Eto'o inspires Anzhi to 2-0 win over leaders CSKA

Anzhi Makhachkala, led by captain Samuel Eto'o, beat a 10-man CSKA Moscow 2-0 on Sunday to join the army side at the top of the Russian Premier League.

Ivory Coast striker Lacina Traore headed Guus Hiddink's men ahead in the 57th minute and Morocco international Mbark Boussoufa added a second 20 minutes later after great work by Cameroon striker Eto'o.

CSKA, who beat Anzhi 1-0 in their first meeting this season in August, had midfielder Alexander Cauna sent off after a second booking late in the first half and rarely troubled the home side.

"It was a high tactical game with both teams trying to play to their strength," Hiddink told Russian television NTV.

"But we had an extra man in the second half and we tried to force the game to them. We scored two goals and in the end could have had another one."

The win extended Anzhi's unbeaten run to five games and moved the big-spending club from the volatile North Caucasus region level on 40 points with CSKA, though the Muscovites remained in first place because they have won more matches.

Champions Zenit St Petersburg are third, three points adrift after beating nine-man Spartak Moscow 4-2 in a heated encounter on Friday to end their three-game winless streak.

Belgian international Axel Witsel scored twice while Brazil striker Hulk and Russia midfielder Roman Shirokov added a goal apiece for the visitors.

Russia international Artem Dzyuba and Nigerian striker Emmanuel Emenike scored for Spartak, who had defenders Nicolas Pareja and Juan Insaurralde sent off for rough play.

Both Spartak and Zenit have been in turmoil in recent weeks.

Spartak, who have now lost three in a row, sacked coach Unai Emery last Sunday following a 5-1 home thrashing by their bitter city rivals Dynamo, replacing the Spaniard with the club's general director Valery Karpin.

Zenit were handed a 3-0 defeat and ordered to play their next two home games behind closed doors after their Nov. 17 match against Dynamo was abandoned when the Moscow goalkeeper was injured by firecrackers thrown by fans.

Luciano Spalletti's team, who were held to a 1-1 home draw by CSKA behind closed doors last Monday, now face Anzhi at an empty Petrovsky arena in St Petersburg next weekend before the Russian league takes a three-month winter break.

"It's a bit unfortunate for us to take a long break now because we have been playing very well recently," said Hiddink, whose team have also reached the Europa League knockout stage.

"But there's nothing we can do about it. We just have to accept it and come back even stronger after the break."

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Syrian refugees struggle in Lebanon

The government's violent crackdown on protesters in Syria is forcing many civilians to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, including Lebanon. 

According to the UN, there are now more than four thousand Syrian refugees in Lebanon alone. 
Dorsa Jabbari reports from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where some Syrian families are considering returning home because living conditions there aren't any better.

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Turkey missile defence system approved

The NATO military alliance has agreed to the deployment of Patriot missiles as requested by member Turkey to help defend its border against possible threats from Syria.

"NATO has agreed to augment Turkey's air defence capabilities in order to defend the population and territory of Turkey and to contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the alliance's border," a statement released on Tuesday said.

The statement, attributed to the foreign ministers of the alliance, cited "repeated violations of Turkey's territory" as the reason the deployment had been approved.

"We stand with Turkey in the spirit of strong solidarity,'' Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, told reporters in Brussels. "To anyone who would want to attack Turkey, we say, 'Don't even think about it!'"

"We express our appreciation to the Turkish people and authorities for assisting Syrian citizens who found refuge in Turkey.  We call for an end to violence in Syria, which represents a serious threat to stability and security in the region.

"We fully support the efforts of the international community to find a peaceful solution," the ministers said.

Deployment is 'defensive only'

The NATO statement said that the deployment would be "defensive only", and would be carried out using missile batteries from Germany, the United States and the Netherlands. PAC-3 batteries, the latest version of the US-built system, are expected to be used.

Rasmussen said that the deployment of the Patriot systems - which includes missiles, radar and other elements - would in no way support a no-fly zone over parts of Syria nor aid any offensive operation against the Arab state.

The systems will fall under the command of the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, the top NATO military officer.

The exact details of the deployment, including the number of batteries that would be used and how many foreign military personnel would be involved, are yet to be decided.

