Reports are that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup.An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to an op-ed in Forbes, that's enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over twenty years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets. Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest. The question is, why?

Recently revealed statements by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the height of the banking crisis in October 2008 could give some insights into that question. An article on BBC News on September 21, 2013, drew from an explosive autobiography called Power Trip by Brown's spin doctor Damian McBride, who said the prime minister was worried that law and order could collapse during the financial crisis. McBride quoted Brown as saying:

If the banks are shutting their doors, and the cash points aren't working, and people go to Tesco [a grocery chain] and their cards aren't being accepted, the whole thing will just explode.

If you can't buy food or petrol or medicine for your kids, people will just start breaking the windows and helping themselves.

And as soon as people see that on TV, that's the end, because everyone will think that's OK now, that's just what we all have to do. It'll be anarchy. That's what could happen tomorrow.

How to deal with that threat? Brown said, "We'd have to think: do we have curfews, do we put the Army on the streets, how do we get order back?"

A court in Bahrain sentenced nine people to life in prison on charges of forming a militant group, manufacturing explosives and plotting attacks aimed at destabilizing the restive Gulf kingdom.

Four of the defendants were present in court for the verdicts and the remaining five, tried in absentia, saw an additional 10 years tacked onto their life-sentences for failing to turn themselves in.

Life imprisonment in Bahrain entails 25-years behind bars.

According to the Bahrain News Agency, the convicted men had turned a Manama warehouse into a bomb factory, where they had prepared explosives to attack security forces, civilians and private and public property "with the aim of undermining the stability of the country and harming its economic foundations".

Investigators say in searching the suspects' homes and other locations utilized in their plot, they seized highly explosive packs of nitro-glycerin and nitro-cellulose.

"A memory chip confiscated from suspects included video clips, lessons on manufacturing bombs and explosives, Al-Qassam-type rockets, anti-tank weapons and also methods for procurement of substances usable in making bombs. DNA tests and fingerprints from the locations were proven to be compatible with those of a number of the suspects," ANA continued.

China has warned the US that the prospect of Washington's first ever default over the debt-ceiling deadline could seriously harm Chinese economic interests.

In a Monday press conference, China's Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said "the clock is ticking" and politicians in Washington should "ensure the safety of the Chinese investments".

"As the world's largest economy and the issuer of the major reserve currency in the world, it is important for the US to maintain the creditworthiness of its Treasury bonds," Guangyao said.

The Chinese official said China has made clear its unease with the political impasse in Washington with the US government¸ which is in a partial shutdown due to a dispute between Republicans and Democrats on spending legislation.

Terror suspect Abu Anas al-Libi was released by British police in 1999, a year after he allegedly get involved in the twin attacks on US embassies in East Africa, it has been revealed.

Al-Libi, who has been captured by US Special Forces in Libya earlier on Sunday, was reportedly arrived in Britain in 1995 and lived in Manchester after he was given political asylum in the UK.

There are reports that the 49-year-old suspect was arrested by the British police in 1999, a year after the bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Al-Libi, whose name was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, was released by the Metropolitan police and later fled the UK.

Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee Keith Vaz said the serious questions over al-Libi being granted UK asylum would be raised with the Home Secretary Theresa May when she appears before British MPs next week.

The US Special Forces seized al-Libi in a commando raid in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Washington claims the abductee is linked to al-Qaeda and that he has been one of the masterminds behind the US embassy attacks.

Extremists are using the Syrian civil war as a training ground before returning to the UK, British Home Secretary Theresa May has warned.

May said the Home Office was aware of some British nationals going to Somalia and Syria for terrorist training to fight alongside al-Qaeda-linked organizations.

"Some of those people are potential terrorists, some of whom may get training, and in some cases may engage in conflict and then potentially return to the UK," May told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

British Home Secretary also warned that the individuals could pose a potential threat if they return to the country.

The Home Office's comments come a few days after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said terrorists from more than 83 countries are operating in Syria, killing innocent civilians and Syrian soldiers in the Arab country.

