Israel says Gaza operation could expand; France says 'war can be avoided'

Gaza ground war could be imminent

Near the Israel-Gaza border (CNN) -- Israel is prepared to significantly escalate its military operation against Palestinian militants in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

The comments come on the heels of reports that the Israel Defense Forces have widened the scope of their effort to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, targeting Palestinian media organizations, government buildings and the homes of Hamas officials in Gaza.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the (other) terrorist organizations, and IDF is prepared for a significant expansion of its operations," Netanyahu told reporters shortly before the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Saeb Erakat, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told CNN that Netanyahu should learn "a lesson" that "there will be never be a security without peace."

Photos: Violence flares between Palestinians, Israelis

Missile hits Israel during CNN live shot

Israeli family talks about Gaza rockets

Netanyahu is "waging a campaign of attacks and bombardment and military attacks against Gaza," and may launch a land invasion, Erakat said. "He wants to kill 1000, 1500, 2000 Palestinians. Where would this put us?"

Erakat part of the Fatah faction in the West Bank added. "We have one aim now: to ensure we stop the attacks against Gaza, to ensure to sustain the calm, mutual comprehensive calm. That's all what we want."

The United States and several European countries have put the brunt of the blame for the current crisis on Hamas, saying Israel has a right to protect itself. Arab and Muslim nations, meanwhile, have accused Israel of being the aggressor.

Rocket attacks into Israel were the "precipitating event" for the fighting under way now, U.S. President Barack Obama said during a stop in Thailand Sunday. "We are actively working with all the parties in the region to see if we can end those missiles being fired without further escalation of violence in the region."

Over the last four days, militants in Gaza have fired 846 rockets at Israel -- 302 of which were intercepted by Israe's Iron Dome defense system, according to the IDF. Nearly 100 rockets fired from Gaza over the same time frame crashed back into the strip.

"Hamas fires from civilian areas and hits its own people," the IDF said in a Twitter post Sunday.

U.S. fears Israel-Hamas conflict escalates to ground invasion

Over the weekend, Netanyahu said he spoke with a number of leaders, including Obama.

"In my talks with leaders, I emphasize the effort Israel is making to avoid hitting civilians, and this at a time when Hamas and other terrorist organizations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel," the prime minister said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in Jerusalem Sunday meeting with Netanyahu, tweeted a simple message: "War can be avoided. War must be avoided." The ministry said he was hoping to "work out a cease-fire with all parties involved."

An Arab League delegation plans to visit Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

Since Israel launched its offensive on Wednesday against what it says are "terrorist sites" in response to persistent rocket attacks that have plagued portion of southern Israel for months, 57 Palestinians have been killed, according to a spokesman for the ministry of health in Gaza. They include 15 children, seven women, and five elderly people, the spokesman said. More than 560 people were injured, he said.

The spokesman did not say how many militants have been killed.

A Palestinian girl and a man were killed Sunday in an airstrike that targeted the town of al-Shati in western Gaza, Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV reported.

Six Palestinian journalists were injured Sunday when Israeli warplanes targeted two buildings that housed Palestinian and Hamas news organizations as well as a handful of international news outlets, according to Palestinian government and media reports. The IDF released a video along with a message saying it showed the "surgical" targeting of Hamas communication operations on the roof of a media building in Gaza, and that only the antenna atop the building was struck.

"If Hamas commanders in Gaza can communicate with each other, then they can attack us," the IDF said in one of its several Twitter posts on the issue. "This is the capability that we targeted ... We did not target any other floors." The IDF also urged reporters to "stay away from Hamas positions and operatives."

Nour Odeh, a Palestinian government spokeswoman in the West Bank, said the attack on the two buildings "is an assault on the freedom of the press and an attempt to prohibit journalists from conveying to the outside world what is exactly happening in the Gaza strip and the extent to which Israel is violating international law and international humanitarian law in this besieged part of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Israeli troops mass on Gaza border

24 hours in Gaza

Blasts interrupt interview in Gaza

Map: Israel

In Israel, rocket attacks from Gaza in recent days have killed at least three people and wounded 68, including a number of soldiers along the Israel-Gaza border, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"A short while ago, a rocket fired from Gaza hit the Israeli town of Ofakim, directly hitting a car," the IDF said Sunday on Twitter, adding that there were reports of injuries.

One woman in the Israeli city of Ashkelon was in her home when a rocket hit her carport.

As clean-up crews worked to remove debris from around the house, another air siren sounded.

While many Israelis who have lived under rocket attacks from Gaza for years developed a routine for running to take cover, the latest violence is paralyzing.

A marina in Ashkelon, which is usually busy with people enjoying the outdoors, has largely emptied out as families keep their children indoors.

Leaders across the world have called on Israeli and Palestinian governing bodies to show restraint, fearing at a minimum a possible repeat of Israel's 2008 invasion that left at least 1,400 people dead.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, said discussions were underway about how to bring about a cease-fire.

"But there are no guarantees at the moment," Morsy said Saturday in Cairo, where he met with Hamas officials and other Arab diplomats.

Morsy did not go into details of the effort, though an Egyptian military official told CNN the nation's intelligence chief, Mohammed Shehata, was spearheading talks with Hamas and Israel.

Shehata contacted Israel and requested it "calm down" the situation, said the military official, a general, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

It is not known what, if anything, Israel said in response to the request.

Hamas, however, put conditions on cease-fire talks. Israel must cease its attacks and lift its blockade of Gaza in exchange "for stopping the rockets" targeting Israeli cities, according to a report by the Palestinian Information Center, a Hamas-run media outlet.

Israel is unlikely to consider such a request as it sees the blockade as vital to its national security.

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti told CNN Sunday that, "We are very worried about three things: the Israeli preparation for a big ground operation, second that Israel is bombarding journalists and trying to silence the media from reporting what is happening in Gaza, and third the Israeli attacks on the West Bank against non-violent protesters."

The Israeli government has called up 75,000 reservists, while it simultaneously deployed 30,000 troops to the Gaza border, the IDF said.

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Lieberman: FBI Should Have Notified Congress About Petraeus Investigation

Chet Susslin

Gen. David Petraeus testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said he is not satisfied with the FBI withholding information about the investigation into former CIA Director David Petraeus.
“I still have questions about that,” he said on Fox News Sunday, continuing, “I understand why they would keep an FBI investigation confidential from everybody until they saw there was a crime, but this suddenly involves two of our highest-ranking generals, Petraeus and [Gen. John] Allen.”
Because it involved those two officials, Lieberman said he believes that someone in the Obama administration should have known about the investigation.
“I still have an inclination to believe that somebody should have notified the White House of that early in the investigation,” he said.

