We begin with the Independent:
Isis in Kobani: US loses patience with Turkey and resupplies Kurdish fighters by plane – then Ankara allows reinforcements through
Turkey is to allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce the besieged Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani and US aircraft have dropped military supplies to its defenders to prevent its capture by the Islamic State.
The US resupply effort marks a radical change in American policy towards direct cooperation with Kurdish fighters on the ground, whom Turkey has denounced as terrorists. During the month-long siege of Kobani, just south of the Turkish border, the Turkish army has hitherto prevented arms, ammunition and reinforcements reaching the town.
American C-130 cargo planes dropped some 21 tons of weapons including anti-tank guns and medical supplies. Stepped-up US air strikes on Isis positions, using intelligence supplied by the Kurds, has helped repel the Islamic militants.
Complications from the McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Kurdish hope for autonomy drives politics across four nations’ boundaries
With its decision to drop ammunition and weapons to the defenders of the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border, the Obama administration has inserted the United States into one of the most complex territorial and ethnic disputes to roil the Middle East. Unlike the better known split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the battle to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the battle over Kobani pits a relatively obscure political group against the extremists of the Islamic State.
Deadly blowback in Canada from the Toronto Globe and Mail:
Two soldiers struck in Quebec hit-and-run
Two Canadian soldiers were injured in a hit-and-run incident that was quickly characterized as a “possible terror attack” by the federal government.
However, police are still investigating whether the soldiers were deliberately targeted.
One of the soldiers is in critical condition in hospital and authorities are “fearing for his life,” according to the Quebec provincial police. The other victim suffered more minor injuries.
The driver of the car was shot by local police in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., after his car rolled during a police pursuit. The suspect is in the incident is dead, according to the Sûreté du Québec. The 25-year-old male came from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and was “known to police,” according to Sergeant Michel Brunet, an SQ spokesman. He explained that the individual was named in various police databases, although he refused to provide more details at a news conference.
More from CBC News:
Martin Rouleau, Quebec driver shot by police, ‘radicalized’: RCMP
Hit and run that injured 2 soldiers raised in House of Commons as ‘possible terror attack’
A 25-year-old man who injured two soldiers in a hit and run and was later fatally shot by police in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., was known to federal authorities as someone who had been “radicalized,” according to the RCMP and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Martin Rouleau, a resident of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, about 40 kilometres southeast of Montreal, was known to provincial and federal law enforcement agencies, the RCMP said.
“This individual was known to federal authorities, including our integrated national security investigations team in Montreal, who along with other authorities were concerned that he had become radicalized,” the RCMP said in a statement Monday evening.
Radio-Canada reported that Rouleau’s Facebook page identifies him as Ahmad LeConverti (Ahmad the Converted). Neighbours told the CBC’s French-language service that he converted to Islam about a year ago.
More blowback, with a bust from TheLocal.de:
Four arrested in raids against Isis
Police raided 15 homes across Germany over the weekend and arrested four suspected supporters of the Islamic State (Isis). They are alleged to have smuggled a teenager and thousands of winter military clothes to the terrorist group’s frontlines.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung Saturday’s raids had originally been scheduled for the end of October, but was moved up when at least one of the Isis suspects began to suspect a police operation against them was being planned.
And preparations across the Pacific with Jiji Press:
FBI Agents Join Tokyo Police Counterterrorism Drill
Tokyo police were joined by two special inspectors of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday for a drill in Tokyo to prepare for possible terror attacks in the Japanese capital.
In the drill ahead of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020, the FBI inspectors, who are undergoing training at Japan’s National Police Agency, played suspicious characters.
It is unusual for FBI agents visiting Japan to join a drill open to the media. The drill by the Public Security Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department is apparently aimed at demonstrating Japan-US collaboration in the field of counterterrorism. The bureau is strengthening antiterrorism measures prior to the Tokyo Olympics.
The Guardian brings us Cold War 2.0:
Nuclear weapons deal with US renewed in secret, UK confirms
UK tables amendments to Mutual Defence Agreement
Proper scrutiny and Commons debate needed
The British government has just published amendments updating a treaty that goes to the heart of the UK’s special relationship with the US.
They relate to the Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA) first signed in 1958, which, according to the government, enables the UK and the US “nuclear warhead communities to collaborate on all aspects of nuclear deterrence including nuclear warhead design and manufacture”.
One amendment refers to potential threats from “state or non-state actors”. But the amendments are for the most part arcane and their significance cannot be understood in the absence of information which is kept secret.
