Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/10/20091031101131623346.html

Typhoon Mirinae has killed at least two people and forced thousands to evacuate, after making landfall in the eastern Philippines, officials have said. The victims drowned in floods in Laguna province just south of Manila, the capital, the local disaster monitoring office said on Saturday. In Laguna, military and police rescue boats worked to save people who were trapped on rooftops by a flashflood. The typhoon, with winds of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) an hour, was the third major storm to hit the Philippines' main island of Luzon in just five weeks.

The typhoon caused power outages, knocked down trees across many areas of Manila, and forced flights to be suspended on Saturday morning from the city's international airport. One river in Laguna province flooded most of lakeside Santa Cruz town sending residents clambering onto roofs to escape rising waters, said Ariel Magcalas, the town's mayor. "We cannot move, this is no joke ... The water is high. We need help," he said in a public address via Radio DZBB. Rescue teams were dispatched to the flooded communities but were having difficulty moving in light trucks, said Fred Bragas, a regional disaster officer. Inquirer.net: Fine weather on Sunday but new threat looms. Manila Bulletin: Nature’s wrath: Typhoon, quake, twister hit RP in succession.

Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=236167

The US house of representatives is expected to approve a non-binding resolution on Tuesday condemning the UN-backed Golstone report which accused Israel of war crimes during last winter’s military offensive “Cast Lead” against the Gaza Strip, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The draft resolution expected to condemn the document was proposed by two representatives from House Foreign Affairs Committee representatives Howard L Berman (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), and it accuses the Gioldstone report of being "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy," because of Hamas influence on the Goldstone commission, and therefore illegal. Karin Friedemann/TPV: Whither After the Goldstone Report? Sabbah/TPV: Why The Goldstone Report Matters. The People's Voice: Goldstone Commission Gaza Conflict Findings and Reactions. Online Journal: War criminals are becoming the arbiters of law. Democracy Now: UN Inquiry Finds Israel “Punished and Terrorized” Palestinian Civilians, Committed War Crimes During Gaza Assault. Dissident Voice: Challenging the Power of the Jewish Lobby: What Should Be Done? La Voz de Aztlan: Israel has now massacred over 300 Palestinian children in Gaza.

Link: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/2742-did-richard-goldstone-hide-more-sinister-crimes-in-gaza-part-1-white-phosphorus-and-flechettes

There was much praise for the UN investigations into war crimes committed in Gaza, led by Richard Goldstone. However, I feel that this report did not go far enough to investigate some other more serious allegations that were made. There is a sense of urgency to bring this investigation forward and to put those responsible on trial but one must understand that something much more sinister did not even get a mention and has since been swept under the carpet. Let's take a closer look at some aspects of this report which certainly showed a distinct weakness in the team's ability to understand what constitutes a breach of the Geneva Convention. Palestine Telegraph: Did Richard Goldstone Hide More Sinister Crimes in Gaza? Part 2 – DIME and Uranium Weapons. + Did Richard Goldstone Hide More Sinister Crimes in Gaza? Part 3: Members of Congress Reject Report.

Link: http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=109263&language=en

The University of Trondheim in Norway may become the first university in the West to adopt an academic boycott of Israel, if a majority of its board votes in favor of the move at a meeting on the subject next month.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224190/Inside-Blair-Inc-Complex-web-official-duties-secretive-private-companies-business-deals-make-life-No-10-lucrative.html

Inside the shadowy (and very lucrative) world of Blair Inc: How the ex-PM has become a one-man multinational money-making machine. At a conservative estimate, he has made £15million from his commercial activities since stepping down as prime minister in 2007, and there is every sign that his earning capacity is increasing. He remains in demand as a £100,000-a-time international speaker, he has contracts to provide advice with several banking institutions, he is writing his memoirs, and he has established Tony Blair Associates (TBA) to provide advice to foreign governments for money. WikiPedia: Impeach Blair campaign. Brussells Tribunal: LEGAL CASE FILED AGAINST FOUR US PRESIDENTS AND FOUR UK PRIME MINISTERS FOR WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND GENOCIDE IN IRAQ.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110059&sectionid=351020401