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Obama: Republican attacks on Susan Rice 'outrageous'

'If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me'

 

 

US President Obama has lambasted top Republicans for attacking the diplomat tipped as a possible replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Republicans said UN Ambassador Susan Rice should not be promoted, citing her response to September's deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya.
Mr Obama said the attacks on Ms Rice were "outrageous" and challenged her critics to "go after me" instead.
Republicans called for a committee to investigate the Libya attack.
In the wake of the 11 September assault on the US mission in Benghazi, Ms Rice framed it as a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic film made in the US.
'Cover-up' The Obama administration later blamed the attack on al-Qaeda-linked militants, adding that the earlier account was based on the best information available at the time.

“Start Quote

When they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me”

President Barack Obama

Sen John McCain vowed on Wednesday to block any move to appoint Ms Rice to replace Mrs Clinton as America's top diplomat.

He introduced a Senate resolution calling for the establishment of a special committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, which left four Americans dead, including the US ambassador.
"This administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a cover-up," he said on the Senate floor.
Lindsey Graham, another Republican senator, said he did not trust Ms Rice and called for "Watergate-style" hearings into the Libya incident.
In his first White House news conference since last week's election, President Obama said: "If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me.
"But when they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me."
"To besmirch her reputation, is outrageous," he added.
Nomination showdown Shortly after Mr Obama's remarks, Sen Graham showed no sign of backing down.

Susan Rice would be the second female African-American secretary of state

"Mr President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi," he said in a statement.
"I think you failed as commander in chief before, during and after the attack."
Mr Obama would not be drawn during Wednesday's news conference on possible cabinet appointments.
But the president insisted he would nominate Ms Rice if she was the best choice to lead the Department of State. Mrs Clinton plans to return to private life.
Wednesday's political showdown raised the prospect of a prolonged nomination for Ms Rice, who would be the second female African-American secretary of state, if she is picked by Mr Obama.
Another name mentioned for the post is Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, who would be expected to breeze through a Capitol Hill confirmation hearing.
But picking Sen Kerry would create another headache for Mr Obama's Democrats - fending off a Republican challenge for his open Senate seat in Massachusetts.
During his news conference, Mr Obama also said he was not aware of any leak of classified information by former CIA Director David Petraeus, who quit last Friday because of an extramarital affair.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said Gen Petraeus would testify about the Benghazi attack in a closed-door hearing on Friday.

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BBC crisis: Lord McAlpine 'anger' over abuse claim

Lord McAlpine said he would have told Newsnight that the allegations were "complete rubbish"

A former senior Tory has told of his anger after a BBC Newsnight report led to him being wrongly implicated in child abuse allegations.

Lord McAlpine told BBC Radio 4's The World at One he should have been contacted beforehand.
He said about being wrongly under suspicion: "You just think there's something wrong with the world."
Some of those involved in deciding to run the report on care homes in north Wales face disciplinary measures.
'Extremely bad' Lord McAlpine told The World at One: "Of course they [the BBC] should have called me and I would have told them exactly what they learnt later on."
He continued: "That it was complete rubbish and that I'd only ever been to Wrexham once in my life. They could have saved themselves a lot of agonising and money, actually, if they'd just made that telephone call."

Abuse inquiries

• Operation Yewtree: Scotland Yard criminal investigation into claims that Jimmy Savile sexually abused young people
• BBC investigation into management failures over the dropping of a Newsnight report into the Savile allegations
• BBC investigation into culture and practices during Savile's career and current policies
• BBC investigation into handling of past sexual harassment claims
• Department of Health investigation into Savile's appointment to Broadmoor "taskforce" and his activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary
• Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009
• North Wales abuse inquiry by National Crime Agency head into abuse claims from 70s and 80s, fresh claims, and police handling of the claims
• Mrs Justice Macur appointed by PM to review the 2000 Waterhouse review which looked into the north Wales abuse
• BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into what happened with the Newsnight investigation into north Wales abuse claims

The peer was asked about London Mayor Boris Johnson's comment that to call someone a paedophile was to "consign them to the lowest circle of hell - and while they're still alive".

He replied: "Absolutely. I think it describes pretty much what happened to me in the first few days of this event.
"It gets into your bones. It gets into, it makes you angry. And that's extremely bad for you to be angry. And it gets into your soul and you just think there's something wrong with the world."
Lord McAlpine's solicitor Andrew Reid said he was hopeful an agreement would be reached with the BBC on Thursday - but that his client was aware that any payment would ultimately come from licence fee payers.
Acting director general Tim Davie took charge of the BBC following the resignation of George Entwistle in the wake of the Newsnight broadcast.
Mr Davie has vowed to "get a grip of the situation".
An inquiry into the Newsnight broadcast - conducted by Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland - has identified "unacceptable" failings and said basic journalistic checks were not completed.
A summary of the findings has been released by the corporation, which said the full report would be issued after the completion of disciplinary proceedings.
It added that "there was a different understanding by the key parties about where the responsibility lay for the final editorial sign off for the story on the day".
The head of BBC Northern Ireland, Peter Johnston, said he had a role in the decision-making of the Newsnight report but was not considering his position.
A BBC spokesman confirmed Mr Johnston's involvement "in decisions about the BBC Newsnight report".
Three Conservative MPs called for funding to be withdrawn from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) which was involved in the Newsnight investigation into the historical north Wales child abuse allegations.
Chain of command Mr Entwistle resigned after eight weeks as BBC director general, following the Newsnight report.
The BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell, have been asked to "step aside" pending an internal review into the way abuse claims about Jimmy Savile were handled.
The corporation said it found that neither Ms Boaden nor her deputy Mr Mitchell "had anything at all to do with the failed Newsnight investigation into Lord McAlpine".
But they were in the chain of command at the time Newsnight dropped an earlier investigation into abuse claims against former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.
They have removed themselves from making decisions on some areas of BBC News output while a separate inquiry, chaired by former head of Sky News Nick Pollard, is held into that decision.
The BBC said once the Pollard Review reported, Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell "expect to then return to their positions".