The MDA does not have to be debated or voted on in parliament, as I have remarked before. Though the agreement is incorporated in US law, it has no legal status in Britain.
And from the London Telegraph, most interesting:
Cars of future ‘will detect heart attacks’ in drivers
In response to the ageing population, Ford cars will anticipate a driver’s heart attack, bring the vehicle to a safe halt and alert doctors
Cars will soon be fitted with seats that trigger a “safe” emergency stop if a driver suffers a heart attack.
Ford, the giant American manufacturer, said its seats will be fitted with sensitive electrodes that monitor the driver’s heart beat, through clothing, looking for irregularities.
The technology will work with a camera that tracks head movements and sensors on the steering wheel. If there are signs of a possible heart attack, a computer will take over steering and braking, guiding the car safely to a halt.
The Guardian covers the digital memory hole:
Google removes results linking to stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence nude
Links to sites hosting the hacked photos have started to be removed by Google after copyright takedown requests filed by Lawrence’s lawyers
Google has removed two links to a site hosting stolen nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence after requests by the actor’s lawyers.
The takedown requests were filed under the digital millennium copyright act (DMCA), with her lawyers Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp stating that the stolen photos impinged on Lawrence’s copyright.
The DMCA, which governs the use of copyrighted material and is usually used in reference to pirated TV shows, films and music, requires sites to “expeditiously” remove unlawful images from their servers.
From the Guardian again, spies and lies Down Under:
Australian government metadata requests far higher than disclosed
Requests for Australians’ phone, web browsing and location data exceeded half a million last year, ACMA figures reveal
The total number of government requests for Australians’ phone, location and web data is far higher than government agencies are disclosing, with more than 500,000 separate requests for information made last year.
The latest annual report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has revealed that there was 582,727 requests for phone, web browsing and location data – commonly known as “metadata” – that can reveal detailed information about a person’s personal lives and associations.
This figure is at odds with the more widely cited number of 300,000 a year, which is disclosed in the annual telecommunications interception reports made by the attorney general’s departments.
After the jump, the latest on those missing Mexican college students and town takeovers by federales, vanishing Australian civil liberties, the punitive panopticon Down Under, India launches a ballistic challenge to China, Thai scholar faces criminal charges for “insulting” a long-dead monarch, on to China and a Hong Kong crackdown, an off limits notice to scholars of the Maoist past, and a terrorist strike in Western China, on to Japan and a pax American, and racist insults challenged. . .
From BBC News, students still missing as federales take over towns:
Mexican federal police deployed to Guerrero towns
Mexican federal police have taken control of 12 towns in Guerrero state, where 43 students disappeared after clashing with the municipal police.
Eyewitnesses say the students were bundled into police cars after clashes in the town of Iguala on 26 September.
They have been missing ever since and forensic tests carried out on bodies found in nearby mass graves indicate they are not those of the students.
Thirty-six municipal officers are being questioned over their disappearance.
More from the Latin American Herald Tribune:
Police in Three Other Mexico Towns Decommissioned in Iguala Case
Police force members in three southern Mexican towns have been decommissioned because of links to the case of 43 students who went missing three weeks ago, according to local press reports.
The operation was carried out Sunday in the towns of Arcelia, Taxco and Buena Vista de Cuellar, all near the town of Iguala where the students disappeared.
In the move, the officers were relieved of their duties and their radio communications equipment was seized for analysis by the intelligence division of the Federal Police, the reports said Sunday.
The punitive panopticon Down Under from MintPress News:
Australia Is Curtailing Civil Liberties In Response To The Islamic State
IS has spooked Australia’s government to push through a series of reforms reminiscent of post-9/11 America
A battle is now being waged between the Australian government’s desire to ramp up national security measures and a counter effort to safeguard civil liberties. While government officials say the new legislation is necessary to protect citizens, critics accuse parliament of playing into public fears in order to scoop up broader powers it never intends to relinquish.
“This not only unfairly targets the Muslim community, it also reverses the onus of proof in a society where, like the United States, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said Hugh de Kretser, executive director of the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre.
The United States government has received criticism amid revelations of widespread surveillance of citizens under the post-9/11 Patriot Act and PRISM program in the United States. But it appears unlikely that Australia will deviate from the path forged by its North American ally: Parliament already passed the first of three proposed reforms with nearly unanimous support, and Abbott gives no indication of seeking middle ground.
