Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 0:53 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Aftermath of a car bomb in Damascus today
The Live Coverage has been retitled, "Multiple Bombings in Damascus" and moved to the top of the homepage.
Syria Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 18:11 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran "Third-day" funeral of 16-year-old Hassan AlJazeeri, killed by police on Thursday night
See also Syria Live Coverage: A "Humanitarian Tragedy"
Tuesday's Tunisia (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Plan for New Government Collapses
1755 GMT: Saudi Arabia. Thirty Saudi women have become the first female members of the Shura Council, as they were sworn in before King Abdullah at his palace in the capital Riyadh.
The women are among 160 members of the advisory body.
"The development we are working at must be gradual," King Abdullah said. He recommended that the Council show "realism" in its discussions and allow "reason to prevail in issues [with which] it has to deal".
On 11 January, the King appointed the women, who include university graduates, human rights activists, and two princesses.
1749 GMT: Palestine. The Forum of Palestinian journalists has criticised Israeli forces for detaining three Palestinian journalists on Tuesday in Bethlehem.
The three men are Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Samer Hamad, a cameraman for Palmedia news agency, and Abdul-Rahman Younos, a reporter for Al-Quds.com.
The arrests follow the claimed abduction of Mohamed Saba’na, a political caricaturist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, after his return from a ocnference in Jordan.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 13:00 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2120 GMT: Jet Shot Down in Damascus? All day we've been tracking reports of a jet shot down in Damascus. The only problem is that it's unclear a jet ever crashed. However, a reader, Amir, finds this video. Much of it is a collection of videos from today that we have seen. The clip we had not seen is at about the 2:30 mark, when an explosion on the horizon, followed my a smoke cloud, reportedly shows the moment the jet crashed.
We're still not 100% sure what happened, though there are plenty of rumors that the pilot, a Russian, has been captured. We'd treat this as straight rumor until a video is released.
2105 GMT: Battle for Ashrafiyeh District of Aleppo. The rebels have set their sights on another district in norther-central in Aleppo, the Ashrafiyeh District. A microblogger finds several videos, including the one below which appear to show rebels firing mortars at Assad positions from the nearby railway (map):
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 9:12 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
I spoke with Monocle 24's Midori House last night about the European Union's three-month extension of its arms embargo on all Syrian groups, with some flexibility brought in for "non-lethal aid".
Listen to interview from the 5:40 mark
The story beyond the story: publicly the EU may be maintaining the line that it is not providing military support to the opposition, but some European States are aware of --- and may be involved in --- the efforts by other countries such as the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to get high-quality weapons to the insurgency.
European Union, Midori House, Monocle 24, Syria 
To establish his authority, President Xi Jinping must maintain China's economic development while dealing with the "flies", the local officials who have recently faced allegations of corruption, and the "tigers", the senior officials in central Government who may see Xi as a threat to their power.
Can he succeed? And, perhaps more importantly, how will he attempt to do so --- with strong public moves for reform or with a more cautious approach within the Party, even as he cultivates his image with the Chinese people as their representative against corruption?
Campaign poster for 15 journalists imprisoned in late January
2044 GMT:Communications Watch. Four Grand Ayatollahs --- Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, Hossein Nouri Hamedani, Jafar Sohbhani, and Seyyed Sajjad Alavi Gorgani--- have issued fatwas banning Iran's first 3G service Rightel, in part because of its video-call function.
"The decadence and corruption associated with [Rightel’s] use outweighs its benefits,” decreed Grand Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi. “It will cause new deviances in our society, which is unfortunately already plagued with deviances.”
Ayatollah Alavi Gorghani said that the video-call service would “jeopardize the public chastity” and “inflicts numerous damages” on Iran’s religion and political system.
Rightel, which sponsored Iran’s recent International Fajr Film Festival,,# allows customers to use both video-call and multi-media messaging functions. The company offers pay-and-go, contact, and data-card packages.
Petitions to ban Rightel have sprung up, and 17 MPs have asked President Ahmadinejad and the Ministry of Intelligence to act.
Mir Hossein Mousavi & Zahra RahnavardThe country is in crisis. In addition to denying this crisis they seek to hide it through creating diversions. In reality they should be resolving the issues facing the nation and allow the citizens to live in peace. Behaviour such as raiding people’s homes and creating terror and fear amongst families is neither ethical nor will it lead to any positive results. They sow the seeds of anger and hatred with their behaviour and this type of condition will not lead to positive results for them in the long run.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 6:58 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
Tunisia PM Hamadi Jebali2123 GMT: Bahrain. Meanwhile, the regime claims that their police were attacked by rioters and vandals, some of whom threw molotov cocktails:
(14) صور لأعمال الشغب والتخريب على شارع البديع في ختام عزاء متوفى بالديه twitter.com/moi_bahrain/st…
— Ministry of Interior (@moi_bahrain) February 19, 2013
2110 GMT: Bahrain. The Bahraini government is saying that it has arrested 8 members of a terror cell suspected of plotting against the government. Here is part of the press release, which can be read in full here:
Iranian State TV on the rejection of the latest US-Europe proposal over Tehran's nuclear programme
See also Iran Interview: Daughters of Opposition Leader Mousavi Speak Out...and Take Risks Doing So
Iran Analysis: US-Europe Strategy --- Break Tehran's Economy for "Real" Nuclear Talks in Autumn
Monday's Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad Refuses to Back Down
1925 GMT: The Battle Within. The President's website has fired another shot at his rivals: "The judiciary should enforce justice for everyone without prejudice."
Digarban interprets this as an Ahmadinejad dig at the judiciary and Iran Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei for not moving against corruption, as in the case of 300 "big" bank defrauders.
Ahmadinejad and Mohseni Ejei have been in an ongoing argument over the suspects. Mohseni Ejei has claimed that he sent a request to Ahmadinejad to provide the names of the 300 people, who --- according to Ahmadinejad --- "have put 60 percent of the country's money in their pockets and do not return it". The President claims he has not receive any request.
Mohseni Ejei said in his press conference this week that the judiciary alone follows cases of bank debtors.
The US-European strategy is to continue with aggressive sanctions to force Iranian concessions --- the "stop, shut, and ship" of suspended 20% enrichment, transfer of 20% stock out of Iran, and closure of the Fordoo enrichment plant --- at the outset of any negotiations.
But when will that occur? Certainly not at the forthcoming talks on 26 February in Kazakhstan between Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia)?
Western officials give the answer....
