12/26/12

* French paper names Bashar Assad 'man of the year' (and 'mass murderer' of the century) Sometimes it seems as if nothing is more agreeable than to read those ubiquitous, mostly innocuous December-time lists compiling the best songs, books and people of the past year.

* Egypt's Morsi signs Islamist constitution into law Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has signed into law a new Islamist-drafted constitution he says will help end political turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the fragile economy.

* Court May Be Asked to Stop 'Destruction of History' The High Court may be the last resort for archaeologists to order Netanyahu to stop allowing the Waqf to destroy history at the holy site.

* Iraq: New protests break out in Sunni stronghold Large, noisy demonstrations against Iraq's government flared for the third time in less than a week.

* Netanyahu visited Jordan with plans to destroy Syrian chemical weapons Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently held top-secret talks in Jordan regarding possible methods for destroying Syria's sizable chemical weapons stockpiles.

* 'Little Chance of War in 2013,' Says Former IDF Intel Chief Israel's enemies probably will not wage war in 2013.

* Air Force Says It's Slimmer and Stronger for 2013 The Israeli Air Force has cut manpower while advancing technologically towards 2013.

* 'Kneeling Hitler' placed in Warsaw's Jewish ghetto If you look through the bars of the locked gate at 14 Prozna Street in Poland's capital, a place that was the center of the Jewish ghetto 70 years ago.

* US Delivers Two Naval Vessels to Iraq The United States has delivered two naval support ships to Iraq, which is seeking to boost its fledgling maritime capabilities, the US embassy said.

* After upgrading status, UN officially switches from 'Palestine' to 'State of Palestine' While legislative scholars and political pundits continue to debate the exact meaning of the upgrade of the Palestinians to a nonmember observer state, the United Nations last week officially changed the way it refers to the body: it's now the "State of Palestine".