Lady Gaga Wonders Why Critics Don’t Attack Adele Over Being Chubby
In a recent interview, Lady Gaga opened up about the media?s reaction to recent weight gain, but appeared to point the finger at Adele for [...]
Lady Gaga Wonders Why Critics Don’t Attack Adele Over Being Chubby Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
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Interesting, as I suspect that at least part of the development of robotics, for the coming years, may be in the exoskeleton field. Exoskeletons may be very useful, and not only for paralyzed people: they can provide extra power for astronauts, soldiers on the battlefield they could provide - when nimble enough - with both extra power and armour, etc. etc.
Sad, as I have seen here in Europe what happens when universities "step into the market": dramatic reductions in quality, both of teaching and research, are quite often the consequence. Neo-liberalism is still driving us into places where we, actually, are loath to go.
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare if symbolic concession to Israel on Thursday, saying he had no permanent claim on the town from which he was driven as a child during the 1948 war of the Jewish state's founding.
Among several disputes deadlocking Middle East peace talks has been the Palestinians' demand that as many as five million of their compatriots be granted the right to return to lands in Israel that they or their kin lost.
Israel rules this out, fearing an influx of Arabs that would eliminate its Jewish majority, and argues the refugees should resettle in a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories it occupied in the 1967 war.
Speaking to the top-rated Israeli television newscast, Abbas was asked whether he wanted to live in Safed, his boyhood town in the Galilee region of what had been British-ruled Palestine and is now northern Israel.
"I visited Safed before once. But I want to see Safed. It's my right to see it, but not to live there," Abbas told Channel 2, speaking in English from the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"Palestine now for me is '67 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is now and forever ... This is Palestine for me. I am (a) refugee, but I am living in Ramallah. I believe that (the) West Bank and Gaza is Palestine and the other parts (are) Israel."
Abbas has defied Israel and the United States by planning to ask the U.N. General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinians to a non-member state. Facing possible punitive Israeli and U.S. sanctions, Abbas has promised an immediate return to peace talks after the U.N. vote, which the Palestinians are likely to win.
The televised remarks, which were excoriated by Abbas's Palestinian Islamist rivals, also appeared aimed at influencing Israelis ahead of their January 22 legislative election.
Polls currently predict an easy win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist who says he wants to restart talks with Abbas but who has championed Jewish settlement of East Jerusalem and the West Bank - the reason the Palestinians gave for breaking off the last round of negotiations in 2010.
"NO THIRD ARMED INTIFADA"
Some Netanyahu government officials have voiced skepticism about Abbas's ability to deliver a peace accord, after he lost control of Gaza - from which Israel withdrew in 2005 - to Hamas Islamists in a brief civil war two years later.
On Channel 2, Abbas sought to play up his security control over Palestinian-run areas of the West Bank, saying that as long as he was in power "there will no armed, third armed Intifada (revolt against Israel). Never."
"We don't want to use terror. We don't want to use force. We don't want to use weapons. We want to use diplomacy. We want to use politics. We want to use negotiations. We want to use peaceful resistance. That's it."
Netanyahu's office had no immediate comment on the interview, which was aired as the prime minister returned from a visit to France. Israel has long blamed Abbas for the stalled diplomacy, saying his insistence it freeze settlements - which are widely viewed as illegal abroad - amounted to preconditions.
Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the onus remained on Abbas to return to negotiations:
"If he (Abbas) wants to see Safed, or anywhere else in Israel, for that matter, we would happily show him anywhere. But there has to be a desire to move forward on the peace process."
As Abbas is not an Israeli citizen, Hirschson added, "he doesn't have a right to live in Israel. We agree on that."
In Gaza, Hamas denounced Abbas, saying he spoke only for himself. The Islamist movement does not recognize Israel and has regularly exchanged fire with it.
"No Palestinian would accept ceding the right of our people to return to homes, villages and towns from which they were displaced," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
"If Abu Mazen (Abbas) does not want Safed, Safed would be honored not to host people like him."
Secret Palestinian memoranda leaked to the media last year showed that Abbas had, during talks with the previous, centrist Israeli government, been willing to concede on some core demands - including by accepting a cap on refugees admitted to Israel.
