Efforts to halt the killing in Syria shifted to the UN Security Council yesterday, where its members debated a draft resolution proposed by Morocco to end Bashar Al Assad’s reign of terror.

Through a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Saudi Arabia on November 27, vice-president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi recently named opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa as Yemen’s new interim prime minister.

In the wake of the winds of change that swept from Tunis to Cairo and beyond, frustrated Yemenis took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, responsive government, and respect for their basic political and social rights.

From Reuters:  Western powers risk causing an "earthquake" across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed.

From the Economist:  American officers, with their passion for acronyms, prefer not to call the machine that killed al-Awlaki a drone. They have a point. In nature, drone bees are poor, useless things that produce no honey and have no sting.

From RIA Novosti:  NATO is planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad with a long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran, Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said.

From Jonathan Saul, Reuters:  Somali pirates have been using Yemen's remote Horn of Africa island of Socotra as a refueling hub enabling their attack craft to stay restocked for longer periods at sea and pose a greater hazard to shipping, maritime sources say.

From Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy:  Of course, the United States (and some other countries) have been on this slippery slope for awhile, given our reliance on targeted killings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.