In a world where images count more than realities, the Press is presenting us with a democratic referendum for the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan. However, despite the fact that, constitutionally speaking, this referendum should be held throughout Iraq, and not only in the independentist zone, several million non-Kurdish voters have already been ejected from their homes and will never be able to return. In the polling stations, only the independentists will be supervising the legality of the vote. Thierry Meyssan reveals this fraud and the interests it is hiding.

The referendum for the independence of Kurdistan is a fool's game. The United States, which secretly supports it, claims in public to oppose it. France and the United Kingdom are doing the same, hoping that Washington will make their old dreams come true. Not to be outdone, Russia is hinting that although it is against any unilateral change, it might support independence... as long as everyone accepts the independence of Crimea, which means accepting its attachment to Moscow.

The degree of hypocrisy of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is such that they have so far been unable to give a ruling on this question, despite their apparent unanimity. They have not adopted any resolution (in other words, a text with international force of law), nor Presidential declaration (in other words a position common to the members of the Council) - nothing except an insipid Press release during their meeting on 19 September [1].

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement hailed on Sunday the decision of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to add Israel to the list of human rights abusers, Quds Press has reported. Hamas described this as an important step that exposes the real face of the Israeli occupation authorities and their treatment of the Palestinians.

"Putting Israel on the list of entities which violate human rights and human rights activists confirms that the Palestinian people are oppressed [under the Israeli occupation]," insisted the movement.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called on the international community and institutions, including the International Criminal Court, to hold Israel to account for its violations and to implement measures to "punish" the Zionist state. He stressed the importance of supporting the efforts of the Palestinian people to obtain their freedom and regain their "stolen" rights.

The commander of the US Pacific Fleet has announced his retirement after being passed up for a major promotion. It comes after two US Navy vessels collided with commercial ships in the Pacific over the summer, killing 17 sailors.

Admiral Scott Swift made the unexpected announcement on Facebook, after learning that he would not be given the opportunity to serve as chief of all military forces in the region.

"I have been informed by the Chief of Naval Operations that I will not be his nominee to replace Adm. Harris as the Commander, US Pacific Command. In keeping with tradition and in loyalty to the Navy, I have submitted my request to retire," he wrote, adding that he has "not requested a retirement date as there is much work to be done here..."

The HRW report "disproves" the US investigation's claim that there was "insufficient evidence" of civilian casualties during the strikes, Nadim Houry, director of terrorism and counterterrorism division at Human Rights Watch, told RT.

"There is enough evidence to indicate that many civilians were killed, dozens," Houry said. "When we asked them [US-led coalition]... on how they conducted their investigation they said these were...secrets that they could not share with us."

In two of the attacks in Tabqa and Mansourah, a US-led coalition aircraft struck a school housing displaced people in Mansourah on March 20, and a market and a bakery in Tabqa on March 22, HRW said. In its 42-page case study, the HRW added that IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists were present at both sites, along with a number of civilians.

Germany's major parties have been silent on foreign policy issues while the world and Germany itself face plenty of international problems, a German diplomat and FDP member told RT. He also said Germans want to improve the soured relations with Russia.

One of the reasons for the CDU's failure, a significant loss in Sunday's election, is "that they did not really address the problems of the nation," a former German ambassador to Japan, Poland and India and the Free Democratic party (FDP) member, Frank Elbe, told RT.

The world has faced a plenty of crises in foreign affairs, including a belligerent North Korea, a wave of possible immigrants from Africa to Europe with no solution to stop them and a crisis with Russia, he said.

"If you look at the duel between Mrs. [Angela] Merkel and Mr. [Martin] Shultz, foreign political issues were nor addressed once," Frank Elbe told RT, adding that journalists failed to ask such questions and the politicians didn't address them.

Military and media reports hyped the Zapad military exercise as a major threat. In fact, what took place was nothing as dramatic as the West's warnings would have led you to believe

Whatever happened to the imminent outbreak of World War Three? Earlier this month, you may recall, warnings about a "huge" Russian war game were everywhere, sowing alarm across the Western world. This could, we were told repeatedly, be Russia's biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War. "Massive" and "vast" were other adjectives used.

Military and media reports built Zapad-2017 - Zapad meaning West in Russian - into an almost unprecedented threat, but two particular claims stood out. Russia's insistence that around 12,000 troops would take part was dismissed as a subterfuge; in reality, there would be upwards of 100,000.

Then there was intent. Such a major exercise, it was argued, could provide cover for a Russian land grab in Ukraine or even the Baltic States. Its proximity, in time and geography, to the 1 September anniversary of the start of the Second World War - Germany's assault on Polish troops at Westerplatte - only seemed to lend the warnings extra credibility. With East-West tensions running high, we were on standby for World War Three.

