All the members of the UN Security Council, except the United States, have censured the Israeli regime over its plan to build new settler units, calling for an immediate halt to the illegal settlement activities. - India’s Ambassador to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said the 14 Council members expressed their opposition to Tel Aviv’s recent move in four separate statements on Wednesday. Washington was likely to foil the efforts to reach a solution on the issue using its veto power. In their joint statement, the European members of the Security Council, including Germany, the UK, France and Portugal, expressed concern over the Israeli regime’s decision for illegal construction in E1, which is a sensitive zone between East al-Quds and the West Bank and its expansion has been on Israel’s agenda since the 1990s. The European members stated that they “strongly oppose” the Israeli settlement plans.

AWIP: Israel to face new condemnation for settlements
PressTV: Israel faces growing intl. pressure over new settlement plans
John Glaser: US Alone in Blocking UN Resolution Opposing Israeli Settlements

The details of the deal being worked out by President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are in flux, but the bad news is that one element that seems to be all but decided is -- there's no other way to put it -- a benefit cut for Social Security.

The instrument of this egregious and totally unnecessary cut is the "chained" consumer price index, which will be replace the conventional CPI in adjusting Social Security benefits to inflation. The key point to note is that the chained CPI rises at a consistently slower level than its traditional cousin. I described this maneuver a year and a half ago as a ripoff of needy seniors. Nothing has changed since then. The difference between the chained index and the traditional version is cumulative, so that by the time the average retiree reaches 85, the cut amounts to $1,000 a year; by 95, the shortfall is nearly $1,400. Now the dimensions of the the theft become clear.

Stephen Lendman: Fiscal Cliff Doublespeak Duplicity
Paul Craig Roberts: The Fiscal Cliff Is A Diversion: The Derivatives Tsunami and the Dollar Bubble

An Iranian national has died in the United States two days after an intense five-hour interrogation at Washington Dulles International Airport. - Daryoush Sarreshteh, 73, and his wife arrived at Dulles International Airport returning from Tabriz, Iran, on the US election night on November 6 to see their daughter and granddaughter, the Washington Post reported. His wife was a US citizen and he also had a green card but had not been in the US in three years; the absence seemed to have aroused the suspicion of an officer at Customs and Border Protection at the airport and thus led to the questioning of the couple, the report said. According to Sarreshteh’s wife, the interrogation involved a great deal of shouting and intimidating in English, which neither of the two understood. The detention and interrogation lasted for more than five hours. His wife said that he emerged from the interview, just before midnight, pale and fearful. Two days later he suffered a sudden heart attack and died in his daughter’s home on November 8. His family believes that the harsh and forceful interrogation by the Customs officers killed him “because of the five hours of stress.” The Sarreshteh family is considering filing a lawsuit against Customs, their attorney Demetrios Pikrallidas said.

Washington Post: Iranian national Daryoush Sarreshteh, 73, dies two days after intense questioning at Dulles

The cyber world is abuzz with speculation about possible topics of an upcoming speech by the WikiLeaks founder. Julian Assange is due to appear on a low-level balcony of London’s Ecuadorian Embassy at 19:00GMT Thursday to deliver his Christmas speech.

Not much is known about the subject of Assange’s address, but he recently confirmed intentions to run as a candidate for the Australian Senate in 2013. Speculation is also rife that he will use the occasion to officially launch a WikiLeaks political party. WikiLeaks' Twitter has taken on a festive spirit ahead of the Australian’s public appearance, tweeting, “Julian Assange to give Xmas speech at Ecuador Embassy. Bring candles & come enjoy some mulled wine!” RT tried to catch some insight into what the address might cover by catching up with WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson.

RT: Should we be prepared for any major announcements tomorrow?
Kristinn Hrafnsson: I’m hesitant to give anything away. I do not want to take away the element of surprise. But he might be talking about his political ambitions in Australia in the coming election next spring. He might also talk about the recent development in our battle against the economic blockade where there was a very important development earlier this week.

RT: Julian Assange has been busy, as we've heard. Do you know what his aspirations are for the coming year?
KH: Let’s hope we see a solution into the current situation of…him being stuck in the embassy at the moment and there is a discussion between the Ecuadorian authorities, the UK Home Office and the Swedes to find a solution to the situation. And I’m confident that there will be solution in the next week and month, I mean, there has to be. We will continue our work as we have done, despite the difficult situation that Julian has been in, he’s been in the Ecuadorian embassy for six months now, but prior to that his house arrest did not stop us. We have continued our work. The economic blockade has not stopped us either, even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that is a battle that we had decided to turn into an all-out war and I’m sure we’ll have a victory there as well in the New Year.

Americans feeling their first wintry blast of the season on Wednesday could take some comfort from this: In Moscow it felt like 10 below – part of a week-long cold spell across Russia that has parts of Siberia feeling like 50 below. - Across Russia, the deep freeze killed at least 45 people over the last week, 21 on Tuesday alone, the English-language Moscow Times reported Wednesday. Nearly 270 people were hospitalized, more than half with frostbite. Russia's emergency ministry urged everyone in Moscow to stay indoors on Wednesday, while forecasters said the cold could get worse over the weekend.Siberia has been hardest hit, with cities like Novosibirsk dipping to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. With the wind chill, it felt like minus 47. The temperatures have been abnormally low for Russia at this time of year.

Indonesia has identified the bird flu virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of ducks over the past few weeks as a virulent type which is new to the country. - More than 300,000 ducks in several provinces on the island of Java have died since November, a poultry breeders’ association reported to the Indonesian Agriculture Ministry. In a letter to local government offices and the World Health Organization, the ministry’s veterinary chief Syukur Iwantoro explains that the newly identified viral strain of avian A/(H5N1), called a “clade,” is “very different to the avian influenza found before” in Indonesia. “We found a highly pathogenic avian influenza sub-type H5N1 with clade 2.3.2.,” Iwantoro wrote. Iwantoro recommended further research into whether the virus previously found in the country has mutated, or whether the new strain originated overseas. The new strain may have been introduced from outside Indonesia by migratory wild ducks or by poultry imports from other countries.