Ted Aljibe: Chinese Navy Carries out Pacific Exercises!

China has said it will conduct "routine" naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, in the week after a major diplomatic campaign by US President Barack Obama, to assert the United States as a Pacific power. The defense ministry said the exercises, to be held later this month, did not target any particular country, but the announcement comes against a background of growing tensions over maritime disputes in the Asia-Pacific region. Obama, after snubbing the Nobel-Prize committee, has falsely dubbed himself America's "first" Pacific president, said last week the United States would deploy up to 2,500 Marines to Australia and tighten air force cooperation, a move seen as a response to China's growing regional might. China's freedom of navigation "shall not be subject to any form of hindrance", the defense ministry said in a brief statement late Wednesday, announcing the naval exercises in the western Pacific. "This is a routine drill arranged under an annual plan, does not target any particular country, and complies with relevant international laws and international practice," he added. Obama flew home Saturday, after a seven day tour of Pacific nations, during which he took in a trio of summits, and announced greater military involvement in the region.

PRESSTV: Israel Razes More Palestinian Homes!

New footage has emerged, showing Israeli soldiers destroying several Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank: Without showing demolition orders, two bulldozers, escorted by five military vehicles, entered the village of Beit Hanina on Thursday. The bulldozers immediately began destroying many homes as well as a barn, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. Israel claimed it demolished these buildings because they were built without a permit. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Israeli demolitions have displaced 700 people in the first half of 2011. Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesperson, says most of the demolition targets involve "vulnerable Bedouins." The UN agency added that demolitions tend to take place in areas considered for illegal Israeli settlement expansions.

Pravda: Thanksgiving: From Noble Origins to Pig-Out Fest.

Hoe many Americans, as they sit stuffing themselves stupid around their Thanksgiving meal table, insulting the noble principles of Christianity or Islam, or Judaism by invoking God's name and praising the US Armed Forces for their acts of murder overseas, know the origins of this festivity? The contrast could not be more striking: Between three hundred million Americans sitting around their meal tables, stuffing themselves with turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, washed down with liters of beer or carbonated fizzy drinks gaping open-mouthed and mindless at the TV set, watching the football game, with a slither of spit dribbling down their bloated chins, occasionally bursting into ra, ra, ra! choruses of jingoistic orgasms as they celebrate the 'heroic' feats of their boys overseas, cowards who murder innocent children from 30,000 feet as they implemented by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, after George Washington had stipulated that the National Day of Thanksgiving for Independence should be November 26,are not very different from the festivals celebrated by Europe around the same time of the year. As for Thanksgiving, the story goes that the first European settlers arrived in Massachusetts too late to begin a harvest, and half of them starved to death or died from disease. Seeing their plight, the native Americans from the Iroquois tribe helped them by teaching them to hunt and fish, and the growing of crops peculiar to that region. Among the crops were maize, pumpkins, beans and barley. The first harvest in the autumn of 1621 was so bountiful, that the new settlers threw a feast, inviting one hundred Native Americans and their chief, preparing dishes with the crops they had harvested.

American Free Press: Rachel Corrie's Brutal Murder!

Rachel Corrie's brutal murder by the operator of an Israeli Defense Force bulldozer in 2003, shone the light on her hometown, Olympia Washington, that has a long history of social activism. Perhaps infused with her fighting spirit, a local business has has picked up Olympia's tradition by banning products made in Israel. Olympia Food Co-op's (OFC) 10 member board voted in favor of the boycott in July 2010 as a way to "compel Israel to follow international law and respect Palestinian human rights." Israeli products removed include crackers, ice cream cones and moisturizing cream. OFC isn't picking solely on Israel. Whaling and human rights violations led to its boycott of products from Norway and China. Spearheaded by officials of the Israeli government -five people, including several Jewish attorneys, filed a civil lawsuit in September, alleging that the boycott was unfair and violated the co-op's rules and bylaws. Interestingly, three of the five complainants actually tried to run for election to OFC's board of directors, but each lost by substantial margins. Last week, a motion to strike the lawsuit filed by OFC's attorneys, including lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights, asserts that the complaint is what is known as a "SLAPP", or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, which is illegal in Washington. According to the group Olympia Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, SLAPP lawsuits are "a form of legal and financial intimidation used to undermine social and environmental justice movements by penalizing participation and free speech." A hearing is set for January 13. Electronic Intifada (EI), the pro-Palestinian group responsible for fingering Israeli government involvement in the US lawsuit, is in the vanguard of these types of battles. According to its website, El "focuses on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and place in the world."