Pakistan's pro-Taliban militants blame private US security firm Blackwater for a Wednesday bomb blast in Peshawar which killed over 100 people. Hakimullah Mehsud, head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, said Blackwater and some Pakistani agencies were involved in the bomb explosion at a crowded market in Peshawar. According to the latest reports, the death toll has mounted to 106 with over 150 injured while rescue workers say that more people could still be buried under the debris. Most of the dead were women and children. Dawn: Living hell of trapped people. + Peshawar blast death toll rises to 111.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8335194.stm

President Hamid Karzai's rival in the second round of the Afghan presidential poll says he will announce on Sunday whether he intends to quit the race. Dr Abdullah Abdullah called for the resignation of key election officials and others as a way to mitigate fraud and corruption in the vote. But those demands were rejected earlier in the week in talks with Mr Karzai. PressTV: Abdullah may boycott Afghan run-off poll. Al Jazeera: Uncertainty grows over Afghan poll. Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: The Afghans’ Decision About the Runoff Elections is Unchanged.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/29/banks-fund-cluster-bomb-trade

The deadly trade in cluster bombs is funded by the world's biggest banks who have loaned or arranged finance worth $20bn (£12.5bn) to firms producing the controversial weapons, despite growing international efforts to ban them. Goldman Sachs, the US bank which made £3.19bn proft in just three months, earned $588.82m for bank services and lent $250m to Alliant Techsystems and Textron.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224266/EU-leaders-furious-David-Camerons-bid-scupper-Lisbon-Treaty.html

David Cameron has been privately criticised by top European leaders for trying to sabotage the Lisbon Treaty, it emerged today. French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish prime minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero were said to have been angered by the Tory leader's positioning. They expressed concerns during this week's European Union summit in Brussels after Mr Cameron wrote to Czech president Vaclav Klaus [to suggest he postpone ratifying the Lisbon treaty], who has so far refused to sign the treaty. Daily Telegraph: EU leaders angry at Tories over David Cameron letter, report claims. The Guardian: Europe leaders incensed by David Cameron's letter.

Link: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2009/10/30/dick-cheney-an-irascible-witness.aspx

When the FBI questioned Vice President Dick Cheney about his knowledge of the CIA leak affair, the vice president proved to be an irascible and at times uncooperative witness: he repeatedly claimed memory loss on key questions, refused to answer others because they involved “privileged” conversations, and complained that he was “pressed for time.” In the end, he rejected a standard bureau request that he not discuss his testimony with other witnesses in the case.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

Professor David Nutt, the government's chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol. Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis. "In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs. BBC: Cannabis row drugs adviser sacked. The Guardian: Sacked drugs adviser accuses Gordon Brown of meddling in cannabis decision.

Link: http://www.uruknet.com/index.php?p=m59539&hd=&size=1&l=e

Uruknet: President Barack Obama received a great deal of media attention on Wednesday for signing a historic hate-crimes bill into law. But, on the same day, the US president also signed a Homeland Security spending bill that received far less attention, even though it effectively blocks efforts by activists to reveal photos of detainee abuse in US custody.

Link: http://irish4palestine.blogspot.com/2009/10/media-censorship-israels-latest-plan.html

The plot begins first in London England and will continue throughout the world, in each country, if it is successful in England: “If the Jewish people have one reservoir that will never run out, it’s lawyers. Every Western capital boasts at least five successful Jewish law firms, and most of them will be glad to represent the State of Israel.” Israel’s ambassador in London, Ron Prosor colludes with Jewish Lawyers to sue any and all news outlets that refer to Israelis as “War Criminals” or anything else deemed offensive by Zionists.

Link: http://www.amnesty.org.au/poverty/comments/22002/

[A Palestinian farmer's vegetable crops and irrigation network are destroyed by an Israeli army bulldozer while soldiers surround the field in Jiftlik, Jordan Valley, in March 2008] The village of Beit Ula, where Mahmoud lives, is not connected to the Palestinian water network. Instead the community, located north-west of Hebron, relies on rainwater, which it collects and stores in pots dug in the ground, known as cisterns. The nine new cisterns built in 2006 as part of a European Union-funded project to improve food security became the pride of the village. The cisterns were vital to the survival of the nine families that used them... until the bulldozers arrived.

