Professional golfer Kyle Stanley will forever remember Super Bowl Sunday 2012. And not because he's an over-the-top New York Giants — or Madonna — fan.

But because he won the unglamorously-named Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday. And for Stanley, there was nothing trashy about his final round 65 that secured a one-shot victory and his first on the PGA tour.

What will resonate most for the spindly, 24-year-old, is that Feb. 5 was his day of redemption. And really, in sport, or in life, who doesn't cherish a moment when they can say I am somebody, after feeling the extreme opposite?

And in Stanley's case, feeling it so recently.

It was just last weekend, when Stanley stunningly and tearfully blew the three-shot lead he had on the 18th hole to lose the PGA event at fabled Torrey Pines in San Diego. The collapse prompted comparisons to cover-your-eyes-golfing-nose dives such as Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 British Open, Robert Garrigus at the 2010 St. Jude Classic and so many others.

Social media offered a balm — Stanley reportedly picked up nearly 4,000 sympathetic followers on Twitter in 24 hours; other golfers sent him text messages assuring Stanley they'd "been there done that" and exhorting him to hang in, which, it seems, he did.

Enlarge Petros Giannakouris/AP

IMF representative Bob Traa is seen inside an elevator as he arrives a government office building before meeting Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Monday.

Petros Giannakouris/AP

IMF representative Bob Traa is seen inside an elevator as he arrives a government office building before meeting Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Monday.

Much to the dismay of the economic world, Greece said it was delaying negotiations on the terms of its bailout package today. Basically, Greece's political leaders could not agree on accepting tough, new austerity measures that are tied to receiving the 130 billion euro bailout.

The Guardian reports:

"With Greece staring at the spectre of bankruptcy – barely six weeks before it has to make bond repayments worth €14.5bn – EU officials expressed disbelief that politicians could not finally put their name to an accord.

"Unable to conceal her own exasperation, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said: 'I honestly can't understand how additional days will help.

"'Time is of the essence. A lot is at stake for the entire eurozone,' she said after holding debt crisis talks in Paris with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy."

"Unfortunately the negotiations are so tough that as soon as one chapter closes another opens," Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told Reuters.

Earlier today, Greece announced that it was prepared to enact some austerity measures. The New York Times reports that the country said it would cut 15,000 government jobs.

But those cuts are controversial. The country's biggest labor unions have called for a general strike on Tuesday.

"The strike is expected to disrupt transport and other public services," reports the Times. "Three separate protest rallies have been planned for central Athens alone."

The New York Post has gotten their hands on a new memoir from a woman called Mimi Alford in which the now 68-year-old grandmother details an 18-month affair with President John F. Kennedy.

Screenshot/NBC News

Mimi Alford in an interview with Rock Center.

The Post calls it an "explosive new tell-all" titled "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath." In the book, which will be published by Random House on Wednesday, Alford writes that her affair began in the summer of 1962, when at age 19, she was invited to the White House swimming pool.

The president swam up to her and asked if she was Mimi. The Post adds:

"'Lightning had struck. Later that day, Mimi was invited by Dave Powers, the president's 'first friend' and later the longtime curator of the Kennedy Library in Boston, to an after-work party. When she arrived at the White House residence, Powers and two other young female staffers were waiting. Powers poured, and frequently refilled, her glass with daiquiris until the commander-in-chief arrived.

"The president invited her for a personal tour. She got up, expecting the rest of the group to follow. They didn't. He took her to 'Mrs. Kennedy's room.'

"'I noticed he was moving closer and closer. I could feel his breath on my neck. He put his hand on my shoulder,' she recounts.

"The next thing she knew, he was standing above her, looking directly into her eyes and guiding her to the edge of the bed."

At this point the Post gets graphic, but suffice it to say that Alford writes that she was a virgin when she and the president consummated their relationship and it happened in Jackie Kennedy's bedroom.

Alford's story first came to light in 2003 in Robert Dallek's "An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963," in which Dallek makes a passing mention of Mimi. But as he was writing the book, he convinced Barbara Gamarekian, a former press aide to Kennedy, to release a conversation she had for a 1964 oral history. In it she goes on for 17-pages about the affair.

Gamarekian says that Mimi had a "special relationship" with the president. So much so that when she wanted to complain about being made to stay in Washington by her boss at the press office, she was able to reach the president during the Cuban missile crisis.

