What next for Assad? / Would you give up your nationality?

The Syrian president has announced he won’t be coerced by the UN or any foreign power into making peace in his country. In the defiant speech, his first public address since June, he denounced Syrian rebels as “terrorists” and “western puppets” and refused their demands that he stand down.

And, would you give up your nationality for anything – ideology, success, money? Yesterday French actor Gerard Depardieu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a Russian passport. He renounced French citizenship in protest at a 70% income tax rate in France on the super-wealthy. His move gained the support of the actress Brigette Bardot, who has threatened to give up her passport after a dispute with French authorities there over the welfare of two elephants in a zoo.