There are requirements, have you got everything in place, has everybody trained. Do the trucks arrive on time so that the whole logistic part to the exercise.  What is the challenge is safety and security in a country at war, you know, sometimes the route Damascus-Homs is not free, that is normally part of the main transport artery. It’s also part of the transport route that the convey would take, currently,  it's not open. 

 

The OPCW says 35 commercial companies have offered to destroy some of Syria’s other chemicals, including industrial ones, which the organisation says constitute a major part of Syria’s inventory. 

 

In Egypt, a special panel has voted this weekend on a new Egyptian constitution. NPR’s Leila Fadel reports the draft empowers the military and bans religious political parties.

 

The vote comes nearly five months after the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. And despite the fact that Islamists have dominated every single post-revolutionary vote in Egypt, there are only two on the 50-member constitutional drafting body. One is a hardline Salafi Islamist and the other is former Brotherhood leader turned to critic. The draft constitution allows for military trials of civilians, a decision that will anger Democracy advocates because the army the right to approve the choice for defense minister and it bans all religious parties, which would prohibit Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing from existing.When the constitution is approved by the constituent assembly. It will be put to a national referendum. Leila Fadel, NPR News, Cairo.

 

The Obama administration is urging North Korea to release an 85-year-old American military veteran. Police in Pyongyang arrested Korean War vet. Merrill Newman more than a month ago at the end of his visit to North Korea. Britain’s former ambassador to the North, John Everard, says Pyongyang tends to carry out such detentions when it wants something from Washington. 

 

At the moment, they are feeling very frustrated because the United States is refusing to go back to what it called a six-party talks, the talks on the deneutralisation of the Korean peninsula that have not nominated for several years. 

 

North Korea state media say Newman apologised for alleged crimes during the war and for hostile acts against the country during his trip. Swedish embassy officials in Pyongyang were allowed to visit him today, the first access by western officials since he was arrested last month.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Paul Crouch, the co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network has died. NPR’s Sam Sanders reports Crouch helped to make TBN, the largest Christian television network in the world. 

 

Crouch is best known for his decades host in the TBN show, Praise the Lord. 

 

From coast to coast and around the world it's time to praise the lord.

 

Crouch and his wife Jan founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973, starting with one TV station in Southern California. According to the company website, the network now reaches over 18,000 cable and satellite affiliates around the world. Crouch was a proponent of prosperity gospel the idea that god wants his followers to be rich. He made millions in donations from viewers, but in recent year, endured his several scandals over his family’s wealth. Crouch’s believed to have suffered from ongoing heart problems. He died Saturday at age 79. Sam Sanders, NPR News.

 

A leading retail analysis firm says the deep discounts, doorbuster promotions and long hours over the past two days worked. Shoppertrak says consumers visited more stores and more money on Thanksgiving day and Black Friday than last year. Shoppertrak says retail sales rose by 2.3% over the two days with consumer spending more than $12 billion.

 

This Saturday, after Thanksgiving has been dubbed, small business Saturday in the past few years an eminent effort to steer business to independently-owned shops after large retailers draw customers with Black Friday sales. President Obama threw his support today, going to the popular Washington D.C. bookstore, Politics and Prose, and buying a large stack of books.