Gamarekian describes a gaggle of girls, who travelled with the president and swam with him and were all friends. Alford was among them.

From The New York Post, here a few more highlights from Alford's book:

— She always called him Mr. President and he never kissed her on the lips.

— Their last meeting was seven days before his assassination. "He took me in his arms for a long embrace and said, 'I wish you were coming with me to Texas.' And then he added, 'I'll call you when I get back.' I was overcome with sudden sadness. 'Remember, Mr. President, I'm getting married,'" Alford writes.

Alford is scheduled for an interview with NBC News' Rock Center on Wednesday. In excerpts released from that interview Alford talks about being a 19-year-old confronted with the power of the presidency.

"I wouldn't call it non-consensual," she said about their first meeting. "But could I have resisted? No."

Enlarge Claire Greenway/Getty Images

Homer, left, and Bart Simpson: too dangerous for Iran.

Claire Greenway/Getty Images

Homer, left, and Bart Simpson: too dangerous for Iran.

As most of the headlines we're seeing say: "Aww, man!"

A newspaper in Iran says the authorities there have banned dolls of characters from The Simpsons because they supposedly promote Western culture.

So that means Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and, of course, Bart, join Barbie on the list of toys deemed to be too hot for Iranian children to handle.

As Tom Ricks says on The Best Defense blog he does for Foreign Policy magazine, Homer "probably doesn't care because they don't sell Duff beer" in Iran.

We suspect Lisa, judging from her ongoing war about Malibu Stacy, would be outraged to hear that she's been compared in any way to Barbie.

Bart, though, might say "cowabunga dude! Maybe I can hang out with her!"

By the way, Iranian authorities apparently say that Spiderman and Superman are OK. "They help oppressed people and they have a positive stance," Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, secretary of policymaking at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, told Shargh.

Citgroup announced today that China had approved its plans to issue credit cards in the country. That will make it the first U.S.-based bank to be able to issue credit cards under its own brand.

Citigroup said it plans to issue its first cards this year. The AP reports:

"Banks and card processing networks have long eyed the Chinese market as a potential source for growth, but regulators have been slow to open to foreign countries. Only the Bank of East Asia, based in Hong Kong, is currently able to issue credit cards in mainland China.

"While economic growth is slowing in China, its economy expanded by a 9.2 percent last year. Its growing middle class is a prime target for lenders.

"Citi would not yet say if the cards will carry a logo from Visa Inc. or MasterCard Inc. Both payment processing networks have been aiming to expand their reach into China and bolster their overseas business."

The Financial Times reports that Citi executives said the ability to issue cards in China is a "significant milestone" that gives them a "strong competitive edge." But the Times says the bank's limited presence in the country will make that hard.

"The bank, which saw about $8bn in revenues from its consumer operations in Asia in 2011 or about one-quarter of its total consumer revenues, has just 46 branches in China," reports The Financial Times.

CNN Money reports that the United States has been pushing for China to open its market to American companies through the World Trade Organization. General Motors, reports CNN, is the same situation Citi was before this decision.

"[GM] has the leading share of the rapidly-growing Chinese market for autos, which is now the largest in the world. But virtually all those sales are through various joint ventures that GM has with Chinese automakers," CNN reports.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals plans to release its ruling on the constitutionality of Calfornia's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state, at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday (10 a.m. in California), the court just announced.

As NPR's Richard Gonzales reported in November, Prop 8 was "struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge more than a year ago. Both former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and then attorney general Jerry Brown took the unusual position of declining to appeal, so the sponsors of Prop 8 took it upon themselves to file an appeal before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals."

Richard added that "regardless of the finding, the 9th Circuit is expected by all parties to be just a legal stop before the matter goes to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The court has set up a website just for information about the case. Click here for that.

There was a little humor in The Boston Globe's special Super Bowl section this morning. It featured an all-caps headline delivering the bad news to Patriot fans that its team had repeated its 2008 defeat. It also featured a photo of a dejected Tom Brady.

Enlarge The Boston Globe

The cover of The Boston Globe's special Super Bowl section.

The Boston Globe

The cover of The Boston Globe's special Super Bowl section.

But if you looked at the upper right-hand corner (click on the photo to get a closer look), where the throw-away forecast goes, it offered a bit of consolation to its readers:

"But Weather's Nice"

Indeed, they're expecting a high of about 50.

h/t: The Awl.

