An American assassination drone strike has killed at least four people in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Kunar.

● 5 Afghans killed in US drone attacks
● 5 killed in US-led strikes in Afghanistan
● US-led airstrike kills six in Afghanistan
● US-led airstrike kills 16 Afghans
● US drone raid kills 5 in Afghanistan
● US terror drone kills 3 Afghan children

Under Obama, America more than ever is a global menace
● US assassination drone strikes kill 11 Afghans in 24 hours - Video

The UN nuclear agency crushed an effort of Arab states to rein in nuclear Israel, rejecting a non-binding resolution on Friday that would have compelled Israel to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and place its arsenal under International Atomic Energy Agency supervision. ● "Israel has once again become the exception to international norms to reduce the potential of nuclear war and reduce nuclear weapons," Deborah Agre from the Middle East Children's Alliance told Common Dreams. The "Israeli Nuclear Capabilities" measure, backed by Iran, was brought by a coalition of Arab states frustrated over the postponement of an international conference on creating a nuclear-free Middle East. The measure, which was vigorously opposed by the U.S., was voted down at the IAEA meeting, with 51 countries voting against and 43 in favor. The defeat of the resolution was broadly reported in the media as a triumph of the West over efforts to "single out" Israel. The backers of the resolution were publicly shamed by several Western powers, including the U.S. and Israel, for even bringing such a measure to the table. Israel is broadly known to be the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons and has been widely criticized for obstructing efforts to demilitarize the region.

Sen. Lindsey Graham says "Israel feels abandoned after Syria" war was rejected by U.S. public, hence has earned a blank check for U.S. war against Iran. ● After Graham repeated his intention to draft a use-of-force resolution, Huckabee stepped in to make sure everyone understood. "Lindsey, I want to clarify," Huckabee said. "You actually are going to seek sort of a pre-emptive approval to give the president a loaded weapon so that he feels the absolute freedom and support of a bipartisan Congress to take whatever action, including military, against Iran to prevent them from having nuclear weapons?" "That's exactly right," said Graham. Graham knows that Congress, particularly the House, was moving strongly against authorizing Obama to use force in Syria. And that was after a chemical weapons attack that clearly violated the president's "red line" in the Syrian civil war.

White House spokesman Jay Carney has talked about the possibility of a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York next week. "It's possible, but it has always been possible," Carney said at a press conference on Thursday. "The extended hand has been there from the moment the president was sworn in," Carney was quoted as saying by Reuters. The remarks were made two days after US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said that there were “currently no plans” for President Obama to meet with President Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Reuters: No time left for negotiations with Iran: Israeli minister
Common Dreams: Don't Be Fooled, Says Israel, Bomb Iran Instead
Jason Ditz: White House Lashes ‘Insufficient’ Iranian Peace Offers

The Iranian spokesperson said the Western countries’ “no” vote to the resolution against the Israeli regime showed they were continuing their double standards in dealing with weapons of mass destruction. ● “Excluding the Zionist regime from laws and regulations on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will have negative consequences for the process of curbing this international threat,” Afkham stated. She once again reiterated Iran’s “completely explicit and clear” stance on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the establishment of a Middle East region free of such arms. The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Friday expressed grave concern over Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal, saying it presents the greatest threat to the peace and security in the Middle East.

The bomb that nearly exploded over North Carolina
was 260 times more powerful than the US bomb which
devasted Hiroshima in 1945.

The US Air Force nearly detonated an atomic bomb over North Carolina that could have killed millions of people in the country, a secret document has revealed. ● On January 23, 1961, the US Air Force accidentally dropped two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs over Goldsboro, North Carolina. The bombs fell to earth after they became separated from a B-52 bomber, which went into a tailspin in mid-air, The Guardian reported based on a secret document obtained by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act. One of the bombs, which was designed to be used in warfare, acted exactly as a nuclear weapon when its parachute opened and its trigger mechanisms engaged. However, one low-voltage switch, which failed to flip, prevented millions of Americans from being killed.

BBC: US plane in 1961 'nuclear bomb near-miss'
Russia Today: US Air Force once dropped live hydrogen bomb on North Carolina - report
The Guardian: US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document

Arms control advocates are decrying a new U.S. Department of Defence announcement that it will be building and selling 1,300 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, worth some 641 million dollars. ● The munitions at the heart of the sale are technically legal under recently strengthened U.S. regulations aimed at reducing impact on civilian safety, but activists contend that battlefield evidence suggests the weapons actually exceed those regulations. Opponents say the move runs counter to a strengthening push to outlaw the use of cluster bombs around the world while also contradicting recent votes by both the U.S. and Saudi governments critical of the use of these munitions.

Venezuela accused the United States on Thursday of denying President Nicolas Maduro's plane permission to enter U.S. airspace -- a claim that a State Department official denied. ● Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said U.S. officials have blocked plans for Maduro's presidential plane to fly through Puerto Rican airspace on the way to China. He [correctly] described the move as an aggression and called for an explanation from the U.S. State Department.

Stephen Lendman: Rogue State America
Russia Today: US airspace denial for Maduro is payback for offering asylum to Snowden

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is reporting today that signal intelligence analysts (SIGNIT) monitoring CIA-NSA-FBI “encrypted electronic communication traffic” in the United States have linked the 16 September Washington Navy Yard Shooting with the Obama regimes 18 June assassination of award winning American journalist Michael Hastings, and the 25 June ambush on the Los Angles Police Department detectives investigating Hastings’s murder. Aaron Alexis, a lone gunman armed with a shotgun, fatally shot twelve people and injured three others in a mass shooting at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) inside the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast Washington, D.C. this past Monday, this report says. The attack occurred around 8:20 a.m. EDT, this report continues, in Building 197 with the shooter Alexis being subsequently killed by US local and Federal police forces after what has been described as a “running gun battle.”

