Headlines:

• UN Envoy, Moscow Call for Revival of Syria Plan

• Kuwaiti Liberals Blast Calls to Ban Xmas Celebrations

• US Drone Strikes Down in Pakistan, Up in Yemen

• China to be Surrounded by US Stealth Jets by 2017

Details:

UN Envoy, Moscow Call for Revival of Syria Plan:

Russia and the U.N called Thursday for the resuscitation of a peace initiative for Syria that never got off the ground when it was proposed months ago because both parties to the conflict rejected it. The plan, unveiled by world powers at an international conference in Geneva in June, called for an open-ended cease-fire, a transitional government to run the country until elections, and the drafting of a new constitution. The plan was a non-starter for the opposition because it did not explicitly ban authoritarian President Bashar Assad and other members of his regime from taking part in the transitional leadership. The regime ignored it because it would entail voluntarily giving up power. There was no sign that the plan had any more chance of succeeding now than it did back in June. Assad's government did not comment on the attempt to revive the proposal, and a coordinator for the rebels seeking to end Assad's rule called the plan "illogical." "No one in the opposition can accept this, and if they accept it, it will be refused by the Syrian people," said Bassam Al-Dada, a Turkey-based coordinator with the rebel Free Syrian Army. He said Assad's forces have killed too many people for him to play a role in any solution.

Kuwaiti Liberals Blast Calls to Ban Xmas Celebrations:

Several Kuwaiti liberal civil societies have condemned calls from some organisations and individuals forbidding the celebration of Christmas in the state, a report said yesterday. The civil societies said in a statement published by Al-Jarida newspaper that every year at this time certain groups declare celebrating Christmas and New Year as forbidden from an Islamic point of view. "Because such actions represent an insult to Christianity and Christians ... we strongly reject the publication of such calls," a statement signed by nine liberal groups said, adding that such calls were an act of hatred criminalised under the international law. The statement did not say who issued the calls, but usually some radical religious individuals and small groups issue fatwas (religious edicts) forbidding Christmas celebrations. However, the mainstream Islamic organisations do not issue such calls. There are no government restrictions on religious or social celebrations of Christmas or New Year in the conservative emirate, but social parties on any occasion must abide by strict regulations. Kuwait has about a dozen churches which all freely mark Christmas especially in the main church complex in the heart of the capital Kuwait City. There are some 200 Christians - mainly of Iraqi or Palestinian origin - among the 1.2 million native population of Kuwait. But the state is home to 642,000 foreign Christians, or 17 percent of Kuwait's population of 3.8 million, mostly from India, the Philippines, Egypt, Lebanon and the West.

US Drone Strikes Down in Pakistan, Up in Yemen:

US drone strikes against militants decreased in Pakistan's tribal regions for the second year in a row but intensified in Yemen, according to figures compiled by a Washington think tank. In Pakistan, 46 strikes were carried out in 2012, compared to 72 in 2011 and 122 in 2010, the New America Foundation said, based on its compilation of reports in international media. But Yemen saw an equally drastic increase in the clandestine attacks, with strikes against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants rising from 18 in 2011 to 53 in 2012. This "drone war" is officially classified, and the US does not provide any information on the strikes. President Barack Obama, who has increased the use of drones compared to his predecessor, George W. Bush, only incidentally recognized their existence at the end of January in an online exchange. The vast majority of the strikes in Pakistan hit in North Waziristan. Many of the strikes were in and around the regional capital, Miranshah. These strikes, with Reaper or Predator drones, killed between 189 and 308 militants and at least seven civilians, the New America Foundation said. According to the Afghan spy agency, the operational leader of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, Badruddin Haqqani, son of the group's founder, was killed in an August 21 drone strike - though the death has not been confirmed by other sources. Meanwhile, in Yemen, between 397 and 539 militants were killed by drone strikes, according to the New America Foundation, which did not specify the number of civilian victims. Some of the strikes in Yemen were conducted by US airplanes. The drones used there are operated both by the CIA and by the Joint Special Operations Command. The intelligence agency has its own fleet of 30-35 devices, according to the Washington Post, while the Pentagon can count on 215 Predator and Reaper drones, according to the Congressional Research Service.

China to be Surrounded by US Stealth Jets by 2017:

The United States' presence in the Asia-Pacific is about to be much more impressive: by 2017, the US is expected to have all but surrounded China, its number one economic rival, with fleets of the most advanced stealth warplanes in the world. According to recent reports from some of the Pentagon's top-brass, Uncle Sam will be essentially surrounding the United States' top competitor in only five years' time. By 2017, the Air Force's F-22s and B-2s, as well as a fleet of the Marine Corps' F-35, will all be deployed east. News of the long-term plan stems from a report by Wired's David Axe this week, who notes that several recent interviews with Defense Department officials suggest that the Obama administration's "strategic pivot" plan in Asia announced earlier this year hasn't been ignored just yet. In June, the Pentagon revealed plans to restructure the US military so that 60 percent of its warships would be in the Asia-Pacific by 2020. At the time, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the decision was not meant to intimidate China, but was rather a common sense response to make sure America's resources were divvied out where they might be most needed. "Some view the increased emphasis by the United States on Asia-Pacific as a challenge to China, I reject that view entirely," Panetta said this summer. As recently as November, the secretary said of Asia, "We're going to continue to invest in the region," but that "It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of focus." Now only weeks later, the pieces are already being put in place. Speaking of the B-2 bombers last month, 8th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Wilson told Air Force Magazine that fleets "will rotate to forward operating locations all over the world in small numbers for a few weeks at a time," with those operations "beginning with a short Pacific deployment" in early 2013. That news takes on a whole new light following an address from Sec. Panetta at the National Press Club in Washington last week, where he announced "new deployments of F-22s ... to Japan" and confirmed that the Pentagon is "laying the groundwork" for F-35s to be in Japan by 2017.

Abu Hashim