Enlarge John Froschauer/AP

Investigators work around the smoldering remains of the house near Graham, Wash., on Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012).

John Froschauer/AP

Investigators work around the smoldering remains of the house near Graham, Wash., on Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012).

"I'm sorry, goodbye," Josh Powell wrote in an email to his attorney just before he apparently ignited an explosive fire Sunday that took not just his life but those of his 5- and 7-year-old sons, authorities say.

The tragic events at Powell's home in Graham, Wash., came nearly three years after the disappearance of Powell's wife Susan and the emergence of Powell as the only "person of interest" in the case. Throughout, he maintained his innocence.

But it was just last week that a custody battle over the brothers between Powell and the boys' grandparents — Susan's mother and father — took a turn that started the chain of events that ended with an explosion and blaze on Sunday.

Enlarge Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

PINTO, SPAIN - FILE: Alberto Contador listens to questions from the media during his press conference pleading his innocence after being tested positive for clenbuterol in 2010.

Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

PINTO, SPAIN - FILE: Alberto Contador listens to questions from the media during his press conference pleading his innocence after being tested positive for clenbuterol in 2010.

Sport's highest court has stripped Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador of his 2010 Tour de France title.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the Spanish Cycling Federation's decision that said Contador had accidentally ingested clenbuterol, a performance enhancing drug, by eating a contaminated steak.

The CAS was deciding on an appeal launched by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI).

The AFP reports:

"'CAS has partially upheld the appeals filed by WADA and the UCI and has found Alberto Contador guilty of a doping offense,' CAS said in a statement.

"'As a consequence, Alberto Contador is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 25 January 2011, minus the period of the provisional suspension served in 2010-2011 (5 months and 19 days). The suspension should therefore come to an end on 5 August 2012.'

"CAS added that the 'presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement' than by contaminated meat."

In other words, the CAS did not buy Contador's argument that ingestion was accidental and also means that Contador will not be able to participate in this year's Tour.

The 2010 title now goes to Luxembourg's Andy Schleck.

"There is no reason to be happy now," Schleck said, according to Reuters. "First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. This is just a very sad day for cycling. The only positive news is that there is a verdict after 566 days of uncertainty. We can finally move on."

The reaction in Spain was expectedly somber. "It's very sad and unpleasant for Spanish cycling and for the sport in general," Juan Carlos Castaño the president of Spanish Cycling Federation told El País. Castaño added that he had tried to contact Contador but he was "busy."

Cycling great Eddy Merckx perhaps gave the most dire assessment.

"It's like someone wants to kill cycling," Merckx told The Associated Press at the Tour of Qatar. "I'm very surprised, very surprised. It's bad for the sponsors. It's bad for the Tour (de France). It's bad for cycling."

If you remember, on Friday, a federal court said it was dropping the doping case against U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong and his team.

Although today's case doesn't directly touch on the matter of assisted suicide, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a state law that tried to limit public advertising about the controversial practice and the number of cases.

Four members of Final Exit, an assisted suicide advocacy group, sued the state of Georgia, after they were arrested for helping an ill man take his life in Atlanta. One of the defendants was Dr. Lawrence Egbert, co-founder and the former medical director of Final Exit Network Inc., notes Bloomberg.

The Georgia law said anyone:

"who publicly advertises, offers, or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose is guilty of a felony."

The justices were unanimous in their reversal.

Writing for the court, Justice Hugh Thompson noted the way state legislators put the law together left loopholes. It didn't directly criminalize assisted suicide, but punished would-be assistants for going about it in a specific way - using some kind of public speech, with public ads or offers of help. Other kinds of assisted suicides weren't criminalized. Thompson notes dryly:

"Had the State truly been interested in the preservation of human life, however, it could have imposed a ban on all assisted suicides with no restriction on protected speech whatsoever. Alternatively, the State could have sought to prohibit all offers to assist in suicide when accompanied by an overt act to accomplish that goal. The State here did neither."

Thompson concludes the law violated the free speech clauses of the U.S. and Georgia constitutions.

The case gained notoriety in Georgia after an agent infiltrated the Final Exit group, posing as a terminally ill client. Authorities say during the investigation, the Final Exit members helped another ill man take his life, according to AP. After their arrest, the Final Exit members pleaded not guilty and challenged the Georgia law in court. With today's ruling, the AP cites their defense attorneys who say the case is over.

