NEWS FLASH

AWOL Syrian Pilot Granted Asylum In Jordan | After reportedly refusing orders to bomb domestic targets, a Syrian air force officer flew his plane to Jordan, where he was granted political asylum, according to the New York Times. The pilot’s escape with the commandeered Soviet-era fighter plane comes after recent weeks where the forces of Bashar al-Assad’s government stepped up their allegedly indiscriminate air assaults on areas controlled or contested by a growing armed rebellion.