Some organized "student groups" in Hong Kong tried to occupy government buildings and blocked some streets. The police did what it does everywhere when such things happen. It used anti-riot squads, pepper spray and tear gas to prevent occupations and to clear the streets.

The "western" media are making some issue about this as if "western" governments would behave any differently.


The alleged issue in question is the election of new Hong Kong chief executive in 2017. According to Hong Kong's basic law, which was implemented when Britain gave up its dictatorship over the colony, there will be universal suffrage - everyone will be allowed to vote - but the candidates for the position will have to go through some pre-screening by a commission. This is what China had promised and this is what the students, falsely claiming that China is backtracking from its promises, want to change.

Peter Lee aka Chinahand has an excellent piece on the issue at Asia Times Online. But Lee is making one mistake in that he does not consider outside influence:

Occupy Hong Kong decided to light it, starting with a class boycott and demonstrations organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Students. And, since I'm never afraid to mix a metaphor, the Hong Kong government poured fuel on the fire by pepper-spraying and teargassing it.

Who really "decided to light this"? To me the protests, and the "western" reporting about it, have the distinct smell not of tear gas but of some expensive Color Revolution perfume of "western" origin.

"You don't know whether to laugh or cry," says the Canada Palestine Association in Vancouver, in reaction to B'Nai Brith's nomination of Stephen Harper for a Nobel Peace Prize

Strong reaction to a national Jewish organization's nomination of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a Nobel Peace Prize continues to mount.

On Friday, the head of B'nai Brith Canada announced his intention to put forward Harper's name for the world's most prestigious peace prize, for his "outstanding moral leadership" in support of Israel during its conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza.

"Moral clarity has been lost across much of the world, with terror, hatred and antisemitism filling the void," said Frank Dimant, CEO, B'nai Brith Canada, in a statement.

"More than any other individual, he has consistently spoken out with resolve regarding the safety of people under threat - such as opposing Russian aggression and annexation of Ukrainian territory - and has worked to ensure that other world leaders truly understand threat of Islamic terrorism facing us today," Dimant added.

The news was more than a representative of the Canada Palestine Association could bear.

"With nominating him, you don't know whether to laugh or cry," said Hanna Kawas, Vancouver chairperson of the organization, on Sunday.

"It's outrageous."

The Russian Duma has passed the final reading of a law forbidding holders of foreign passports from controlling or owning more than 20 percent of any media outlet. The law, proposed just ten days ago, will extensively affect Russia's publishing sector.

"The freedom of the press is guaranteed by our Constitution, and won't be affected," said Mikhail Margelov, one of the 430 deputies who voted to support the law, with only two voting against.

"The law is designed to protect our national interests, to safeguard the sovereignty of our media, and our country."

"The information war against Russia has its own laws, and has forced our hand," said Vadim Dengin, one of the authors of the new legislation, which was proposed by the three minority parties in the Russian parliament.

If, as expected, the law ratified by the upper chamber of the Russian parliament and Vladimir Putin, it will come into force in January 2016, though existing foreign-owned companies will have until 2017 to re-organize their ownership structure. Media that violate the law can be shut down, although not without a court order.

Activists accuse fracking firm Ineos of taking a "bribes and bulldozers" approach to shale gas exploration in the UK, as it offers affected landlords and communities a 6 percent future profit share.

In a bid to replicate the industry's progress in the US, where the sharing of shale gas profits is commonplace, Ratcliffe hopes to incentivize landowners and residents to agree to fracking in their neighbourhoods.

"We think this is a game changer for Britain," Ratcliffe said in a company statement. "Giving 6 percent of the revenues to those living above our shale gas operations will give them a real stake in the success of the venture and encourage the development of the whole shale gas industry".

His offer would amount to £375 million for residents in an exploration area over the lifetime of the project, divided between £250 million for homeowners and landowners directly above the wells and £125 million for nearby communities.

Ineos calculates that each of the 200 wells in an exploration area would generate £1.3 million for home and land owners and £600,000 for the community.

The offer to locals is more generous than the 1 percent figure the industry has already committed to.

Landowners, environmental groups and a stricter planning system have delayed the fracking agenda in the UK.

US-led coalition airstrikes destroyed grain silos and other targets in parts of northern and eastern Syria dominated by Islamic State, killing civilians while only wounding ISIS fighters, according to an organization monitoring war in Syria.

The overnight bombings hit mills and grain storage facilities in Manbij, a militant-held town in northern Syria. Coalition forces possibly mistook the structures for Islamic State holdings, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday.

The US military responded to the claims later Monday morning, according to Reuters, saying that Islamic State vehicles were adjacent to the grain storage facility, and that there is no evidence of civilian casualties.