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As FBI investigated Petraeus, he and Allen intervened in nasty child custody battle

Amy Scherzer / Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press The woman who triggered the investigation that led to the resignation of CIA chief David Petraeus threw lavish parties for top military brass – and also racked up debt. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

By Michael Isikoff
NBC News

Then-CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, commander of  U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, intervened in a Washington, D.C., custody battle in September, writing letters on behalf of a woman who was found by a judge to have a "severe deficit in honesty and integrity."
The woman, Natalie Khawam, is the twin sister of Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, who has emerged as a central figure in the scandal that led to Petraeus’ resignation last week.
The letters, which have been obtained by NBC News, were filed in court on behalf of Khawam, who the judge hearing the case harshly criticized for a “stunning willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own interests.” At the time, Khawam was seeking to relax a judge's order restricting her visits with her now 4-year-old son. Holly Petraeus, the wife of the ex-CIA director previously signed an affidavit in support of Khawam, according to the lawyer for Grayson Wolfe, Khawam's ex-husband. The letters were first reported by the New York Post.

Gen. John Allen, right, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and former CIA Director David Petraeus appear ath the White House on April 28, 2011.

The letters came to light after Kelley emerged as a key player in the scandal surrounding emails that officials say were written by Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell a trail of correspondence that led to Petraeus’ resignation as CIA director and a Pentagon investigation of Allen over what defense officials have described as “potentially inappropriate” emails he exchanged with Kelley.
The legal battle between Khawam and Wolfe has been bitter, according to court records. Both sides have accused one another of repeatedly lying to the court -- including about invitations to events involving prominent members of Congress.
The court records also shed some light on the lifestyle of the Kelley family: At one point, the judge who had directed Kelley's sister to pay child support and the legal fees of her ex-husband noted that Khawam lived "rent-free in Florida with her sister" in a home described as a "ten bedroom mansion in a beautiful neighborhood right on Tampa Bay."
The judge also ruled that Jill Kelley was a "patently biased and unbelievable witness" when she testified about an alleged case of domestic abuse by her twin sister's ex-husband.
In a Nov. 9, 2011, ruling, D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal E. Kravitz dismissed Kelley's testimony that she saw Wolfe push Khawam down a flight of stairs inside the Kelleys’ home. Kelley testified that her sister was holding the couple's baby in one hand and "somehow was able to stand her ground on the staircase" as Wolfe, "who is substantially larger and stronger ... pushed Ms. Khawam from above with both hands and all of his might."
"The court does not credit this testimony," Kravitz wrote, after calling Kelley an "unbelievable witness." He called it "part of an ever-expanding set of sensational accusations against Mr. Wolfe that are so numerous, so extraordinary and ... so distorted that they defy any common sense view of reality."

Amy Scherzer / Tamp

Petraeus and Allen entered the case two months ago, penning separate letters attesting to Khawam’s parenting.
"My wife and I have known Natalie for approximately three years, getting to know her while serving in Tampa, Florida, through her friendship with Dr. and Mrs. Scott Kelley," Petraeus wrote in his letter dated Sept. 20, identifying himself under his signature as "General, U.S. Army (Retired.) "
He added that he has observed Khawam  with her son on many occasions, "including when we hosted them and the Kelley family for Christmas dinner this past year. “It was "clear to me," he added, that Natalie's son "would benefit from much more time with his Mother and from removal of the burdensome restrictions imposed on her."
Allen's letter, dated Sept. 22, which identified him under his signature as "General, United States Marine Corps," is similar. It stated that he had gotten to know Khawam while serving at the U.S. Central Command in Florida and observed her with her son "on multiple occasions" at "command social functions."
"In light of Natalie's maturity, integrity and steadfast commitment to raising her child, I humbly request your reconsideration of the existing mandated custody settlement," the letter concluded.
Defense official fires back, denies Afghanistan commander exchanged 'inappropriate' emails
A source familiar with Kelley’s views said Tuesday night that both Petraeus and Allen have been friends of Kelley and her sister Khawam for years. The source added:  “When you're involved in a custody issue, you want letters of support. There is nothing unusual about that.”
Sandra Wilkof, the lawyer for ex-husband Wolfe, said the letters from both high ranking military men misstated the facts of the case. Both letters asked the court to change the terms of a "court settlement" between the couple. In fact, Wilkof, said, "There was no court settlement. There was a court order," she said, awarding custody to Wolfe and supervised visits for Khawam.
Judge Kravitz has not given Wolfe a free pass. He wrote in the Nov. 9, 2011 ruling that Wolfe "does not possess an entirely healthy psychological make-up.” And he noted that Wolfe had taken “questionable deductions” on his tax returns and “may have been less than fully candid in his testimony about contacts he may have had with the FriendFinder online dating service.
But he has saved his harshest words for Khawam, writing that  Mr. Wolfe is much more honest than Ms. Khawam, and he conducts himself with far greater integrity.
In the ruling, he found that Khawam had taken the couple's son to Florida when he was only four months old  and refused to tell Wolfe of his whereabouts, ignored court orders to allow visits with his father,  changed the boy's first name without his father's knowledge  and made unfounded claims of abuse against her ex-husband.
The evidence established that Ms. Khawam has extreme personal deficits in the areas of  honesty and integrity, Kravitz wrote. Ms. Khawam's false domestic violence petitions (and her equally false testimony at trial relating to many of the same allegations) are merely the most stunning examples of Ms. Khawam's willingness to say anything, even under oath, to advance her own personal interests at the expense of Mr. Wolfe, the child, and others.
Khawam's lawyer, Greg Jacob, with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, did not respond to requests for comment.
In the latest wrinkle in the case, Wolfe's lawyer filed a motion on Oct. 26 opposing the efforts of Khawam to modify the visitation schedule, saying that neither of the letters by Petraeus and Allen promised “corroborating testimony” relevant to the court's determination.
The motion also argued that Khawam had misrepresented social events she had asked the court to let her attend with her son. In one case, Wolfe's motion stated, Khawam had asked the court to let her take her son to a "family clambake" at "the personal invitation" of Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. In fact, the motion states, this was "nothing more than a political fundraising event.
On other occasions, the motion states, Khawam had sought to take her son to events with "Senator Kerry" and the baptism of "former Congressman Patrick Kennedy's child" in New Jersey. In fact, the motion states, the invitation to be with Sen. John Kerry was a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event in Martha's Vineyard and that he denied her request to take the boy to those events because he did not believe it was in "the child's best interests."