West Bank farmer Mahmoud al-'Alam won't forget the day Israeli army bulldozers cut off his water supply... and destroyed his livelihood. [The Israeli army] destroyed everything; they went up and down several times with the bulldozer and uprooted everything," recalls Mahmoud al-'Alam. In a few hours, years of hard work had been undone. The cisterns had been built with the help of two local nongovernmental organizations, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees and the Palestinian Hydrology Group. The cisterns provided water for 3,200 newly planted trees including olive, almond, lemon and fig trees. The farmers had also contributed a significant portion of the overall cost of the project.

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/29/growing-tensions-apparent-on-clintons-pakistan-visit/

The growing distrust of American influence was even more apparent today than usual, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used to occasion of her visit to Pakistan to chastize its government’s action toward "al-Qaeda". “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” Clinton declared. Belfast Telegraph: Hillary Clinton attacks Pakistan for border terror failure. Dawn: Pakistan ‘hard to believe’ on Al Qaeda: Clinton. + It is good to see a softer side of American diplomacy, one that emphasizes opportunities and not threats.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110006&sectionid=351020202

Israel and the United States have launched a three-week joint air defense exercise, code-named Juniper Cobra 10, in the port city of Haifa. The military exercises which are described as the largest ever by the two allies are conducted under a media blackout in the West.

Link: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/29/jon_stewart_creates_sea_change_on_middle_east_cove/

Not long ago, no mainstream media personality would ever allow himself to be associated with anyone who suggests that diplomacy, not war, is the way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Being thought of as not 100% down with the government of Israel was a career killer. And, if it wasn't, media and show business figures believed it was and that was the same thing.

That era ended with the rise of Jon Stewart, the most trusted television personality in America (and the only one the kids pay attention to). Unlike the Jewish organizational figures who are always screaming that the sky is falling on our Jewish heads, Stewart is anything but scared of his own, or anyone else's, shadow. Because Jon Stewart is so utterly at home as an American and as a Jew, he can say what he thinks about the Middle East. And that seems to be be that diplomacy is better than killing people and that no lobby should inhibit debate on an issue that affects all Americans.

Jon Stewart, all by himself, has created a sea change in the mass media's approach to the Middle East. Once others in the business see that Stewart says what he thinks -- and not only survives but thrives -- others will do it too. And who will be the beneficiaries: Americans, Palestinians and, most of all, Israelis. Israel will not survive if it stays on its current course. Daily Show: October 28, 2009: Exclusive - Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 1 + October 28, 2009: Exclusive - Anna Baltzer & Mustafa Barghouti Extended Interview Pt. 2 A Witness in Palestine: A Witness in Palestine [Anna Baltzer's Homepage]

Link: http://onthehillblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/un-cant-account-for-millions-sent-to.html

The United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential U.N. audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. AntiWar: UN Documents Show Large Sums of Money Missing: ‘U.S. Taxpayers Spent Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on a Fraudulent Election’.

Link: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/israel-and-palestine/091028/palestinian-water-torture-israel

Yet another report accuses Israel of human rights abuses, this time for denying Palestinians water. In the last few months, there have been reports on the conduct of Israeli forces in Gaza, on restrictions on medical supplies and food entering Gaza and the necessity for a boycott of Israeli products and people. This week Amnesty International made its latest contribution with a report on water itself. Amnesty issued a 112-page report that accuses Israel of denying sufficient water to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The report says Israelis uses more than three times as much water per person as Palestinians, and that Gazans are down to 20 liters of water a day — the World Health Organization’s designated minimum level for subsistence. Amnesty International: Israel rations Palestinians to trickle of water.

Link: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/dennis-kucinich-is-the-2-party-system-truly-capable-of-representing-the-american-people-2/

Will We Stand for the People or the Insurance Companies? Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement about the health care debate in America: “Providing health care to all Americans is the moral responsibility of our government, consistent with the Preamble in the Constitution. Yet we are being told that it is not possible to have the kind of single payer health system which every industrialized democracy in the world has."

