NATO

As the now 20 month old Syrian conflict continues to rage with no obvious end soon, the conflict has, at times, spilled over into Turkey and now Israel as both countries have seen motor shells fall into their territory.

Israel has fired artillery shells into Syria for two days in response to both days receiving fire from the Syrian side of the border in the Golan Heights. Both were declared direct hits.

Western nations fear Turkey is becoming closer to launching military action into Syria after yet more rockets and mortar shells hit Turkish territory, a day after Syrian president Bashar al-Assad apologized for two previous incursions into Turkey and promised it would not happen again.

The Turkish military returned fire after a mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in countryside in southern Turkey, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported the governor of Hatay province as saying on Friday.

Turkey has called for an emergency NATO meeting after finding the wreckage of its downed fighter jet which Syria shot down. Turkey has claimed that after accidentally crossing to Syrian airspace, the jet immediately left and that after it was back into international airspace, Syria shot it down.

Turkey is a founding member of NATO, as it used article 4 of the agreement which says in part that member countries "will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened."

Pakistan has sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison under its Frontier Crimes Regulations, FCR, for helping the United States hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.

Afridi ran a vaccination clinic for the public and also helped to quietly collect DNA samples in Abbottabad of the population for the CIA's search for bin Laden for a decade. Human rights groups have called the FCR abuse because it is a special set of regulations that govern the restive tribal region of Pakistan where clan leaders and militants rule.