Syria: 'heading for civil war' Members of the Free Syrian Army demonstrate against Bashar al-Assad near Idlib. 8.37am: (all times GMT) Welcome to Middle East Live. UN officials are poring over a new Russian draft resolution on Syria as divisions in the country appear to be deepening. Russia has submitted a new draft resolution on Syria to the UN security council opposing any firm action against the Assad regime. One diplomat dismissed the resolution as "playing for time," according to AFP No one thinks the revolution will have a happy end any time soon, Ian Black reports from Damascus. Syria's divisions appear to be deepening. "For the last 10 months, millions of people have occupied the middle ground," says Badr, a lecturer. On the opposition side, optimism of the will is tempered by a realisation that in the short term the balance of forces is not in their favour and is unlikely to change quickly - barring a Libyan-style foreign military intervention, which few want or expect. The problem is that the longer it takes, the more powerful the Islamists will become. Those who advocate violence will gain ground. Ian also reports on the widespread belief that the regime was behind the reported suicide attacks either of Christmas, and the killing of the French journalist Gilles Jacquier. What is extraordinary about all these incidents is the assumption of so many Syrians that the regime would act with such murderous duplicity. The United Nations is to begin training Arab League observers monitoring the uprising in Syria, the BBC reports. The training, which will begin after Arab League foreign ministers meet this weekend to discuss mission, will be carried out by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Assad regime has suffered a series of high-level defections, the Telegraph reports. Following the flight to Turkey of a brigadier-general, Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, a second military leader was filmed announcing his defection to opposition supporters inside the country. And Homs member of Parliament, Imad Ghalioun, announced from Cairo he was also leaving in protest. Homs activist Khalid Abu Salah is a emerging as a potential new leader of Syria, claims blogger Maysaloon. Salah has appeared in series of videos showing evidence of the crackdown to Arab League monitors. In this clip, Maysaloon translates a speech Salah gave at his brother's funeral: The most important thing that we have seen in this revolution is that we have all become brothers and family ... If we all continue to love each other, then no security, no army, no shabiha, no Iran and not even Russia can stand against us. Liberals and Islamists in Egypt have a announced a temporary power-sharing deal to install a Muslim Brotherhood leader as speaker of the country's newly elected parliament. The Washington Post reports: The agreement among six political parties all but guarantees that the Muslim Brotherhood'sFreedom and Justice Party will lead Egypt's new parliament. Under the power-sharing agreement, the ultraconservative Salafist Nour party and the liberal al-Wafd party would also claim top positions, with their representatives serving as deputy speakers, the parties announced during a news conference Monday at the Freedom and Justice Party's headquarters. A new book by a female former member of the Muslim Brotherhood details how the organisation discriminates against women, al-Masry al-Youm reports. Throughout her work, Abdel Moneim decries the sisters' internalization of oppression as women are socialized in a way that compels them to accept male dominance within the organization - and the household. Early in the book, Abdel Moneim condemns what could be interpreted as the Brotherhood's exploitation of the permissibility of polygamy in Islam. Almost 100 academics, writers and activists have a signed a letter condemning the targeted assassination of nuclear scientists in Iran. Regardless of where we stand on Iran's nuclear program, we find these assassinations outrageous because they target technical or scientific elements of a society without due consideration for human rights, due process of international and national laws, and lives of innocent individuals caught in the crossfire. These types of killings have to stop, not only because they harm a nation's scientific community and its civilians, but also because they build a deep psychological scar on the nation's public mind prompting it to ask for revenge in kind. The names of 56 people killed in the crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain have been published, Enduring America reports. The list does not appear to include five policemen who have died in the violence, it says.