Under Netanyahu, Israel has campaigned for the hundreds of thousands of Jews who it took in from Arab countries after the 1948 war to be recognized as refugees, proposing they be seen as a demographic counter-balance to dispossessed Palestinians.
(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/abbas-hints-no-return-home-israel-202629898.html
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - When Vladimir Putin celebrated his 60th birthday this month, a group of patriotic mountaineers unfurled a portrait of the Russian leader on a 4,150-metre mountain peak. Hailing him as a guarantor of happiness and stability, the climbers' leader explained: "We have stuck Putin's portrait on a rock wall we see as unbreakable and eternal as Putin".
But as Putin nears the end of his 13th year ruling this vast country, Russians feel increasingly unhappy and worries over long-term political and economic stability are growing.
Russia is exporting three things in great quantity, says a leading Moscow banker: natural resources, capital and people.
Only the first could be regarded as healthy and sustainable; the other two imply that oligarchs and ordinary citizens alike are turning their back on Putin's Russia.
Almost a third of city-dwellers would like to emigrate from Russia, according to a poll in September. Among young people the proportion rose to nearly half. The most favored destinations were Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
The reasons for this exodus of talent and money? A growing sense among educated Russians that their country is heading in the wrong direction, and that no change is likely.
It all began very differently. Putin replaced Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin on December 31, 1999. His early years generated hope as the chaos of the Yeltsin era was replaced by order, the economy grew strongly - Russia's GDP has grown nearly 10-fold under Putin - and a consumer boom created a new middle class.
A group of reform-minded ministers led by Alexei Kudrin at Finance and German Gref at Economy raised hopes of real change to increase private investment, modernize industry and infrastructure and reduce dependence on raw material exports.
Fast forward to 2012. Putin began a fresh six-year presidential term this March, with his supporters calling for him to stay in power until a constitutional term limit of 2024 - by which time the former KGB spy would have ruled longer than any Kremlin leader since Stalin.
Outwardly Putin's reform agenda continues. The president and his government repeat the mantra of modernization - a concept beloved of tsars for centuries.
Putin told Russia's main economic forum this summer that his government would implement a program of major transformation to build a new economy, create or modernize 25 million jobs and become an exporter of innovative goods and services.
But the facts on the ground point in a different direction.
POLITICAL THAW REVERSED
A brief and shallow political thaw under Dmitry Medvedev's 2008-12 presidency (in which Putin continued to wield ultimate power from the prime minister's office) is being reversed.
Opposition leaders have been arrested on charges which human rights organizations say are trumped-up, new controls have been clamped on the Internet and a Medvedev repeal of slander laws has been reversed.
Gref and Kudrin are both long gone from the government and unconfirmed rumors swirl in Moscow that Medvedev himself will be fired by Putin before the end of the year.
Growth presses on but at the same time Moscow has the world's biggest population of billionaires, corruption is rampant and the country's huge wealth is very unevenly spread.
Kudrin helped to fund a startling study from the Centre of Strategic Research think-tank, published last week. It concluded from interviews with focus groups in Moscow and regional cities that Russians saw little chance of changing their "predatory" ruling elite through the ballot box.
Most thought a revolution was possible and even desirable.
Medvedev cuts an increasingly lonely figure in Moscow, his credibility with voters gone after stepping aside without a murmur to make way for Putin's return to the Kremlin this year. His supporters privately despair of any chance for real change in an economy that looks increasingly Kremlin-controlled.
One recent mega-deal shows the trend. Last month, state-controlled oil giant Rosneft said it would take over the number three oil producer, TNK-BP. Rosneft will buy out the current owners - four Soviet-born oligarchs and Britain's BP - to create the world's biggest publicly listed oil company.
At a time when Russian oil production is falling and large-scale investment is badly needed to open up new fields, the Kremlin is instead spending $55 billion in cash and shares to acquire control of a major oil company from the private sector.
As the government splurges, Russia's oligarchs are shifting more money abroad because of the poor investment climate. Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach estimates that $50-60 billion of private capital will flow out of Russia this year. Moscow bank Uralsib predicts the figure could hit $80 billion.
