2005 GMT:Syria. Another interesting pickup by Bill Neely, who is in Damascus and has been to Douma today. He notes that while he has not personally witnessed this, he has seen and heard the shells fall and believes this is real:
Former detainees and defectors have identified the locations, agencies responsible, torture methods used, and, in many cases, the commanders in charge of 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies....The systematic patterns of ill-treatment and torture that Human Rights Watch documented clearly point to a state policy of torture and ill-treatment and therefore constitute a crime against humanity.
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34 martyrs in Damascus Suburbs, 27 martyrs in Hama, 23 martyrs in Homs, 13 martyrs in Deir Ezzor, 6 martyrs in Idlib, 4 martyrs in Aleppo, 4 martyrs in Daraa, 2 martyrs in Damascus and 1 martyr in Lattakia.
The dramatic violence continues, and it is not isolated to a single region. The daily death toll appears to consistently stay above 100, just another sign of how quickly things are deteriorating in Syria.
1635 GMT:Sudan. A Presidential assistant has set out the cause of protests that revived in the country two weeks ago. While others have cited the Government's austerity measures, Nafie Ali Nafie said, "Zionist institutions inside the United States and elsewhere... are exploiting the latest economic decisions to destabilize the security and political situation."
Nafie said the government had evidence of collusion between rebel groups in Darfur, politicians in the newly-independent South Sudan, and Zionist institutions in the US to sabotage Sudan. He did not present the evidence.
1435 GMT:Mali. Members of the Salafist Ansar Dine group, armed with guns and pick-axes, have continued to destroy ancient mausoleums in Timbuktu, the second day of attacks on the UNESCO heritage sites.
Ansar Dine group backs strict Islamic law and considers the shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam to be idolatrous.
Residents say the group has threatened to destroy all of the 16 main mausoleums of saints in Timbuktu.
"We are subject to religion and not to international opinion. Building on graves is contrary to Islam. We are destroying the mausoleums because it is ordained by our religion," Oumar Ould Hamaha said.
In 2008, just before the launch of EA WorldView, I discovered Matt Harding, a young man from Seattle, Washington, who decided to film himself dancing with people around the world. In the middle of the tragedy of the Israeli war in Gaza in January 2009, I needed an alternative to the images of destruction so I posted his first video:
For me, that video was a life-affirming moment which has lasted. Harding followed up, "Where the Hell is Matt?" with sequels, including one in Gaza. Then this week, as we covered the bloodshed in Syria, I came across his latest film, complete with this recollection from Harding about one special location where he danced....
On Saturday afternoon, as I was following the outcome of the international meeting in Geneva, the video came in from the Damascus suburb of Zamalka. As I watched the 100 seconds, all assessment of the rhetoric and diplomacy from Switzerland was pushed aside; instead, I had to hold myself together to make it to the end of the clip while considering whether or not to post the footage on EA.
The images were of bodies in the street, blown and shredded by the force of a large explosion. The first casualty was bearable enough --- if death is bearable --- but then there was a second, third, and fourth, each one in a bloodier and more agonised state.
In the end, I counted almost a dozen bodies and concluded that a link to the video would have to do --- I could not bring myself to put the carnage directly on EA
The moment a mortar or shell hit a funeral procession in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka today --- at least 20 people were reportedly killed (see 1800 GMT)
2104 GMT:Syria Observers on the Internet appear to be racing ahead of the situation to proclaim US support of military intervention.
The catalyst is a statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the US would "accelerate" its work at the United Nation Security Council on a resolution that would "impose real and immediate consequences for non-compliance" with today's resolution of an international conference for a transitional national unity government, "including sanctions". She continued,
"We should endorse this plan in the Security Council, we should endorse it with real
consequences, including Chapter 7 sanctions if it is not implemented."
A Chapter 7 action provides for non-military sanctions and/or military action, but chatter is jumping to the presumption that Clinton is indicating the latter.
1822 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A letter signed by 141 Iranian journalists has expressed support for their detained colleague, Bahman Ahmadi Amoui.
The journalists express concern that Ahmadi Amoui was imprisoned for his critical articles on the economy, noting his exile to Rajai Shahr Prison and transfer to solitary confinement.
Ahmadi Amoui was arrested just after the June 2009 Presidential election. He was sentenced in January 2010 to seven years and four months in prison.
Photo: Tara Sutton/The GuardianI didn't find out the day he died. My family told me gradually. They told me "your husband was shot" and then they told me he might have passed away. Two days after he died, they finally told me that he had been killed. I felt that I lost a piece of my heart. I told my eldest, Ahmed, myself, but the neighbours had to tell the youngest.
I am proud that he was killed for a good cause and he was not a traitor to his country or his people. The Koran says: "Those who are killed fighting for the cause of God are alive and not dead."
I am surviving with the help of God and I have a strong personality. I don't like to collapse in front of my kids. If I fall apart, what will happen to them?
Al Jazeera English, 