Currently, three states permit physician-assisted suicide Montana, Oregon and Washington. Last month, Dr. Egbert spoke about his work (but not the Georgia case) on Tell Me More.

President Obama has signed an executive order blocking the movement of "all property and interests in property of the government of Iran, including the Central Bank of Iran," if the assets are in the U.S. or are controlled by an American or U.S. entity at foreign branches of U.S. institutions.

As The Associated Press says, "the new measures come as the White House tries to both ratchet up pressure on Tehran to abandon its nuclear program and dissuade Israel from launching a unilateral strike on Iran, a move that could roil the Middle East and jolt the global economy."

In the order, it's written that the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks have been using "deceptive practices ... to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties" and that there is an "unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system by Iran's activities."

By signing the order, Obama is implementing provisions of an amendment to the defense bill Obama he signed into law at the end of last year.

According to Bloomberg News, the order effectively widens the net of sanctions aimed at the Persian nation:

"Previously, only assets belonging to sanctioned Iranian entities or individuals were frozen. The order signed by the president yesterday blocks all property and interests in property belonging to the Iranian government, its central bank, and all Iranian financial institutions, even those that haven't been specifically designated for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury."

Iran says it is pursuing peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The U.S. and other nations say Iran has not proved to the world it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The president's order is here. Just click on the headline "Sanctions on Iran" and it should pop up.

(Note: If seeing someone "flip the bird" greatly offends you, this might not be the post for you.)

If it's the morning after a Super Bowl then that must mean everybody's talking not just about the game but about the ads and the halftime show as well.

The game? OK, but not the greatest. (If you haven't heard, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17.)

Enlarge Christopher Polk/Getty Images

M.I.A.'s now famous finger during halftime of the Super Bowl.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

M.I.A.'s now famous finger during halftime of the Super Bowl.

The ads? Meh, as the kids might say. It certainly didn't seem to us like there were any true breakouts. According to USA Today's annual Super Bowl ad meter that measures a captive audience's reactions, "dogs are still a Super Bowl advertiser's best friend." No stunner there.

The halftime show? Ah, now there's something to debate. We'll let our friends at The Record and Monkey See decide what should be said, if anything, about the quality of Madonna's performance.

What we're wondering is how upset, or not, everyone is about the middle finger (and possibly said an expletitive) dropped by singer M.I.A. as she backed up Madonna.

On the one hand (so to speak), it's an obscene gesture and it theoretically might have been seen by more than 100 million Americans.

On the other hand, as NPR.org's Linton Weeks wrote back in August 2010, middle fingers have been popping up with increasing frequency for several years now:

"On streets, in stores, in schools, on the news. People are extending their middle fingers as a silent, but effective — sometimes too effective — way of saying "go to hell," "up yours" or "(insert nasty-sounding verb here) you." It's also known by a few other handles, such as "shooting the bird" and "flipping off." But whatever you call it, it's become commonplace."

So, it might be asked, why fuss over something so common?

Politico says M.I.A.'s fleeting finger "could add up to another Super Bowl headache for the Federal Communications Commission," which now must decide whether NBC-TV should be fined for letting it get on the air (the network's attempt to digitally blur the gesture was a second too late). The commission might wait, though, to decide what to do until after the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of its "fleeting expletive policy." A lower court has said the FCC was wrong to fine CBS-TV $500,000 for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

We don't have to wait to ask:

(Note: That's not a scientific survey. It's just a question to spark discussion. We'll keep it open until midnight Tuesday.)

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

— Syrian Regime Has 'License To Kill' After Diplomatic Impasse, Activists Say.

— Release Americans 'Immediately,' Ambassador Rice Tells Egypt.

— Poll Gives Obama 'Clear Edge' Over Romney.

— Eli Has Two Rings, Peyton Has One; Time For Little 'Bro To Get More Respect?

Other top stories include:

— "Deal Is Closer For A U.S. Plan On Mortgage Relief ... Would Require Banks To Provide Billions Of Dollars In Aid To Homeowners." (The New York Times)

— "Merkel Presses Greece As Another Bailout Deadline Slips." (Reuters)

— "M.I.A.'s Super Bowl Obscenity An FCC Headache." (Politico)

— In "Act Of Evil," Father Suspected In Wife's Disappearance Apparently Kills Himself And Two Sons In Fire. (The Seattle Times)

— "Cyclist Alberto Contador Banned 2 Years For Doping," Stripped Of Tour de France Title: (The Associated Press)

Saying that "these Americans have done absolutely nothing wrong," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations this morning called on Egypt to immediately allow 19 U.S. citizens to leave that country and to drop plans to accuse them of illegally funding groups that oppose Egypt's ruling military regime.

