Egypt Video Feature: State TV's "Don't Talk to Foreigners" Warning

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This week Egyptian State television unveiled a public service campaign. Would it be about the duty to vote in the forthcoming Presidential run-off? A call for co-operation and peaceful activity amid recent tensions and protests? A rallying cry for the recovery of the Egyptian economy after last year's toppling of President Mubarak?

No.

This was the theme: "Don't Talk to Foreigners. They're All Spies."

The head of State TV explained that the campaign was necessary because of suspect activity of foreign-funded NGOs --- 10 of them were raided last December, and 43 of their staff await trials.

However, last night, the authorities were having a re-think. The campaign was pulled from the airwaves.

A "conversion" of the ad by activists into their idea of a real public service announcement:

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting in the Streets of Damascus

Sounds of Friday's night fighting in the Syrian capital Damascus

See also Syria Video Feature: Regime Troops Celebrate Over Bodies in Idlib
Syria 1st-Hand: Journalists Visit al-Qubair "No One Can Deny the Brutal Killings"
Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Annan Plan is Failing --- We Must Have the Annan Plan

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2045 GMT: Bahrain. Images from clashes in Sitra tonight after a rally for political prisoners:

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Syria Video Feature: Regime Troops Celebrate Over Bodies in Idlib

This video, filmed in March, was posted on YouTube yesterday and soon brought heated comment. It shows Syrian troops celebrating over the bodies of dead men, whom they insult.

The footage now has English translation of the exchanges between the soldiers and the cameraman.

Warning: the images are graphic:

The Latest from Iran (9 June): Spiralling to a Nuclear Breakdown

See also Iran Interview: Rapper Shahin Najafi on His Music, the "Death Fatwa"...and Kurt Cobain
The Latest from Iran (8 June): Preparing for the Fallout

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2032 GMT: CyberWatch. Iranian police have claimed that computer experts have tracked an April cyber-attack on Ministry of Oil computers to two IP addresses in the US.

Police General Seyed Kamal Hadianfar said the US should disclose the identities of the two IPs to Iran so that the country can identify those who have embarked on the act of sabotage and file a lawsuit against them.

1649 GMT: Economy Watch. A sign of nerves that the nuclear talks are collapsing? The Tehran Stock Exchange has fallen 270 points today to 26365.

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Syria 1st-Hand: Journalists Visit al-Qubair "No One Can Deny the Brutal Killings"

United Nations monitors enter Al-Qubair on Friday, after they were blocked from doing so on the previous day

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Sky News's Tim Marshall reports that despite the UN's best efforts, the key evidence of Wednesday's mass killings in al-Qubair have been covered up.

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Iran Interview: Rapper Shahin Najafi on His Music, the "Death Fatwa"...and Kurt Cobain

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I believe some people are chosen in a historic way to be trumpets. Generally, their fate is to be shattered and shunned, followed by a self-destruction caused by anguish descending from their mental no-where-lands. I believe humans were not born for thinking; rather, humans are afflicted with thinking. Those who carry on mundane daily lives and who stay in this state are more natural and closer to the instinctive human-animal of my mind. So we should look at being sheeplike in positivist terms. Right or wrong, good or bad is not relevant. It is about being or not being.

Many times I have tried to stop writing poetry and composing songs to rid myself of this illness so that like many others I can fall into a level where life has fewer dangers and headaches.

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US Politics Opinion: "Give 'em Hell, Barry" --- Why Obama Needs to Get Tough Over the Economy

Harry Truman's gives Barack Obama the incentive to force Republicans as quickly as possible into addressing some form of legislation for growth. If Republicans do give way, in their desire to be seen as “reasonable men", then Obama wins, as he can then campaign on the bi-partisan "get things done" theme. If Republicans refuse, then the President can cross the nation on a campaign against an obstructionist Congress.

Neither approach is perfect strategy, but both are preferable to the current insipid assault on Mitt Romney's personal record. And both, by a wide margin, are a better approach than what Paul Krugman perceives, “The president’s advisers keep turning to happy talk, seizing on a few months’ good economic news as proof that their policies are working --- and then ending up looking foolish when the numbers turn down again.”

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Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country

Aleppo: "Bashar Assad is an Old Shoe"

See also Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Annan Plan is Failing --- We Must Have the Annan Plan

Houla in Homs Province

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Iran Analysis: US Officials on Nuke Talks "We Have A Cunning Plan" (Not Really.)

Laura Rozen, the go-to journalist for inside stories on the nuclear talks between Iran and the "West", posted a significant but curious story last night:

The Obama administration is considering putting forward a broader proposal to Iran, rather than the more incremental one presented at a meeting last month in Baghdad, diplomatic sources told Al-Monitor.

Those arguing in favor of the "go big" approach say their thinking has been influenced by two recent diplomatic encounters with Iran that cast doubt on the viability of an incremental deal, as well as by Israeli concerns over any interim deal being the last one reached with Iran for the next few years, officials said.

That's a great narrative. As it appears that the negotiations with Tehran, stalled in the formal meeting in Baghdad two weeks ago and descending into posturing and criticism afterwards, will break down, Washington brings in the surprise settlement to save the process. Victory snatched from the jaws of diplomatic defeat.

A great narrative and, like many great narratives, entirely fictional.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Annan Plan is Failing --- We Must Have the Annan Plan

See also Syria Video Feature: Friday's Protests Across the Country
Syria Transcript: Kofi Annan's Speech to the UN General Assembly
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More than 140 Die as US and Russia Talk of "Plan B"

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2105 GMT: Syria. The Salaheddin section of Aleppo tonight:

2035 GMT: Syria. Security forces fire at protesters in Aleppo today:

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