Globe Trot 07.16

The Red Cross on Sunday classified fighting in Syria "a non-international armed conflict," or in words the rest of us know-a civil war. Armed confrontation using heavy weapons over the weekend reached into the heart of Damascus, and UN observers documented another government slaughter of civilians in a farming community south of Damascus.

The Free Syrian Army, the largest body of rebels fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad, is showing itself no friend of Christians, even mocking believers and looting churches.

London's Heathrow airport is expecting its busiest day ever as athletes begin arriving for the 2012 Olympics, set to begin July 27.

There are not enough handouts from the United States and Saudi Arabia to keep Egypt from going over an economic cliff, as a political standoff between newly elected President Mohammed Morsi and the military continues. Egypt's GDP and its foreign reserves have tumbled to over half their level when the anti-Hosni Mubarak uprising began 18 months ago, while interest rates and unemployment have skyrocketed.

Korean Central News Agency is funny were it not so deadly serious. The official web crawl of the communist government of North Korea is today featuring headlines like "Let Us Blow Up the Bases Used to Hurt the Dignity of Our Supreme Leadership!" and calling for "cutting off the windpipe" of South Korea's leadership.

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