EA Audio: World Leaders Take Over New York --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

United Nations General AssemblyLater today we will post the video of President Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly, but this morning I took a lighter look with BBC Radio 5 at the PR and politics in New York. The conversation started with British Prime Minister David Cameron's moment of glory this evening on the David Letterman Show, but then moved to the question of which world leaders President Obama and his Republican challenge Mitt Romney should be seeing this week.

That in turn brought a twist in the story: if the Jewish vote in America is so important, why isn't Obama giving the time of day to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week?

The discussion starts at the 1:52:27 mark.

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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Britain-US Audio Feature: So Mitt Romney is Meeting the Prime Minister? --- Scott Lucas with the BBC

There has been a bit of flutter in the British media that Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in London for the Olympics, is being received by Prime Minister David Cameron. In 2008, candidate Barack Obama did not get as far with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Cameron turned away François Hollande, now the French leader, earlier this year during the President campaign.

So BBC West Midlands asked, "Is Cameron extending his hand because he has inside info on a Romney victory?" (No.) "Will this damage Cameron's relationship with Obama?" (No.) "Does it make a difference for November's election?" (No.)

The conversation begins at the 1:42.00 mark. 

Middle East Feature: Britain Accused of Hypocrisy Over Arms Sales (Dugan)

A "Throne" of Tear Gas CanistersThe British Government was accused of "a brazen return to business as usual"..., after licensing exports of weapons worth millions of pounds to regimes accused of repression, including Egypt and Bahrain. The permits were granted just months after ministers said they would "carefully review" licenses for countries that met protest with violence.

Arms approved for export by the UK last autumn include rifles, sniper sights, combat vehicle parts, artillery technology and gun silencers.

The revelation comes after David Cameron's visit to Saudi Arabia...was marred by questions over Britain's continued export of arms to the kingdom, which has been accused of human rights violations. Despite unrest in Saudi Arabia last year, the UK sold the regime bomb equipment, weapons sights and components for military vehicles and helicopters.

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Declaring Reform

See also Syria 1st-Hand: The Opposition's Quest for Arms and Ammunition
Bahrain 1st-Hand: "The World Looks Up to You" --- Attending the Mass Rally on Human Rights
Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "Bring Your Tanks Here"

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Bahrain's King Hamad & British PM David Cameron2105 GMT: A tale of two contrasting interviews and Bahrain....

Sheikh Ali Salman, the head of the opposition group Al Wefaq, tells The Financial Times:

The US and UK should call for an elected, representative government, and a timetable and a road map to achieve that. If this does not happen then they should say that this regime has lost legitimacy. This is what is suitable if they want to talk about democracy and not show double standards in the Arab spring.

Salman welcomed some of the regime's steps after the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report, notably allowing the Red Cross into prisons, but he was sceptical about others:

We don’t see an intention really to implement the report, they are just trying to provide a decorative picture. No one who reads the human rights report would think that the same government accused of the abuses could be allowed to implement the recommendations.

Salman set the condition of the end of the Prime Ministerial reign of more than 40 years of Sheikh Khalifa al-Khalifa --- if he did not resign, "the king should remove him, that is a normal, logical demand". He continued, “They don’t look at people as citizens who have rights – so long as this mentality is there, any changes will be limited."

Meanwhile, Con Coughlin of The Daily Telegraph uses an encounter with King Hamad to offer the effusive praise of "a fascinating insight into how the monarchies are managing to survive these challenging times....King Hamad has proved himself to be extremely adroit in dealing with the protesters' demands."

In the interview, the King declared:

What [has] happened was the result of individual acts, not government policy. It is not the policy of the Ministry of Interior to go and kill people on the roads. The policemen and soldiers involved in the killings did not take notice of the discipline side of matters.

If people have done something wrong then they should be held accountable. We have removed people from positions of authority so that this does not happen again.

The King continued, "I care about Bahrain. Bahrain is very dear to me. I will not allow people to play around with our laws."

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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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World Leaders Condemn Syria Violence, Assad Regime

World leaders condemned the violence in Syria today and demanded President Assad step down.

See Also, Syria, Libya (and Beyond) Liveblog: The Crackdown has Stopped?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Announces New Sanctions Against Syria

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Britain Latest: After a Quiet Night, Attention Shifts to Politics and Policing (The Guardian)

Footage and interviews from the candle-lit vigil last night for three men killed in Winson Green in Birmingham

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David Cameron is facing growing cabinet pressure to rethink the coalition's policing cuts in the wake of the deaths of three young Birmingham men, who were hit by a car during violent disturbances in the city.

As the Police Federation warned of a "catastrophe" if similar riots erupted after the cuts were introduced, a senior government source said the Home Office would be advised to take a fresh look at its plans to cut £2bn from police funding over the next few years. "The optics have changed," the source told the Guardian.

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Britain Latest: The Third Day of Unrest Spreads Across --- and Outside --- London (Dodd/Davies)

UPDATE 1355 GMT: A photograph from Clapham Junction in south London as residents vow to clean up the debris from last night's unrest:

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Looting in Clapham Junction, south London, on Monday night: "We're getting our taxes back"

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The prime minister cut short his holiday and flew back to Britain as London witnessed devastating scenes of violence stretching the emergency services beyond limit on a third night of rioting in the capital.

Buildings were torched, shops ransacked, and officers attacked with makeshift missiles and petrol bombs as gangs of hooded and masked youths laid waste to streets right across the city.

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Iran Interview: Full Transcript of Ahmadinejad's Remarks to EuroNews --- "Situation in Europe is Much Worse than Iran"

Yesterday we posted an extract from the video and transcript of President Ahmadinejad's 33-minute interview with EuroNews. That in itself was striking, with Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the strict house arrests of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, "There are prisons in every country".

However, the full text --- now available from EuroNews --- is even more compelling for its presentation of Ahmadinejad's claims. Problems in Syria are "due to the interference of others". In Iran, "a completely free election" was followed by just treatment of opposition, in contrast to the situation in Britain where students "were beaten up in the streets of London" and in Europe where "no one [is] listening to them". And economic difficulties? The situation "is much worse in Europe" than in Iran.

In short, "freedom is at its highest level in Iran".

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