The FBI has learned of more emails involving Hillary Clinton's private email server while she headed the State Department, FBI Director James Comey told several members of Congress, telling them he is reopening the investigation.

"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of email that appear to be pertinent" to Clinton's investigation, Comey wrote to the chairs of several relevant congressional committees, adding that he was briefed about the messages on Thursday. "I agree that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."


The FBI director cautioned, however, that the bureau has yet to assess the importance of the material, and that he doesn't know how long that will take.

A look at a map of Asia Pacific, and one sees that it is a region dominated by bodies of water. Namely there is the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Andaman Sea, the Philippines Sea, the South China Sea and numerous gulfs, bays, straits and smaller seas.

Several nations are in fact described as "island nations." Commerce by sea between and beyond Asian nations factors in as an important geopolitical and economic issue each nation must face. There is also fishing as well as gas and oil extraction performed throughout Asia's waters.

It is no surprise then that across Asia, many disputes surface between nations regarding the use of Asia's waters. Unlike on land, enforcing borders and perceived claims across seas and oceans is infinitely more difficult. Despite this, Asian states have resolved these issues through bilateral resolutions both for individual cases and in a more general sense. Very rarely do these disputes escalate toward serious or enduring confrontations, and more rarely still do they result in actual conflicts.

"We came, we saw...he died" boasted a beaming Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, speaking of the 2011 western overthrow of Libya's leader Muammar Khadaffi.

She was, of course, shamelessly paraphrasing Caesar's famous summary of his campaign around the Black Sea. Mrs. Clinton, who seems ordained to be America's next president, should have been rather more cautious in admitting to murder.


This week marks the fifth anniversary of Khadaffi's grisly death. The Libyan leader was fleeing in a motor convoy to reach friendly tribal territory when French warplanes and a US drone attacked and destroyed the vehicles. Wounded, Khadaffi crawled into a culvert where he was captured by French and US-backed rebels.

Khadaffi was severely beaten, then anally raped with a long knife. At least two bullets finally ended his suffering. Thus ended the colorful life of the man who wanted to be the second Nasser and leader of a united Arab world. His death was a warnings to others trying to challenge the Mideast status quo I call the American Raj.

I was invited to interview Khadaffi in 1987 at his Tripoli headquarters in the Bab al-Azizya barracks. This was on the one year anniversary of 1986 US air attacks on the barracks that sought to assassinate Khadaffi, described by US President Ronald Reagan as the "mad dog of the Mideast." But that night, the 'Leader,' as he liked to be called, went to his Bedouin tent in the courtyard and thus escaped death - for a time.

A US 2,000lb bomb came crashing through the roof of the barracks right onto the bed where Khadaffi usually slept, often with his two-year old adopted daughter. The girl died.

Myanmar's defacto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NDL) political party, has paved her time since coming to power earlier this year with both irony and hypocrisy. She has not only illegally declared herself "leader" of the Southeast Asian state in contravention of its constitution, she has also embarked on an iron-fisted purge of her political opponents identical to the one she fought against as she struggled to seize power to begin with.

During elections earlier this year, Myanmar's constitution prevented Suu Kyi from holding the nation's highest office due to her inordinate amount of time overseas, her status of having been married to a foreigner, and her children's dual citizenship. Instead of adhering to the law, her party once in power, simply contrived an entirely new post for her, State Counsellor of Myanmar, which makes her the "defacto leader" of Myanmar.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Tarja, Heinz, Thabo, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to see you again. I want to start by thanking all of the participants in the Valdai International Discussion Club, from Russia and abroad, for your constructive part in this work, and I want to thank our distinguished guests for their readiness to take part in this open discussion.

Our esteemed moderator just wished me a good departure into retirement, and I wish myself the same when the time comes. This is the right approach and the thing to do. But I am not retired yet and am for now the leader of this big country. As such, it is fitting to show restraint and avoid displays of excessive aggressiveness. I do not think that this is my style in any case.

But I do think that we should be frank with each other, particularly here in this gathering. I think we should hold candid, open discussions, otherwise our dialogue makes no sense and would be insipid and without the slightest interest.

