Protester i Syrien

In what appeared to be his first video message since succeeding Osama bin Laden as the leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri expressed strong support for antigovernment protesters in Syria (...) The video shows Mr. Zawahri seated with a black background and wagging a finger at the camera as he issued a sustained rebuke of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, whom he called “the leader of the criminal gang, descendant of the treacherous ones.”

In a letter, the Syrian National Council (SNC) urged the pan-Arab bloc “to take a strong and effective position against the Syrian regime commensurate with the dangerous development of the situation in Syria, especially in ... Homs.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five civilians were killed Monday alone during clashes in Homs. The Britain-based watchdog urged the Arab League to freeze Syria’s membership, impose economic and diplomatic sanctions, and seek the referral of allegations of genocide and other human rights violations by the regime to the International Criminal Court.

In a letter, the Syrian National Council (SNC) urged the pan-Arab bloc “to take a strong and effective position against the Syrian regime commensurate with the dangerous development of the situation in Syria, especially in ... Homs.”

Syrian security forces killed six people in the province of Hama on Wednesday, activists said, as thousands took to the streets in several cities demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

"Initial reports said six people were killed in Hama as Syrian security forces continued to shell ... neighborhoods in the province," said Lebanon-based activist Omar Idlibi.

Ravina Shamdasani - a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights - said "more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by Syrian security forces since Syria signed the peace plan" sponsored by the league.

She told reporters in Geneva the tally includes 19 killed on Sunday during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice.
The U.N. figures are conservative and based on "credible sources on the ground," though the agency itself has no one posted in the country, Shamdasani said.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/11/08/2261860/un-says-at-least-3500-killed-in.html

In a 31 October 2011 interview on Radio Canada, Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, who led Operation Unified Protector in Libya, revealed that an analysis unit was set up at NATO headquarters in Naples.

Its mission was to study and decipher what was happening on the ground, that is to say both the movements of the Libyan Army and those of the rebels.

To fortify the unit, several information networks were created. "The intelligence came from many sources, including the media who were on the ground and provided us with a lot of information regarding the intentions and the location of the ground forces."

This is the first time a NATO official admits that foreign journalists in Libya were assets of the Atlantic Alliance.

Shortly before the fall of Tripoli, French journalist Thierry Meyssan caused a stir by affirming that most Western journalists staying at the Hotel Rixos were NATO agents. In particular, he pointed the finger at the teams working for AP, BBC, CNN and Fox News.