Syria Video Feature: Planning For the Endgame? --- Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English's "Inside Syria"

I appeared on Al Jazeera English's Inside Syria yesterday to discuss latest developments around the question, "Is this the endgame for President Assad?" The other panellists were Ammar Waqqaf of the pro-regime Syrian Social Club and Pavel Felgenhauer, a political analyst and columnist for Russia's Novaya Gazeta.

This was a spiky discussion at times, with differences over the level of the threat to President Assad, the situation of the opposition, and Russia's assessment of whether it should now distance itself from the Syrian regime.

Iran Video Feature: A Beginner's Guide to the Battles Within the Media (Al Jazeera English)

Al Jazeera English's Listening Post introduces the factions behind different media outlets in Iran, from President Ahmadinejad to the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards. Context includes last month's imprisonment of Ahmadinejad media advisor and editor of Iran newspaper Ali Akbar Javanfekr and the political tensions over sanctions and the country's economic problems.

The programme also looks at Iranian channels broadcasting from outside the country, including the new London-based opposition Raha TV.

Turkey Feature: Syria Conflict Puts Strain on 1 Million Alawites

Photo: Ayman Oghanna/New York TimesHatay, Turkey's southernmost province, is home to most of the country's Alawites. At around one million, they represent a small but vocal minority leading the opposition to the government's role in the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

"When something is happening in Syria we feel it," said 31-year-old Kemal sitting in a park in central Samandag. "We have Turkish citizenship, but our origins are Arab."

He spoke in a Syrian dialect of Arabic, like most Turkish Alawites are able to. Although ethnically Arab, the community leaves little doubt about its strong patriotism for the modern Turkish state and its secular model of government.

When asked whether he felt more loyal to Syria or Turkey, Kemal presented his upturned forearms: "Cut open my veins and I assure you Turkish flags will pour out."

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Syria Interview: Free Syrian Army Commander Riad Al-Asaad "The Revolution is on the Right Track Now"

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From the beginning when we established the Free Syrian Army, our goal was to unify the fighters. It has a great name and we kept working on it --- we did a really good job....Until recent months, when some people appeared and tried to hijack the revolution or use it....We really don’t know what their aim was.

So they accused us, and tried to cut off all our support from the outside, but thank God they couldn’t cut it....We are calling for unity. We are the ones who want unity. If anybody wants unity, it’s the Free Syrian Army.

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Venezuela Feature: President Chavez Elected to 4th Term (Al Jazeera English

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been re-elected to another six-year term after defeating opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the electoral council has said.

The 58-year-old Chavez took 54.42 per cent of the vote, with 90 per cent of the ballots counted, to 44.97 per cent for young opposition candidate Capriles, official results showed on Sunday.

Tibisay Lucena, the National Electoral Council president, said 81 per cent of the nearly 19 million registered voters cast ballots, one of the largest turnouts in years.

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Jordan Video Discussion: An Escalation of Tension? (Al Jazeera English)

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Amid recent protests and King Abdullah's dissolution of Parliament for a November election, Al Jazeera English's Inside Story hosts a discussion of the political situation. 

The guests are Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh; Toujan al-Faisal, a former member of the Jordanian Parliament; Ian Black, the Middle East editor of The Guardian; and Adnan Hayajneh, a professor of political science at the Hashemite University.

US War on Terror Feature: The Death of a Guantanamo Bay Detainee (Hussain)

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif

I am happy to express from this darkness and draw a true picture of the condition in which I exist. I am moving towards a dark cave and a dark life in the shadow of a dark prison. This is a prison that does not know humanity, and does not know anything except the language of power, oppression and humiliation for whoever enters it. It does not differentiate between a criminal and the innocent.

--- Guantanamo inmate Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif to his lawyer, 26 December 2010

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon quietly released a statement that another Guantanamo detainee had died in custody, the ninth since the prison was opened in 2001. Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 32-year-old man from Yemen who had spent eleven years incarcerated, was found dead in his cell on September 8.

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Tunisia Video Interview: Ennadha Party Leader Rachid Ghannouchi "Violence is Not the Answer" (Al Jazeera English)

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Al Jazeera English interviews Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennadha Party, the largest faction in the Assembly. He speaks about the recent protests and violence over a US film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, the role of sharia law, and politics and free expression in Tunisia --- a take-away quote:

This event can give service only to anti-Islam....Whoever plans this crime with the intention or without intention, they destroy the dialogue between Islam and the West, they help Islamophobia in the world.

Violence is not the solution it is part of the problem,. We have many problems between Muslims and some Western countries, but violence is not the solution. It can increase the problems and difficulties and push things towards a war between nations and religions. It is not [part of] Islamic politics.

Bahrain 1st-Hand: A Protest Weekend in Sanabis

Protest march along Budaiya Highway, 14 September 2012

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"We need supplies," said the doctor, "Who can go get them?" One activist, a computer engineer in his 20s, quickly volunteered and invited me to go with him. It was nearly midnight and the injuries were piling into the makeshift medical clinic in a home in the Sanabis village, a suburb of Manama, the Bahraini capital. Injured protesters couldn't be brought to hospitals or medical centres where they'd likely be arrested, so they were treated inside the villages. Volunteer medics were out of burn ointment and IV syringes, and needed someone to bring them from another makeshift clinic on the other side of the village.
 
There was a rare silence outside on the street. The protesters, mostly shabab (youth), had been dispersed only minutes earlier when dozens of police stormed through firing tear gas, rubber bullets and bird shot. The stench of gas still lingered; it never really disappeared fully from Sanabis during the two days of protests there.

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Syria Video Feature: Does the Free Syrian Army Represent The People? (The Stream)

Al Jazeera English's The Stream asks if the Free Syrian Army is representative of the opposition, with the participation of Rafif Jouejati, spokeswoman for the Local Coordination Committees in Syria; analyst Fadi Salem, and opposition activist “The 47th” and the comments and questions of viewers.