I think that this style of discussion is extremely needed today given the great changes taking place in the world. The theme for our meeting this year, The Future in Progress: Shaping the World of Tomorrow, is very topical.

Riyadh and other Persian Gulf producers are ready to cut oil output by at least four percent and are seeking Russian support, Reuters reports, quoting sources familiar with the matter.

Saudi Arabia proposed the plan to Russian Minister Aleksandr Novak last week, according to the source. However, Novak reportedly said Moscow would prefer to freeze at current levels.

According to Reuters, the proposal to cut production by four percent will likely be raised on the eve of the November 30 OPEC meeting, where the cartel and other producers, including Russia, will discuss joint action to stabilize prices.

Iraq, OPEC's second-biggest producer, said this week that it would not cut production, as it needs more oil revenue to fight Islamic State.

"We are not going back in any way, not by OPEC not by anybody else," said Falah al-Amri, the head of Iraq's state oil marketing company.

"If there is a cut, then everyone must cut. No exemptions," one OPEC source told Reuters, in response to Iraq's refusal.

Pakistan and India each expelled a diplomat from the other country amid escalating tensions between the two South Asian powers over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

India announced early on October 27 that it expelled a staffer at the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi after briefly detaining him for espionage activities.

Islamabad said the allegations against its diplomat, Mahmood Akhtar, were "false and unsubstantiated." Akhtar was told he had to leave New Delhi by October 29.

Indian officials said Akhtar was detained briefly for questioning and was found with documents detailing Indian troop deployments along the India-Pakistan border.

President Vladimir Putin has denied the Russian military's request to order a resumption of airstrikes in eastern Aleppo, his press secretary said. The military had asked permission to resume airstrikes due to the increased activity of militants.

"The Russian president considers it inappropriate at the present time to resume airstrikes in Aleppo," Dmitry Peskov told the press.

Earlier on Friday, Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations in the Russian General Staff, said: "Due to the fact that there are still deaths among civilians and that the militants have resumed military activities against government forces, we've addressed Russia's commander-in-chief, asking permission for the resumption of airstrikes targeting illegal armed groups in eastern Aleppo,"

Earlier on Friday, militants "used the moratorium of Russian and Syrian combat flights" and attempted to break into eastern Aleppo, the General Staff representative said.

The AngloZionst Empire's propaganda machine, otherwise known as the corporate media, has had great difficulty deciding what it should say about the Russian naval task force that has been sent to Syria. The Americans have decided to express their usual contempt for anything Russian and describe this force as centered on the "geriatric" aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, while the Brits chose to describe it as a formidable "armada" about to completely obliterate the moderate terrorists in Syria.

My friend Alexander Mercouris has recently written a superb analysis explaining that, in reality, this task force was neither geriatric nor that formidable. Rather than repeating it all here, I prefer to write what I will consider a follow-up to this excellent piece with a few more details added. The first step will be to debunk a few fundamental misconceptions.

Let's begin with the Russian aircraft carrier.

Increasing evidence suggests Kingdom is not merely bombing civilians in neighbouring country, but systematically targeting infrastructure survivors will need to avoid starvation when the war is over

The Yemen war uniquely combines tragedy, hypocrisy and farce. First come the casualties: around 10,000, almost 4,000 of them civilians. Then come those anonymous British and American advisers who seem quite content to go on "helping" the Saudi onslaughts on funerals, markets and other obviously (to the Brits, I suppose) military targets.

Then come the Saudi costs: more than $250m (£200m) a month, according to Standard Chartered Bank - and this for a country that cannot pay its debts to construction companies. But now comes the dark comedy bit: the Saudis have included in their bombing targets cows, farms and sorghum - which can be used for bread or animal fodder - as well as numerous agricultural facilities.

In fact, there is substantial evidence emerging that the Saudis and their "coalition" allies - and, I suppose, those horrid British "advisers" - are deliberately targeting Yemen's tiny agricultural sector in a campaign which, if successful, would lead a post-war Yemeni nation not just into starvation but total reliance on food imports for survival. Much of this would no doubt come from the Gulf states which are currently bombing the poor country to bits.