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Woman could break Chinese political glass ceiling

In a moment between two influential female leaders, Hilary Clinton and Liu Yandong shake hands in a meeting in May 2010.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A record number of American women will hold U.S. Senate seats after Tuesday's election. In China, there is speculation over whether a woman will also make history by ascending to its top political core.

No woman has ever held a post in the elite nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo that governs China. Thousands of senior Chinese officials gathered in Beijing this week and at the end of the conference next week, a new set of leaders will be unveiled.

Some observers consider Liu Yandong a possible contender for the exclusive ruling committee. Liu is the lone female member of the Politburo, a 24-member body atop the Chinese Communist Party. If promoted to the standing committee, Liu would make a crack in the political glass ceiling.

Even with the historic prospect of a woman joining the most powerful Chinese political entity, some are skeptical of the overall progress for Chinese women in power.

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"I think women's participation in politics in China remains largely symbolic due to complicated social, cultural, and political factors," said Xi Chen, assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Liu is the daughter of Liu Ruilong, the former vice minister of agriculture. She is also said to have strong family ties with former Chinese President Jiang Zemin as well as President Hu Jintao. She is part of the "princeling class," the sons or daughters of revolutionary veterans who now number among the nation's elite.

"If Liu Yandong is appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, it would be a milestone for female political representation in China and an indication that the Chinese government is ready to place a woman in a position of genuine power," said Leta Hong Fincher, doctoral candidate at Tsinghua University, who examines gender issues in China. "But that move alone would not necessarily lead to an improvement in the overall status of women."

If chosen for the committee, Liu will most likely take the position of the "propaganda tsar," according to Hoover Institution, which is based at Stanford University. The group described Liu as "liberal minded."

Chinese data show that women lag in political representation. Only 2.2% of working women were in charge of the state offices, party organizations and other enterprises or institutions, according to the Third 's Social Status, a national survey released last year.

During the presentation of these survey results, officials from the All-China Women's Federation, a women's advancement organization affiliated with the government, was asked why the Chinese leadership lacked women.

Song Xiuyan, the vice-chairman of the federation said the Communist Party of China and the government places "great importance to empower women's issues, which our Constitution has clearly put forward the basic principle of 'gender equality.'"

The Women's Studies Institute of China, which is sponsored by the All-China Women's Federation, declined multiple requests for comment.

"The relatively small number of female politicians in China is a topic criticized by Western media," reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency in March.

The news agency stated: "However, the ratio of female national lawmakers stands at 22%, compared with only 17% in the United States."

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China ranks 63rd in the world by percentage of women serving in a legislative house, compared with U.S. at 80th, according to July data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of parliaments.

That ranking may be out-of-date after the U.S. elections this week. Female candidates made huge gains and stand to occupy a record 20 seats out of the 100 in the U.S. Senate.

Women in China have made important strides in recent years. Chinese women receive an average of 8.8 years of education compared with 2.7 years in 2000, according to the national survey.

And studies find that women are outperforming men in universities, said Fincher of Tsinghua University.

But their education does not translate to economic and political power.

"You see that in the workplace, there's a lot of systemic gender discrimination in the workplace, there's discrimination in hiring and promotion," Fincher said. "There has also been a lot of evidence that the gender income gap has widened, especially in the very recent years."

Statistically, women's average annual income was 67.3 % of men's in urban areas and 56% in rural areas which reflected a decrease compared with the wage gap in 1990, according to the 2010 national survey.

There are exceptions as some women have achieved the pinnacle of financial success. In the Huron Report's list of the world's top female billionaires, 18 out of 28 came from China.

"Of course China is the most populous country in the world," Fincher said. "Of course you're going to have individual women who are incredibly successful. That doesn't say anything about the status of the vast majority of women."

For Chinese workers, gender-targeted job ads stipulate the age, height and desired physical attributes of female applicants, according to studies on the topic.

And the recent survey results suggest that more people believe that Chinese women should focus on family, rather than getting involved in public life or careers.

In the national survey, 62% of men and 55% of women agreed with this statement: "Men should mainly focus on career and women should be family oriented."

The number of people who agreed with that statement increased by 7.7% and 4.4% for men and women, respectively, in the past 12 years compared with their views in 2000 -- signaling "a resurgence of traditional beliefs about gender roles," Fincher said.

Gender issues are sensitive in China, especially in a country dogged by a history of preference for males and sex-selective abortion that has resulted in a lopsided population. Male births outpaced female births 118 to 110, according to Xinhua.

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A father seeks peace in a place of war

Robert Stokely: My son didn't die in vain

(CNN) -- Robert Stokely fired up his computer and began a journey to a place an ocean and continent away, to a land of parched earth and dusty brush not far from the banks of the Euphrates.

Yusufiya.

It is the Iraqi town where Robert's son Mike was killed on a hot August night in 2005. A place that haunted him.

Robert showed me his Google Earth mapping ritual the first time I met him in his office in suburban Atlanta.

It was almost a year after Mike's death, and he was tortured by the thought that he might die without ever seeing where his son fell.

Sgt. Michael Stokely was killed in Iraq in August, 2005.

Now, when I meet him for lunch at a sports bar more than six years later, it is as though a great weight has been lifted.

The sorrow of losing a child, unimaginable to many of us, never withers.

Robert still wears Mike's dog tag around his neck and occasionally sleeps in his son's bedroom, frozen in time with Mike's Green Day CDs and military memorabilia.

On a shelf in the room sits a round clock that Robert bought for $4.98. He stopped it at 2:20 a.m., the time of Mike's death, and in black marker scribbled the date: August 16.

Robert still does the things that made his grief so visible to me in the aftermath of Mike's death. But Robert's voice is steadier now. He can finish most of his sentences without tears.

I know that it is because of that place -- Yusufiya.

Visible grief

In 2005, I was a newspaper reporter embedded with Mike's National Guard brigade, the 48th Infantry.

His unit, Troop E of the 108th Cavalry Regiment, slept in a rat-infested potato factory in Yusufiya and patrolled the restive town and its outskirts, never knowing who was friend or foe.

The insurgency was raging in Iraq, and Yusufiya lay in a part of the country that gained notoriety as the Triangle of Death as more and more American soldiers lost their lives on bomb-laden roads.

That's how Mike was killed. He stepped out of his Humvee during a night operation, and a bomb sent shrapnel slicing through his body.

