At least six people have been killed after US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan carried out separate airstrikes in the eastern part of the war-ravaged country during the past 24 hours, Press TV reports. ● Local officials said an unmanned aerial vehicle launched an airborne attack in the mountainous eastern province of Khost on Monday, leaving four people dead. Two other people lost their lives in a similar airstrike in the eastern province of Laghman earlier in the day. The US-led forces have recently increased their air raids against civilian areas in Afghanistan. On September 26, a drone attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar left at least six people, including two women, dead and a woman injured. Four people were also killed in a US drone strike in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar on September 23. [...] The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops.

PressTV: Two killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan

US-led coalition airstrikes destroyed grain silos and other targets in parts of northern and eastern Syria dominated by Islamic State, killing civilians while only wounding ISIS fighters, according to an organization monitoring war in Syria. ● The overnight bombings hit mills and grain storage facilities in Manbij, a militant-held town in northern Syria. Coalition forces possibly mistook the structures for Islamic State holdings, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday. The US military responded to the claims later Monday morning, according to Reuters, saying that Islamic State vehicles were adjacent to the grain storage facility, and that there is no evidence of civilian casualties. The United States and Arab allies have conducted airstrikes against Islamic State and other jihadist groups in Syria since last week, and in Iraq since last month. The stated goal of the coalition’s bombing campaign is to cripple Islamic State operations, including bases, combat forces, and supply lines. Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group that reportedly has as many as 30,000 fighters in the region, has come to control large areas of Syria and northern Iraq since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The group is also known as ISIS or ISIL. The destruction of grain silos in Manbij only killed civilians, said Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Observatory, which claims to have a network of sources throughout Syria. "These were the workers at the silos. They provide food for the people," he said Monday. Abdulrahman could not offer an exact casualty count. The airstrikes "destroyed the food that was stored there,” he added, according to AP. Neither Reuters nor AP could immediately verify his claims. The Britain-based Observatory was founded in 2006 and is chiefly opposed to President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria.

SANA: Al-Moallem: Any effort for combating terrorism should comply with international law ● VIDEO
RT.com: Nearly $1bn already spent on US military campaign against ISIS
PressTV: Obama’s ISIL strategy is against Assad govt.: Rodney Martin
Stephen Lendman ■ Obama's Phony War on Islamic State Militants
Glenn Greenwald & Murtaza Hussain ■ The Fake Terror Threat Used To Justify Bombing Syria

Unbearable hubris: In a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday evening, Obama was asked why the US was contributing such a significant portion of the military coalition against the jihadist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS. Obama responded by arguing that other countries were not stepping up."When trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don't call Beijing, they don't call Moscow. They call us. That's the deal," he quipped. When CBS' Steve Kroft pressed Obama on the relatively small contributions from some of the US' coalition partners, Obama insisted such arrangements were expected. "That's always the case. That's always the case. America leads. We are the indispensable nation," he said. "We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world." Obama pointed to past US humanitarian efforts after other countries were hit by environmental disasters. "When there's a typhoon in the Philippines, take a look at who's helping the Philippines deal with that situation," he said. "When there's an earthquake in Haiti, take a look at who's leading the charge helping Haiti rebuild. That's how we roll. That's what makes us Americans."

Protesters carry umbrellas to guard against tear gas as photo-sharing site Instagram appears blocked in a social media crackdown. ● Thousands of democracy protesters have defied tear gas and police baton charges to remain on the streets of Hong Kong for another night amid rising international tensions. Some demonstrators wore masks and resorted to umbrellas or plastic capes to protect themselves - prompting the phrase "umbrella revolution" to trend on social media. However, in a shift of tactics, uniformed police looked on from behind barricades and have so far not intervened in the peaceful protest. Sky's Asia Corespondent Mark Stone, at the scene, said the activists were "good natured but utterly driven". Sunday night saw riot officers fire 87 rounds of tear gas after being charged by "violent protesters", with police saying 41 people had been injured.

Peter Lee ■ Beijing reaps bitter fruit in Hong Kong
J. Michael Cole ■ Is Xi Losing Control of China's ‘Peripheries’?

PressTV: US war with China in future 'inevitable' || A number of American politicians argue that a military conflict between the United States and China is inevitable in the future, a political commentator in Washington says. “It’s very definitely an element inside the US that is arguing that a war with China at some future point is almost inevitable, because China is a rising power, becoming a formidable military power in the region, and the US is static and some people feel even declining,” said Jeff Steinberg, a senior editor for the Executive Intelligence Review. He also added that despite China’s efforts to “build economic cooperation” in the South China Sea and de-escalate tensions in the region, the US military doctrine is seeking the “encirclement and containment” of China. There are “many people in China who believe that the whole underlying concept behind President Obama’s Asia pivot is an encirclement and containment of China for an eventual conflict,” he said.

High Rise Safety Initiative: Today We Filed Suit to Reverse the City’s Fraudulent Determination on Our Second Petition. Read our filing and letter to Justice Wooten.

Dear Supporters, On September 4, 2014 the High-Rise Safety Initiative submitted a second petition containing over 33,000 signatures to override the City Council’s lack of action on our first petition. The second petition secures our place on the November 4th ballot if it contains at least 15,000 valid signatures, assuming we also win the pending lawsuit regarding the petition’s legality, where we still have not received a decision. This past Wednesday, the City Clerk certified only 7,343 out of 33,366 signatures in the second petition as valid, leaving us 7,657 shy of the 15,000-threshold. A Determination that Reeks of Fraud.

Given the dramatic difference in the percentage of invalidated signatures, 57% on the first petition compared to 78% on the second petition, it was immediately apparent that the City Clerk and the Board of Elections had determined to wrongly invalidate thousands of signatures — and in so doing, disenfranchise thousands of voters — in order to keep the High-Rise Safety Initiative off the ballot. Sure enough, when the City finally provided a copy of its notations, we saw that the percentage of signatures invalidated because the signer was allegedly “not registered” had skyrocketed from 43% on the first petition (28,404 out of 65,597) to 73% on the second petition (24,523 out of 33,366).

With the help of several volunteers, we then reviewed a sample of 663 signatures invalidated because the signer was allegedly “not registered.” We found that 43% were in fact registered voters; their signatures had been marked “not registered” without rhyme or reason. If that rate held for all 24,523 signatures marked “not registered,” it would mean that the City wrongly invalidated some 10,653 signatures, nearly one third of the people who signed the second petition, and it would put us well over the 15,000-threshold. This Must Not Stand

Earth Day — an annual event first launched on April 22, 1970. The inaugural festivities (organized in part by then hippie and now convicted murderer Ira Einhorn) predicted death, destruction and disease unless we did exactly as progressives commanded. Sound familiar? Behold the coming apocalypse, as predicted on and around Earth Day, 1970.

Steven E. Koonin Climate Science Is Not Settled
WUWT: The de-evolution of climate activism

Earlier today, a Philippine court found La Union residents Vicente and Dorma Ridon—who have been in jail during their trial since June 2012—guilty of child abuse, animal welfare crimes, human trafficking, and wildlife-protection crimes for forcing girls to torture and kill puppies, rabbits, and other animals in “fetish” videos. PETA Asia worked with authorities to ensure that the Ridons were located, arrested, and prosecuted. The Ridons, who have been sentenced to life imprisonment, also received a fine totaling over 9 million pesos each for their part in making the videos.