Patrick deHahn

For starters: 23 May 2013

AFRICA

M23 rebels announce ceasefire near Goma as UN’s Ban Ki-moon visits DR Congo (Reuters)

Suicide bombings in Niger kill at least 17 soldiers (BBC News)

AMERICAS

Secretary of State Kerry may make bid to restart Middle East peace talks (NYTimes)

ASIA

Car bomb in Pakistan kills eleven police officers and one civilian (AP)

Malaysia police arrest opposition figures in crackdown (Reuters)

Iran says a new report by the IAEA shows its nuclear drive is “peaceful” (AFP)

North Korea says they are willing to take China’s advice to start talks (Reuters)

EUROPE

European banks stop sending money to North Korea, aid groups say (Reuters)

Sweden’s Stockholm continues to experience riots through city (NYTimes)

France backs call to put Hezbollah armed wing on EU terror list (Reuters)

MIDDLE EAST

In clashes, five killed and 50 wounded in Lebanon’s Tripoli (Reuters)

Former head of Syria’s opposition puts forward a new proposal on governing Syria (Al Jazeera)

Senate moves toward arming the Syrian rebels →

A solid primer to catch up on what evolved last night:

Josh Rogin reports on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s approval of a bill to arm the rebels.

While not the defining legislation at this point, the proposal was approved last night by a Senate panel 15-3 and will be brought to the full Senate for a vote.

Even after it has the chance of passing through the Senate, it is not clear what opposition group fighting against the Syrian government will receive American arms. That will be a tough one to tackle.

Something to watch. Definitely give Rogin’s writing a read through.

For starters: 22 May 2013

AFRICA

Mortar lands in Congo city of Goma as U.N. secretary general arrives in capital (AP)

Egyptian security abducted in Sinai freed (Al Jazeera)

Egypt’s Morsi calls on people of Sinai to “give up their arms” (BBC News)

World Bank pledges $1 billion to aid peace in Africa’s Great Lakes (Reuters)

Mugabe signs Zimbabwe constitution into law (Reuters)

AMERICAS

Mysterious respiratory illness kills two, leaves five others hospitalized in Alabama (AP)

ASIA

North Korea has named hardline general as new military chief, state media shares (AP)

North Korea leader sends “special envoy” to China (NYTimes)

Iran bars candidates for June Presidential election (Reuters)

China premier to discuss trade ties with incoming Pakistan government (Al Jazeera)

EUROPE

Hague says, “we are working on lifting the arms embargo for the Syrian opposition” (Al Jazeera)

Ukraine prime minister bars reporters from government meetings after protest (Reuters)

France boosts up Africa and Middle East embassy security (Reuters)

Germany backs call to put Hezbollah armed wing on EU terror list (Reuters)

MIDDLE EAST

Sunni fighters backing Syria rebels fight Assad supporters in Lebanon’s Tripoli (Al Jazeera)

Refugee numbers drop dramatically on the Jordan-Syria border (Al Jazeera)

Rafah border crossing off Egypt and Gaza reopens after abduction (Al Ahram)

Syrian National Coalition to attend Friends of Syria meeting in Jordan’s Amman Wednesday (Al Jazeera)

Syria opposition calls for reinforcements in embattled Qusair (Reuters)

futurejournalismproject:

Syrian Death Map

Via the Guardian:

The conflict in Syria continues to claim lives, over a year since the war started - especially in west of the country. This map, created for us by the team at CartoDB, uses data from Syrian Shuhada - also used by the UN - and each circle represents the number of people who died each day. The play button starts the calendar of deaths, which can be paused at any point

Via CartoDB

One of these online activists involved in “the media war” is curating a casualties database based on information from several websites that have already documented killings or casualties from direct sources. The “Syrian Revolution Martyr Database” (www.SyrianShuhada.com) currently collects detailed info and links to 22.601 deaths since March, 2011…

…The Vizzuality team worked on the visualization. The map is powered by CartoDB to manage and serve the timeseries data and uses d3.js for the animated datapoints and graph.