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/28/us-cedes-de-facto-control-over-east-afghan-province-to-taliban/

Following an all-out assault by several hundred insurgents on two US outposts in Nuristan earlier this month, the US quickly abandoned both sites. The Pentagon maintains that they had been planning to abandon the bases at any rate, and that it was only a coincidence they were attacked just a few days before the move. Two other US posts in Nuristan has been attacked last year, and were also abandoned.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49056

The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

Link: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-28-2009/exclusive---anna-baltzer---mustafa-barghouti-extended-interview-pt--1

Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti advocate a non-violent approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this complete, unedited interview.

Link: http://www.cmef.eu/pdf/jk.pdf

This is what Pandemrix flu vaccine contains:

* aluminum hydroxide
* aluminum phosphate
* ammonium sulfate
* amphotericin B
* animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain,
* dog kidney, monkey kidney,
* chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
* calf (bovine) serum
* betapropiolactone
* fetal bovine serum
* formaldehyde
* formalin
* gelatin
* glycerol
* human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
* hydrolized gelatin
* mercury thimerosol (thimerosal, Merthiolate(r))
* monosodium glutamate (MSG)
* neomycin
* neomycin sulfate
* phenol red indicator
* phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
* potassium diphosphate
* potassium monophosphate
* polymyxin B
* polysorbate 20
* polysorbate 80
* porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
* residual MRC5 proteins
* sorbitol
* tri(n)butylphosphate,
* VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells, and
* washed sheep red blood

http://www.abcnyheter.no/node/98516

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/28

US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said. "The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference. Global Research: The Rotten Fruits of War: U.S. Drone Attacks over Pakistan.

Link: http://kennysideshow.blogspot.com/2009/10/nothing-new-cia-and-drug-trafficking.html

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: “Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work.”

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/afpa-o29.shtml

While the UN presents itself as a neutral, humanitarian body, it functions as an adjunct to the US-NATO occupation in Afghanistan and is widely perceived as such by Afghans. In the name of “democracy”, the UN is helping to stage the country’s sham elections in an effort to politically bolster Washington’s puppet regime. Irish4Palestine: KARZAI DROPPED LIKE A HOT POTATO.

Link: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15859

American experts say that the construction of two new bases in Romania and Bulgaria is fully in line with the US troop redeployments former President George W. Bush announced as early as in 2004. Many analysts believe that US efforts in Romania and Bulgaria are part of a global redeployment strategy started in the early years of the Bush Administration to shift US forces out of Germany and move them eastward. Preparing to grab the Caspian oil wealth, Washington will do this leaning on its bases in Romania and Bulgaria and by stoking up instability in the Caucasus. Why? To be able send its peacekeepers there to ensure the safe transportation of Caspian oil and gas. And here the American contingent in Romania and Bulgaria may come in very handy indeed.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Rcp3vWNUs

The United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately stop demolishing Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem. The UN says 60,000 Palestinians may be at risk of being forcibly evicted. Israel says the houses are built without construction permits, which Palestinians say are almost impossible to obtain. Our correspondent Jacky Rowland is in Sheikh Jarrah where Israeli police dismantled a tent set up by a Palestinian family already evicted by Israeli orders in August.

IPS News: Demolishing Hope for Peace: "We knew something bad was about to happen when we saw the roadblocks being thrown up, and police everywhere. It soon came down the grapevine - the Israelis were demolishing more houses." "Heart wrenching - that's what it is when you see 15 people, seven of them children, left homeless out of the blue," says Naim when he reaches Sur Baher. PCHR: Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Link: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/asteroid-with-energy-of-three-hiroshima-bombs-explodes-over-indonesia-14544946.html#ixzz0VJTLqpPm

An asteroid, with the energy of three Hishoma bombs, has exploded in the atmosphere above Indonesia - reigniting fears about Earth's defences against space impacts. Witnesses in Indonesia heard the explosion and spotted a huge fireball in the sky. The blast was also heard by monitoring stations 10,000 miles away, according to a report by scientists at the University of Western Ontario.

