In the news:

The first article shouldn't surprise anyone, but seeing this in print is fascinating and certainly makes one think of the Isaiah 17 scenario. Additionally, we cannot forget that Israel has publicly stated that they will view the use of chemical warheads the same as they view the use of nuclear weapons in terms of how they will respond:

Report: Syria arms missiles with chemical warheads

The Syrian regime, which has endured nine months of civil unrest spurred by the Arab Spring as it swept across the Middle East, has armed its medium-range missile arsenal with chemical warheads.

According to a report published by the Sabah daily Sunday, Damascus armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention.

Even more interesting is the location of these chemical weapons:

According to the daily, the Syrian military keeps its stockpile of chemical warheads in secret facilities in and around the capital city of Damascus.

In mid-November, President Assad held a special meeting with top commanders of the Syrian army and argued over how to respond to a possible military intervention by the international community. Additionally, Russia, which stood by the Assad regime’s defiance of international pressure on Damascus, sent 3 million gas masks to the troubled country.

Most of those masks will be distributed to the regime’s loyalists, the families of soldiers and Baath supporters. The distribution of the masks is set to be completed by the end of December, according to the daily.

Syria is believed to have had a chemical weapons arsenal for more than three decades. Following heavy defeats against Israel in conventional warfare, international defense sources believe that following the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Hafez al-Assad, the former general of the Syrian Air Force, decided to bolster Syria’s strategic position through the development of ballistic missiles to counter Israel’s superiority in conventional warfare.

The unchallenged superiority Israeli air forces led Syrian generals to push for other means to protect the regime. From then on, Syria has launched clandestine efforts to develop chemical warheads with ballistic missile delivery systems.

The article below is interesting as well, but it is hard to know if this is rumor based or based on the facts. If true, then we may be finally seeing "foreign intervention" in Syria - something that Assad has been warning against for several months - threatening to attack Israel if this "intervention" becomes a reality:

Breaking: Reports Claim U.S. Troops Deploying On Jordan-Syria Border

According to reports by James Corbett of the CorbettReport as well as an exclusive report on Boiling Frogs Post, U.S.-NATO troops have begun massing on the border between Jordan and Syria.

There is also a video link in this article. More below:

According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border.

According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages ​other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border.

This could be an indication that solid plans for a war in Syria have now been put into action. It has even been reported that the U.S. corporate media has been instructed to keep this quiet until at least Tuesday.

Also in the news:

Nuclear knowhow, S300 are Iran's price for Russian, Chinese access to U.S. drone

Iran is driving a hard bargain for granting access to the US stealth drone RQ-170 it captured undamaged last week, as Russian and Chinese military intelligence teams arriving in Tehran for a look at the secret aircraft soon found. DEBKAfile's Moscow sources disclose that the price set by Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Ali Jaafari includes advanced nuclear and missile technology, especially systems using solid fuel, the last word on centrifuges for enriching uranium and the S-300PMU-1 air defense system, which Moscow has consistently refused to sell Tehran.

This super-weapon is effective against stealth warplanes and cruise missiles and therefore capable of seriously impairing any large-scale US or Israeli air or missile attacks on Iran's nuclear sites.

U.N. Floats Global "Climate Court" to Enforce Emissions Rule

United Nations climate envoys have proposed the creation of a global "climate court" that would be responsible for enforcing a sprawling set of rules requiring developed countries to cut emissions while compensating poorer countries in order to pay off a "historical climate debt."

The proposals are contained in a draft document pieced together for the climate conference in Durban, South Africa. Representatives at the conference are struggling to come up with a compromise that negotiators from 194 nations can agree on.

Exclusive Videos: UN Holds Washington News Conference To Promost Global Taxes On Americans

In each of these four videos we see the following:

1) William Orme of the UN Development Program explains the global tax proposal, known as an international currency transactions tax, in the 2011 Human Development Report.

2) William Orme of the UN Development Program explains how a global tax would be collected. The UNDP 2011 Human Development Report urges a "universal" or global tax. He says a global “structure” would have to be put in place to collect the international tax.

3) Former UN official Fred Tipson, who ran the UN Development Program in DC, talks about the 2011 UNDP Human Development Report and its call for a global tax, also known as the Tobin tax.

4) UN Development Program officials William Orme and Olav Kjorven talk about global taxes on American taxpayers, who already spend about $100 million annually on the UNDP and $7.7 billion a year on the UN itself.

Border Deal Challenge? Convincing Canadians Their Privacy Won't Be Invaded, U.S. Ambassador says

Among the biggest challenges to a border trade and security agreement announced by Canada and the United States this week will be convincing Canadians their privacy won’t be invaded, U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson said Friday

The two countries are also working to create a “single window,” an online portal that Mr. Jacobson likened to the online retailer Amazon that would streamline the regulatory process and cut red tape for cross-border trade in hopes of pre-clearing as many cross-border transactions as possible.

But less clear is how that information on Canadian and U.S. travellers will be shared, and with whom.

Police To Test Laser That "Blinds Rioters"

A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer's looting and arson.

The laser, resembling a rifle and known as an SMU 100, can dazzle and incapacitate targets up to 500m away with a wall of light up to three metres squared. It costs £25,000 and has an infrared scope to spot looters in poor visibility.

Looking at the intense beam causes a short-lived effect similar to staring at the sun, forcing the target to turn away.

"The system would give police an intimidating visual deterrent. If you can't look at something you can't attack it," said Paul Kerr, the firm's managing director, told The Sunday Times.