Syria All-Is-Well Snapshot: "All Food Items Available at Moderate Prices"

State news agency SANA puts claims of inflation and shortages in Syria to rest:

Prime Minister, Dr. Wael al-Halki, said that all food items are available in the governmental sale centers at moderate prices.

During a tour of a number of sale centers on Thursday, al-Halki said that are diverse food items, including vegetables, fruit, meat and oil, since they are domestic industries that are a source of power for Syria in the face of schemes to subdue the Syrian people.

Dr. al-Halki stressed that the national economy is robust and capable of withstanding the economic sanctions against the Syrian people.

The Latest from Iran: Nuclear Talks Resume With IAEA

See also The Latest from Iran (23 August): Arrested...for Helping Earthquake Victims

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1936 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Talks between Iranian officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna have not resolved outstanding issues over inspection and supervision.

"The discussions today were intensive but important differences remain between Iran and the U.N. that prevented agreement," Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA's chief inspector, said after about seven hours of talks. "At the moment we have no plans for another meeting."

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was more upbeat: "Undoubtedly some progress [was made]....I have to say that we are moving forward...and we are going to continue this process so that we at the end of the day will have a framework agreed by both sides."

Soltanieh rationalised the failure to get an agreement today, "Because it is a very complex issue...Issues related to national security of a member state are something very delicate."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Damascus and Its Suburbs Hammered Again

Bahraini activist Ali Mushaimaa protests Thursday's visit by King Hamad to British Prime Minister David Cameron in London (Photo:Instagram)

See also Syria Snap Analysis: New Patterns in a Bloodier Conflict
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Nationwide Battle

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1913 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordination Committees, an Al Jazeera reporter was wounded in the Saif al Dawla district of Aleppo:

1900 GMT: Syria. The fighting in Syria has crossed over the border into Iraq. This week, the Free Syrian Army made significant advances near al Bukamal, in the Deir Ez Zor region. In response to the FSA capturing several border crossing points, Syrian jet fighters reportedly attacked the border crossings, moving over Iraqi air space in the process.

Now, the LCC reports that Iraqi soldiers have also fired at Syrians near Al Bukamal.

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Mauritania Feature: A Country Shackled by Slavery? (Mark)

A CNN report from March 2012

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In 1981 Mauritania became the last country to abolish slavery, although it was only criminalised in 2007. Officials repeatedly denied it existed and refused to talk to the Guardian about slavery. But activists and former slaves speak of a centuries-old practice, a relic of the trans-Sahara slave trade when Arabic-speaking Moors raided African villages, flourishing in remote outposts of this vast desert country.

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Honduras Video Feature: Is the US Supporting Regime Repression and Killings?

Al Jazeera English's Fault Lines investigates claims that the US Government is aiding a corrupt and repressive regime through its financial support, ostensibly to combat narcotics trafficking.

Activists claim political dissidents, human rights workers, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are being killed at alarming rates. The US Drug Enforcement Administration was involved in three deadly incidents, including one where four civilians were killed and four others wounded.

The Latest from Iran (23 August): Arrested...for Helping Earthquake Victims

Some of those arrested in East Azerbaijan Province for helping earthquake victims, in a photo before their detentions: Vahed Kholoosi (far right), Hossein Ronaghi Maleki (front row, white hat), Navid Khanjani (front row, black hat), Misagh Afshar (front row, sitting on the right of Hossein Ronaghi), Artemis Varzandeh (front row, second from left)

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2343 GMT: The Earthquakes. Back to our opening story --- activists report that all eight women and four men arrested while helping victims of the East Azerbaijan earthquake have been released on bail.

At least 23 other men remain behind bars.

A photograph of one of the detainees, blogger Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, with a young girl while helping with the recovery:

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Syria Snap Analysis: New Patterns in a Bloodier Conflict

Tracer fire, or perhaps even rockets, reportedly fired from regime aircraft over Darayya Wendesday night.

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The clashes of recent days have been far more widespread, but smaller in scale. The Free Syrian Army is conducting more guerrilla-style warfare, individual attacks designed to remove the regime's initiative, cramp its supply lines, soften its hardened locations, and damped its morale. The response to those attacks has been disproportionate, indiscriminate, and ruthless, with the civilians paying the highest toll.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Nationwide Battle

1944 GMT: Syria. Some of our readers and Twitter followers have been asking us about Austin Tice, an American journalist who was covering the conflict in Syria. Tice's Twitter account went dark last week, and while initially the lack of Tweets was unnoticed, in recent days it has caused concern.

EA has contacted Tice's editor, and she has just shared with us an article explaining that Tice is missing.

His subsequent silence didn’t raise immediate alarm because he’d planned to leave that week, on a journey to the Lebanese border that often takes days because of the fighting en route. The Damascus suburb where he was last known to have been has faced heavy bombardment in recent days that has made communications difficult. Tice’s family and colleagues are concerned for his safety and are asking anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to come forward.

"We understand Austin’s passion to report on the struggle in Syria, and are proud of the work he is doing there. We trust that he is safe, appreciate every effort being made to locate him, and look forward to hearing from him very soon,” Tice’s parents, Marc and Debra, said in a statement from Houston, his hometown.

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Syria 1st-Hand Feature: Travelling with the Insurgent "Lions of Tawhid" (Chivers)

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Abdul Hakim Yasin, the commander of a Syrian anti-government fighting group, lurched his pickup truck to a stop inside the captured residential compound he uses as his guerrilla base.

His fighters had been waiting for orders for a predawn attack on an army checkpoint at the entrance to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. The men had been issued ammunition and had said their prayers. Their truck bomb was almost prepared.

Now the commander had a surprise. Minutes earlier, his father, who had been arrested by the army at the same checkpoint in July, had called to say his jailers had released him. He needed a ride out of Aleppo, fast.

“God is great!” the men shouted. They climbed onto trucks, loaded weapons and accelerated away, barreling through darkness on nearly deserted roads toward a city under siege, to reclaim one of their own.

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Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Political Prisoners, Israel Loves Iran, and Looking Too Much Like Ahmadinejad (Arseh Sevom)

The aftermath of the earthquake in the province of East Azerbaijan still dominates news coming out of Iran.

Meanwhile, 130 political prisoners have been released. the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit will mean 5 days of holiday for those living and working in Tehran. Graffiti messages call for the release of political prisoners and United4Iran calls on the NAM to put pressure on The Islamic Republic of Iran to adhere to international human rights agreements.

The number of female breadwinners in Iran has doubled over the past 5 years. Shirin Ebadi has issued a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon protesting the denial of education to female students and joined in a rebuke against the US channel NBC for turning war into a reality show with Stars Earn Stripes. Iranians and Israelis share messages of peace via Facebook.

The pro- and anti-sanctions debate causes rifts among expat Iranians. Saeed Mortazavi is removed from his post as head of the Social Security Organization while actor Mahmoud Basiri complains he cannot get any work because he looks too much like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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