I wrote about Mike's memorial ceremony at a forward operating base not far from where he died. His friends occupied rows of folding metal chairs set up in front of a pair of Mike's desert boots. His dog tags hung from an upended rifle.

Robert read that story. And we began a conversation, first through e-mail, and later in person, when I returned from Iraq.

It struck me from the beginning how open he was; few parents of soldiers I'd met were so grittily honest.

We order bowls of vegetable soup and after small talk, I decide to ask him why he chose to be so public with his sorrow.

"I would rather tell the story as it is than have people fill in the blanks," he says.

There's another reason, too, why Robert has been so forthcoming.

"I want people who killed my son to know they failed in their mission," he says. "They wanted to leave us as the walking dead, shells of people. I'm not going to let them have that."

Photos: Historic portraits of war

On the first anniversary of Mike's death, his father had shared so many memories.

Robert was a single dad for a while. Mike came to live with him some of the time in suburban Atlanta.

I learned he was born prematurely and weighed only 4 pounds, 2 ounces. That he grew up with a scar on his chest where a tube was inserted to save his life when his left lung collapsed.

After Mike died, Robert looked at the autopsy reports. He realized his son's left lung had collapsed again.

Robert listened over and over to the last voice mail Mike left on his cell phone. He couldn't bear to close Mike's bank account, even though it held only $29.

He put me in his Ford Escape and took me to all the places in Atlanta that meant something to him as a father.

To the first apartment they shared after Robert and Mike's mom divorced. To the cemetery at Corinth Christian Church in the town of Loganville, where Mike is buried. I remember how he bought 12 gallons of water from a nearby convenience store for the grass around the headstone.

I ask him if he still visits the grave once a month. He tells me he does; that he keeps a watering can, hedge clippers and a bottle of Windex in his car in case of impromptu visits.

"I can't do anything else for Mike other than keep his grave up," he says.

I don't know what to say as silence makes the moment awkward. We both look down at our soup.

Then, he volunteers: "I know some people think I'm over the top."

I know that he's a father in pain.

I think of what he told me six years ago: He couldn't rest until he stood in the very spot where his son took his last breath.

He was like any other person who felt a need to see the place where a loved one died. Only this was not the scene of a car accident along a lonely Georgia highway. It was a place far away -- one of war.

The journey of his dreams

Robert bookmarked the spot where Mike died on Google Earth. Every day, he studied the images of green and taupe parcels of flat land.

He'd always been fascinated by geography. GPS, his family called him, because he memorized maps and never lost his way, even in an unfamiliar town.

He figured out that Yusufiya is about the same latitude as Sharpsburg, the town south of Atlanta that he calls home.

Robert Stokely always wears his son's dog tag around his neck. It's one way that he honors Mike.

Even before Mike died, Robert sat on his front porch at night, listened to crickets and gazed at the moon. He found solace in knowing that it was the same moon Mike saw only eight hours earlier.

Robert is the Coweta County solicitor and well connected in his community. He launched a scholarship foundation in Mike's name and spoke at veterans' events. He lobbied to have a highway honoring his son and invited me to the inauguration. I still have a plastic replica of the green road sign announcing "Sgt. Michael Stokely Memorial Highway" in my house.

But with every year, his yearning to see Iraq intensified.

He wrote about his desire in blogs pounded out on his computer on sleepless nights.

"It is important to me to go to the place where my son fell the night he died, kneel, and touch the soil and breathe the air," he wrote.

"Maybe, just maybe, I might even be able to do it even as the moon over Yusufiya rises."

Eventually, the people who run the nonprofit service group Soldiers' Angels saw the blog. They, in turn, contacted James Reese, a retired Delta Force officer who co-owns the security firm TigerSwan, to see if he could escort Robert to Yusufiya.

Reese wanted badly to help a father find his peace. But to take him to a war zone? Reese knew the risks were huge, but in the end, he agreed.

On Halloween night a year ago, Robert boarded a Delta flight at the Atlanta airport. He had never been aboard a plane as big as a Boeing 777 or traveled so far.

Veterans save a war hero's grave

He carried with him a marble plaque bearing Mike's name, date of birth and date of death. It also bore a Bible verse: "Thy sun shall not set, nor thy moon wane. The Lord almighty is your everlasting light."

Robert worried about placing the plaque on Muslim soil. He didn't want to offend anyone. But, he thought, it was small enough and it would be OK if he put it off the side of the road.

Robert took his seat and looked out the window. The moon wasn't as bright as the night Mike died, but Robert saw its glow. As the engines roared and the jet began its sprint down the runway, Robert began to cry.

"I'm coming, Mike," he whispered.

Almost there

Robert flew to Dubai and Amman and then to Baghdad. TigerSwan put him up at the firm's villa.

A few days later, he put on a helmet and a bulletproof vest and climbed clumsily into an armored Toyota Land Cruiser. Robert pauses his story to tell me that Mike -- always one for humor -- might have laughed at the sight of his dad's awkwardness.

I feel silly after I tell Robert that Mike would have been proud that his aging father had the fortitude to travel all that way. Of course, he knows.

Robert made sure his flak jacket vest bore his son's nametag. The Army only uses last names. "Stokely," it said.

Robert with Mike at Fort Stewart before Mike's National Guard unit left for Iraq in the summer of 2005.

One of Mike's friends had ripped it off his uniform when he died and held onto it for the rest of his yearlong tour. He'd given it to Robert when the grieving father met his son's unit at Fort Stewart.

That was the only piece of Mike's military uniform Robert had ever worn. Sometimes, he wore Mike's old polo shirts. But he had always told me he didn't deserve to wear anything that represented Mike's service.

As TigerSwan's convoy of five vehicles made its way south on the main highway from Baghdad, Robert sat calmly in the back seat of the Land Cruiser, a pocket-sized, camouflage-covered Bible in his hands. Inside, he shuddered.

TigerSwan personnel were on high alert after reports of violence that morning during a Shiite pilgrimage. They had intelligence that a suicide bomber was in the area.

Robert's convoy started running into Iraqi checkpoints. Soon, they had been diverted off their route. Robert had studied the maps and grid coordinates so many times that he knew exactly where they were: a mile and half away from the potato factory.

"Are we at about the 30-grid mark? We should be six, seven, eight miles to the east of Yusufiya," Robert said.

The security team marveled at Robert's knowledge of every road, every alley. He was determined to help get them to Yusufiya.

But after being turned away several times, TigerSwan's Reese felt it was too dangerous to go in. They would have to give up. They would have to return to Baghdad.

