Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: On a "Slow" Saturday, 105 Die

Refugees on the Syrian-Turkish border

Libya Event: Literature and Life After Qaddafi --- Three Authors at the Birmingham Book Festival
Jordan Video Discussion: An Escalation of Tension?
Syria Feature: A Movement Trying to Bridge the Sectarian Divide
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Renewed Shelling of Homs

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2047 GMT: Libya. Prime Minister-elect Mustafa Abushagur failed a vote of confidence by an overwhelming margin on Sunday, removing him from office.

The Government may remain without permanent, democratically-elected leadership for some time, while a new Prime Minister assembles a Cabinet.

Abushagur was rejected by 125 of 200 members of the Libyan General National Congress, with 44 supporting him and the remainder abstentions or no-shows. Abushagur, criticised last week for proposing a Cabinet that critics said was filled with political unknowns, presented a new slate today.

“Your terms contradict my values and terms for forming my cabinet,” Abushagur told the legislature before the vote. “I’m not going to submit to your conditions.”

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Bahrain Opinion: "This Campaign of Oppression is Not Going to Stop on Its Own"

Doctors Nader Diwani, Ali Alekri, and Mahmoud Asghar receive the verdict of an appeals court, 14 June 2012

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The time for the West to exert pressure on Bahrain is now. Not tomorrow. Not in a week. Not in a month and certainly not in a year. King Hamad's regime has consistently failed to uphold its lawful duties towards its citizens, trampling upon their rights repeatedly and without shame. It has promised reform only to quash those calling for reform. It has filled prisons with human rights activists whom it claims are agents of Iran, without presenting a shred of evidence that they are responsible for anything but the defense of people's internationally-recognised human rights.

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Bahrain Opinion: The Significance of the Detention and Treatment of Nabeel Rajab

Nabeel Rajab in July --- his last interview and his arrest by hooded security forces

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Rajab's case appears to raise the stakes. On previous occasions since the start of the uprising in February 2011, including in the spring, he has been held but soon released. This time, the detention --- despite international criticism --- appears to be long-term and, if his wife is correct, accompanied by solitary confinement and ill treatment.

Is this a step beyond for the regime's approach to Rajab and other political prisoners, inflicting humiliation and exerting psychological torture while claiming a desire and dialogue and the pursuit of reform? And if so, is there any possible remedy for the situation?

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Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 10,000s March Outside Manama

Friday's mass march in Bahrain

See also Syria 1st-Hand: A Wanted Activist Restarts His Work from Washington
Will Israel Attack Iran? --- Daniella Peled and Scott Lucas on Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Insurgents Seize the Initiative

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2201 GMT: Syria. AFP reports on prisoners released today by the regime:

As they emerged from police headquarters in the Syrian capital on Saturday, several of the prisoners being set free had nothing on but their underwear, many were barefoot, and others had their heads shaven.

The backs of some still bore the tell-tale marks of beatings, while others had swollen limbs. Many had been missing for weeks or even months.

Civil servant Basil, 31, told AFP he had been on his way home with his wife and son to Zamalka, a rebel-held town northeast of Damascus, when the security forces arrested him because his ID card was broken....

Before they were freed from a stench-filled room in the police headquarters -- the detainees had been unable to wash ever since they were thrown into jail -- the men being released were made to fill out and sign a form.

"I declare that I was set free from police headquarters in Damascus on September 1, that I regret my action, and that I pledge not to take part in any more unauthorised demonstrations," the declaration stated.

Across the country, a total of 267 were released on Saturday, the authorities said. Of that number, 158 were set free from the Damascus police HQ.

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Bahrain Special: The Killing of Hussam AlHaddad and the Unanswered Questions

Left: Hussam AlHaddad, killed by police Friday night. Right: Hussam's father says his final goodbye

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Late Friday night, news began circulating on social media that 16-year-old Hussam AlHaddad was in critical condition after he was shot by security forces in Muharraq. Soon word came through that he had died in hospital from his injuries.

The circumstances of Hassam's killing remain murky, with allegations that he was beaten by citizens in civilian dress following the fatal shooting. Footage of Hussam's corpse shows that he was shot in the back and side, challenging the police narrative that the shooting was in self-defence. Marks on his back and shoulder also support the claim that he was hit as well as shot.

Late Saturday, the main opposition party AlWefaq announced a three-day state of mourning, with pleas to the people of Bahrain to abandon all joyful celebrations during Eid in respect to the martyr Hussam AlHaddad", adding that it will be lowering "flags to half-staff". The February 14 Youth Coalition called for further protest under the heading, "Our martyr Hussam ... Revenge will come".