A joint team is studying possible basing sites in Turkey, and parliaments in both Germany and the Netherlands must
then approve shifting assets and the possible involvement of several hundred soldiers. It is unclear if any American soldiers would need to be deployed.

Due to the complexity and size of the Patriot batteries - including their radars, command-and-control centres, communications and support facilities - they cannot be flown quickly by air to Turkey and will probably have to
travel by sea, alliance officials told the Associated Press.

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Syrian foreign ministry spokesman 'defects'p

There are unconfirmed reports that the spokesman of the Syrian foreign 

ministry has defected.

Wael Merza, Syrian National Coalition presidential adviser, said that Makdissi had arrived in London. a claim Al Jazeera could not confirm.

Lebanons' Al Manar television station reported that Makdissi had been sacked for making statements that do not reflect the state's line.

"We know that in late July, he made comments saying that Syria was not going to use its chemical weapons, admitting, basically, to Syria having chemical weapons," Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reported from Beirut.

"Then there was a lot of effort by the goverment to try to defuse the statement," she said.

Makdissi's role had been scaled back since then, with fewer statements and press conferences.

"We've heard, from different sources, that he did leave Syria - at least he has not been in Syria for the past two days - through Lebanon and is now in London." our correspondent said, adding that British officials are neither confirming nor denying Makdissi's defection.

Makdissi often spoke at news conferences in Damascus to set out Syria's response to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

In June of 2011, the Syrian government also fired spokeswoman Reem Haddad for saying that Syrians were seeking shelter in Turkey in order to visit their relatives there.

Hisham Jaber, director of the Middle East Centre for Studies and Research, told Al Jazeera that he believes Makdissi was given permission to visit his family in Lebanon and that he flew to London from Beirut.

"I think he had a reason, maybe, to leave the country, and he made his choice," he said.

"Of course the gentleman is not in the position to have a lot of secrets, but he was very close to the regime and has a lot of information. He's also a very brilliant person and can use his skills among the opposition."

There is no official confirmation on Makdissi's status from the Syrian government.

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NATO warns Syria against chemical weapons use

Any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the ongoing uprising to overthrow his government will draw "an immediate reaction" from the world community, NATO's chief has said.

Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen's warning on Tuesday came as Syrian forces continued to hit rebel districts near Damascus, while state media reported that rebel forces had hit a school, killing dozens of children.

"The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community and if anybody resorts to these terrible weapons, I would expect an immediate reaction from the international community," Rasmussen told reporters at the start of a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels.

The secretary-general said that the threat of chemical weapons made it urgent for the alliance to authorise the deployment of Patriot anti-missile defence systems to Turkey.
The French foreign ministry earlier said that "possible movements on military bases storing chemical weapons in Syria" were a cause for alarm.
Barack Obama, the US president, told al-Assad on Monday not to deploy chemical weapons, though he did not specify how the US would respond.
The Syrian foreign ministry has repeatedly denied that it would consider using chemical weapons against Syrians, though it has not ruled out their use in case of foreign military intervention.
Foreign military analysts say that Syria has the capability to produce chemical agents such as mustard gas and sarin, and that it could also produce VX nerve gas.
Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on chemical weapons at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that it was unclear if Syria was actually preparing to use such weapons, but that precautions had to be taken.
He said that, depending on the delivery mechanism of the weapons, defence systems could be put into place.
"If it is an artillery rocket of the kind that were used in Gaza against Israel, and if the defender had what Israel has - the 'Iron Dome' system - then many of them can be intercepted. If it's a ballistic missile, of the kind of SCUD-B and SCUD-C that Syria has, then you need a more sophisticated kind of defence, and that's why Turkey is introducing Patriot [missile defence] batteries from NATO," he said.
Damascus under fire
Fighting around the capital Damascus has led foreign airlines to suspend flights and prompted the UN and European Union to reduce their presence there.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based anti-government rights group, said that 200 people were killed across Syria on Monday, more than 60 of them around Damascus.
Al-Assad's forces bombarded districts to the southeast of the capital on Tuesday, near to the international airport, and in the rebel bastion of Daraya to the south-west.

