Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Regime Forces Try to Recapture Damascus Suburb

Footage from the Damascus suburb of Darayya last month

See also EA Special: 10 Predictions for 2013 --- Assad Gone, an Angry Middle East, and Little Change on "Human Rights"
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On Verge of "Hell" or "Sacred Birth"?

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2035 GMT: Bahrain. Claimed footage of police throwing tear gas canister near a 4 year-old child in Jirdab village:

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Iran Feature: The Life of a Baha'i Female Political Prisoner (Sabeti)

The Vakilabad Prison has two wards for prisoners of conscience, the men's and women's. In the men’s ward, there may be a few students and supporters of the Green Movement, Mujahedin-e Khalq supporters, Baha’is, dervishes, Sunnis, and sometimes a Christian convert. In the women’s ward, there are currently nine Baha’i prisoners.

The women’s ward in Vakilabad Prison is a small room with an iron window half-a-metre in length that lets in very little sunlight. The room was used as storage until two and a half years ago. As the number of Baha’i prisoners rose, and after the Mashhad Intelligence Office issued orders to restrict contact between Baha’i prisoners and the rest of the inmates, this room --- at the far end of the women’s hall --- was turned into a cell for prisoners of conscience, and the Baha’i inmates were transferred there.

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Sudan Feature: Tensions Rise after South Breaks Away (Laessing)

President Omar Hassan al-BashirSudan was unstable even before the south seceded. Now Khartoum has lost three-quarters of its oil, and inflation at 45 percent is causing pain for ordinary Sudanese. Activists encouraged by revolutions in neighboring Libya and Egypt have staged small but regular protests against the government, though Sudanese security forces have so far kept them down.

More crucially, the loss of the south has exacerbated political splits within the government of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who came to power in a coup in 1989. The country's rulers, who ushered in a hardline religious state, are struggling to keep competing factions happy. Religious preachers feel Bashir, 68, has abandoned the soul of his coup, citing as evidence the secession of the Christian-dominated south. Mid-level and youth activists in Bashir's National Congress Party (NCP) want a louder voice. And army officers feel the president is still making too many concessions to the south.

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Iran 1st-Hand: As Sanctions Bite, Life-Saving Drugs Disappear (Tehran Bureau)

On Vali Asr Street, in a lower-income district of southwest Tehran, a 30-year-old man storms out of a pharmacy. Arash, a bachelor with long hair and a substantial mustache, lives with his father, for whose heart medicine he has been searching fruitlessly.

Arash says that his father had a heart attack a year ago. "His doctor prescribed Carnitine for him when he was released [from the hospital]. The doctor said that it is very beneficial for his heart muscles."

He says Italy produces the kind of heart medicine his father needs. "It comes as pills and in liquid form. But neither exist [here] these days." He says his father has tried domestically produced versions, "but they are not useful. They don't have the effect of imported drugs."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: UN Envoy Brahimi Moves Through the Region

A regime fighter jet is downed outside Aleppo on Monday

See also Syria Analysis: Assessing The Significance of the Salafists in the Insurgency
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On a "Quiet" Sunday, 220 People Die

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1923 GMT: Syria. British police have arrested a man at Heathrow airport and and charged him with helping to kidnap western journalists inside Syria.

Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans and British colleague John Cantlie were taken hostage on July 17 while working near the Syrian border with Turkey, and were released on July 26.

A police statement named the charged man as 26-year-old Shajul Islam. He was arrested on Oct. 9 with a woman of the same age as part of an investigation into travel to Syria in support of "alleged terrorist activity".. .The woman was released on Tuesday without charge, the statement said. A police spokesman said both were British nationals.

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The Latest from Turkey (12 October): Ankara's Dangerous Game with Moscow

See also The Latest from Israel-Palestine (12 October): What Will Israeli Elections Bring?
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Feuding About a Plane --- Meanwhile, 200+ Die

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1600 GMT: Turkey halts civilian flights over Syria.

1430 GMT: A motion submitted by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to censure Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu over accusations that he conducts a dangerous and risky foreign policy was rejected by the Parliament.

1235 GMT: Following the bombardment of the Syrian border town of Azmarin by Syrian helicopters, two Turkish jets departed to the border.

Dozens of Turkish tanks located at various districts of the south-eastern province of Sanliurfa have targeted the Syrian border.

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The Latest from Iran (4 October): Protest Resurfaces --- A Ripple or a Wave?

Footage from Wednesday's closure of the Tehran Bazaar and nearby protests

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2051 GMT: Currency All-is-Well Alert. Mohammad Keshti-Aray, the head of the Gold-Sellers Union, has said that the Rial strengthened to 30000:1 to 31000:1 vs. the US dollar --- Tuesday's rate, the last posted on leading website, was 35500:1 --- and that the price for gold coin is down as well.

Keshti-Aray assured that dollar and gold rates would be "clarified" on Saturday,

2047 GMT: Loyalty Watch. Prominent conservative politician Habiballah Asgarouladi has said that "fitna" (sedition) and the "deviant current" do not accept national unity, which is possible only around the Supreme Leader.

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Syria-Turkey Snap Analysis: Has President Assad Started a Military Conflict with Ankara?

Mortar fire from Assad troops lands in Alcakale, Turkey, killing 5

See also Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Double Bombing in Aleppo "Kills Dozens"

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UPDATED

Syrian forces, moving to retake a border crossing in Tal Abyad, north of Al Raqqah, fired mortar rounds on Wednesday into the heart of Alcakale, Turkey, landing in the center of the town. Five people were killed, including at least one child.

The outrage was immediate. By the end of the day, Turkey had invoked Article 4 of the NATO alliance, and NATO had released a statement condemning the Syrian regime's actions. Perhaps more importantly, Turkey scheduled an emergency meeting of Parliament where it is possible that, later this morning, President Erdogan will be granted permission to engage Turkish armed forces in the defence of the border.

Is Turkey bluffing?

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Syria, Turkey (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Erdogan's Red Line

See also Wednesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Double Bombing in Aleppo "Kills Dozens"
Syria-Turkey Snap Analysis:: Has President Assad Started a Military Conflict with Ankara?

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2040 GMT: Syria. By the end of the day, 113 people have died, according to the Local Coordination Committees (that number may rise overnight):

48 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 33 in Aleppo, 11 in Homs, 9 in Deir Ezzor, 5 in Hama,3 in Lattakia, 3 in Daraa and 1 in Qunaitera.

See our note on the casualty figures put forth by the LCC.

But in Syria the story is not always about death. Each Friday brings with it a reminder of how this all started - a government crackdown against a peaceful protest movement dedicated to democratic and secular change. Every Friday, tens of thousands of Syrians, in hundreds of rallies, take to the streets, braving the artillery and bullet fire to protest against the Assad government.

And as this crowd in Hamoriyeh, Damascus, reminds us, the protests often start at sundown on Thursday:

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Turkey Special: Iran, Syria, and Ankara's Kurdish Problem

A Turkish Convoy Moving Towards the Syrian BorderKurdish complications have arise as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hoped to highlight Washington's co-operation with Turkey as the new way forward in dealing with the Syrian regime. As she announced a joint working group with the Turks, Clinton to “hasten the end of the bloodshed and to help the Syrian people build the kind of democratic, pluralistic society and government", she underlined American support against the “terrorist PKK”.

The juxtaposition of the developments brings us all the way around, not to Syria but to the Kurdish situation inside Turkey --- is any sign that Ankara can defuse the issue to give itself space for action beyond its borders?

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