The Arab League confirmed the suspension of Syria from the organization on Wednesday and gave its government three days to halt the violence and accept an observer mission or face economic sanctions.

The suspension - first announced by the Arab League on Saturday and confirmed during the meeting - is a surprisingly harsh and highly unusual move for a member of Syria's standing.

Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim told reporters following the daylong meeting in Rabat, Morocco, that Syria is being offered the chance to end the violence against civilians and implement a peace plan that the Arab League outlined on Nov. 2. The U.N. estimates that more than 3,500 people have been killed in Syria's 8-month-old uprising.

"The Syrian government has to sign the protocol sent by the Arab League and end all violence against demonstrators," he said, adding that it has three days. "Economic sanctions are certainly possible, if the Syrian government does not respond. But we are conscious that such sanctions would touch the Syrian people."

The head of the Transportation Security Administration has backed off a public commitment to conduct a new independent study of X-ray body scanners used at airport security lanes around the country.

Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today, on millions of airline passengers.

At a Senate hearing after the story ran, TSA Administrator John Pistole agreed to a request by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to conduct a new independent study of the health effects of the X-ray scanners, also known as backscatters.

But at a Senate hearing of a different committee last week, Pistole said he had since received a draft report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, or IG, that might render the independent study unnecessary.

Australia has agreed to host a full US Marine task force in the coming years, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced at a news conference with US President Barack Obama in Canberra.


She said about 250 US Marines would arrive next year, eventually being built up to 2,500 personnel.

The deployment is being seen as a move to counter China's growing influence.

But Mr Obama said the US was "stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific", not excluding China.

"The main message that I've said, not only publicly but also privately to China, is that with their rise comes increased responsibility," he said.

"It is important for them to play by the rules of the road."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin questioned whether the move was in keeping with the region's peaceful development.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is weeks away from launching an unmanned aerial asset to help deputies fight crime. The ShadowHawk helicopter is six-feet long, weighs fifty pounds and fits in the back of an SUV.

"We can put it over a fire, put it over ahazmat spill, put it over a house with a suspect barricaded inside and literally give the incident commander the ability to look at the entire scene with a bird's eye view, " Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel said.

Sheriff's deputies will fly the ShadowHawk with nothing more than a laptop computer and a remote control similar to that used for video games.

It's equipped with an infrared camera that can clearly read a license plate from an elevation of twelve hundred feet. The helicopter cost upwards of $300,000 and was purchased with a grant from the federal government.

Stand by for the rise of the technocrats. Apparently, the answer to the huge problems of the eurozone is the replacement of elected premiers with economic experts - approved officials dropped from European institutions. In Greece, Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, has been pushed hard for the job; in Italy, Mario Monti, another economist and a former EU Commissioner, is much mentioned. They may lack a democratic mandate but they're fantastically well regarded in Frankfurt. It remains to be seen if either will clinch the role. But what exactly is the great attraction of technocrats?

If ever modern Europe needed brave, charismatic leaders to carry their nation through turbulent times, it would seem to be now. Instead, it is as if the crew of the Starship Enterprise had concluded that Captain Jean-Luc Picard is no longer the man for the job and that it is time to send for the Borg. Efficient, calculating machines driving through unpopular measures across the eurozone with the battle cry "resistance is futile" are apparently the order of the day. Faced with a deep crisis, once-proud European nations are essentially preparing to hand over power to Ernst & Young.

After a long break caused by serious health problems, Venezuela's H. Chavez resumed on November 15 the practice of televised addresses on key policy issues. As a key message prompted by the recent developments, the Venezuelan leader sent to his nation and to the international community a strong warning about the threat of a nuclear conflict currently brewing in the Middle East... "There's a nuclear war threat...The most guilty [of this risk] is the United States government and its allies such as Israel, who have many nuclear bombs," said Chavez in a voice full of emotion.

The US propaganda campaign built around the myth of Iran's nuclear-arms ambitions has been unfolding for years, growing increasingly hysterical in the process. Chavez at all times reiterated Venezuela's support for Iran, expressing confidence in the civilian character of the country's nuclear program. The statements invariably drew Washington's ire or even allegations of the Venezuelan regime's complicity with Ahmadinejad in secretly building nuclear weapons. Among other groundless claims, the US information warfare forces floated the fictitious story of uranium mining in Venezuela in the interests of the Iranian nuclear program and even fed to the media photographs of the Venezuelan uranium mine which, as it transpired shortly, actually showed a bicycle-assembling factory which used Iranian-supplied components. No apologies followed, as for the Empire lies are a normal instrument employed to influence the world around. The world is used to hearing lies from US presidents, secretaries of state, defense secretaries, bankers, journalists, diplomats, and intelligence operatives. The intensity of alarmist call for a global war on terror, ostensibly to counter the terrorist threat targeting the US at all angles, peaked in the wake of the September 11, 2001 drama when the Trade Center in NY was blown up on the order from the US "shadow government". A tide of US special operations immediately swept across the world from Afghanistan and Iraq to Russia.

America must stop night raids and house searches and close its military prisons in return for keeping troops in the country after 2014, Hamid Karzai told a national assembly.

The Afghan president told 2,000 elders and power brokers he wanted to maintain close ties with Nato and America after their deadline to handover security duties to Kabul - "but with conditions".

Mr Karzai told the loya jirga, or grand council, convened to discuss America's future in Afghanistan that he wanted a new strategic pact between "independent countries".

In a speech rich in nationalist rhetoric, he told the audience: "We want our national sovereignty, and an end to night raids and to the detention of our countrymen." He continued: "Yes, America is rich, strong, and has more population than we do, has bigger territory than we do, but we are lions. A lion is a lion even if even it gets old... America should treat us as a lion.

"We are ready to sign a strategic treaty between a lion and America. A lion does not like when somebody enters his house." he added.

Nato officials have suggested they would be reluctant to cut back on night-time "kill or capture" raids against insurgent suspects which have become the coalition's favoured tactic for battling the Taliban.

Israel's military chief of staff warned Tuesday that the repeated rounds of escalated violence in the south would eventually require Israel to carry out another large-scale military operation in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

"We cannot continue with one round after another," the official, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, told a closed meeting of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He said the point at which a military operation would become necessary was "drawing closer."

General Gantz's assessment came during a routine security briefing to the parliamentary committee. The military later released a summary of his remarks.

Any such operation would have to be ordered by the political leadership, not the military. Nevertheless, the comments raised the prospect of another armed conflict in Gaza, where a fierce three-week Israeli military campaign in the winter of 2008-2009 drew international opprobrium.

Israel's government said Tuesday it will invite tenders for the construction of more than 800 new homes in east Jerusalem, in a move to punish the Palestinians for joining UNESCO.

The Housing Ministry said it had published formal notice of its intention to invite tenders for 749 housing units in Har Homa and 65 in Pisgat Zeev, both settlement neighbourhoods in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians roundly condemned the move.

"Israel responded to Quartet attempts to relaunch the negotiations and meetings yesterday with a new settlement building declaration in east Jerusalem," said Saeb Erekat, their chief negotiator.

"Quartet attempts to create an atmosphere suitable to relaunch negotiations and convince Israel to stop building in settlements have failed."