The United States and Arab allies have conducted airstrikes against Islamic State and other jihadist groups in Syria since last week, and in Iraq since last month. The stated goal of the coalition's bombing campaign is to cripple Islamic State operations, including bases, combat forces, and supply lines. Islamic State, an Al-Qaeda splinter group that reportedly has as many as 30,000 fighters in the region, has come to control large areas of Syria and northern Iraq since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The group is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Washington's hegemonic position is being threatened by a new global movement that is fast becoming reality, with the BRICS group being a very important component of creating a truly multipolar world, Don DeBar, of CPR News, told RT.

On Sept. 26, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the US for his first official visit after a nine-year visa ban over allegations that he failed to stop anti-Muslim rioting when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. In 2005, he was denied entry to the US under a 1998 law barring entry to foreigners who have committed "particularly severe violations of religious freedom."

As part of his five-day trip, Modi addressed the UN General Assembly. He will also meet with the CEOs of 17 multinationals, including Google, Boeing, IBM, PepsiCo and MasterCard, and a have private dinner with US President Barack Obama. Modi's visit promises to be extremely important for the future development of Indian-US relations.

From the Jewish Journal two days ago. "David Brooks' son is in the Israeli army. Does it matter?"

One of the more interesting nuggets buried in a long, Hebrew-language interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks in the recent Ha'aretz magazine is the revelation, toward the very end, that Brooks's oldest son serves in the Israel Defense Forces.

"Brook's connection to Israel was always strong," the article reports. "He has visited Israel almost every year since 1991, and over the past months the connection has grown even stronger, after his oldest son, aged 23, decided to join the Israel Defense Forces as a "lone soldier" [Ed. Note: a soldier with no immediate family in Israel].

"'It's worrying,'" says Brooks, 'But every Israeli parent understands this is what the circumstances require. Beyond that, I think children need to take risks after they leave university, and that they need to do something difficult, that involves going beyond their personal limits. Serving in the IDF embodies all of these elements. I couldn't advise others to do it without acknowledging it's true for my own family.'"

This is now the third Times reporter/writer whose son has gone into the Israeli Defense Forces. Famously Ethan Bronner, of course - whose son's service was disclosed not by the NYT but by EI - and a third person I will not identify (I know the individual personally, the beat didn't involve the Middle East, the son left before long).

Vaclav Klaus, longtime president and prime minister of the Czech Republic who is still highly popular, is one of the most respected and outspoken conservatives in Europe.

He has a reputation for straight talk and brilliance. The English magazine The Spectator publishes an interview with him in this week's issue by Neil Clark entitled "The Lies Europe Tells About Russia".

Klaus bemoans EU bureacracy bloat, EU non-market economic policies, and the "tragic misunderstanding ... on same-sex marriages and all that stuff about family."

According to a senior member of the staff of then-Secretary of the Navy John Dalton, the test firing of a new generation Navy missile from the submarine USS Seawolf accidentally struck TWA flight 800 en route from New York to Paris on July 17, 1996. According to the former Navy official, the missile test was so important for the Clinton administration, it was being shown live on a Navy closed-circuit television feed at the White House. The Seawolf's missile was to have struck a drone reportedly being towed by a Navy P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft. However, to the horror of the Navy personnel involved with the test and senior White House staff gathered to witness the missile's successful launching, it veered off course and intercepted the TWA 800 Boeing 747, killing the 230 passengers and crew on board the aircraft.

ABC News Paris correspondent and former John F. Kennedy Press Secretary and U.S. Senator Pierre Salinger reported that a U.S. Navy missile, according to his sources, had downed TWA 800. A vicious smear campaign was launched against Salinger and he was eventually fired by ABC. This editor subsequently spoke at length with Salinger about both TWA 800 and Pan Am 103. We agreed that the investigations of both involved U.S. government cover-ups.

The Seawolf, which had recently completed sea trials but had not yet been fully commissioned into service, was participating in a major Navy exercise off Long Island in exercise area W-105. The exercise was dubbed GLOBAL YANKEE '96. Ironically, the Seawolf was to be commissioned in Groton, Connecticut on July 17, 1997, the anniversary of the shooting down of TWA 800, but the Navy, sensitive to the date, altered the commissioning to July 19, two days later. Margaret Dalton, the wife of Navy Secretary John Dalton, carried out the submarine's "christening" in Groton.

A commander of one of the Ukrainian neo-nazi battalions, the Donbass, Semyon Semyonchenko, has just returned from the US, where he met with senior senators from both parties, and received commitments of material support.

He posted a comment on Facebook in which he gives a detailed explanation of this assistance.

He was also received by IRI (International Republican Institute) and NDI (National Democratic Institute), the international branches of the two main American political parties, and met with democratic Senator Robert Menendez and republican senator Robert Corker.

"Menendez and Corker are the two senators who have sponsored the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, a bill that will allocate money to provide assistance to Ukraine, including the supply of weapons. Radar, anti-tank weapons, drones, communications systems and many other useful things for our army. "