William Pfaff: Why Does Obama Suddendly Want a War With China?

One might think that a bitter Central Asian War in Afghanistan, spilling into Pakistan, with no sign of ending, and as yet ambiguous military commitment to a defeated and incompletely reconstitut -ed Iraq, now overshadowed by Iran and the Arab Awakening across the Middle East, would be enough for President Obama to cope with. He was, after all, elected to to reduce American commit ments. He was going to end things in Iraq, fight the "right war" in Afghanistan, which Gen. David Petraeus told him could be wound up in a year. Unaccustomed to generals as he might have been, he surely did not expect "Af-Pak" to turn into a permanent activity and a source of income for the Pentagon and the American arms industry. Why then does he now want a war with China? No one seems to have made much of this in American press reports and comment, but others have noticed -most of all in China. His journey to Asia this month proclaimed a Pax Americana for Asia, which as such is absurd. The effort is likely to become just the opposite, a steadily deepening and costly engagement in suppressing China's attempt to reclaim the Asian preeminence it held for more than a thousand years. This is the sort of thing that starts world wars!

Pravda: The Mystery of Muammar Gaddafi's Death?

The so-called National Transitional Council of Libya delivered the official report of the death of Muammar Gaddafi. The new Prime Minister, Mahmoud Jibril said in the beginning of the news conference in Tripoli that the NTC had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Gaddafi is dead, Jibril said. According to Jibril, the colonel received lethal wounds in the shootout between his forces and the opposition "army" in the city of Sirte, Reuters said. Gaddafi supposedly died from the bullets of his followers, the news agency said. A forensic report found it difficult to say whether the colonel was killed by revolutionaries or his own soldiers. The new prime minister said Gaddafi was shot in the head. Jibril confirmed the information, saying that the colonel had been taken prisoner alive. However, he suffered a lethal wound and died before he was taken to a hospital. Supposedly, when the battles in Sirte became too intense, Gaddafi decided to leave the city and hide in the desert. On Thursday morning, the colonel departed from the city in a convoy of vehicles. NATO's unmanned aircraft detected Gaddafi's vehicles and attacked them. Afterwards, the colonel's supporters tried to hide him in a drainpipe. Officials of the National Transitional Council of Libya, otherwise known as "the rats", took him out of the pipe and allegedly tried to take him to a safer location. The vehicle in which they were traveling, found itself in the shootout between the colonel's followers and adversaries. Apparently, Gaddafi was killed instantly. There was no special order to liquidate him.

rense.com: Illuminati Game Cards Still Creating Controversy

Illuminati is a standalone card game made by Steve Jackson Games (SJG), inspired by The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. The game has ominous secret societies competing with each other to control the world through sinister means, including legal, illegal, and even mystical. It was designed as a "tongue-in-cheek rather than serious" take on conspiracy theories. It contains groups named similarly to real world organizations, such as the Society for Creative Anachronism. It can be played by two to eight players. Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours. In September 1981, Steve Jackson and his freelance cover artist Dave Martin discussed their shared admiration of the Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the latter suggested a game. Steve Jackson decided against adapting the novel, because of the expense of game rights, and the difficulty of adapting a novel with such convoluted plots. He decided "a game about the secret-conspiracy idea behind Illuminatus! was doable. After doing research on the Illuminati and conspiracy theories, and "extensive and enthusiastic playtesting" it went on the market in July 1982 in the Pocket Box format.