"MIXED FEELINGS"
Putin told a group of visiting academics and journalists last week over dinner at his residence that he had "mixed feelings" about the Rosneft takeover of TNK-BP because it increased state participation in the economy.
Russia-watchers, however, had little doubt that the takeover was scripted inside the Kremlin. Rosneft is run by Igor Sechin, a long-time close Putin ally and Kremlin hard-liner who has always favored extending state control over key assets.
The two-hour, seven-course dinner with the Valdai Group of Russia experts was held at Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence in an exclusive wooded suburb outside Moscow.
The occasion was billed as a chance to gain insight into the latest Kremlin thinking and learn Putin's ideas for his new term. But at dinner, the Kremlin chief surprised some attendees with an uncharacteristically flat performance, devoid of the quips and bravado for which he is renowned and lacking in new ideas.
Corruption is one of the biggest problems in Russia for ordinary citizens, businessmen and foreign investors. The country has slid to 143rd place out of 182 on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with Nigeria.
Yet Putin shrugged off a question about corruption with a tired sigh, asking his audience what they expected him to say that was new about such a perennial topic.
Intimations of Putin's mortality have surfaced. The president's press secretary last week denied a Reuters report that the Kremlin leader needed surgery to correct a back injury, then days later squelched fresh rumors about Putin's health, saying he was working from home to avoid traffic congestion.
Such issues are no minor matter in a country where so much power is concentrated in the hands of one man, a man with no visible successor.
President Barack Obama memorably described Putin before their first meeting in 2009 as a leader with one foot stuck in the Soviet past, and signs of a drift backwards are visible in Moscow.
The Kremlin administration is now headed by 59-year-old former KGB spy Sergei Ivanov, who likes to describe himself as "rather conservative on national security but quite liberal on economics". Ivanov previously headed the Defence Ministry and the military-industrial complex.
ZASTOY AND PUTIN
On the lips of many educated Muscovites today is the word "zastoy" (stagnation) - an epithet which came to define the lackluster latter years of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s and early 1980s, but is now increasingly used of Putin.
Despite years of government promises, Russia has yet to build a modern pensions saving system, improve regulation to create a viable financial market trading centre to compete with Dubai or invest in its crumbling infrastructure.
Already weighed down by the cost of hefty public sector pay rises ahead of this year's presidential election, the Russian government's latest budget envisages spending $620 billion by 2020 re-equipping the country's military, while cutting spending on infrastructure and education.
These priorities have upset business leaders, who are desperate for improvements to the creaking road network.
And despite repeated Putin's pledges to cut the economy's dependence on oil and gas exports, the oil price required by the Kremlin to make its budget sums add up has more than doubled over the pasts five years to $110.
In foreign policy, Medvedev's much-vaunted plan to reset relations with the United States on a more constructive track has stalled. Instead Moscow has confronted the West over Syria and given priority to pursuing a free trade area with former Soviet neighbors Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, says Russia wants to be an "independent centre of attraction" for nations in its neighborhood and adds:
"The West made a major mistake wanting Russia to be like the West - Russia wants to be Russia".
PUNISHING PUSSY RIOT
One of the clearest signs of divergence between Russia and the West is the treatment of Pussy Riot - a punk feminist band who staged a protest song in Moscow's main cathedral this year imploring the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
Three of its members were jailed for two years - one later released on a suspended sentence - for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred".
Putin said the women had "got what they deserved" because their performance amounted to a vulgar act of group sex and threatened the moral foundations of Russia. Western governments and human rights groups were outraged at what they saw as a grossly disproportionate punishment.
Yet the harsh treatment meted out to Pussy Riot may signify something deeper than moral indignation.
Many analysts see the jail terms as a sign of something deeper - Kremlin insecurity amid rising popular discontent.
While the street protests which swept Moscow last winter have now abated, political analysts say the urban, educated population is increasingly unhappy with Putin's leadership.
Far from the grandeur of Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence, its wrought-iron gates topped with the double-headed Russian eagle, to the north of Moscow lies the featureless dormitory town of Krasnogorsk.
