1. Paul's serious challenge in Iowa could rock the GOP race.
What if Ron Paul rocked the political establishment, silenced the naysayers and spoiled the party for Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney by winning the Iowa caucuses? "I think I have a good chance," the Republican presidential candidate told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" on Wednesday. "I'm not saying that I'm not... working on a daily basis, you know, I'm assuming I'm going to win this thing," Paul said. "I'm assuming we're going to do very, very well and have a much better showing than anybody has given us credit for the past year."
2. Syrian defectors tell of orders to kill and torture protesters.
"At one point we killed eight people in 15 minutes. The protesters were unarmed. They didn't even have rocks! That's when I decided to defect. I threw away my gun and ran towards the protesters." "About 1,500 protesters came.....They requested the release of an injured protester who was inside the hospital. They held olive branches. They had no arms. There were 35 army soldiers and about 50 mukhabarat personnel at the checkpoint. We also had a jeep with a mounted machine-gun. When the protesters were less than 100 meters away, we opened fire."
3. Putin points to U.S. role in Gadhafi's killing.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused U.S. drones and special forces of involvement in the death of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in comments Thursday. He also attacked U.S. Sen. John McCain over a warning that Russia might follow the same path as Libya, suggesting McCain was not of sound mind following his time as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. Putin's comments were prompted by a question during his traditional year-end question-and-answer program, broadcast live by state media.