2052 GMT: Earlier today (see 1535 GMT) we posted video of a march in Kafranbel in northwest Syria, with Free Syrian Army soldiers holding their weapons high. Now we are pointed to claimed footage of the insurgents standing in a "liberated" main square:
2045 GMT: Video from Dumistan in Bahrain on Friday, as police shoot tear gas inside a car --- a woman, reported to be driving, faints after she gets out of the vehicle:
The "Islamic Penal Bill" flouts Iran's legal obligations under the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]. The legislation endangers free expression and reinforces laws that violate the rights of Iranian citizens. The bill fails to prohibit stoning, lashing, and other cruel, inhumane, and degrading punishments; redress discriminatory laws; or, raise the age of majority for girls and boys. In a particularly worrisome clause, the bill expands punishment for "actions against national security", a charge that has routinely been used to persecute dissidents.
For the last 10 months of the Syrian revolution, many skeptics have repeated the tired refrain that women have been absent from the uprising and that it seems to be a male-dominated (read “Islamist-leaning”) protest movement. Such generalizations, meant to discredit the revolution, do much injustice to the women who have lived the uprising from the start at the side of their compatriots.
Occupy Oakland protesters broke into City Hall, stole an American flag from the City Council chamber and set it on fire Saturday night, punctuating a wild day in which police deployed tear gas, arrested more than 200 marchers and dodged hurling objects.
Demonstrators spent the day trying to break into a convention center and temporarily occupying City Hall and a YMCA, all the while snaking around lines of riot-clad police periodically shooting bean bag projectiles, among other uses of nonlethal force.
American Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran, was shot in the head by rubber bullets, fracturing his skull, for filming police at the Occupy Oakland protest
The Bahraini Minister of Interior called yesterday for new legislation which ensured a harsh sentence of up to fifteen years for anybody who attacks a police officer or who incites violence against the police.
The announcement by Lieutenant-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalif also outlined the training and new equipment for police, after the declaration of "reforms" introduced by John Yates and John Timoney, the former US and British police chiefs brought in to advise Bahrain's forces. The training involves a one-year "rehabilitation" programmes, whilst the equipment involves a complete kitting-out of protective clothing and gear, communications systems, and weapons.
That list of weapons includes "guns that fire rubber bullets".
Bahrain's Minister of Interior has called tonight for prison sentences of up to 15 years for anybody caught attacking a police officer.
The call by Lieutenant-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalif comes after a week of violence and bloodshed in Bahrain. On Tuesday, a fightback by some demonstrators, mostly youths, resulted in an officer being attacked and wounded. Images of the incident were broadcast across the world.
However, today's call by the Minister of Interior is likely to raise many eyebrows, given the documented attacks by police against both protesters and civilians this week. There have been at least four Bahrainis killed as a consequence of police action, with reports that one of the victims was abused in police custody. Thursday night also saw security forces covering towns and villages with tear gas, bringing concern both for mmediate conequences and also long-term health risks.
The Minister of Interior's call also follows the announcement that the police are to be given more equipment with which to defend themselves against attack. That equipment, which may be used in far more than a defensive manner, includes "gas and sound bombs as well as guns that fire rubber bullets".
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi2235 GMT: Currency Watch. The Government may have taken measures to halt the slide of the Iranian currency, including the raising of interest rates and a single exchange rate, but key MP Ahmad Tavakoli is not satisfied.
Tavakoli, a cousin and ally of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, has posted a detailed criticism on his website Alef, outlining Government mismanagement and claiming "incompetent officials, a lack of trust, and corruption". In addition to demanding trustworthy, effective personnel, he called for control of liquidity in the economy, a halt to the Government's subsidy cuts programme in the energy sector, and avoiding of measures contributing to inflation.
MP Mohammad Baqer Noubakht has echoed Tavakoli's complaints: "Straying cash is the economy's Achilles heel," as liquidity has increased five-fold in the last six years. He called for a halt to the second phase of the Ahmadinejad subsidy cuts.
Think about the American frontier, and you will probably picture scenes from a Hollywood Western: wide-open spaces ready for roaming, sparsely=-populated by cowboys and "Indians", prospectors and pioneers. However, in this new short film, premiered on EA, Richard Langley argues that the cherished American idea of the frontier is more than the landscape and lifestyle of the West.
The "frontier" also has another home in Hollywood: the apocalypse blockbuster.
American Un-Frontiers: Universality and Apocalypse Blockbusters looks at the recent films of Roland Emmerich --- Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 --- to show they use the "frontier" with the hallowed American ideas of universality and renewal and how they ultimately endorse American dominance of the globe.
Hey, it may be the end of the world as we know it, but America feels fine....
Bahrain's Crown Prince & US Secretary of State ClintonPresident Barack Obama's administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices that they will move forward with a new and different package of arms sales -- without any formal notification to the public.
The congressional offices that led the charge to oppose the original Bahrain arms sales package are upset that the State Department has decided to move forward with the new package....The State Department has not released details of the new sale, and Congress has not been notified through the regular process, which requires posting the information on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) website. The State Department simply briefed a few congressional offices and is going ahead with the new sale, arguing it didn't meet the threshold that would require more formal notifications and a public explanation.
On Friday, the talk about Syria was death, destruction, and a story about "Iranian soldiers"/engineers in the custody of the Free Syrian Army's al-Farouk Brigade in Homs. Amidst this, the most important piece of the narrative may have been missed:
The protests across the country, particularly in and around Damascus, are large, defiant, and increasingly confident in the face of the violence.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 9:34