On CBS News' This Morning, Ambassador Susan Rice said that if Egypt follows through and charges the Americans with crimes there could be "serious consequences for our bilateral relations."

Egypt is due to get about $1.5 billion in U.S. aid this year.

The Americans, as we've previously reported, include Sam LaHood — the 36-year-old son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The younger man directs the Egypt offices of the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-government sponsored organization that promotes democracy. He has previously said the IRI has done nothing to aid the groups that have been protesting against the military council that took control after the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak's regime one year ago.

Some of the Americans are being sheltered at the U.S. embassy in Cairo. All told, Egypt says it plans to charge 40 people — including 14 Egyptians — with allegedly fomenting opposition.

President Obama has his first "clear edge" over Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney in polling done for The Washington Post and ABC News:

"In a general-election test, Obama leads Romney 52 to 43 percent among all Americans; more narrowly, 51 to 45 percent, among registered voters. Among all adults, it's Obama's first time topping 50 percent in a head-to-head matchup with Romney since July; it's his first time ever above that point among registered voters."

The margin of error on the full poll of 1,000 adults (conducted Feb. 1-4) is +/- four percentage points. Among those, 879 were registered voters. The margin of error on the responses of registered voters would be slightly higher.

Real Clear Politics has a chart of other Romney vs. Obama polls. It gives the president an average lead of 3.7 percentage points.

As always with polling, it's important to remember that such surveys ask about which candidate people would vote for "if the presidential election were held today." Obviously, the election isn't until Nov. 6 and a lot can happen between now and then.

Obama, by the way, made his case for why he deserves a second term during an interview with NBC-TV's Matt Lauer that was broadcast before Sunday's Super Bowl and during this morning's Today Show.

Meanwhile, if you're just catching up on the weekend's political news, Romney easily won the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses. Now, it's on to Colorado and Minnesota, which hold their caucuses on Tuesday.

Enlarge Charlie Riedel/AP

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the NFL Super Bowl XLVI game against the New England Patriots, Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012).

Charlie Riedel/AP

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the NFL Super Bowl XLVI game against the New England Patriots, Sunday (Feb. 5, 2012).

After leading his New York Giants to a 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots last night, quarterback Eli Manning is now 2-0 in Super Bowl games.

That puts him ahead of older brother Peyton, who has taken the Indianapolis Colts to two Super Bowls and won one.

Injuries kept Peyton out of football this season and he may not be back. He's considered one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.

But now, Eli has one more Super Bowl ring than his brother and has been the MVP in both games he's played in. So it seems fair to ask whether it's time to talk about both Mannings as being among the best ever. Their career "quarterback ratings" aren't too close — 82.1 for Eli over eight seasons and 94.9 over 13 seasons for Peyton. But what do you think?

Meanwhile, the morning's other story line from the Super Bowl seems to be the fleeting finger of singer M.I.A. during the halftime show. We missed it, but she apparently flashed a middle digit as she performed during one of Madonna's songs. M.I.A. also may have added the F-word just to get her point across ("though it was hard to hear her clearly," The Associated Press says).

The NFL and NBC, which broadcast the game, are apologizing. A spokesman for the TV network says a system that should have digitally blurred the offending finger wasn't activated in time.

Enlarge AFP/Getty Images

Activists say this image, taken from a video uploaded to YouTube, shows Syrians outside a field hospital in Homs earlier today. Blood stains the sidewalk. Because few foreign journalists are inside Syria, images such as this cannot be independently verified.

AFP/Getty Images

Activists say this image, taken from a video uploaded to YouTube, shows Syrians outside a field hospital in Homs earlier today. Blood stains the sidewalk. Because few foreign journalists are inside Syria, images such as this cannot be independently verified.

We're following the day's news from Syria, where there are reports of more attacks by government forces on people in the city of Homs.

Update at 9:35 a.m. ET. State Dept. On Why The Embassy Has Been Closed.