Inside a small, noisy McDonald's restaurant there, a diminutive 30-year-old woman energetically explained her prediction for Russia's future under Putin, as a snowstorm swirled outside.
"The system itself is crumbling," said Yekaterina Samutsevich, the released Pussy Riot member. "It's becoming more repressive ... those in power have very strong fears and their behavior is more and more wild. We could end with a total collapse like the Soviet Union."
Whether the vision of the strong, stable, great power projected by Putin or the apocalyptic prediction of the young punk rocker come to pass remains to be seen.
But in the meantime Russia's people and its business elite are voting with their feet and their wallets. And Putin is not winning.
(Writing by Michael Stott; Editing by Peter Millership)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-putins-russia-more-fragile-looks-195218096.html
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Lawyers on behalf of Graham Spanier released a poignant statement blasting Governor Corbett and calling the new charges against Spanier politically motivated and unfounded.
Here?s the full statement:
Today?s Presentment is the latest desperate act by Governor Tom Corbett to cover up and divert attention away from the fact that he failed to warn the Penn State community about the suspicions surrounding Jerry Sandusky, and instead knowingly allowed a child predator to roam free in Pennsylvania.? Its timing speaks volumes.? These charges are the work of a vindictive and politically motivated Governor working through an un-elected attorney general, Linda Kelly, whom he appointed to do his bidding and who will be a lame duck five days from now.
There is no factual basis to support these charges, which may explain why the Attorney General and her staff have steadfastly refused ? for a full year ? to meet with Dr. Spanier or his lawyers to discuss this matter despite repeated attempts to do so, or to accept Dr. Spanier?s offer to appear before the grand jury again to clarify any misconceptions.
From late 2008 through November of 2011, as Pennsylvania?s Attorney General, Tom Corbett clearly knew about the allegations against Jerry Sandusky and yet failed to act.? And this failure allowed Sandusky to continue to harm children for nearly three years after he could have and should have been warned, stopped or indicted.?The Governor?s legally indefensible explanations, repeated by Attorney General Kelly at her news conference today ? that he couldn?t expose Sandusky for fear of compromising an ongoing grand jury investigation or that he needed more evidence ? are patently absurd.
And so, on the one hand, Corbett had access to detailed allegations about Sandusky?s child abuse and, as the chief law enforcement officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, allowed it to continue.? On the other, Dr. Spanier was not privy to any details about a 1998 investigation that actually exonerated Sandusky and then, in 2001, was told only about an incident characterized as ?horseplay?.
Governor Corbett has made no secret of his personal hostility toward Dr. Spanier, as many witnesses will attest. He is now manipulating public officials and resources to settle a personal score.
Linda Kelly?s willingness to continue this farce, on behalf of the politically motivated Governor who appointed her, apparently knows no bounds.? She has already been put on notice by both candidates for Attorney General, one of whom will replace her, that they intend to review her investigation thoroughly.? For her to deny, as she did a few minutes ago, that politics played no role in these charges being made five days before an election, is patently false.
Graham Spanier has committed no crime and looks forward to the opportunity to clear his good name and well-earned national reputation for integrity. This Presentment is a politically motivated frame-up of an innocent man.? And if these charges ever come to trial, we will prove it.
The people of this Commonwealth, and the next Attorney General, should be outraged by this blatantly political, transparently vindictive, last-minute act of cowardice and desperation.
Source: http://onwardstate.com/2012/11/01/spaniers-legal-team-blasts-governor-corbett/
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Meanwhile, an attorney for Durham has filed his objections to a recommendation by federal prosecutors in the southern district of Indiana that he receive a 225-year prison sentence and be ordered to pay $209 million in restitution to the small Ohio investors of Fair Finance?who he was convicted of defrauding. Durham's attorney disputes the size of the losses incurred by the investors and blames federal prosecutors, in part, for the demise of the company. Durham's attorney John Tompkins called his proposed sentence "absurd." Tompkins attributed the company's demise to a raid of the firm by FBI agents and the ensuing bad publicity discussing the allegations that he operated Fair Finance as a Ponzi scheme.
