostly foreign nationals, damage and loot the shops. Reports say they also rob wheat and sell it in Turkey. Moreover, bread and fuel have become extremely expensive in Aleppo over the past few months as the fighting has damaged the city’s economy. On September 29, a massive fire destroyed hundreds of shops in a medieval marketplace in the Old City of Aleppo, which has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. The fire started during heavy fighting between the militants and the Syrian troops. The Old City of Aleppo was placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1986 in recognition of its “rare and authentic Arab architectural styles.” Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil. The Syrian government says certain Western states, especially the United States, and their regional allies are fueling the turmoil. Damascus says a very large number of the militants operating in Syria are foreign nationals.

Iran has vowed to take legal action against the United States at international courts for violating the Islamic Republic’s airspace over the Persian Gulf. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that the US ScanEagle drone, which had been captured by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) upon entering the country’s airspace over Persian Gulf waters, would be used as evidence against the US at international courts, IRNA reported.

PressTV: Captured US drone data extracted
Jason Ditz: US Denies Drone Capture, But Iran Has Pictures
The Independent: Four-foot long, launched by catapult, shot down by Iran

Israel has rebuffed a UN call to adhere to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and open itself to international inspectors, calling the suggestion a "meaningless mechanical vote" of a body that “lost all its credibility regarding Israel.” - In a 174-6 vote, the United Nations General Assembly demanded in a non-binding call that Tel Aviv join the NPT “without further delay," in an effort to create a legally binding nuclear-free Middle East. Washington, Israel's strongest ally, surprised no one by voting against the resolution – but did approve two paragraphs that were voted on separately, which called for universal adherence to the NPT and for all non-signatory governments to join. Israel is not a signatory to the 1970 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, the main objective of which is to is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. Despite near-universal acknowledgement that Tel Aviv maintains a powerful nuclear arsenal, Israeli officials promote a position claiming their government will “not be the first country to introduce weapons into the Middle East.” The Middle East's only democracy possesses as many as 400 nuclear warheads, along with various ways to deliver them. It is also one of four countries known to have nuclear weapons that are not recognized as Nuclear Weapons States by the NPT. The others are India, North Korea and Pakistan.

PressTV: Israel joins US in false claim on Syria ‘WMDs’
Antiwar.com: UN Calls on Israel to Open Nuclear Program to Inspections

The Palestinian Authority says it will use the new UN status for Palestine to sue Israel at the International Criminal Court if the Tel Aviv regime goes ahead with a new plan to expand illegal settlements in the occupied territories. Nabil Sha’at, a senior member of the Palestinian Authority, said on Tuesday that Palestinians would file a complaint at the ICC if the Israeli regime sticks to its recent plan to build thousands more settler units in East al-Quds and the West Bank, including in the controversial E1 area.

“By continuing these war crimes of settlement activities on our lands and stealing our money, Israel is pushing and forcing us to go to the ICC,” Sha’at said.

Stephen Lendman: Israel Gives Chutzpah New Meaning
Jason Ditz: Insists No One Really Objects to the Settlements

Rotten judge: Robert Beaudoin

In a ruling that rewrites the law for disqualifying judges for apprehension of bias, a judge of the Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa has cleared his colleague of an allegation of conflict of interest.

Justice Robert Beaudoin did nothing wrong by hearing a case involving the University of Ottawa even though he has a financial agreement with the university and has family connections with the law firm representing the university. That is the conclusion of the decision released by Justice Annis last week. The University of Ottawa is an intervener and sponsors the plaintiff’s legal costs in the private defamation suit (St. Lewis v. Rancourt) that Justice Beaudoin heard earlier this year. It was discovered only later that Justice Beaudoin created a scholarship in memory of his late son at the University of Ottawa and that Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG), which represents the university, named a boardroom in honour of the judge’s son, who was a lawyer with the firm until his death. Justice Annis, who is himself a former partner of BLG and former part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, ruled that there could be no reasonable doubt about Justice Beaudoin’s appearance of impartiality in deciding if the university is improperly funding the plaintiff’s legal fees by using public funds.

Ottawa Citizen: Judge rejects ex-professor’s allegations of judicial bias in defamation suit

South Africa passes secrecy bill where journalists can get up to 25 years in jail for publishing "classified" information. - The "Secrecy Bill" has been described as the biggest affront to democracy since apartheid ended in 1994. Among its opponents are Desmond Tutu, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, business leaders, South African editors, civil society groups and artists including writer Nadine Gordimer. The bill's drafters claim that it is a necessary replacement for apartheid-era secrets legislation, and has cut the list of those who can classify information, as well as making it an offence to do so merely to avoid embarrassment or cover up wrongdoing. But they rejected calls for a public interest clause to be inserted, providing a defence for journalists who publish suppressed material exposing government wrongdoing or corruption. On the morning of the vote, a joint editorial in the country's largest newspapers heralded a South Africa's "day of reckoning for democracy."

"The spreading culture of self-enrichment, either corrupt, or merely inappropriate, makes scrutiny fuelled by whistle blowers who have the public interest at heart more essential than ever since 1994," the front page editorial said.

The number of American youth who are out of school and unemployed has hit a half-century record high, with 6.5 million teens and young adults staying at home without the skills required to find employment. - Americans aged 16 to 24 are increasingly leaving school and unable to find a job, causing the largest youth unemployment rate since World War II, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, titled “Youth and Work: Restoring Teen and Young Adult Connections to Opportunity”. Only half the youth in the 16 to 24 bracket held a job in 2011, after the unemployment rate for teens aged 16 to 19 fell 42 percent in the last decade and millions deprived themselves of an education. About 2.2 million teens and 4.3 million young adults aged 20 to 24 are currently neither in school nor working – and of these, 1.4 million are young parents themselves. In a struggling economy, many of the entry-level jobs that were previously held by teenagers are now filled by older workers. And without job experience at a young age, the unemployed and undereducated teenagers find it increasingly difficult to find one later one.

Russia Today: US becomes a country of 'downward mobility'

■ 'The Little Service' was made up of many former Gestapo and S.S. men as well as titled barons and counts
■ Kissinger even discussed with them the possibility of a coup to overthrow the government of Chancellor Willy Brandt
■ The Little Service which came into being in 1969 and ran for a decade
■ [It] was lavishly funded and with more success than state intelligence agencies which were riddled with East German moles

A German academic has unearthed evidence showing former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once discussed a coup with disgruntled Nazis to overthrow the West German government in the 1970s. Kissinger and Richard Nixon were aggrieved at the left-leaning government of the day's burgeoning friendship with the hardline East German government. Kissinger became the contact man for a secret spy network made up of old Nazis and elite aristocrats aimed at torpedoing the plans formulated by Chancellor Willy Brandt.