McCain has been calling for intervention in Syria from the very beginning and has been the American mouthpiece for Israel.

Whenever there was a so called ‘Friends of Syria’ (enemies of Syria) meeting he would be there with the Saudis and the Qataris, the Turks and the French and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, planning on the next step to bring down the Syrian Government. These so called “Friends of Syria” meetings are nothing more than a gathering of leaders supporting Al Qaeda/FSA oppositions and the countries fueling the war in Syria, deciding what their next step will be. These enemy countries of Syria, who are supplying the terrorists with weapons and paying them a wage are now trying to hold another meeting. They are planning to hold it in Italy, but Italy does not want them in their country and are denying it. It is true that Senator McCain has been to visit his friends in Syria. He has been there on several occasions to support his FSA army. The very same army that has been butchering innocent Syrians. The same army which is made up of people from all over the world.

The Syrian war is deadlocked. That’s how the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil described the situation in his interview with the Guardian newspaper. Both the government and opposition are too exhausted to continue fight and the Assad regime may call for a ceasefire at the Geneva-2 conference. Sevim Dagdelen, a German MP and a member of the Left Party who has been following the Syrian crisis closely, talked with the Voice of Russia about the evolving crisis. US Secretary of State John Kerry claims that the US is sure that chemical attack was carried out by the Government forces. What evidence, besides the UN report, does the US provide to prove it?

These are evidences like ten years ago for the start of the Iraq war. And we know that all this was a lie. And this time the Secretary of State John Kerry and the US Government are threatening to attack Syria basing on the same ridiculous premises. There is no evidence at all.

Press TV: You know the United States says it is sure that the Syrian government carried out this chemical attack, Russia says the attack was falsified and now the UN says the attack site may have been manipulated. What really is happening here?
Escobar: Manipulation. In short that is what is happening. The Americans have been saying from the beginning they had 99 percent certainty based on Israeli Intel which was probably compromised from the start. This is the Intel that they have from Benny Gantz, the IDF [Chief of Staff] passed to General Martin Dempsey of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They stand by it. On the other hand we had independent analysts from all over. Even myself I wrote about this as well. The possibility of a false flag attack with kitchen sarin [gas] which was apprehended in Iraq by the Iraqi ministry of defense one month before the attack came the attack in Ghouta was transferred to Jabhat al-Nusra jihadists in Ghouta and it was probably a false flag operation.

This has not been investigated. How can the Americans, the French and the British say they have 99 percent certainty? It is absolutely impossible and this is part of a concerted effort by Washington along with Paris to derail the Geneva Agreement between Kerry and Lavrov even before it’s been implemented.

Divisive politics in the Palestinian territories has worsened living conditions for Gazans already living in an open prison.

Despite official withdrawal of Israeli forces in 2005, Gaza continues to be under a siege with economic, political and humanitarian repercussions . Aside from the closure policies of Israel, Gazans also lack basic constitutional rights to have a passport and mobility, not for tourist or entertainment purposes, but for vital access to education, health care and employment.

Ibrahim Dahman, Gaza national: “I was hit by Israeli shelling, directly and need medical care abroad… I received a phone call from Palestinian intelligence in Ramallah stating never dream of receiving a passport… I am now sending a message to President Abu Mazen, that I am a Palestinian national, my mom is Palestinian, my father is Palestinian, my grandfather is Palestinian and we are originally Canaanites. If we were not Palestinians, say Somalis, we’d send it to Somalia to apply for a Somali passport or Eritrean passport”. Ibrahim is only one of the tens of thousands of Palestinians that are denied a passport for alleged security reasons. Following the 2007 fighting between Hamas and Fatah, passports for Gazans started to be issued by the Palestinain Authority. Since then, a local service office prepares the file which must then be sent to Ramallah for final approval.

Occupied Palestine|فلسطين: Public health sector in Gaza faces disaster under tightened siege

Venezuela accused the United States on Thursday of denying President Nicolas Maduro's plane permission to enter U.S. airspace -- a claim that a State Department official denied. ● Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said U.S. officials have blocked plans for Maduro's presidential plane to fly through Puerto Rican airspace on the way to China. He [correctly] described the move as an aggression and called for an explanation from the U.S. State Department.

Stephen Lendman: Rogue State America

A report from Yahoo News Tuesday detailed a group of New York engineers who are developing a “biometric classroom” monitoring program that will track students every move. ● The report reads: “Students listen up! If you are used to passing notes, tapping out texts or even sneaking in quick conversations when you’re supposed to be working on fractions…beware! Those kinds of activities could be a thing of the past – or at the very least, closely monitored – in the biometric classroom of the future.” Sean Montgomery, co-founder and engineer for SensorStar Labs, says tracking students’ eye movements, conversations and smiles with “EngageSense” cameras will help teachers improve classroom learning. Algorithms in the program will crunch the raw visual and audio data to give teachers detailed information on students’ actions. Teachers will then be advised on how to better engage students. When asked about the privacy implications of such an intrusive technology, Montgomery defended the program by claiming that the usefulness somehow outweighed any privacy concern in typical “ends justify the means” fashion.