Syria's Got Noisy Then.

Yesterday (27/11/12) members of the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA) managed to shoot down a Syrian helicopter gunship for the first time using one of those infamous MANPAD shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles we keep hearing so much about. Today the SQIA detonated two car bombs in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus killing at least 29. Combined these two things are designed to turn the COP18/CMP Summit into yet another summit on Syria specifically to give the impression that the Syrian government could fall at any moment in order to get nations to agree to supply the SQIA with the weapons they need to overthrow the Syrian government.

The main effort to turn the COP18/CMP8 into a summit on Syria though has come from France with their plan to exhume and carry out an autopsy on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat amid suggestions that he was poisoned with Polonium. Back in 2006 a Russian dissident by the name of Alexander Litvinenko was killed in London using Polonium. So while the French are claiming to be investigating the possibility that Arafat was murdered by Israel they're actually trying to put pressure on Russia over Syria. Unfortunately the Russians quite quickly acted to put a stop to this by joining the Arafat investigation themselves. France has responded to this by having a bit of a crisis first with a complex leadership scandal involving the right wing UMP party which seems to be France asking the world if they're viewed as fascists and by today announcing that a decision whether or not to drop criminal charges against Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK) will be delayed. DSK is of a euphemism for the drugs gang connected to the Whitgift Estate who were responsible for most of the destruction during Croydon's August 2011 riot.

For their part Britain and the US are still pushing the Rihanna angle. Britain has today arrested in excess of 240 people in a crack down on domestic violence while the US is forcing tobacco companies to admit they misled consumers over the dangers of 'smoking' in an effort to suggest that Rihanna's heavy marijuana use might be the root cause of her problems. That is of course nonsense. Chris Brown is the root cause of Rihanna's problems although her marijuana use does seem to be preventing her from realising that. So the only question that remains is why Brown still hasn't been arrested for multiple probation violations but I think hat question has just answered itself.

The big joke of the day though has been the US wading into an argument about new Chinese passports by saying the inclusion of a map showing disputed islands as Chinese territory "does not help the environment." So maybe it's the Onion that's been missing the satire all along.

10:20 on 28/11/12