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Robert felt sick to his stomach. He was dry-heaving, so heartbroken that tears began flowing down his face.

He eyed the tree line and thought for a moment that he would gently open the car door and make a mad dash.

But he didn't. He had promised his family there would be no more tragedy.

He shakes his head as he finishes his story. "I was so close."

Making peace

I ask Robert how he lives with the thought that he missed the chance to see the place that haunted him. Is it worse that he tried and didn't make it?

He tells me he might have regrets except for what happened next in his journey to Iraq.

He met an Iraqi man who'd lost his son and nephew in a bombing. A trip across Baghdad was fraught with danger for him and his family.

That Iraqi father, Robert says, wants the same things in life that he does. But the Iraqi man's days are far more daunting.

At the Baghdad airport, Robert felt lucky to be going home to a safe place.

"I remember thinking that when we buried Mike, our war was over. But that father? He lives in uncertainty every day."

It was eerie hearing Robert's words. It's exactly how I had felt on my trips to Iraq. That word, uncertainty, had appeared in so many of my stories. I could not imagine how wretched it would be to live with that feeling all the time, to not know whether you'd survive a trip to the market and back.

I tell Robert that he looks more at ease now. He pauses and takes another sip of his water.

"I talk too much, you know," he says, smiling.

He still looks at the map. He still gazes upward at the moon. But he assures me he can go through an entire day now without thinking about Yusufiya.

It used to be a place on the map where Robert's son died. Now he thinks of it as a place that people call home.

The very first time I interviewed Robert, he told me that after his son was killed, he was no longer afraid to die. I realize now, after all these years, he is no longer afraid to live.

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Xi Jinping: From 'sent-down youth' to China's top

Who is Xi Jinping?

Hong Kong (CNN) -- When Xi Jinping, 59, and his "Fifth Generation" of leaders assume power, it will mark a first for China's post-1949 generation and those who spent their formative years during the Cultural Revolution.

In a series of steps, Xi, the current vice president since 2008, is expected to be named general secretary of the Communist Party during its 18th Congress, which opens Thursday, and then president next March, succeeding incumbent Hu Jintao.

As with all Chinese leaders, details of Xi's life are tightly controlled by the government, creating a gap that biographies -- some written under pseudonyms, given the political sensitivities -- have sought to fill. China watchers meanwhile try to discern how he would lead.

"Chinese leaders don't rise to the top telegraphing what changes they'll do," said Bruce J. Dickson, a political science professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. "They rise to the top showing how loyal they are to the incumbent. What they'll do when they rise to the top -- that's the big question."

Xi was born in 1953, four years after the Chinese Communist Party defeated the ruling Nationalists and established the People's Republic of China. He is the son of the second marriage of Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary hero whom then-paramount leader Mao Zedong would appoint minister of propaganda and education.

Xi Zhongxun would later become vice premier under Zhou Enlai and secretary general of the State Council, China's highest administrative body, before being purged in 1962.

Until then, Xi Jinping had grown up a "princeling" in the enclave of power, Zhongnanhai, with other children of China's first generation of leaders. One childhood peer was Bo Xilai, son of Bo Yibo, the first finance minister who was also purged during the Cultural Revolution. Life was comfortable and far removed from the mass starvation during Mao's disastrous "Great Leap Forward" campaign (1958-1962), which was designed to transform the nation into an industrial society.

China's National Congress meets

Mao's shadow over China

China prepares for political transition

However, a few years later, Xi -- his father by then deposed -- would be among 30 million "sent-down youth," forced to leave cities for the countryside and mountains under another of Mao's policies. From 1969-1975, or most of the Cultural Revolution, Xi was an agricultural laborer in Liangjiahe, Shaanxi, his ancestral province.

"That generation went through a lot of difficulties," said Cheng Li, director of research at the John L. Thornton Center at the Brookings Institution. "Idealism and pragmatism in a very unique way combined in this generation."

Read about Mao's shadow lingering over China

The experience had a positive influence on Xi's view of China and the world, according to Guo Yanjun, chairman of CNHK Media, the publisher of "China's Future: A Biography of Xi Jinping." "Even after he became a leader, he helped farmers," Guo said. His favorite story was of the Tsinghua University-bound Xi in 1975 being accompanied by villagers who walked 60 li (30 km) to send him off at a train station.

Mao died in 1976, and Xi's father was subsequently rehabilitated and became party secretary of Guangdong, where he oversaw China's first special economic zones near Hong Kong -- reforms that would define then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's economic legacy.

China's next leader keeps Iowa close to his heart

The elder Xi's connections proved critical. After graduating from Tsinghua with a chemical engineering degree in 1979, Xi Jinping became the personal secretary to his father's former comrade-in-arms, Geng Biao, and became an active military servicemember. As vice premier, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee and secretary general of the Central Military Commission, Geng "dominated the Party, government and the army," according to "China's Future," affording Xi a rare vantage point.

Such military ties -- familial and professional -- give him what neither Hu nor his predecessor Jiang Zemin had, said Chi Wang, president of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation.

"The military takes him as one of the family members."

It was around this period that Xi was married to his first wife, Ke Lingling, the daughter of Ke Hua, China's ambassador to Great Britain and a former underling of Xi Zhongxun, according to "China's Future."

Idealism and pragmatism in a very unique way combined in this generation
Cheng Li, Brookings Institution

Not much is known about the marriage except that it ended in divorce within a few years. (In 1987, Xi would marry his current wife, Peng Liyuan, a popular folk singer for the People's Liberation Army.)

In 1982, when his father entered the ruling Politburo and the Secretariat, Xi became county deputy secretary in Zhengding, Hebei province, his first experience in rural politics.

In this role, he took his first trip to the United States -- as part of an agricultural delegation in 1985 to Hebei's "sister state" of Iowa -- and brought back knowledge of farming technology as well as tourism.

This trip had a great impact on Xi, who stayed with a family in Muscatine, said Pin Ho, chairman of Mirror Books, which published a separate "Biography of Xi Jinping" this year.

"Vocally, he's a nationalist. Psychologically, he greatly hopes to keep good relations with the West, especially the U.S.," Ho said, noting that Xi's daughter, Xi Mingze, studies there -- at Harvard -- under a pseudonym.

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On China: Xi Jinping

In a major policy speech in Washington in February Xi called for increasing strategic trust and reducing suspicions while respecting each other's core interests, such as the "one-China policy" that opposes Taiwan and Tibetan independence.