Human rights groups, religious organizations, Internet rights groups and press freedom advocates have raised serious concerns about the potential for abuses of power as well as for infringement of the rights to privacy and free speech and protections for whistleblowers under the new law, passed Oct. 1.
India launches a ballistic challenge to China from Want China Times:
New Indian missile can strike deep into Chinese territory
India has successfully completed the test of a new long-range subsonic cruise missile capable of hitting Chinese territory.
On Oct. 17, the surface version of the Nirbhay — meaning “dauntless” or “fearless” — missile was tested at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in the Balasore district of Odisha, meeting all parameters and completing all 15 way-points. The missile reportedly traveled more than an hour and accurately hit its target.
“The missile maintained an accuracy better than 10 meters throughout its path and covered more than 1,000 kilometers,” said Avinash Chander, head of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Nirbhay’s developer.
A Thai scholar faces criminal charges for “insulting” a long-dead monarch, from BBC News:
Thai academic accused of insulting long-dead king
A prominent Thai academic has been accused of insulting the monarchy, for remarks about a king who died more than 400 years ago.
Two retired army officers have complained about the scholar, Sulak Sivaraksa, for comments he made about King Naresuan the Great. If convicted, Sulak could be imprisoned for 15 years.
Thailand’s strict lese-majeste law has over recent years been interpreted to cover even dead kings.
On to China and a legal crackdown from Global Times:
Hong Kong High Court grants 2nd injunction to bar demonstrators
The High Court of Hong Kong late on Monday granted an interim injunction to bar protesters from continuing to occupy the section between Tim Mei Avenue and Lung Wui Road.
The application was filed by proprietors of the CITIC Tower, who complained that blocked roads have affected operations of emergency vehicles and threatened their safety.
The injunction is the second of its kind granted by the High Court on Monday. The first injunction, applied by groups of minibus and taxi operators, forbid the demonstrators from occupying the section of Nathan Road between Argyle Street and Dundas Street in Mongkok, and from putting up barricades there to block traffic.
The first injunction is due to expire on Friday morning.
An off limits notice to scholars of the Maoist past from the Japan Times:
China likely will never open all files on painful past, official says
China’s ruling Communist Party will likely never open all the files on its recent painful past, including the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, and sees no need to reassess those periods, a senior party historian said Monday.
The 1958-1961 Great Leap Forward, when millions starved to death in Mao Zedong’s botched industrialization campaign, and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution are two of modern China’s most sensitive historical events.
During the Cultural Revolution, children turned on parents and students on teachers after Mao declared class war, convulsing the country in chaos and violence.
A terrorist strike from Want China Times:
Terror attack at Xinjiang market leaves at least 22 dead
At least 22 people have died in yet another violent attack in northwest China’s restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.
Radio Free Asia reported on Sunday that four men, believed to be from the Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority, attacked an ethnic Han Chinese farmers’ market in Bachu county armed with knives and explosives on Oct. 12.
The four assailants, aged between 25 and 30, stabbed an unknown number of police officers as they stormed into the market on two motorcycles, hurling explosives and attacking stall owners before being gunned down by security personnel, the report said, quoting three local police officers and eyewitnesses. The incident has not yet been officially confirmed by Beijing or reported by state media.
On to Japan and racist insults challenged from the Japan Times:
Japan, U.S. agree on new base environment accord
The Japanese and U.S. governments said Monday they have reached “substantial agreement” on a new accord that allows local Japanese officials to enter U.S. military bases to conduct environmental surveys of land expected to be returned to Japanese control.
The accord was proposed as a way to facilitate the contentious plan to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma elsewhere in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan.
But the outline of the new pact announced Monday does not offer details on the extent to which Japan will be ensured the right of access to U.S. facilities, leaving open the question of whether the pact will be effective in preventing contamination, including on land expected to be returned to Japanese control.
And, finally, challenging racism from Kyodo News:
Osaka mayor engages in shouting match with head of anti-Korean group
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto met with the head of an anti-Korean group on Monday as he considers cracking down on hate speech rallies in the western Japan city, but they ended up having a shouting match in which they more or less just insulted each other.
The meeting with Makoto Sakurai, who heads the group commonly known as Zaitokukai, at the city hall was tense from the beginning, with both men calling each other names.
Sitting 3 meters away, the two got close to a scuffle at one point before people around them intervened. The meeting, which was open to the media, ended in just 10 minutes, far earlier than originally planned.