In a statement confirming the closing of the U.S. embassy in Damascus and the departure of Ambassador Robert Ford and other personnel from Syria, the State Department says:

"The recent surge in violence, including bombings in Damascus on December 23 and January 6, has raised serious concerns that our Embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack. We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately. ...

"As the Secretary told the Security Council on January 31, we continue to be gravely concerned by the escalation of violence in Syria caused by the regime's blatant defiance of its commitments to the action plan it agreed to with the Arab League. The deteriorating security situation that led to the suspension of our diplomatic operations makes clear once more the dangerous path Assad has chosen and the regime's inability to fully control Syria. It also underscores the urgent need for the international community to act without delay to support the Arab League's transition plan before the regime's escalating violence puts a political solution out of reach and further jeopardizes regional peace and security."

Update at 9:18 a.m. ET. Closing Of Embassy Confirmed:

"The Obama administration has closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and pulled all American diplomats out of Syria," the AP is now reporting. "Officials say Ambassador Robert Ford and other diplomats left Syria on Monday. It's the most dramatic U.S. move so far after 11 months of a violent crackdown on dissent by President Bashar Assad's regime."

NPR's Michele Kelemen has also confirmed the news with State Department officials.

NPR's Andy Carvin has put together a Storify feed of news about Syria.

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. U.S. Diplomats Reportedly Leaving:

CNN's Rima Maktabi reports on her Twitter page that "17 officials including [U.S.] ambassador Robert Ford left #Syria via #Jordan, in the latest decision to shut down American embassy in #Damscus."

Our Original Post:

People in Homs, Syria, say government forces are shelling the city and that at least 15 to 20 people have died so far today. The renewed attacks follow an even deadlier weekend barrage — human rights groups say government forces killed about 200 people in Homs on Saturday, making it perhaps the bloodiest day since opposition protests began last spring.

NPR's Kelly McEvers reported on Morning Edition that activists in Syria allege President Bashar Assad's regime has been emboldened by this past weekend's veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would have condemned the regime for killing its own citizens.

Activists believe, Kelly says, that the veto has "given the Syrian regime what they call a 'license to kill' — to keep on continuing [to attack] protesters and opposition groups on the ground, and that's exactly what we've been seeing over the weekend."

Kelly, who is in Beirut, has been speaking with people inside Homs and following news reports about what is happening there.

The BBC's Paul Wood, who is in Homs, reports "it was a quiet night until just after dawn, when we started hearing mortars falling - about one every 30 seconds. Some heavy artillery has also been used."

"There's been constant shelling," he added.

One activist in the city, Abu Abdo Alhomsy, told al-Jazeera early today that "it is horrible right here. Rockets are falling. There are massive explosions that shook buildings. We don't know really what to do."

Ahmed Al Omran, a production assistant on NPR's social media desk, is curating news from Homes on his Twitter page. A short time ago he retweeted a report from the opposition Syrian National Council that as many as 50 people may have been killed in Homs so far today.

Because there are few independent journalists in Syria — and because those who are there are having difficulty getting out to see what's happening — news outlets are relying in large part on the accounts of sources they reach by telephone and on the videos and blog posts of citizen journalists inside the country.

An Internet hit is becoming the anthem for Russian protesters as they march against Vladimir Putin's rule.

In the few days since it was posted, more than 1 million people have watched the YouTube video for the song, catapulting its band into sudden stardom. Yet this is no ordinary story of the latest Web sensation.

The musicians in the video aren't rock stars; they're elite veterans of the Russian army.

The former paratroopers performed the song for the first time at Saturday's protest rally, The Associated Press reports, but by then, many in the thousands-strong crowd already knew the words.

The song is called "Putin and the Paratroopers," says The New York Times, which adds:

"he song portrays Mr. Putin as nothing more than a corrupt bureaucrat who has "destroyed the armed forces" along the way. It pits the prime minister — who claimed in December that he thought the white ribbon, the symbol for the protest movement, was a condom — against the common man."

There aren't many English translations of the lyrics, but The New York Times says they go something like this:

"You're no different from me.
A man and not God.
I'm no different from you.
A man, not some hick.

"We won't let you keep lying, we won't let you keep stealing
We're liberated troops who defended the motherland

"Ribbons of freedom are positive for all, but for you...
there nothing – just condoms"

There's a more complete — but unverified – translation attempted on a blog called Tamerlane's Thoughts. If any Russian speakers out there would like to confirm it, please give a shout-out in the comments field.