In central Damascus, shielded for many months from the full force of the civil war, one resident reported hearing several loud explosions.
"I have heard four or five thunderous blows. It could be barrel bombs," she said, referring to makeshift bombs which activists say Assad's forces have dropped from helicopters on rebel-dominated areas.
State media, meanwhile, reported that a rebel attack had killed at least eight students and their teacher when a mortar hit a school building.
The mortar hit the Bteiha school in Wafideen camp, about 20 kilometres northeast of Damascus, the report said. Wafideen is home to some  25,000 people displaced from the Golan Heights by the Israeli occupation since  1967.
"They were killed by a mortar launched by terrorists," said the SANA news agency, using the Syrian government's term for rebels.

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Clashes outside Egypt's presidential palace

Egyptian police have fired tear gas at opposition protesters demonstrating against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's drive to hold a snap referendum on a controversial draft charter, as the country plunges deeper into crisis.

Live television footage showed that some protesters broke through police lines and got too close to the presidential palace.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo said: "They broke through the barbed wire [and] the police reacted and fired tear gas straight away. This has been an issue for the protesters as they are not allowed near the palace.

She added that there had not yet been any physical confrontations between police and protesters.

Thousands had taken to the streets waving Egyptian flags, chanting for the downfall of the president and denouncing the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi emerged, for having "sold the revolution" that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.

The strikes were part of a planned campaign of civil disobedience that could bring in other industries.

'Stand up to tyranny'

Also on Tuesday, at least eight influential daily newspapers, a mix of opposition party mouthpieces and independent publications, suspended publication for a day to protest against what many journalists see as the restrictions on freedom of expression in the draft constitution.

The move, according to independent daily Al-Tahrir, was aimed at "standing up to tyranny".

The country's privately owned TV networks are planned their own protest on Wednesday, when they will blacken their screens all day.

A November 22 decree issued by Morsi expanding his powers and enabling him to put to a mid-December referendum a draft constitution rejected by liberals has sparked strikes and deadly protests.

The charter has become the focal point of a political and ideological battle in Egypt between the Muslim Brotherhood and their Islamic allies and the largely secular-leaning opposition.

"The country is deeply divided over Morsi's legitimacy, the opposition are saying they are not against his election which was legitimate, but his actions and decrees are not legitimate," said our reporter.

Morsi's decision has not only placed his decisions beyond judicial oversight but also barred any judicial body from dissolving the panel that drafted and approved the new constitution, sparking a conflict with the country's judges.

As he faces his worst crisis since taking office in June, Morsi insists the measures are aimed at ending a tumultuous transition following the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in early 2011.

But his opponents have accused him of choosing the same path of autocracy that finally cost Mubarak his presidency.

The decision to go to a referendum on December 15 caused further upheaval, including within the judiciary itself.

On Monday, the Supreme Judicial Council said it would ensure judicial supervision of the referendum, despite calls for a boycott by some of their colleagues, including the influential Judges Club, an association that represents judges nationwide.

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Citizens in Space

Courtesy of XCOR Aerospace

Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy, is dedicated to citizen science and citizen space exploration. Citizens in Space is a nonprofit project working with (not for) the companies developing new commercial spacecraft. Our goal is to enable ordinary people to fly in space as citizen astronauts (citizen space explorers) and to enable citizen scientists to fly experiments into space. For the first phase of our project, we have acquired an initial contract for 10 suborbital spaceflights with one of the new space transportation companies—XCOR Aerospace.

We will be making payload space on these flights available to citizen scientists. Professional researchers will be eligible, too, if they play by certain rules. We will fly these experiments free of charge, but any experiment submitted to us must be licensed as open-source hardware. We expect to fly up to 100 small experiments in our initial flight campaign. Our hope is that the experiment hardware developed through this project will be replicated widely by citizen scientists and flown many times on a wide variety of vehicles in the future. For information on the rules for submitting payloads, see the Call for Experiments.
Along with the general call for experiments, we are offering a $10,000 prize for one particularly interesting experiment in the High Altitude Astrobiology Challenge. We will also have a $5,000 reserve prize for the best experiment which does not win the High Altitude Astrobiology Challenge.

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