A report says communications at Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry has been spied on by Canadian intelligence services, as the country has mining interests in the South American nation.

The new disclosure was reported by Brazilian Globo television on Sunday and was based on leaked documents by US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents showed that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had made a detailed outline of the Brazilian ministry's communications including phone calls, emails, and internet traffic.

Brazil's Mining and Energy Minister Edilson Lobao described the revelations as "serious" and said that it has possibly been spied on due to Canadian companies' mining interests in the country.

"There are many Canadian businesses interested in doing business in our country. If that is where the interest in spying comes from, to help certain business interests, I cannot say," Lobao stated.

Canada is not the only country to have spied on Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry.

The Assad regime in Syria deserves credit for complying with the chemical weapons deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry said after the first high-level meeting with his Russian counterpart since Moscow and Washington agreed on the deal.

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia on Monday morning.

"The process has begun in record time and we are appreciative for the Russian co-operation and obviously for the Syrian compliance," Kerry said.

The Secretary of State also said that the US has agreed with Russia to move towards Syria peace talks as soon as possible.

Lavrov stressed that Russia is satisfied with the process of chemical weapons elimination in Syria, saying that over the last two weeks "Damascus flawlessly cooperated with the international inspectors."

The two parties spoke after the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that they had begun eliminating Syria's chemical weapons, with chemical experts in Syria destroying missile warheads, aerial bombs, and chemical mixing equipment on Sunday.

"I think it's extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the (UN) resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were being destroyed," Kerry stressed. "I think it's a credit to the Assad regime, frankly. It's a good beginning and we welcome a good beginning."

Egyptian celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Arab-Israeli War were marred by a fresh wave of violence, with at least 53 people killed and over 200 wounded in clashes between police and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

RT's Arabic team also got caught in the turmoil in Cairo, with producer Ahmad al-Ashqar getting injured in the right leg in Giza's Dokki district.

At least 53 people were killed and 268 others injured across Egypt, AFP cited senior health ministry official Ahmed al-Ansari as saying. At least 45 individuals were killed in Cairo and another five south of the capital, according to the official.

Deputy Interior Minister General Sayed Shafiq told local media that the security situation is now "under control" in Cairo.

At least 423 people were arrested in Cairo and Giza during clashes on Sunday, the country's Interior Ministry said. According to the Ministry's Facebook page, 180 people were detained in Giza, and another 243 people were apprehended in downtown Cairo.

Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden is making waves today for an off-color joke he recently told.

The retired spymaster was speaking at a Washington Post forum on cyber security recently when he acknowledged that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been nominated for a human rights award. Hayden quipped, "I must admit in my darker moments over the past several months, I'd also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden but it was for a different list."

With the U.S. government shutdown and a threatened credit default, Tea Party Republicans are testing out a new system of national governance in which they get their way - or else. But is this the beginning of a new Jim Crow era of imposed white supremacy or just the white man's last tantrum, asks Robert Parry.

American pundits are missing the bigger point about the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government and the GOP's threatened default on America's credit. The real question is not what policy concessions the Tea Partiers may extract, but rather can a determined right-wing white minority ensure continuation of white supremacy in the United States?

For years, political scientists have been talking about how the demographic changes in the United States are inexorably leading to a Democratic majority, with Hispanics and Asian-Americans joining African-Americans and liberal urban whites to erode the political domains of white conservatives and white racists.

But those predictions have always assumed a consistent commitment to the democratic principle of one person, one vote - and a readiness of Republicans to operate within the traditional standards of democratic governance. But what should now be crystal clear is that those assumptions are faulty.

Instead of accepting the emergence of this more diverse and multi-cultural America, the Right - through the Tea Party-controlled Republicans - has decided to alter the constitutional framework of the United States to guarantee the perpetuation of white supremacy and the acceptance of right-wing policies.

In effect, we are seeing the implementation of a principle enunciated by conservative thinker William F. Buckley in 1957: "The white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically." Except now the Buckley rule is being applied nationally.