In an indirect reference to the Obama administration's "rebalancing" strategy toward Asia, Xi said, "We hope the United States will respect the interests and concerns of China and other countries in the region."

Nonetheless, Xi got high marks for his desire to engage with the United States, and his trip included meetings with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Also not overlooked was the fact Xi chose to make a nostalgic stop in Iowa, in addition to Los Angeles, during his five-day U.S. tour.

"From my conversations with people in the United States, the reigning understanding is, 'This is a guy we can work with,'" said David Lampton, director of the China Studies Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Wang of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation echoed the sentiments, calling Xi "relaxed, very at ease to talk with people" and a departure from Communist leaders who tend to be "very cautious" when talking.

Meanwhile, "Xi's leadership experience [after Zhengding] in running Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, three economically-advanced regions, has prepared him well for pursuing policies to promote the development of the private sector, foreign investment and trade, and the liberalization of China's financial system," wrote Cheng Li of Brookings for the Washington Quarterly in its winter 2012 edition.

The run-up to Xi's ascension as China's next leader has nonetheless been bumpy.

In September, his nearly two-week "disappearance" -- and canceled meetings with Clinton and other foreign officials fueled speculation over his health and factional infighting.

This is a guy we can work with
David Lampton, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said Xi had suffered a back injury while swimming.

Even so, the Chinese media's "default mode" of not speaking about its leaders, coupled with the lack of a constitutional basis for the regime's transfer of power, left people wondering, "What's the Plan B if something were to happen?" Lampton said.

Also of note were two reports released by Xinhua on September 28 within three minutes of each other: the Congress' November 8 opening date. after much speculation it would fall in October -- and the expulsion of Bo Xilai from the Communist Party. Bo now faces criminal prosecution in the wake of a scandal that saw his wife convicted of murder.

Given the turbulent lead-up to the Communist Party Congress, Lampton says he, like other China watchers, will be trying to glean clues as to China's political direction. He says a longer-than-expected Congress could hint at an inability to reach decisions. Also important will be the make-up of the Politburo Standing Committee, what happens to the key portfolios and crucially, whether Hu will relinquish his chairmanship of the Central Military Commission to Xi.

"Having two centers -- the predecessor heading the military and the new leader second-in-command -- is not a healthy signal to the world," Lampton said.

The flipside of having a more collective leadership as opposed to a dominant leader like Mao or Deng is that the "system has been set up to prevent a strong leader," Dickson of George Washington University said. All the more reason that the charismatic Bo, who had been tipped for the Standing Committee and is said to have led a ruthless anti-crime campaign in Chongqing, drew some concern before his downfall.The clean reputation of Xi -- who had become Shanghai's leader after his predecessor, Chen Liangyu, was dismissed over a social security fund scandal -- took a hit in June when Bloomberg reported on the wealth of his extended family.

Although no assets were traced to Xi, his wife or daughter, Bloomberg found that his extended family had business interests in minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, with assets in the hundreds of millions.

Last month the New York Times gave a similar treatment to Premier Wen Jiabao, reporting on the staggering wealth of his relatives -- a review that found assets of at least $2.7 billion.

Xi and the new leaders will have to demonstrate to the public how serious they are in fighting widespread corruption, Lampton said, or face "huge problems."

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After the election, a new push on Syria

Smoke rises after Syrian aircraft bombed the strategic border town of Ras al-Ain, killing at least four people, wounding many others and sending panicked residents fleeing across to Turkey on Monday, November 12. View photos from November in this gallery.

 

(CNN) -- The United States and its allies are gearing up for a new push to unify the Syrian opposition and topple President Bashar al-Assad. They are looking to exploit battlefield gains by the rebels and change the trajectory of the conflict before Syria collapses into a patchwork of local fiefdoms -- and the violence explodes rather than seeps beyond Syria's borders.

With the U.S. election out of the way and growing concerns about the rise of jihadist groups within Syria, Western powers are now engaging groups fighting inside Syria, rather than the exiled and ineffectual Syrian National Council. The ultimate goal may be to create a safe zone -- a slice of liberated Syria -- where the opposition can form an interim government.

U.S. and British diplomats are concerned that over the last year, the initiative has been yielded to countries like Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and to "nonstate actors" from countries like Libya. They have been picking sides among the diverse brigades of the Free Syrian Army, paying the salaries of FSA fighters and sending weapons.

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There is also great anxiety about a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis, with food and fuel shortages compounded by colder weather and inadequate access to those most in need.

Here are five signs that the landscape of the Syrian conflict is changing:

1) The U.S. has finally abandoned the Syrian National Council

After 18 months of internal squabbling and little coordination with groups inside Syria, the exiled SNC is finally surplus to requirements.

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At a news conference days before the U.S. election, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We've made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. ... That opposition must include people from inside Syria."

She also disclosed that the U.S. had helped smuggle out some leaders of the internal opposition to promote their role. State Department officials say there have already been contacts with the Free Syrian Army.

British Prime Minister David Cameron chimed in last Wednesday.

"There is an opportunity for Britain, for America, for Saudi Arabia, Jordan and like-minded allies to come together and try to help shape the opposition, outside Syria and inside Syria," he said during a visit to Syrian refugees in Jordan.

The UK is reviewing whether U.N. sanctions prevent it from supplying weapons to the rebels.

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2) The opposition has gotten a makeover

During several days of meetings in Qatar that ended Sunday, the Syrian opposition only reinforced its reputation for bickering. At first, the SNC elected a new executive of 40 members (all men) with a more Islamist complexion -- a sign to some observers that it was increasingly a vehicle for the Muslim Brotherhood. But eventually, after badgering from the Qataris, the Saudis, the Arab League and Western diplomats, it agreed to join a new structure that gives activists inside or recently departed from Syria a bigger say, just as Clinton had demanded.

One driving force behind the new body -- inelegantly called the National Coalition of the Forces of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition -- has been Riad Seif, to whom foreign governments (and especially the United States) look as someone who can unite the opposition.

Syrian opposition groups reach initial agreement

Seif, a former member of the Syrian parliament who has spent much of the last decade in jail, escaped from the country in June. He will be one of two deputies to Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, a moderate cleric who was imprisoned several times by the regime before leaving for Egypt in the summer. The other deputy is Suhair al-Atassi, a well-known women's rights activist. Her election to such a prominent role is a signal of the new leadership's secular complexion.