So what happened? Zapad-2017 concluded earlier this week, by which time it had seriously fizzled out, in Western media terms at least. All that made the news was footage of President Vladimir Putin observing the scene through binoculars, and a report that three people had been injured when a Russian helicopter accidentally fired on spectators. The numbers are put, even by Western analysts, at somewhere between 10,000 and 17,000 troops taking part. No one has been invaded.

The UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame (from Lebanon), has released a bit of information about his upcoming plan for Libya. He states that there is a 3 step plan culminating in a general election for the country in 2018. This will be an election for President and Parliament. He confirmed that all Ghadafi loyalists including and especially his son, Saif Al Islam Ghadafi will be free to participate.

Of course it is absurd to think that the Libyan people need permission from the UN to hold an election and decide who can run in that election. The best news about this statement is that it ignores the worthless ICC (International Criminal Court) and their phony charges against Saif Al Islam. It proves the ICC is not respected and their opinion is not relevant to anything happening in Libya.

Also, I must comment that the Great Tribes of Libya have their own schedule for this election which may or may not meet the schedule of the UN. The bottom line is that there is only one solution to bring peace and security back to Libya and her people - that is via the Green Resistance and the return of Libya to the great Jamahiriya. In Libya you will find 95% of the people now back this movement and support Saif Al Islam Ghadafi as their leader. There is no support and never has been for radical Islamists, terrorists, Muslim Brotherhood or any other western supported armed control of Libya.

The election in Germany, which has left Merkel looking mortally wounded and has shattered the German consensus of unconditional support for Germany's Atlanticist foreign policy and for the EU, is a political earthquake. One person buried under the rubble is France's new President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron fought the Presidential election in France at a time of growing disillusion in France with the EU. He nonetheless fought and won the campaign on a counter-intuitive platform of "more Europe". This admitted that EU institutions are dysfunctional and that the eurozone is working against French economic interests. However it argued that the solution to this problem was not to take France out of the eurozone or the EU but to reform the EU institutions and the eurozone in order to rebalance them in France's national interest.

The records of the High Court in London show what he did to Mikhail Chernoy (Cherney), Boris Berezovsky, and Roman Abramovich. Chernoy recovered $200 million in 2012

Only two people have ever taken Deripaska's money and legged it themselves. One was Anthony Louis, owner and editor of the Moscow Tribune, the first English-language newspaper published in Moscow. Louis took several thousand dollars in exchange for shares to keep his paper afloat but never handed over the shares to Deripaska. The newspaper sank without trace in 2002.

In April 2008 Paul Manafort (lead image, right) took $18,938,400 from Deripaska in return for which he promised to invest up to $100 million in Ukrainian cable television and telecommunications companies. Manafort trousered the cash, or so Deripaska has alleged in court, as he has been trying to get his money back.

But Manafort's hustle has been reported in US newspapers as an attempt to promote Kremlin influence in US elections, especially the one which put Donald Trump into the White House last November. The evidence for the subversion claim is now being gathered by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and reported publicly by leaks of what his investigation has placed in evidence before a grand jury. These include CIA, NSA and FBI surveillance and wire taps of Manafort during the presidential election campaign - yes, during the presidential campaign - and afterwards.

On September 20, the Washington Post, a catalogue belonging by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, published excerpts of Manafort emails which have been leaked by the FBI, whose agents broke into Manafort's apartment at dawn on July 26, confiscating papers and computer records; by investigators with access to the files of Counsel Muller; and by other investigators, all of them pleading anonymity for themselves and authenticity for their leaks.

Russia and the United States are maintaining close and intensive military contacts at various levels on actions in Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday. "Military contacts are quite intensive, [going] at different levels," Ryabkov said, commenting on information on the exchange of information between the US and the Russian military on the situation in Syria and, in particular, on Deir ez-Zor.

Moreover, Russia is concerned by the fact that the United States demonstrates the opposite of its declared intention to eliminate Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister added. He expressed hope to reporters that the US side would prove in practice its commitment to fighting terrorism.

"This fact is evident and it is very worrisome, we were convinced yet again that the US side, declaring verbally that it is interested in eliminating Daesh and defeating terrorists in Syria, in practice demonstrates the opposite, that in the end of the day some political and geopolitical tasks are more important for Washington than what has been declared in the counterterrorist fight," he said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry released the aerial images of Daesh deployment sites north of Syria's Deir ez-Zor, where the equipment of US Army Special Forces is clearly visible but without any signs of previous fighting between the sides.