Source: http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2012/10/somerset-pays-500000-to-settle-fair.html
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FILE -- In this Thursday February 25, 2010 file photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah, right, speaks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, upon their arrival for a dinner, in Damascus, Syria. The powerful alliance of Iran, Syria and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, once dubbed the "Axis of Resistance," is fraying. Iran's economy shows signs of distress from nuclear sanctions, Syria's president is fighting for his survival, Hezbollah is under fire by Lebanese who blame it for the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official and Hamas _ the Palestinian arm _ has bolted. (AP Photo/SANA, File)
FILE -- In this Thursday February 25, 2010 file photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah, right, speaks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, upon their arrival for a dinner, in Damascus, Syria. The powerful alliance of Iran, Syria and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, once dubbed the "Axis of Resistance," is fraying. Iran's economy shows signs of distress from nuclear sanctions, Syria's president is fighting for his survival, Hezbollah is under fire by Lebanese who blame it for the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official and Hamas _ the Palestinian arm _ has bolted. (AP Photo/SANA, File)
FILE -- In this Thursday February 25, 2010 file photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Hezbollah leader sheik Hassan Nasrallah, left, speaks with Syrian President Bashar Assad, center, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, upon their arrival for a dinner, in Damascus, Syria. The powerful alliance of Iran, Syria and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, once dubbed the "Axis of Resistance," is fraying. Iran's economy shows signs of distress from nuclear sanctions, Syria's president is fighting for his survival, Hezbollah is under fire by Lebanese who blame it for the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official and Hamas _ the Palestinian arm _ has bolted. (AP Photo/SANA, File)
FILE -- In this Sunday November 27, 2011 file photo, supporter of Lebanese former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Future Movement, holds an Arabic anti-Syrian President and Hezbollah leader placard reading:"Bahhar Assad, Hassan Nasrallah, game over," during a rally to mark Lebanon's Independence Day, in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon. The powerful alliance of Iran, Syria and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, once dubbed the "Axis of Resistance," is fraying. Iran's economy shows signs of distress from nuclear sanctions, Syria's president is fighting for his survival, Hezbollah is under fire by Lebanese who blame it for the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official and Hamas _ the Palestinian arm _ has bolted. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
BEIRUT (AP) ? When the Hamas rulers of Gaza recently gave a hero's welcome to the ruler of Qatar, an arch foe of the Syrian regime, it sent a strong message reverberating across the capitals in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.
The powerful, anti-American alliance of Iran, Syria and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, once dubbed the "Axis of Resistance," is fraying.
Iran's economy is showing signs of distress from nuclear sanctions, Syria's president is fighting for his survival and Hezbollah in Lebanon is under fire by opponents who blame it for the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official. Hamas ? the Palestinian arm ? has bolted.
"We're seeing basically the resistance axis becoming much more vulnerable and under duress. So even if it survives, it's really under tremendous pressure," said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.
"The Hamas shift to the Saudi-Qatari-Turkish orbit represents a major nail in the coffin of the resistance axis," he said. "Now you are talking about Iran and Syria and to a lesser extent Iraq and this undermines the social element because Hamas added the very important Sunni dimension."
The axis is one of two powerful camps that divide the Middle East into spheres of competing influence. It faces off against the wealthy, powerful monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar allied loosely with most of the other Arab countries and neighboring Turkey, which like Iran is Muslim but not Arab.
The fault line is sharply sectarian ? Iran and Hezbollah are Shiite and Assad's regime is dominated by the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Hamas, which is Sunni, had been the exception before it strayed. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim-led Arab countries in the Gulf have been trying to stem the regional influence of Iran.
Also, the Sunni countries, along with Turkey, support the Sunni-dominated opposition waging the civil war against Assad's rule in Syria.
The axis had been gaining power over the decade before the Syrian uprising began in March 2011 and formed a powerful front against Israel and the key U.S. allies in the Middle East such as the oil-rich Gulf states. Iran has long supported Hezbollah and Hamas as proxies in its battle against Israel. And Tehran also troubled the west with its dogged pursuit of uranium enrichment, a program the U.S. and its allies suspect is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Iran says is for peaceful purposes.
