BREAKING INTEL: Most of Damascus in FSA Hands! Ecuador Considering Assad Asylum. Rebel Leader Meets with EU Ministers. Kurds Join Up.

The Kurdish National Council KNC has announced that it will join the Syrian National Coalition.

https://twitter.com/NMSyria

Leader of Syria’s new opposition meets with EU ministers

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/12/10/254343.html

EXTRA: EU releases 30 million euros in extra aid for Syria refugees

http://www.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=3&articleid=5518592

 

Germany expels four Syria embassy staff to curb ties to Bashar al-Assad regime

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Dec-10/197935-germany-expels-four-syrian-embassy-staff-ministry.ashx#axzz2Ee3ZG4wF

Ecuador says asylum for Assad not ruled out

AFP – Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, in an interview published Monday, said his country would consider granting asylum [...]

REPORT: France, Germany raid homes of bank officials, rich clients… Forcing wealthy French to pay their taxes

“On Tuesday, German police searched the homes of an unspecified number of Credit Suisse bank customers suspected of tax evasion. In France, detectives raided the offices of Swiss banking and finance house UBS in three major cities: Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg.

Officials in both countries refused to say whether the raids were coordinated or coincidental.

Switzerland has long prided itself on its banking secrecy, entrenched in law since 1934, making it a criminal offense to [...]

Former CIA spy: Iran has sleeper cells in the U.S.

Reza Kahlili, living in the shadows with a fake name and disguise, worked from inside the Revolutionary Guard. He warns of terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S. and a plot to destroy Israel.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-na-iran-spy-20120707,0,3089447,full.story

After graduating from USC, Kahlili returned to Iran just before the 1979 revolution toppled the Shah. A childhood friend recruited him into the Revolutionary Guard, where he gained an insider’s access to the new Islamic government — and [...]

WARNING: New unknown mystery virus killing children in Cambodia with NEARLY 100% fatality rate and they’re dying while under medical care in a hospital!!

The country’s health ministry announced July 4 that it was working with the World Health Organization to actively investigate the cause of the deaths. Preliminary findings had identified 74 cases, the World Health Organization said in a July 6 statement, with the majority of the patients hospitalized in the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital in Phnom Penh.

“We have now to see what really is causing the deadly pulmonary complication and see [...]

Israel had protests this weekend and many were arrested (85 in Tel Aviv):

Eighty-five people were arrested in Tel Aviv overnight after scuffles between demonstrators and security forces following the detention of a social protest leader, police said on Sunday.

The unrest broke out in reaction to incidents during a small rally on Friday, when police arrested Dafni Leef, one of the leaders of the social protest movement that rocked Israel in summer last year.

“The protesters carried out acts of vandalism, blocked the Tel Aviv ring road and refused to [...]

BREAKING ALERT: FOOD STAMP PROGRAM FACES CUTS

WASHINGTON — With 1 in 7 Americans now receiving food stamps, Republicans in Congress are leading efforts to cut back the social safety net program that has swelled to one of the largest in the federal government — and they are getting some support from Democrats.

The farm bill being debated in the Senate reduces funding for food stamps and is finding support from both sides of the aisle as lawmakers look for ways to cut the [...]

Less affluent countries push towards universal healthcare. China is on track to complete a three-year, $124-billion initiative projected to cover more than 90% of the nation’s residents.

By Noam N. Levey, Washington BureauMay 12, 2012, 5:00 a.m.

WASHINGTON — Even as Americans debate whether to scrap President Obama‘s healthcare law and its promise of guaranteed health coverage, many far less affluent nations are moving in the opposite direction — to provide medical insurance to all citizens.China, after years of underfunding healthcare, is on track to complete a three-year, $124-billion initiative projected to cover more than 90% of the nation’s residents.
Mexico, [...]