The Syrian opposition leadership now has credibility. But the emir of Qatar, who was instrumental in pushing for the new structure, quickly warned: "This work has ended, but the next step is more important."

The United States also welcomed the new body.

"We look forward to supporting the National Coalition as it charts a course toward the end of Assad's bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future that all the people of Syria deserve," the State Department said.

Much time has been lost. The Turkish and Qatari governments have championed rebel brigades close to the Muslim Brotherhood, and those brigades have emerged as powerful and independent entities, especially in the north. Washington's hope, analysts say, is that a broadly representative leadership will regain control of the opposition without more direct and possibly counterproductive U.S. involvement.

3) Islamist influence is gaining

Driving the sense of urgency in Washington, London and Paris is this: The lack of cohesion in the resistance was, and is, opening up space for jihadist groups such as Jabhat al Nusra, which has stepped up its campaign of suicide bombings and joined Free Syrian Army units to capture military bases.

In the most detailed assessment yet of Islamist factions among rebel groups, the International Crisis Group reported last month that "the presence of a powerful Salafi strand among Syria's rebels has become irrefutable."

Al Nusra units are said to have taken part in the assault on the one of regime's main airbases in the north at Taftanaz. It's from there that regime helicopters launch deadly raids across Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

Al Nusra is attracting recruits because it is better equipped than many FSA factions. Foreign fighters may number no more than 1,000, but their experience -- in Iraq, Libya and even Chechnya -- makes them valued recruits. And with the regime losing control of many border crossings, they can get into Syria easily.

Writing in Sentinel, which is published by the Countering Terrorism Center at West Point, James Denselow says "a marriage of convenience between secular and Salafi-jihadi fighters against the Bashar al-Assad regime could lead to a bloody divorce along the lines of the Afghan mujahidin in the 1980s."

Only a more activist approach by Washington and its European allies will reverse the trend of lethal aid getting into "the wrong hands" and marginalize Islamist militant groups.

4) Turkey talks Patriots

To change the dynamics on the ground, the rebels need a sanctuary within Syria. At some point, the Free Syrian Army has to control part of Syria if they are to succeed.

NATO and its individual members have ruled out enforcing a no-fly zone because of the risk to aircraft from Syrian missile batteries, which makes the talk by Turkish officials about installing Patriot missiles along the border with Syria all the more intriguing.

"No official request has been made, but talks are continuing as part of contingency plans," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a news conference Friday.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Prague, Czech Republic, on Monday: "If such a request is to be forwarded, the NATO council will have to consider it."

It's been emphasized in Ankara that the Patriots would be a defensive deployment in case Syrian ballistic missiles should be fired into Turkey.

But they could be used to deter Syrian air power, which has pounded rebel-held territory in Idlib and Aleppo provinces. While designed to bring down missiles flying at five times the speed of sound, and with a limited range, Patriots could certainly threaten Syrian MiGs flying within about 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the border. Missiles can be armed in less than 10 seconds and reach supersonic speed within a second of being launched.

Turkey mulls defensive measures on Syrian border

5) The regime's grip on northern Syria is slipping

Right now, a buffer zone within Syria looks most feasible in the northwest, where the Assad regime has lost wide swaths of countryside along the border with Turkey and strategic towns. In addition, military bases in Idlib and Aleppo provinces are under siege or have been overrun, and the regime has lost control of the main M5 highway that links Damascus and Homs with the major northern cities.

One example: For almost a month, rebels have laid siege to a major military base: Wadi al Deif. It is close to the town of Maraat al Nouman, which sits on the main highway. Regime forces inside the base have been hanging on, according to opposition activists, receiving supplies from the air.

Rebel units have also begun attacking a military airport in Idlib and have cut the road linking Aleppo with the coast. The regime has responded with more attacks by air -- many of them indiscriminate bombings of towns the rebels now hold. Maraat al Nouman and other towns and villages in Idlib have been devastated.

The number of deaths in Idlib province more than doubled in October to 720, according to opposition activists, as the rebels tried to expel government forces from a wide swath of northwestern Syria.

Better coordination among rebel units, more reliable supply lines and an improved supply of weaponry might tip the balance against a regime that is gradually being worn down by its inability to suppress the insurgency. In recent months, a pattern has emerged as Syrian forces batter one suburb of Damascus only to see rebels regroup and surge into another.

That coordination may be a step closer with the announcement by the Free Syrian Army's military council that it is restructuring. It is creating five distinct geographic commands. Mustafa Sheikh, who heads the council, told the French news agency AFP last week: "We are getting closer and closer to becoming organized, so that we can get to a stage that is accepted by the international community."

More critically he added: "When this happens, the international community will know where these weapons are going."

Senior figures within the FSA are said to be moving from Turkey back into Syria to impose greater discipline on brigades that are becoming notorious for human rights abuses.

... But it's late in the day

This injection of urgency into defeating the Assad regime is unlikely to yield results before winter, and is it not likely to allow about 400,000 Syrian refugees the chance to return home. More than 9,000 crossed into Turkey in one day last week. Cold and hunger could worsen their already precarious situation, and millions of Syrians still at home are sure to face shortages of fuel and food.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, there are at least 1.2 million internally displaced Syrians and a total of 2.5 million that need help.

Nor will the latest initiatives soon put a stop to the wholesale destruction across Syria. From the suburbs of Damascus to the central cities of Homs and Hama to the heart of Aleppo and Idlib in the north, whole neighborhoods have been razed. One video posted last Wednesday showed a wrecked school in Douma, a suburb of Damascus; another set of photographs published in the Atlantic includes scenes reminiscent of Stalingrad or Dresden.

It is extremely difficult to estimate the cost of reconstruction in Syria -- to repair homes, schools, hospitals, pipelines and highways, but also to fund post-revolutionary institutions.

One study by economist Walid Jadaa, published in September, estimated the cost of the upheaval so far at $36 billion, which includes lost remittances from Syrians overseas and an end of tourism as well as physical damage. The Syrian government recently put the cost of the conflict at $34 billion.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has estimated money that nearly 600,000 buildings have been affected and put the cost of rebuilding or replacing them Money at about $40 billion.

The changes in and beyond Syria in the last few weeks do not mean the imminent end of the Assad regime. Perhaps a better way of putting it is to recall how Winston Churchill described the defeat of Axis forces in North Africa in November 1942: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

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