Tea boss gets burnt

Hundreds of tea plantation workers have set alight their boss's bungalow in north-east India, burning to death the owner and his wife, officials say. Angry workers surrounded the bungalow at Kunapathar in Assam state yesterday, following a two-week long dispute with the management. Elsewhere in Asia, in what could be one of the highest-level defections yet from the Syrian government, the country's military police chief has reportedly left Bashar al-Assad's forces to join "the people's revolution." In a video posted online this week, a man identified as Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Jassim al-Shallal announced that he was joining the popular uprising." The Syrian military has strayed from its core mission in protecting the homeland to become nothing but armed gangs that kill and destroy the cities and the villages, carrying out massacres against our innocent civilian population that came out demanding freedom and dignity," he said. Good on him. Turning his back on that bellend was the right thing to do. I just hope more of al-Assad's cronies have the sense to do the same.