A documentary broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Four Corners" television program on Monday night provided a devastating portrait of the Israeli government's systematic policy of threats, arbitrary arrest and torture of Palestinian youth and children.

These measures are aimed at holding the Palestinian population, particularly the youth, in a permanent state of terror and suppressing any opposition to the Israeli occupation. An entire generation of youth is being traumatised as the Israeli security forces sow a climate of fear, as well as suspicion and division, through the forced recruitment of young informers.

The well-researched exposé - which also involved the Australian newspaper - was based on interviews with Palestinian youth themselves, as well as an Israeli lawyer, a former Israeli soldier and an Australian lawyer who has spent six years in the country.

Qusai Zamara, one of the boys interviewed, was 14 years old when he was abducted from his bed during a late-night military raid on his family home in the West Bank. He was taken to an interrogation facility and tortured into confessing to throwing stones at Israeli citizens and security forces. This accusation is commonly used by the Israeli military to justify the repression, arbitrary arrests and killings meted out against the Palestinian people.

Mexico has abruptly cancelled a contract worth $3.75 billion (58.9 billion pesos) with a Chinese-led rail consortium, just two days after it was awarded. The project to construct the country's first bullet train faced opposition from local lawmakers.

The China Railway Construction Corp. and CSR Corp. won the contract Monday, which set off steam amongst opposition politicians, who claimed the tender by the Chinese company, the sole bidder, lacked transparency and legitimacy. A new auction will be held and will include more bidders.


The Chinese-led group included Mexican firms that are linked to the brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.


The proposed 210-kilometer (130-mile) railway would link Mexico City with the central manufacturing hub of Queretaro.

Esparza told the Televisa network the country's President, Enrique Pena Nieto made a last minute decision to back out of the deal signed on November 3 and start the bidding process over. The Chinese consortium was the only one to put forward a proposal by the October 15 deadline, after Mitsubishi of Japan, Alstom of France, Bombardier of Canada and Siemens of Germany all refrained from bidding.

China also offered to finance 85 percent of the project from loans from the Export-Import Bank of China.

Nieto is due to visit China from next week to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, as well as a two-day official state visit to develop ties between Latin America's second biggest economy and the world's second largest economy.

Fresh out of his latest Congressional election shellacking delivered by the minority who bothered to vote in the United States, the formerly most powerful leader in the world, US President Barack Obama, will star in a thriller this weekend, appearing in the same room with China's Xi Jinping, Japan's Shinzo Abe and - fasten your seat belts - Russia's Vladimir Putin.

What a drag - the Bomber-In-Chief must be musing. The global economy is mostly a disaster. China, even growing at "only" 7% a year, keeps eroding his "indispensable nation" aura. Japan has decided to copy the Federal Reserve and embark on its own kamikaze version of quantitative easing. Numerous Southeast Asian nations keep freaking out about a few rocks in the South China Sea.

And last but not least, Obama's nemesis, pesky Vlad "the Hammer" Putin, has just been crowned Most Powerful Leader in the world - even if for the most stupid reasons ("unpredictable" head of a "rogue state") [1] - while he, the Nobel Peace Prize leader of the exceptionalist, indispensable nation, is now nothing but a pitiful lame duck.

The get-together, extended to Monday and Tuesday, will be the highlight of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing - actually, outside of Beijing, so presumably unpolluted blue skies may also have a chance at the photo op. This is APEC's 25th birthday. And the 20th birthday of the Indonesian summit in Bogor - I happened to be there - which, under Bill Clinton's flowery charm, set the 21-member APEC nations a goal of "free" and open trade and investment by 2020. "Free" as in US corporations dictating the rules, of course.

What the whole planet really wants to know about APEC is whether The Lame Duck with meet The Bear face to face, one on one. The White House remains mum. The Kremlin did not rule it out. Well, there's always Plan B: the Group of 20 summit on November 15-16 in Brisbane, Australia.

What the whole planet already knows is that the new slimy show premiering on Capitol Hill on January 2015 has a top priority: the Republicans will do everything in their power to make the lame duck cry for mercy over and over again. So what will this mean in terms of Obama's self-styled "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" foreign policy doctrine, which that 2016 juggernaut known as "The Hillarator" has already derided as a "non-organizational principle"? Just extra layers of cosmic stupidity, or something more substantial?

ISIS is showing new ingenuity in ferrying fighters into Syria and Iraq untraced, after Turkey stepped up its own efforts at border check-ups. Terrorists are now reportedly taking cruise ships to the warzones, Interpol told the AP.

The problem of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) bulking up and recruiting en masse has been one of the greatest obstacles to eradicating the group. For a while now the world didn't have a proper mechanism to stem the flow of fighters to the IS' new heartland.

The recent airstrike campaign by the US has hardly put a dent in the movement of fighters making their way to Syria, which "remains constant, so the overall number continues to rise," according to a US intelligence official.