Syria has long boasted about being one of the few protectors of militant groups fighting Israel. It is the main transit point of weapons brought from Iran to Hezbollah and a collapse of Assad's regime would make it difficult for arms to reach the militant group that has been exchanging threats with the Jewish state and fought a 2006 war with Israel.
The axis also spread its influence to Shiite majority Iraq, where the fall of Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated regime gave way to a government controlled by Shiites.
Only few years ago, the coalition was becoming so powerful that King Abdullah of Jordan warned of a "Shiite crescent," meaning countries from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
A new boldness was seen in 2010 when Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah emerged from hiding for a rare public trip to Damascus, where he attended a meeting with his powerful regional allies, Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The leaders smiled confidently and appeared relaxed in footage of their meetings, a show of force meant to deter and demonstrate the unshakable power of the "Axis of Resistance."
The uprising against Assad that erupted 19 months ago, amid tumultuous changes sweeping the Arab world, shook a major pillar of the alliance.
"The fate of the alliance rests on the future of the Assad regime. If Assad goes, Iran and Hezbollah will suffer and find it much more difficult to plan, coordinate, and communicate," said Bilal Saab, a Middle East expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The brutal crackdown by Assad's regime on the Sunni-dominated uprising was an embarrassment to Hamas, the main Palestinian arm of the coalition. Hamas leaders in exile, who had been based in Damascus since the late 1990s, left for Egypt, Qatar and other countries.
Hamas officials say they could not be seen supporting a regime that was brutally suppressing a popular rebellion, particularly since most of those rising up against Assad are fellow Sunni Muslims.
This about-turn also caused new tensions with the Palestinian movement's main financial backer, Iran. Tehran demanded that Hamas step up and support Assad publicly. Hamas refused to do so, but didn't break ties entirely with Tehran, for lack of an alternative source of funds.
However, another benefactor may now be stepping forward.
Last week, the emir of Qatar, a vociferous critic of Assad, became the first foreign leader to visit the Gaza Strip. In a way, it formally sealed the break by Hamas from the "Axis of Resistance."
The trip offering the internationally isolated Hamas leadership there an unprecedented stamp of approval and Qatar promised more than $400 million in development projects for the impoverished territory.
The Qatari leader's generosity will likely give him some leverage over Hamas' decision-making at a time of growing debate within the movement over whether to stay in the orbit of Iran and other radical groups or move closer to the more moderate Gulf Arab camp.
Syria's president has painted the uprising against him as a universal attack designed to destroy the entire "Axis of Resistance." Last month, Assad told Iran's visiting foreign minister that the fight against his government "targets resistance as a whole, not only Syria."
"There will have to be serious adjustments in the axis should Assad go and preparations in Tehran for the day after are, I assume, already underway," Saab said.
Hezbollah, which supported revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain, backed Assad in the crackdown. That support turned much of the Middle East's Sunni population against the group they once looked up to.
The group came under renewed pressure and criticism earlier this month when a car bomb in Beirut on Oct. 19 killed one of the country's top intelligence officials, an anti-Syrian figure. Hezbollah's opponents at home immediately pointed fingers at the group, calling for the resignation of the government Hezbollah now dominates.
Iran, the wealthiest and most powerful member of the alliance, has reportedly sent billions of dollars to Assad to help suppress the uprising, according to a recent report by Times of London. Tehran has given Hezbollah billions since the group was created in 1982.
But now Iran is struggling to cope with Western sanctions that have ravaged its economy. The sanctions aim at thwarting its nuclear program.
The distress was all too apparent in the freefall of Iran's currency the rial, which lost more than a third of its value in a week. The decline is widely tied to the effects of sanctions.
Israel has threatened to carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who heads the Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, warned that Iran will target U.S. bases in the region in the event of war with Israel.
"The question is not whether it (the alliance) will survive or not. The question is will it have the capacity to act offensively," said Gerges. It is on the defensive."
___
Associated Press writers Karin Laub and Zeina Karam contributed to this report.
___
Bassem Mroue can be reached on twitter at http://twitter.com/bmroue
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