Beijing vowed a resolute response to any intended provocation after the USS destroyer Lassen "illegally" entered the waters of the South China Sea near disputed islands.

"China strongly urges the U.S. side to conscientiously handle China's serious representations, immediately correct its mistake and not take any dangerous or provocative acts that threaten China's sovereignty and security interests," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia has persistently tried to involve Washington in its multinational efforts to defeat extremist groups in Syria but the White House seems to be doing everything to remain outside of the Moscow-led coalition and is therefore driving itself into a corner, Patrick Smith wrote for the Fiscal Times.

"The Obama administration's pants just dropped a few more inches below its knees. It's now perfectly evident that its default position is non-cooperation with Russia on any question and in any circumstance. It's not because of a Russia policy, a Syria policy or even a foreign policy of any kind. It's the plot line in a black hats-white hats Hollywood Western; even old friends aren't sitting still for it," Smith observed, referring to Jordan.

Amman, one of Washington's age-old allies in the Middle East and a member of the US-led anti-ISIL coalition, recently agreed to coordinate its counterterrorism activities with Russia through an information sharing center, which will soon be established in the Jordanian capital.

US military and intelligence officials are anxious about Russian submarines and spy ships operating around undersea global communications cables, The New York Times reported, adding that the main concern is Russia cutting the cables during conflict.

The report added that there was no concrete evidence supporting the concerns and was based on increased mistrust of any Russian activity.

"I'm worried every day about what the Russians may be doing," Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander of the Navy's submarine fleet in the Pacific, told the newspaper.

The undersea cables are seen as a serious vulnerability because of their importance in US economy and military and the lack of protection against a potential attack. They carry global business worth more than $10 trillion a day and more than 95 percent of daily communications, according to the NYT. But the locations of most of the cables are well-known and can be relatively easily reached without anyone noticing.

While lawmakers seem to have no problem finding funds for bombs fighter jets and terrorists in Syria and Iraq, it seems that it is much more difficult for them to find money to pay American soldiers for their service and pay for their healthcare once that service is over.

This is because Congressional Defense leaders on Tuesday announced that they are looking to enact more "entitlement and personnel reforms" in 2016.

The bill being submitted and debated by Congress would provide a much lower than anticipated pay raise for U.S. troops beginning in January 2016. It includes cuts in the growth of military housing stipends, an introduction of new co-pays for some military drug prescriptions and a scale-down of the commissary benefit.

The bill also includes changes to the traditional military retirement system and an overhaul of military healthcare offerings like Tricare.

In fact, Tricare "reform" is going to be a major focus in the coming debate. This comes after a military compensation and retirement modernization commission report released earlier this year recommended dumping Tricare completely, "realigning medical commands" and "better integrating Defense Department care with Veterans Affairs medical offerings."

Pentagon officials despite having an apparent limitless budget when it comes to funding bearded fanatics, and providing limitless amounts of weaponry to terrorists are now whining about the need to "rein in" personnel costs.

"Fear is a primitive impulse, brainless as hunger, and because the aim of horror fiction is the production of the deepest kinds of fears, the genre tends to reinforce some remarkably uncivilized ideas about self-protection. In the current crop of zombie stories, the prevailing value for the beleaguered survivors is a sort of siege mentality, a vigilance so constant and unremitting that it's indistinguishable from the purest paranoia."— Terrence Rafferty, New York Times

The zombies are back. They are hungry. And they are lurking around every corner.

In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback has declared October "Zombie Preparedness Month" in an effort to help the public prepare for a possible zombie outbreak.

In New York, researchers at Cornell University have concluded that the best place to hide from the walking dead is the northern Rocky Mountains region.

And in Washington, DC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have put together a zombie apocalypse preparation kit "that details everything you would need to have on hand in the event the living dead showed up at your front door."

The undead are also wreaking havoc at gun shows, battling corsets in forthcoming movie blockbusters such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, running for their lives in 5K charity races, and even putting government agents through their paces in mock military drills arranged by the Dept. of Defense (DOD) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The zombie narrative, popularized by the hit television series The Walking Dead, in which a small group of Americans attempt to survive in a zombie-ridden, post-apocalyptic world where they're not only fighting off flesh-eating ghouls but cannibalistic humans, plays to our fears and paranoia.

Yet as journalist Syreeta McFadden points out, while dystopian stories used to reflect our anxieties, now they reflect our reality, mirroring how we as a nation view the world around us, how we as citizens view each other, and most of all how our government views us.

