Feb 1 Syrian rebels remain upbeat despite government advances, according to Britain's newspaper, The Telegraph. The army of dictator Assad, with its tanks, continues its drive against rebels and its searches of homes of deserters in the poorer neighborhoods of the capital, Damascus. The Free Syria Army has made a tactical withdrawal from these suburbs, but the Free Syria Army commander Colonel Riad al-Assad claims that his forces control half of Syria.
Feb 1 Researchers in the US gather electrical signals -- brain waves -- from patients and reconstruct those signals into the words the patients had in mind.
Feb 1 A court in Cape Town sentences four South African men to 18 years in jail for stabbing and stoning to death a lesbian, Zoliswa Nkonyana, just outside her home, in 2006. A crowd outside cheered and danced. South Africa's constitution protects people despite their sexual orientation. Pumza Fihlani reports for BBC News that "More than 30 lesbians have been killed in the past 10 years because of their sexuality and the so-called practice of 'corrective rape' also appears to be on the increase, according to gay activists."
Feb 2 Health researchers at the University of California call for new government controls to rein in a soaring consumption of sugar and sweeteners. They claim that sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco. They acknowledge that they face "an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby." (BBC News)
Feb 3 Pew Research Center reported yesterday that "Nearly six-in-ten lower-income Republican and Republican-leaning voters" have said that the government does too little for poor people. Meanwhile there is much ado in the press about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney saying he's not concerned about the poor given that they have a safety net that he is willing to repair. Complaints arise from some on the political right and rival candidate Newt Gingrich against spending on a safety net. Complaints arise from left-of-center regarding the working poor. Allow me a personal note. While I was an apartment manager in Oakland, California, three of my tenants were single black women who lived alone. They went to work every workday morning and gave a big chunk of their wages every month for rent. It was a distribution-of-wealth matter favorable to their employers (in the form of rock-bottom wages) and favorable to their landlord, but it left them trapped, unable to live other than most frugally and unable to save enough to get a landlord off their back.
Feb 4 While UN delegates talk, the Assad regime continues its policy of crushing those Syrians opposed to its power. This morning, BBC News reports that "activists" claim that last night Syrian forces, with tanks and mortars, killed more than 200 in the city of Homs, "in the worst violence since anti-government protests began." In the UN, Russia has been threatening to block with its veto an Arab League move against Syria supported by France, Britain the US and others. Russia has expressed disappointment with the Arab League for pulling its observers out of Syria. Russia does a lot of business with Syria, including arms sales. And Russia is looking forward to completed construction of a naval base for its warships on the coast of Syria, at Tartus. This would allow Russia a greater presence in the Mediterranean region -- closer than its naval base on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
Feb 4 Russia and China veto the UN resolution on Syria. US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, described the vetoes as "unforgivable." France's Ambassador Gerard Araud said it was "a sad day for all friends of democracy," Germany Ambassador Peter Wittig said, "The people in Syria have been let down again."
Feb 5 The US plans to save money by pulling two brigades from Germany, reducing the size of the U.S. army in Europe by almost 10,000. According to Reuters, the US Army today has around 41,000 troops in Europe. US troops have been in Germany since 1945.
Feb 6 This morning, with heavy artillery fire, the Bashar al-Assad regime continues its several days of assault on the rebellious city of Homs, apparently believing it can crush the opposition there. Homs has a population of around 1.2 million. Assad's father, Hafez, killed a reported 20,000 in 1982 putting down a Sunni rebellion in Hama -- a city just a little over half the size of Homs, but Hama remains a city opposed to the Assad dynasty. And Bashar faces an international situation different from what his father faced and revolts across Syria. Assad is getting help from his Shia ally, Iran. Iran's elite Quds Force is in Syria helping to manage Assad's offensive against popular unrest. Meanwhile, support for the Free Syrian Army is expected from neighboring Turkey and other Sunni powers. Assad is destroying a lot of homes and lives in the city of Homs, but that he can win the city any more than his father ultimately won Hama appears doubtful. Bashar al-Assad appears still on a path toward what befell the dictator Anastasio Somoza (assassinated in 1980), or Sadam Hussein (hanged in 2006), or Muammar Qaddafi (shot by a soldier in 2011) -- more likely perhaps than he is to become a prisoner of the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands.
Feb 7 Reporting from Homs for BBC News, Paul Wood speaks of a full colonel who defected four days ago describing morale crumbling in the Syrian army and the rebels gaining strength. Wood describes the assault on Homs continuing into today, the assault including mortar and heavy machine gun fire and Russian-made tanks. For the people of Homs food is a problem as they hunker down in the center of their homes, putting as many walls as possible between themselves and the outside.
Copyright © 2011 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.
