The New York Times

KARBEYAZ, Turkey — Hundreds more Syrians fled into Turkey on Thursday, anticipating a widening crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in the country's northwest, which has become the new focus of weeks of protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The new influx across their border prompted Turkish authorities to set up a second refugee camp, while they reassured frightened Syrians that they would keep the border open and called once again on the Syrian government to allow peaceful demonstrations and to carry out reforms.

As reports mount of defections in the Syrian military and the government staggers from the killing of soldiers and police officers in a northern city this week, President Bashar al-Assad may turn increasingly to his brother, Maher, whose elite units in a demoralized army could prove decisive to his government's survival, activists and analysts say.

Much of the book, in fact, is a parade of talking heads, as Gladstone quotes a long line of dudes who've written big-idea books: Robert Wright, Ray Kurzweil, Clay Shirky. There's little dramatic or incisive about these panels, no matter how much ...

Syrians poured into the streets on Friday in some of the largest antigovernment protests yet despite the shutdown of much of Syria's Internet network, which has been crucial to demonstrators' ability to mobilize and a major source of information for those outside the country.

Hours after Bahrain officially ended 11 weeks of martial law on Wednesday, security forces attacked peaceful protesters in more than 20 villages with rubber bullets, stun grenades, shotguns and tear gas, according to human rights observers in Bahrain.

As nationwide protests in Syria entered their 12th week, President Bashar al-Assad issued a general amnesty on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported.

State television and Syria's official news agency reported that the amnesty would be broad and would include members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, but details issued late in the day by the government indicated that it amounted to sentence reductions for certain crimes.

... “You get so many reports that Bibi is playing politics in your backyard that eventually you’ve got to draw the conclusion that there’s nothing there to work with with this guy,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who is now a fellow with the New American Foundation, ...

Original article

“He basically said, 'I can continue defending you to the hilt, but if you give me nothing to work with, even America can't save you,' ” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator and a fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan ...

Anyone imagining that the “Arab Spring” proved that Israel-Palestine to be of marginal regional significance should quickly remove those blinkers. From last Sunday’s regionwide nakba protests, to Egypt’s rapidly shifting foreign policy, to the testimony of U.S. military commanders, it is clear that Palestinian statelessness is a defining issue and key prism through which America is viewed.

On Jan. 1, 1985, Stanley Ann Dunham, better known as Barack Obama’s mother, was living in Honolulu, where she had recently returned after years in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. That New Year’s Day, she recorded the following list of hopeful resolutions:

(1) Finish Ph.D. (2) 60K (3) in shape (4) remarry (5) another culture (6) house + land (7) pay off debts (taxes) (8) memoirs of Indon. (9) spir. develop (ilmu batin) (10) raise Maya well (11) continuing constructive dialogue with Barry (12) ­relations w/friends + family (corresp.)