Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "Bring Your Tanks Here"

A crowd in Al Bab chants, in sympathy with the besieged residents of Syria's third-largest city, "We are a Part of Homs, Bring Your Tanks Here"

See also, Syria 1st-Hand Video: Activist Rami al-Jarrah (Alexander Page) Tells His Story

Syria Video Feature: Challenging Assad...With Puppets (Marrouch)

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2205 GMT: While the LCCS reports that 21 civilians have been killed by Syrian security forces, the UN Human Rights chief, Navi Pillay, was reporting that the death toll has likely eclipsed 5000 since the start of the conflict.

More than 14,000 people are estimated to have been detained and 12,400 have fled into neighboring countries, Pillay was to say, according to details of her briefing to the Security Council obtained by AFP.

Today's deaths were reported in Homs, Hama, the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Kanaker, and Idlib. Beyond this, we've seen evidence of intense fighting near Daraa, and more evidence of a military assault against Dael and the city of Daraa.

But the protests have also continued. While there are reports of protests in many cities that we've come to expect, there are also unconfirmed reports of protests in Aleppo.

Just another night in Syria.

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Syria 1st-Hand Video: Activist Rami al-Jarrah (Alexander Page) Tells His Story

Last night Syrian activist Rami al-Jarrah, who has been prominent on social media under the pseudonym Alexander Page, was held for a few hours at Doha Airport in Qatar and told by an official that he faced deportation to Syria, where he would likely be detained and tortured.

Today al-Jarrah tells Al Jazeera English about his flight from Syria to Egypt when his identity was compromised, the threat to activists inside the country, and the experience at the airport.

The Latest from Iran (12 December): Paranoia --- It'll Destroy Ya

See also Iran Interview Special: What Has Happened to the 1000s Wounded After the Election?
The Latest from Iran (11 December): Being Tough...To a Point

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Mohammad Javad Larijani1925 GMT: Ahmadinejad Shoe-Throwing Watch. Ghased News offers more on today's hurling of shoes, by a 45-year-old unemployed textile worker, at the President during his visit to Sari in northern Iran.

The website claimed the shoe-thrower is a recidivist, having tossed a tomato at Mohammad Khatami when he was President. After his effort today, spectators beat him up --- “If the police was not present, nobody knows what would have happened to him,” Ghased pondered.

There is no mention of the President's tour, let alone the incident, on the homepage of State news agency IRNA. Fars News mentions the visit, but not the shoe-throwing, on its English-language site; however, its Persian-language homepage is silent --- earlier today, the website deleted an article which mentioned the shoe-thrower's motive as 17 months of unemployment.

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Syria Video Feature: Challenging Assad...With Puppets (Marrouch)

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At a time when thousands of Syrians are said to be in jail for openly defying President Bashar Assad's regime, a group of actors has produced a surprisingly candid piece of political satire lampooning the country's feared security forces, and even Assad.

They can get away with it because their video project uses hand puppets fashioned to look like anti-government protesters, pro-regime militiaman and the president,  referred to by a diminutive, Beeshou.

Called "Top Goon: Diaries of a Little Dictator," the so-called revolutionary puppet series consists of 15 video sketches being posted on YouTube.

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Iran Interview Special: What Has Happened to the 1000s Wounded After the Election?

Mohammad Yeganeh TabriziI always ask myself, what if Neda Agha Soltan had also been injured and not killed? What percentage of Iranians would go looking for her and her family? How many foreign reporters would interview her? How many people would go to visit her? How many journalists would write reports about her ? Would her family get information out to help to save her life? Or would she, too, die in obscurity and utter anonymity for the sake of some rational excuse by her family and the media?

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Cutting Off Homs?

A protester in Homs in Syria sends a message

See also Syria 1st-Hand: Awaiting the Regime's Tanks in Binnish
Yemen Document: The Nobel Peace Prize Speech of Tawakkul Karman
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New York Times Journalist is Detained, But What of the 40 People Killed?

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2125 GMT: A breaking story tonight --- Syrian activist Alexander Page, a leading source of information on the political crisis, has been held in Doha Airport in Qatar tonight and threatened with deportation to Syria. He sent a message, with the last entry at 2056 GMT:

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I've been stopped in Doha Airport and told I'm not allowed entry and that they will get me on the first plane to my homeland. I am now being held in transit and telling them that I ca'nt go to Syria because I'm wanted and these idiots don't understand.

I'm not told why, I'm just told that I'm not allowed entry. I said ok, "I'll go back." He said, "You are Syrian, then that's where you go."

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Iran Video: Authentic Footage of The Capture of the US Drone? (Not Quite.)

State outlet IRNA, describing last Sunday's landing of the US RQ-170 Sentinel drone in eastern Iran after it was allegedly taken over by Iranian cyber-warfare, has been showing footage of the airplane. Descriptions on YouTube say the channel is claiming this as authentic images of the incident:

Hmm. Not quite. The video is actually promotional footage from Lockheed Martin of a LM Skunkworks Polecat, a possibly forerunner of the RQ-170. The protoype of the Polecat crashed in December 2006 due to an "irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate". A 30-second extract from the film:

So did IRNA put off "fake" footage, by implying that years-old footage was that of last Sunday's incident, or did it make clear this was file imagery of a different, if related, aircraft?

The Latest from Iran (11 December): Being Tough...To a Point

See also Iran Video: Authentic Footage of The Capture of the US Drone?
Iran Sunday Special: It's Another Caption Contest....
Iran Analysis: Will The European Union Ban Imports of Tehran's Oil?
The Latest from Iran (10 December): After the Drone Show

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1950 GMT: Drone Watch. Tonight's rhetoric comes from Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior official at the judiciary, who says the violation of Iran's airspace by the US RQ-170 drone will bring legal action. Claiming US intervention in the affairs of other countries is usually accompanied by terrorist measures, Larijani said, "We believe respecting the rights of other nations is a necessity. Today's world will no longer accept US and Western leadership. Interfering in [internal] affairs of other countries is a dark habit of the US and [other] Western countries, and we (Iran) oppose all forms of intervention in the affairs of Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Syria and other countries."

Larijani took time to praise the Islamic Republic: “What has been done is important, but our abilities are higher than this and even if we had not captured the aircraft, our abilities in this area would have been still stunning.”

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Iran Sunday Special: It's Another Caption Contest....

The Supreme Leader is flanked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Jannati, Tehran Friday Prayers leader and head of the Guardian Council.

I'm thinking the expression on their faces resembles that of people who have watched the video of Rebecca Black's "Friday". Or Justin Bieber's "Baby".

But have a go and see what you can come up with. We are setting this low bar to hurdle: "Iran's leadership pout as the world ignores their failed attempt at selling a papier mache drone to the world as a sign of America's evilness." 

Syria 1st-Hand: Awaiting the Regime's Tanks in Binnish (Abdul-Ahad)

Anti-regime demonstration in Binnish, 25 November

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Twice the army had come to Binnish. On the first occasion they arrested more than 70 people, demonstrators, old and young. The lucky ones were released after two months. Some are still missing. On the second occasion the people fought back, with hunting rifles, old guns, stones even. When the security forces withdrew there were 21 dead: 11 demonstrators and 10 pro-regime fighters.

The people had won their liberty, temporarily at least. Buildings were covered with anti-regime slogans. "Binnish is free," reads graffiti scrawled with red paint on a whitewashed town wall. In the middle of the market square is a huge revolutionary flag in green and black and adorned with three red stars: it is the old Syrian flag, the one that predates the Assads.

But this freedom is precarious. The security forces are gathering once again at the town's margins.

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