The following account traces twenty-four hours in a country that US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner recently described as "in a number of ways more stable than it was a year ago".

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Almost 25,000 Dead as the United Nations Departs

1902 GMT: Syria. The must-watch video of the day. Sometimes, videos coming from Syria have an almost meditative element to them, as if so much can be learned from a single video. This is one of those instances.

This is Saleh el Dine, an upper-middle class commercial district in Aleppo. This is the kind of neighborhood you'd find near a major university in London, or Boston, filled with over-priced apartments, upper-class residents, students, coffee shops... the kind of place that ranges from peaceful to bustling depending on the time of day.

In this video it is neither peaceful or bustling. The neighborhood is more like hauntingly deserted, with the distant echo of war faintly heard in the background. The silence is stunning. Periodic gunfire can be heard, then a helicopter which is later seen overhead.

Suddenly, however, a massive explosion, as a bomb or a shell lands too close to the camera.

But after the excitement, the haunting stillness returns. This is what Aleppo has become.

1838 GMT: Syria. We have hundreds of videos of protests, but we'll share a few more of the larger ones. In the first the cameraman says this is Darayya, and he says today's date. Darayya is southwest of Damascus (map), has been fought over for weeks, and is one of the areas that some analysts believe the Free Syrian Army will eventually try to take in order to strike from there at the capital:

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Bahrain Special: 9 Reasons Why The Regime Gave Human Rights Activist Nabeel Rajab a 3-Year Sentence

Nabeel Rajab leading a march in April 2012

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Whilst much of the Bahrain regime's ongoing repression is relatively free from international scrutiny, Thursday's sentencing of leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab to three years --- on three separate charges of instigating and participating in "illegal gatherings" --- will not go unnoticed. In recent weeks, many international NGOs and even 19 members of the US Congress have called for the immediate release from detention of Rajab, who is also serving a three-month sentence for his messages on Twitter.

So why would the Bahraini regime, which has been desperately seeking to convince the international community that it is committed to reform, hand down the lengthy sentence, an act bound to create questions about its commitment?

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Bombings, Kidnappings, Iranian Drones, A Captured MANPAD....

1910 GMT: Syria. Contrary to popular opinion, there is still plenty of fighting in the Salleh el Dine district of Aleppo:

The battle lines have not changed very much in recent days. In places like Saleh el Dine, the FSA is not making an effort to establish permanent control, as they were last week, but because of this they are still able to enter the district, conduct ambush or "hit and run" style attacks, and prevent further Assad military incursions.

Also, despite all the violence in the city, primarily characterized by intense bombing and shelling campaigns, the majority of the city is still in partial or total FSA control, and there are almost no areas where the regime has been able to effectively send in tanks.

1850 GMT: Syria. The LCC has now raised their death toll to 197. At least 60 of those deaths were reported in Qatana (map), where 60-65 bodies have reportedly been found, some of them burning, in the local landfill. A low-quality video claims to show some of the bodies.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The US and Turkey Make Plans --- But What are They?

Saturday night protest in Morocco (see 0714 GMT)

See also Sudan Feature: The Activists Who Seek an Uprising
Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting Continues in Aleppo

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2045 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees claim 110 people have been killed by security forces today.

The LCC reports that of 45 slain in Damascus and its suburbs, many were members of the Free Syrian Army in the area of Kisweh.

2015 GMT: Syria. A tribute by Syrian TV to Yara Salem, one of three journalists of the pro-regime Al-Ikhbariya channel who were abducted near Damascus last week:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting Continues in Aleppo

A reporter for Press TV, escorted by Syrian military, declares that Salah Ed Dine is Aleppo is free of "terrorists" --- In his previous broadcast from Aleppo on 30 July, the reporter said, "All is normal"

See also Syria Opinion: "Nobody Is Above Criticism"
Iran and Syria Audio Feature: Why Tehran's Conference "Stunt" Means Little --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Battle for Aleppo Continues

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2025 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees reports that 80 people have been killed by security forces today, including 19 in Damascus and its suburbs and 15 in Aleppo Province.

1915 GMT: Syria. A Lebanese judge has charged former Minister of Information Michel Samaha and two Syrian army officers with setting up an armed group to incite sectarian strife through “terror attacks”, including bombings and assassinations.

One of the Syrian officers as General Ali Mamluk, the Syrian National Security chief.

The indictment also said that Samaha and the Syrian army officers set up the armed group to commit crimes, fueling sectarianism “by targeting the authority of the state and its civil and military institutions.” It alleged that the group conspired “with the intelligence services of a foreign country to undertake attacks against Lebanon".

Samaha was arrested on Thursday, initially in a case linked to explosives.

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