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Daybreak: Fighting in Damascus

Plus Ashton compares Toulouse to Gaza, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
March 20, 2012
A bombed-out police headquarters in Damascus.(Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images)
A bombed-out police headquarters in Damascus.(Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images)

• The Syrian uprising hits home, with clashes in a wealthy neighborhood of Damascus. [NYT]

• Defying President Obama, President Abbas plans to send Prime Minister Netanyahu a peace process ultimatum. [Haaretz]

• European Union foreign-policy head Catherine Ashton sorta/kinda/too much compared the Toulouse shooting to deaths of children in Gaza. Oy. [Times of Israel]

• Last election, Tzipi Livni’s Kadima won the plurality of votes. In a party primary later this month, Livni may lose the leadership. [LAT]

• Iran has begun allowing currency exchanges at nonofficial rates, in a sign that the sanctions-spurred devaulation of the rial is undeniable even to the regime. [NYT]

• An independent from Chicago who was an Obama bundler in 2008 has switched to Mitt Romney over the “1967 with land swaps” formulation. [WP]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.