Fear the Walking Dead—AMC's new spinoff of its popular Walking Dead series—drives this point home by dialing back the clock to when the zombie outbreak first appears and setting viewers down in the midst of societal unrest not unlike our own experiences of the past year ("a bunch of weird incidents, police protests, riots, and ... rapid social entropy"). Then, as Forbes reports, "the military showed up and we fast-forwarded into an ad hoc police state with no glimpse at what was happening in the world around our main cast of hapless survivors."

Forbes found Fear's quick shift into a police state to be far-fetched, but anyone who has been paying attention in recent years knows that the groundwork has already been laid for the government—i.e., the military—to intervene and lock down the nation in the event of a national disaster.

Recognizing this, the Atlantic notes: "The villains of [Fear the Walking Dead] aren't the zombies, who rarely appear, but the U.S. military, who sweep into an L.A. suburb to quarantine the survivors. Zombies are, after all, a recognizable threat—but Fear plumbs drama and horror from the betrayal by institutions designed to keep people safe."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has breached the respect and trust between the UK and Saudi Arabia, a move which may have "serious repercussions," the Gulf Kingdom's ambassador to Britain has warned.

Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz aired his views in the Telegraph newspaper in the wake of a row over UK contracts.

He warned that there had been "an alarming change in the way Saudi Arabia is discussed in Britain" and that the country's role as the center of Islam and as a key security partner were of "little concern to those who have fomented this change."

Abdulaziz said the new trend could have "potentially serious repercussions that could damage the mutually beneficial strategic partnership that our countries have so long enjoyed."

The ambassador singled out Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for his efforts to halt a contract to provide prison services to Saudi Arabia's notorious jails.

"The president has created a constitutional crisis," said Rui Tavares, a radical green MEP. "He is saying that he will never allow the formation of a government containing Leftists and Communists. People are amazed by what has happened."


Portugal has entered dangerous political waters. For the first time since the creation of Europe's monetary union, a member state has taken the explicit step of forbidding eurosceptic parties from taking office on the grounds of national interest.

Anibal Cavaco Silva, Portugal's constitutional president, has refused to appoint a Left-wing coalition government even though it secured an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament and won a mandate to smash the austerity regime bequeathed by the EU-IMF Troika.

He deemed it too risky to let the Left Bloc or the Communists come close to power, insisting that conservatives should soldier on as a minority in order to satisfy Brussels and appease foreign financial markets.

This is the worst moment for a radical change to the foundations of our democracy. President Cavaco Silva

Democracy must take second place to the higher imperative of euro rules and membership.

The Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against two "Hamas terror sites" in southern and central Gaza after a rocket launched from the territory landed in Israel. The rocket did not cause any casualties.

No one has taken responsibility for Monday's launch from Gaza so far.

Last year 450 rockets were fired at Israel's from Gaza, and a rocket from the territory landed in the south of the country last Wednesday.

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigades, a pro-Islamic State Salafist group operating inside Gaza, which claims that Hamas members are "traitors" and "collaborationists", has been behind most of the recent attacks, in what the IDF says is an attempt to provoke Israel into responding.

Brussels faces a second anti-austerity revolt as the Portuguese Left tears up the script and demands the right to govern. The anti-austerity revolt in Portugal is a foretaste of what may happen in a string of EMU states when the global economic expansion rolls over.

The delayed fuse on the eurozone's debt-deflation policies has finally detonated in a second country. Portugal has joined the revolt against austerity.

The rickety scaffolding of fiscal discipline and economic surveillance imposed on southern Europe by Germany is falling apart on its most vulnerable front.

Antonio Costa, Portugal's Socialist leader and son of a Goan poet, has refused to go along with further pay cuts for public workers, or to submit tamely to a Right-wing coalition under the thumb of the now-departed EU-IMF 'Troika'.

Against all assumptions, he has suspended his party's historic feud with Portugal's Communists and combined in a triple alliance with the Left Bloc. The trio have demanded the right to govern the country, and together they have an absolute majority in the Portuguese parliament.

Russia believes it is necessary to enhance the central role of the United Nations in fighting against terrorism, says an address of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the guests and participants in the meeting on the occasion of UN Day. The address was read out by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.

"I cordially greet you on the occasion of a solemn meeting dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. World War II came to an end 7 decades ago, and the Allied nations joined forces to lay the foundations of international relations for many years to come," the address says. "The UN designed to support peace and security on the planet was established. The UN Charter enshrined such basic principles of international law as the sovereign equality of states, non-interference in their internal affairs, peaceful resolution of disputes and the right of the peoples to determine their own destiny."