The man behind the Syrian Suhada database —who did not share his personal information— launched the project in early May 2011. He designed the website and back-end database, and populated it initially with the first available data on casualties. Currently a team of 2 curate the data contained on the site

Image: Screenshot, Syria conflict: a year of deaths mapped. Via The Guardian.

Syria: No place for back-seat drivers →

A Guardian editorial takes angle that “having rejected the option of talking to Assad, neither the US nor Britain can lead from behind.” The conflict has gone on for two years now and there hasn’t been a solid attempt to talk to Assad, as this editorial points out, and what actions can superpowers take when rejecting such talks?

Assad’s forces has launched a long-planned offensive to retake Qusair in Syria. It has been held by rebel forces and regime forces are showing its power by attempting to take it back.

From reuters, a very valuable infographic of Syria’s casualties after two years of civil war.

The country is in a crisis and when a ship faces a storm, the captain does not flee. The first thing he does is face the storm and guide the ship back to safety. I am not someone who flees from my responsibilities.

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad says he won’t step down in a new interview with Argentine newspaper Clarin Saturday 18 April 2013. In the meanwhile, a blast in Damascus was just reported by Syria State TV.

17 May 2013 roundup for Syria

HRW report shows torture evidence found in Syrian prisons (AP)
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon says an international conference on Syria should be held as soon as possible (Reuters)
More than 1.5 million Syrians have fled the country to escape the conflict there and register as refugees, UN says (CNN)
More advanced missiles - antiship cruise missiles - have been sent by Russia to Syria to support Assad (NYTimes)
Russian FM: “I don’t understand the uproar over supplying weapons to Syria.” (Al Jazeera)

For starters: 17 May 2013

Things to watch today: Egypt with a possible million man march against its president Morsi, Syria with its conflict unraveling and international relations regarding the war occurring there. Follow @patrickdehahn for updates all day.

MIDDLE EAST

Turkey detains a new prime suspect in car bombings near their country’s Syrian border (Reuters)

United Nations’ UNCHR say that more than 1.5 million people have fled Syria since January of this year (Reuters)

Bahrain’s opposition say security forces raided top cleric’s house (Reuters)

AFRICA

A new revolutionary group in Egypt says they have collected millions of signatures against their president Morsi (Al Jazeera)

Nigerian forces bomb Islamist rebel camps using jets and attack helicopters in the northeastern part of their country (Reuters)

ASIA

Two bombings hit mosques in Pakistan killed twelve people after Friday prayers (Al Jazeera)

Myanmar frees 23 political prisoners before President Thein Sein leaves to visit the United States (Reuters)

Philippine “massacre clan” enjoys election wins, even with their historic political crimes (AFP)

AMERICAS

Obama pins hopes on more peace talks regarding Syria, while maintaining a cautious approach (The Guardian)

Guantanamo hunger strike reaches 100th day (CNN)

From theamericanprospect, a good primer to who’s fighting who in Syria.

From Reuters: Americans want the U.S. to keep out of Syria conflict

Most Americans do not want the United States to intervene in Syria’s civil war even if the government there uses chemical weapons, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday, in a clear message to the White House as it considers how to respond to the worsening crisis.

Only 10 percent of those surveyed in the online poll said the United States should become involved in the fighting. Sixty-one percent opposed getting involved.

The figure favoring intervention rose to 27 percent when respondents were asked what the United States should do if President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used chemical weapons. Forty-four percent would be opposed.

“Particularly given Afghanistan and the 10th anniversary of Iraq, there is just not an appetite for intervention,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.

The rebellion against Assad’s government has resulted in 70,000 dead and created more than 1.2 million refugees since it erupted in 2011.

Read on.

[Photo: A Syrian boy plays with an AK-47 rifle owned by his father from REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic]