Syria 1st-Hand Feature: So While You Were Sleeping.... (Hanano)

Dr Ali Al-Hazori appeals for help from a field hospital in Bab Amro in Homs (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)

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Amal Hanano writes for Jadaliyya:

Before we hang up, I tell Jafaar to be safe. I tell him that I’ll call him tomorrow. I go to bed only a couple of hours before morning. My head is pounding. Fifty percent of a neighborhood is destroyed, Omar is surrounded by human limbs, Jaafar is disconnected from his friends, Yousef is missing, the people of Baba Amr are asking for safe passage for the women and children before the army enters to round up the men. They are asking for mercy from a merciless regime. The number of dead are in the seventies now. It will be higher when I wake up. People will be dying in my sleep.

Jaafar is right. What you just read will not save lives. It will not stop the attacks on Baba Amr or Idleb or Zabadani or Palmyra or Daraa. It will not change what happened this morning or what will happen tomorrow. It’s just a story of what happened, in a place called Syria, while you were sleeping.

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The Latest from Iran (12 February): Nuclear Games, Numbers Games

1902 GMT: All-Is-Well Alert. Nasim Online features the reassurance of Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi --- despite US sanctions, Iran --- with its self-sufficiency --- has become a model for Middle Eastern countries, as Tehran annoys "Western" powers.

http://www.nasimonline.ir/NSite/FullStory/News/?Id=325808

1856 GMT: Unity Watch. Prominent MP Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghaddam has said that it is beneath Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani, the head of the Unity Front, to bargain with the Islamic Constancy Front.

The Constancy Front, led by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, has held out against merger with the Unity Front because of issues over represenatives of politicians like Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

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James Miller speaks to Al Jazeera about the Free Syrian Army

See Also, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflict In the Capital?
Syria Video Feature: How Can You Get News Out of the Country? (Al Jazeera English)

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EA Worldview's US Editor James Miller was interviewed by Al Jazeera's Meenakshi Ravi for an episode of The Listening Post. The topic was the Free Syrian Army's emergence into media and propaganda, and the realities of covering the crisis in Syria.

Other guests included Foreign Policy editor David Kenner, Al Jazeera correspondent Anita McNaught, and author Marwan Kraidy.

Also featured in the programme is a story about the media in Bahrain, and a feature on a video game that simulates war reporting.

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More Opposition, in More Places

One of Saturday's marches in the Bahraini capital Manama, broken up by police with tear gas and sound grenades (see 1745 GMT)

See also Saudi Opinion: Hamza Kashgari, "Blasphemy", and the Two Sides of Islam
Egypt Anniversary Opinion: J'Accuse the Military Rulers and Muslim Brotherhood
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Amidst the Regime's Assault?

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2100 GMT: Anti-Assad regime protest in Trafalgar Square, London.

2030 GMT: Two American women accused of aiding anti-government activists deported from Bahrain. 

2020 GMT: Higher Revolutionary Council of Syria says that the death toll rises to 67 across the country and the army tries to storm Baba Amro district in Homs.

2000 GMT: It is claimed by Al Arabiya English that Saadi Qaddafi is arrested in Niger.

1925 GMT: According to CNN, the United States is increasing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations over Syria. A senior official says: "There are media reports but we also want to verify exactly what is happening."

1900 GMT: Exchange of fire between two rival factions, the Sunni Muslims and the Alawite sect in Lebanon leaves one from each party dead and 12 wounded. 

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The Latest from Iran (11 February): Watching the Revolution's Anniversary

See also Iran Breaking: Tehran Worried US May Be Building 8500th Nuclear Weapon
The Latest from Iran (10 February): A Radio Debate Brings Back the 2009 Election

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1838 GMT: Protest Watch. Peyke Iran, using photographs from Mehr, has a must-see comparison of the pro-regime crowd today and the demonstration after the disputed Presidential election. Two of the images --- the first from 11 February 2011; the second from 15 June 2009.

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Iran Breaking: Tehran Worried US May Be Building 8500th Nuclear Weapon (The Onion)

The satirical newspaper The Onion features the latest development in US-Iranian tension over nuclear programmes:

Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon.

"Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material. "Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that's proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat." 

Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.

Saudi Opinion: Hamza Kashgari, "Blasphemy", and the Two Sides of Islam

Saudi writer Hamza Kasghari is sitting in a holding cell in Malaysia. He’s not a murderer. He's not a rapist. His only crime is that he sent three tweets to a man who died more than a millennia ago, expressing his dissatisfaction with the deification of that man --- Mohamed, the prophet of Islam.

Those who have elevated that mortal man to the status of a living god want Kashgari's head. And they might get it.

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Egypt Anniversary Opinion: J'Accuse the Military Rulers and Muslim Brotherhood (El Amrani)

Tahrir Square, Cairo, 11 Feb 2011Fact: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in its stewardship of Egypt's post-Mubarak transition, has not restored security, stability, economic growth.

Fact: The SCAF's transition plan has been so badly thought out that they have made a successful democratic transition extremely difficult, and the timeline for this transition appears still undecided.

Fact: While no political party has particularly shone during this transition, the Muslim Brothers in particular had a decisive influence in backing SCAF's transition plans from an early date.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Protests Amidst the Regime's Assault?

2249 GMT: With nightfall, solid information from Syria is only harder to come by. However, with power and internet cut in many key areas, like Homs, and Zabadani and Madaya, good information has been hard to verify all day. We've been searching for many hours, for instance, but have not found a single video from Zabadani or Madaya, true testimony to how closed off and isolated those cities have become.

However, at the end of the day, there are two reports that have our attention, two reports which may be significant once day breaks. The first is from the Kafer Souseh district of Damascus, a key area very close to some major government buildings. The LCCS report large explosions in the area, of unknown origin.

The second potentially significant report come from the Irbeen district of Damascus. The CFDPC report that there is currently a gunfight between members of the Free Syrian Army and Assad-loyal troops. This video that they share shows the gunfire:

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EA Heads South: A Weekend in Portugal

I will be in Lisbon until Monday. While I am on the road, James Miller and John Horne will be holding the fort.

Live Coverage of Iran and of Syria and Beyond may be limited at times, but we will have top-quality features throughout the weekend.

And, as always, we welcome the ideas and news brought in by readers.