After weeks of rumors, it looks as if Kiev has finally decided to resume full-scale military assault on the Donetsk People's Republic. First, the Saker reported that Col. Cassad (a blogger with sources inside Novorussia) posted an important update:

Right now, he is reporting that while there is an increase in the combat operation, this is more a case of "combat reconnaissance" (opening fire to try to evaluate the enemy disposition) than of a real full-scale attack.

That is the good news.

The bad news is that an energetic "combat reconnaissance" is exactly what the Ukies would be doing before a major offensive.

Please don't panic, I will try to keep you posted. Right now, this is not a full scale attack. Not yet.

Now, RIA Novosti is quoting DPR leader Andrei Purgin's comment from yesterday:

"A full-scale war is underway. We are under attack, and we are defending ourselves," he said.

Earlier on Thursday DPR reported that a tank column of Kiev security officials had entered Donetsk suburbs, and fire in Donetsk surroundings was resumed. On Monday night fighting was resumed near the Donetsk airport.

If true, the NAF, with Russian support, is set to repeat their previous success. Kiev can't say they didn't have it coming.

For the second year running, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the world's most powerful person by a panel of Forbes editors.

Forbes says its list isn't based on political influence, but an evaluation of "hard power" - the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political actors.

"We insist the people on our list wield the kind of power that shapes and bends the world, and moves people, markets, armies and minds," the magazine wrote, explaining its choice.

Putin came out top among 17 other heads of state, presiding over a combined GDP of $48 trillion. As reasons for the decision, the editors cite Russia's acquisition of the Crimean peninsula, management of the international standoff over Ukraine and a $400 billion gas pipeline deal signed with China in May.

Allegations voiced by Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and a number of representatives from the United States and NATO about Russian troops supposedly moving toward the country's border with Ukraine have no grounds and are based on rumors, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday.

"These announcements were made citing some 'reports' without any solid proof," the spokesman said.

On Wednesday, Baird said his country was seriously concerned about information that Russian troops were apparently moving toward the Ukrainian border.

The Defense Ministry said that such announcements directed at irritating the conflict in southeastern Ukraine are coming from a single source.

"[The source] is not Ukrainian but he is currently located in an administrative building in Kiev," the Defense Ministry spokesman said. "We call on [our] Western partners to address these dangers of this false information of Russian military forces directly to the source that has invented them in the future," he added.

The Russian leader delivers an important foreign policy address we should consider. The Times botches it badly.

Give me a sec to count. In my lifetime the Soviet Union and latterly the Russian Federation have had nine leaders. Stalin's death elevated Malenkov and then Khrushchev, and the banishing of Khrushchev led to Brezhnev. Then came a pair of forgettables, then Gorbachev and on to the ever-inebriated Yeltsin (whom one wants dearly to forget). For 15 years, counting the Dmitry Medvedev interval, Vladimir Putin has held the wheel of the Russian bus.

Of all these figures only Stalin, and only in his post-"Uncle Joe" years, has been vilified to the extent of the current Russian leader. The question is obvious and I hope not too complicated: Why?

There are always plenty of answers floating around. I take almost all of them to lie somewhere between misguided and malevolent by intent, but I will get to this in a minute. In as few words as I can manage, here is my thought: Putin has fallen drastically afoul of Washington - and his war is with Washington more than the Europeans - because those in deep slumber do not like to be awakened.

Israeli settlers and officials keep desecrating Al-Aqsa Mosque almost every day

Israeli occupation has decided to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque and built the so-called Jewish Temple in its place.

Just hours after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not change the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of his minister said that 'Israel' would demolish it and build the Jewish Temple in place of the Mosque.

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel said that 'Israel' cannot maintain the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque, which, he claims, "was built in the place of the holiest place for Jews".

Speaking to the Israeli Kol Berama radio station run by the Jewish extremist movement Shas, Ariel said building the Jewish Temple is the paramount demand of the Torah as it is at the forefront of Jewish salvation.

He expressed hope that the upcoming elections would change the political reality so there would be a chance to take to build the third Jewish Temple.

The extremist minister stressed that the Israeli governments have to respect the views of the public, which support the idea of building the temple.

After elections were held in Donbass, it seems clear there is no political will in Kiev for peace.

As ballots were cast, reports of another 'Russian convoy' emerged - and, as political observer Nebojsa Malic says, the claims again are not backed by any facts.

RT: We know Kiev is unhappy with these elections and will not recognise them. What will this do for attempts for peace in the region?

Nebojsa Malic: The situation as it is right now confirms that leaders in republics in the east have [the support of the population], which really sinks all the narrative coming out of Kiev and the Western press that these are the Russian fanatics somehow stirring up the peace in eastern Ukrainians to war. So, at this point, it means Kiev will have to talk to these people whether they want to or not. I think that in Kiev, as the comment of the volunteer battalion commander suggests, they really don't want to talk about anything with the people in Donbass. They really just want them to perish or somehow disappear and leave the land to the Kievites. At this point, I'm not very optimistic about the peace process, simply because there is no political will in Kiev to finish this peacefully. I think there is very much a state of mind in the Kiev-controlled parts of Ukraine to finish this by force in the spring when American weapons and other assistance become available. Whether that equipment will [arrive] or not is anybody's guess.