Published reports have revealed that US President Barack Obama rode an elevator this month with an armed security contractor who had three criminal convictions, a violation of Secret Service security protocols.

The Washington Examiner and the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the latest incident took place in an elevator during Obama's September 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The latest embarrassment for the Secret Service, which protects the president, comes after agency Director Julia Pierson took full responsibility for a September 19 breach of the White House.

The Post said agents questioned the contractor and discovered his criminal history after he refused to stop video recording the president with a phone camera.

Agents did not know he was armed until a supervisor fired the contractor on the spot, and the man turned over his gun.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to an email request for comment sent by the AP news agency.

Four council staff were "relieved of their duties" during the Scottish independence referendum count after high-fiving each other when a "Yes" vote was opened.

It is also claimed boos were heard when "No" votes were opened at the Highland and Islands count in Dingwall.

It is believed complaints were made by members of the Lib Dems and Labour who were acting as official monitors.

Highland Council has confirmed it received complaints during the count.

A spokesperson for the Highland Counting Officer said: "Complaints were made about a count staff team of four people at the referendum count in Dingwall and as a result the team were stood down and replaced."

The goal of the US in Hong Kong is clear - to turn the island into an epicenter of foreign-funded subversion with which to infect China's mainland more directly.

Protesters of the "Occupy Central" movement in Hong Kong shout familiar slogans and adopt familiar tactics seen across the globe as part of the United States' immense political destabilization and regime change enterprise. Identifying the leaders, following the money, and examining Western coverage of these events reveal with certainty that yet again, Washington and Wall Street are busy at work to make China's island of Hong Kong as difficult to govern for Beijing as possible.

Naming Names: Who is Behind "Occupy Central?"

Several names are repeatedly mentioned amid coverage of what is being called "Occupy Central," the latest in a long line of US-engineered color revolutions, and part of America's vast, ambitious global geopolitical reordering which started in earnest in 2011 under the guise of the so-called "Arab Spring."

Benny Tai, a lecturer of law at the University of Hong Kong, is cited by various sources across the Western media as the primary organizer - however there are many "co-organizers" mentioned alongside him. The South China Morning Post in an article titled, "Occupy Central is on: Benny Tai rides wave of student protest to launch movement (1)," mentions most of them (emphasis added):

Political heavyweights including Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, former head of the Catholic diocese Cardinal Jospeh Zen Zi-kiun and Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming addressed the crowd.

The Post also mentions (emphasis added):

Jimmy Lai Chi-Ying, the embattled boss of Next Media who is under investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption over donations to pan-democrat politicians, said he arrived immediately after a call from Martin Lee Chu-ming.

Benny Tai regularly attends US State Department, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiary the National Democratic Institute (NDI) funded and/or organized forums. Just this month, he spoke at a Design Democracy Hong Kong (NDI-funded) conference on political reform. He is also active at the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) - also funded by NDI. CCPL's 2013-2014 annual report lists Benny Tai as attending at least 3 of the center's functions, as well as heading one of the center's projects.

Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai, and Joseph Zen are all confirmed as both leaders of the "Occupy Central" movement and collaborators with the US State Department. Martin Lee, founding chairman of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, would even travel to the United States this year to conspire directly with NED as well as with politicians in Washington. Earlier this year, Lee would even take to the stage of NED's event "Why Democracy in Hong Kong Matters." Joining him at the NED-organized event was Anson Chan, another prominent figure currently supporting the ongoing unrest in Hong Kong's streets.

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday argued that a recent security breach at the White House had happened because the Secret Service had placed a woman on duty instead of "a really strong person."

CBS News reported on Tuesday that a man who jumped the White House fence made it all the way into the East Room after overpowering a female Secret Service agent.

Speaking to Fox News and on her radio show on Tuesday, Ingraham asserted that officials had hired a female Secret Service director and female agents because of "political correctness."

"They brought in a woman, first female director - remember the Obama administration loves firsts," Ingraham said on her radio show, according to a transcript provided by Media Matters. "You get the sense at some point that it's the first that's more important than the common sense."

"What works - let's do what works best, ok?" she continued. "Is it to have a woman there or is it just to have a really strong person there? A big, hulking person. Female, male, I don't care."

"They want to be historic. They want it to be an historic appointment, instead of thinking, 'gee, maybe we just need the best people.'"

Tornado bombers from Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) have carried out their first attacks against the Islamic State in Iraq, according to the Ministry of Defense (MoD).

"This action is part of the international coalition's operations to support the democratic Iraqi government," the MoD said in a statement.

"In the course of an armed reconnaissance mission from RAF Akrotiri, two Tornados were tasked to assist Kurdish troops in north-west Iraq who were under attack from Isil (Isis) terrorists," the statement continued.

Two Tornado GR4 aircraft were used, which are now based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The Tornado is an all-weather day and night fighter bomber, which has been in use by the RAF since the 1980s and is now becoming a little long in the tooth.

According to the statement, the patrol identified a heavy weapon position belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), which was attacking Kurdish forces in the area.

The planes used a Paveway IV guided bomb and a Brimstone anti-armor missile to take out the position, as well as an armed pick-up truck.

Until now, RAF Tornados have been limited to flying reconnaissance missions over Iraq, and only began armed patrols after the UK parliament agreed to authorize military action against ISIS on Friday.

UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has said that RAF planes could be engaged in bombing ISIS for years to come.

Although there is widespread skepticism of the effectiveness of airstrikes, Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted that they are crucial in the future destruction of the hardline Islamist group, adding that the most important tools in the fight against the Islamic State are better armed Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and better trained Iraqi troops.

Russia's Federation Council will boycott a scheduled business roundtable with US Senators next month, and has voiced intentions to stop co-operation with all sanction-supporting EU parliaments.

The decision by members of the upper house to stay away from the October 14-15 summit in New York was voiced by the Council's International Affairs Committee to Izvestia newspaper. The forum was to give leading politicians and businessmen the chance to discuss "market conditions, complicated geopolitical relationships, and regulatory developments in Russia."

"Inter-parliamentary relations with the US have never been great. And today attempts to respond to any opportunity to suddenly say hello to Americans appear to be inappropriate after our former colleague - a senator, who today leads the US - described the Ebola virus as the world's threat No. 1, and Russia as threat No. 2," said the deputy chairman of the committee, Andrey Klimov, referring to a recent speech by Barack Obama.

Klimov said that Russian parliamentarians would not be barred from holding individual meetings with US officials.

The move appears to be part of a wider drive to restrict official contacts with Western parliaments, which Vladimir Dzhabarov, the deputy head of the International Affairs Committee, said had been "fruitless" in recent times.

In a ruling Monday, US bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes threw out a motion to stop mass water shutoffs in Detroit, declaring that city residents had no "fundamental right" to water service. The ruling sanctioned the city's brutal policy, which has terminated service to nearly 50,000 low-income households since January 2013 and continues at the pace of 400 households a day.

Rhodes dismissed a lawsuit filed by victims of the water shutoffs, which argued that the city's policy was doing irreparable harm to residents and threatened to create a public health disaster. The residents argued that the city's policy violated the 14th Amendment's prohibition against a state "depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law" and the principle of "equal protection" under the law, since service to major corporations, which failed to pay, had not been discontinued.

On this basis, the plaintiffs sought a six-month moratorium on shutoffs and the restoration of service to households without water. This time was needed, the coalition of liberal and Democratic Party-affiliated groups behind the lawsuit argued, to craft a plan with the city to reduce rates for low-income families.

In throwing out the due process claim, the judge said the plaintiffs could not "plausibly allege that they have a liberty or property interest in receiving water service, let alone water service based on ability to pay." Nothing in city or state law, he said, "establishes property or liberty interests," he declared, specifically leaving out any mention of the right to "life" contained in the US Constitution.

A district development council head was killed in a militant attack in southeastern Paktia province while four people -- believed to be civilians -- lost their lives in a NATO drone strike in southern Khost on Tuesday.

Paktia police chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zaman told Pajhwok Afghan News the development council head for Syed Karam district Mirza Mohammad was shot dead by militants in the morning.

He said the militants were in a car and managed to flee after the attack. An Investigation into the incident is underway. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the assassination.

According to another report, four people believed to be civilians were killed in a drone strike in Ali Sher district of Khost province, the governor's spokesman said. Mubarez Mohammad added the four people were traveling in a car when they came under attack.

U.S. banks cut their branches by 1.7 percent over the past year amid shifting customer choices. Arizona's branch total has been stable, reflecting population gains and the lack of major mergers here.
Banks closed more than 1,600 branches across the nation over the past year, as companies directed more attention to dealing with customers through digital channels.

The 1.7-percent reduction in the number of branches between mid-2013 and mid-2014 was reported by researcher SNL Financial and based on reports filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. SNL said the consolidation was fueled by banks' desire to cut costs and divert more resources to digital services. In some states, mergers and acquisitions resulted in the shuttering of some duplicative branches.

It was the largest annual branch reduction since the FDIC began reporting electronic records in 1994, according to SNL Financial's report. It brings the nation's branch count back down to 1996 levels. But it didn't dim the ability of banks to attract deposits. Overall deposits hit $10.1 trillion at midyear, up from $7.6 trillion when the number of branches peaked in 2009.

Among the big three banks operating in Arizona, Chase cut 15 branches nationally while Wells Fargo added 17, according to SNL Financial. Both moves represented changes of less than 0.5 percent in the branch totals of those two institutions. But Bank of America shaved 305 offices or 5.6 percent of its nationwide total.

The Pentagon has supplied at least eight counterinsurgency and military-planning experts to Kiev to help Western-backed Ukrainian forces engaged in tense conflict with Russian-speaking populations in the east.

The US military staff will be split into two units. One team will help Ukraine with planning tactics, techniques, and other procedures, while gathering information on needs of Kiev security forces, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez told the The Washington Times. The other team will assess how the US could offer medical assistance to Ukrainian forces.

The staff arrived in Kiev on Thursday and Friday, the Times reported, and are in the process of evaluating the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

"With support from Ukraine and the State Department, the security assessment team will also explore the potential of expanding our current Office of Defense Cooperation in Kiev, to enhance Ukraine's military capabilities and interoperability," Lainez said.

The operatives arrived in Kiev as US and allies completed several days of military training exercises in western Ukraine. A total of 1,300 troops from 15 nations, either active NATO members or candidate-countries, participated in the drills this month known as 'Rapid Trident,' which ended on Friday.