Link: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/11560

And we as a country have destroyed the lives literally and figuratively of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern citizens in their own homelands. Time to respond. Time to stop this insanity. Enough. Please consider the following (this list of 20 random statistics and/or assertions was assembled from disclosures of Gareth Porter, Dahr Jamail and Haroon Siddiqui.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=109858&sectionid=351020401

The death toll from a car bomb in Pakistan's Peshawar has reached 105, a day after the blast struck a market in the country's most populous northwestern city. On Wednesday afternoon, an explosive laden car ripped through the crowded market in Peshawar, a gateway to the country's lawless tribal areas. "A total of 105 people have been killed. Seventy-one of them were identified. Thirteen are children and 27 were women," Doctor Zafar Iqbal told AFP at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital.

Link: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/why-arent-people-media-pushing-unempl

Is it really as simple as "I don't know anyone like that"? Because this is a huge crisis for millions. The longer the Republicans bottle up the unemployment benefits extension (for no other reason than they can), the more people without other options fall off the unemployment rolls. You'd think someone in the media might see that as an important story. But maybe when journalists started getting hired from Ivy League schools, they lost any interest in what happens to the paycheck class.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/28/a_woman_among_warlords_afghan_democracy

To talk more about Afghanistan, we are joined by Malalai Joya, one of Afghanistan’s leading democracy activists. In 2005, she became the youngest person ever elected to the Afghan parliament. She was suspended in 2007 for her denunciation of warlords and their cronies in government. She has just written her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out. [includes rush transcript] Malalai Joya [Homepage]

Link: http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/10/update-on-the-rape-story-in-california.html

"As many as 10 people were involved in the assault in a dimly lighted back alley at the school, while another 10 people watched without calling 911 to report it, police said." Five of these thugs have been arrested, with more arrests expected. Two of them were adults! So 10 boys and men rape a 15 year old child on school property while 10-15 other boys (maybe adults as well) watched and did nothing. The girl was left for dead under a bench, arriving to the hospital in critical condition. Tell me how it is possible that 10-15 individuals could watch this crime and do nothing?

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1K74Tnrrok

Are vaccines today more dangerous, in some cases, than the diseases? Has something gone wrong with the system or the companies making them? Filmed at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccinations (sponsored by the Nat'l Vaccine Information Center) in October, 2009, listen to what these health professionals have to say!

Link: http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/26/legatum-institute-prosperity-index-democracy-opinions-columnists-joel-kotkin.html

A columnist for the Guardian, Jacques predicted that by 2050 China will easily surpass America economically, militarily and politically. The belief in the power of autocracy even extends to such leading American capitalists as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who have nothing but high praise for what Gates enthusiastically describes as a "brand-new form of capitalism." Fortunately a new study released Monday by my colleagues at the Legatum Institute refutes the notion that the road to worldly riches lies in autocracy and repression. In a careful study of everything from economic opportunity, education and health to security, freedom of expression and societal contentment, the Legatum "Prosperity Index" makes a powerful case for the long-term benefits of democracy, free speech and the rule of law.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=109820&sectionid=351020401

The United Nations has warned Washington about indiscriminate use of drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying that it may be breaking humanitarian law. The UN rights investigator said the United States has done nothing to demonstrate that its not randomly killing civilians in violation of international law through the use of drones. TPV: US drone attack kills 27 in Pakistan. Empire Burlesque: Depraved Indifference: Drone Wars, Whack Jobs and Imperial Terror. Dawn: UN investigator warns US on use of drones.

Link: http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/8848

Iran does not owe anybody any sort of confidence building measure because it is Iran that has been on the receiving end of hypocritical and illegal sanctions and related misinformation. No way should it agree to send its low enriched uranium out of the country in one shipment since it will not get the enriched fuel back without it being held hostage to other illegal conditions. Iran needs to give the partners the polite diplomatic middle-finger salute and go ahead with building their own fuel.

Link: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/911stand.html

The US military has spent billions of dollars developing stealth aircraft which are invisible to radar so they can mount surprise attacks on adversaries, but it seems they should have saved their money and bought a fleet of airliners because they appear to be far more effective. davidraygriffin.com: 9/11: The Myth and the Reality.