USA - By mid morning on Monday, September 17, as Occupy Wall Street protesters marched around the perimeter of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, all signs that an FRPD (Federal Reserve Police Department) existed had disappeared. The FRPD patrol cars and law enforcement officers had been replaced by NYPD patrol cars and officers. That decision may have been made to keep from drawing attention to a mushrooming new domestic police force that most Americans do not know exists. Quietly, without fanfare or Congressional hearings, the USA Patriot Act in 2001 bestowed on the 12 privately owned Federal Reserve Banks, domestic policing powers.

UK - David Cameron risks going down in history as a "guilty man" for ordering defence cuts which make Britain more vulnerable to war, experts warned yesterday. His defence policy is likely to lead to more wars in the future because Britain will appear weak, two reports by the UK National Defence Association said. And in a hard-hitting foreword Tory historian Andrew Roberts said the prime minister and his Cabinet risk going down in history as “Guilty Men” such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain who oversaw defence cutbacks even as Hitler rose to power. Mr Roberts warned: “Nothing can ruin a British statesman’s reputation quicker or more completely than being suspected of having neglected the nation’s defences.”

UK - Pressure for a referendum on leaving the European Union stepped up a gear yesterday when two Tory heavyweights backed radical change and a national vote. Former Prime Minister Sir John Major and ex-Defence Secretary Liam Fox said Britain’s relationship with the EU must be redrawn and the results endorsed in a referendum. Dr Fox said that ultimately the country’s “fate and destiny” must be placed in the people’s hands – and that they could decide to quit if Europe refused our terms. Campaigners pressing for a straight in-out referendum said their comments marked some progress but that the Conservatives must move much more quickly to promise people a clear vote on whether to stay in Europe.

INDIA - The army’s defences on the China border will get a major offensive boost with the impending deployment of two tank brigades, one each in Ladakh and north-east India. This is the first time that India will deploy armoured formations on the China border. Such formations, equipped with main battle tanks and BMP-II infantry combat vehicles, are traditionally used for striking into enemy territory.

CHINA - Mass protests have taken place in dozens of Chinese cities since Japan announced it had nationalised the Senkaku islands – known as the Diaoyu in China – islands last week. The protests were fanned on Tuesday by the 81st anniversary of the Mukden Incident, a staged bombing on a Japanese railway that gave the Imperial Japanese army a pretext for invading China in 1931. Largely forgotten in the West, in China the anniversary is remembered as the National Day of Humiliation.

BEIJING, CHINA - Amid a raging dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea, the Chinese army has scaled up its military exercises on all fronts including aerial drills by its air force in Tibet as well as by Special Forces. Special operations forces from the PLA have begun an annual set of military drills aimed at training reconnaissance capabilities and survival skills, state-run CCTV reported.

MIDDLE EAST - Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.

ISRAEL/USA - ‘The issue is not whether we trust the US,’ says Israel’s envoy to Washington. ‘The issue is our responsibility as a sovereign Jewish state’. It’s not easy being an ambassador in a high-profile posting when your home country and your host country are in the midst of a very public row over an acutely sensitive issue.

USA/ISRAEL - President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet on Sunday in an unannounced meeting, The London Telegraph reported Sunday. There has been no confirmation or denial from Washington - but the Prime Minister’s spokesman Mark Regev told Arutz Sheva on Sunday that the newspaper’s report they will meet on Sunday is “incorrect.” Concerning a meeting in the near future, he issued a “no comment” response.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - A top aide to the Israeli defense minister has signaled in a television interview that Israel will not unilaterally attack Iran in the coming weeks, indicating that diplomacy has so far kept Tehran's nuclear energy program in check.

USA - The US Federal Reserve's third round of bond-buying could ultimately rival the size of its first huge quantitative easing, which was widely seen as boosting growth. The sheer scale of the program and the radical shift in policy it marks will shape the legacy of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term may end before the buying is through.

FRANCE - Half of France’s drugs are ‘useless’ and five percent are dangerous, a book by two top French doctors claimed. The duo believes the pharmaceutical industry is forcing ineffective drugs on the market, costing taxpayers up to ten billion euros a year. The duo reviewed 4,000 French drugs and found that 50 percent were ‘useless,’ 20 percent were ‘badly tolerated’ and five percent had adverse effects.

AFGHANISTAN - The Taliban have announced that Prince Harry was the main target of an attack last night on his base in Afghanistan, which left two US Marines dead and others injured. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles stormed heavily-fortified Camp Bastion, the British HQ in Helmand, in a deadly assault on the ‘aviation area’. A commander for the radical Islamic movement told Sky News the Prince was their primary target and secondly as revenge for an amateur anti-Muslim video recently posted on YouTube.

CHINA - Massive demonstrations against Japan over its control of disputed East China Sea islands hit more than two dozen cities in China, occasionally turning violent. Protesters burned Japanese flags and clashed with paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy. The angry mobs threw rocks, bottles, eggs and traffic cones at the embassy. Many fear that the increased violence could backfire ahead of a Communist Party leadership succession.

CHINA/JAPAN - China "must strictly be on guard to prevent harm to Japanese citizens and companies", Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Fuji TV on Sunday, as anti-Japanese protests swept the mainland for the second day. The protests erupted Saturday after the Japanese government decided to buy the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea from a private Japanese owner. China, Japan, and Taiwan have all claimed the island territories, which may contain oil reserves.