2. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the US will continue to conduct secret surveillance missions like the one that led to the loss of a drone over Iran. He says these kinds of intelligence operations are important to the defense of Afghanistan and the US homeland. 

 

 

 

3. Activists say up to 25 people have been killed in Syria. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says suspected army defectors ambushed a military convoy, killing eight soldiers. Activists say security forces killed 17 others as the crackdown on the uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule continues. 

 

 

 

4. And "the protester" is Time's person of the year. The magazine says the dissent across the Middle East that spread to Europe and the US is reshaping global politics.