What makes this so interesting, as the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle points out, is that paratroopers "have belonged to the elite of the Russian army since the Soviet-era and they are highly-regarded by society."

Until now, people believed the army would always stand by Putin because he has made it a central plank of his program to back the army in turn.

At least, that is the way it has always seemed.

The author of the song, 45-year-old former paratrooper Mikhail Vistitsky, says he was inspired to write the lyrics after attending one of the anti-Putin demonstrations in December. He dismisses critics who say the song betrays the honor of the Russian military.

"It's not offensive at all, because we're used to seeing dishonest people in power do nasty and mean things," he told the AP.

The song is one of the latest in the soundtrack that's emerging from the Russian protest movement, which NPR Music has been keeping their ear on.

Enlarge Cliff Owen/AP

A U.S. Park Police officer removes a wooden structure from an Occupy D.C. protester's tent at McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

Cliff Owen/AP

A U.S. Park Police officer removes a wooden structure from an Occupy D.C. protester's tent at McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

Update 2/5/12: The tally of arrests from yesterday's ban enforcement is at least seven, according to the AP. Things did take a turn for the worse later Saturday when a police officer was hit with a brick in the face.

As The Associated Press reports, the incident was acknowledged by protesters at a general assembly Saturday night. They vowed to go on with their movement, but urged everyone to practice non-violence.

_____________________________

Since the early a.m., U.S. Park Police have been moving into a park near the White House where the Occupy D.C. movement has been encamped for months. Some officers were on horseback and dressed in riot gear, but there haven't been any major clashes.

If there are, you'll likely see it on this Washington Post live video stream.

At least seven people have been arrested. Mainly, the officers have been breaking down the tents and other structures that have marked D.C.'s McPherson Square since last fall.

The police aren't calling it an eviction; they say they are enforcing a camping ban. As The Associated Press reports, they're making sure "protesters are complying with National Park Service regulations that allow demonstrations at the site but prohibit camping."

Officials say protesters can be in the park at all hours — but they can't sleep there. The National Park Service forbids camping on federal land except on designated campgrounds.

As we reported earlier this week, the Occupy D.C. encampment had received notification that the camping ban would be enforced, but the Monday deadline came and went without incident. The protesters erected an even bigger tent in the center of the square.

Tweets from the scene relate a sense of sobriety. "Seeing my home dismantled is hard," @Sara_Jeans tweeted. The Washington Post's Annie Gowan reports dead mice and rats being uncovered as police in yellow hazmat suits take down the camp.

Enlarge Sergio Goya/AFP/Getty Images

Argentine activists burn a Union Jack during a January protest in front of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.

Sergio Goya/AFP/Getty Images

Argentine activists burn a Union Jack during a January protest in front of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.

We're coming up on the 30-year anniversary of the war between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. But the wounds are still fresh, especially if you judge by the rhetoric being flung by the leaders of both countries.

The tensions were heightened even further by Prince William's arrival to the islands on Thursday. While England insists the heir to the throne's trip is routine, Argentina's foreign minister said it was akin to the arrival of a conquistador. The government also viewed the closing in of one of Britain's most advanced war ships as a move of aggression.

The AP explains:

"Britain and Argentina have been trading barbs in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of Argentina's April 1982 invasion. The 10-week war that followed ended in British victory and killed 650 Argentine troops, more than 250 British personnel and three islanders. ...

"Last month, Argentina persuaded Brazil, Uruguay and Chile to join a Mercosur trade group resolution to turn away any ship flying the Falklands' flag — which depicts a sheep and a ship along with the United Kingdom's red, white and blue Union Jack.

"That action prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to accuse Argentine President Cristina Fernandez of having 'colonialist' aims on an island population that wants to remain a British dependency. She accused Cameron of 'mediocrity bordering on stupidity.'"

La Nacion, one of Argentina's largest newspapers, reports that Argentineans received Prince Williams' visit with protests in front of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.

The protesters chanted that they wanted the British out of the Malvinas, as Argentina calls the Falklands, and they wanted the U.S. out of Latin America. They also burned the Union Jack.

The BBC reports from Port Stanley that most islanders want to stay under British rule. But because of Argentina's democratization since the last invasion, they're not really worried about another one: