Patrick deHahn
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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.
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)
The battle to keep Tibetans under control is inflicting severe psychological damage on Chinese armed police, an internal training document has revealed.
Give it a read, it’s rather quite interesting.
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.
Came across this today:
The sudden reduction in aggressive rhetoric and actions by North Korea has led to suggestions that Pyongyang has realized it has pushed its only ally in the region to the brink of severing its friendship.
The superpower state, China, may be working with members of the North Korean government, to encourage regime change and shift their stances, direction as a state. Intelligence reports tell this story, that China is preparing for such contingency plans, for Kim Jong-un’s brother to take over if the country fails under his control. Interesting finds.
From CS Monitor:
A new UN panel is vowing to hold North Korea’s Kim regime to ‘full accountability’ for decades of mass crime and murder. Will Pyongyang face ICC indictment?
“Virtually every legal scholar and former tribunal judge looking at North Korea has come to the conclusion that these are massive crimes against humanity,”
North Korea has largely kept these camps secret and have denied having these, with strong international suspicions that they did actually have them. The nation was able to control confirmation they had them; but now cannot control the skies, satellites eyes and curiousness. The photos are now here. Check them out.
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?
Tibet’s opposition has continued on and has not quit in their fight for freedom. However, writer Adam Lam writes, “self-immolation isn’t what it used to be.” And also says, “A profound act of public death cannot hope to sway a world in which horror itself has lost its power.” Give it a read.
Nigeria is under a state of emergency, with thousands of soldiers deployed in the northern region, cracking down on rebel camps throughout the nation. Here is a dispatch from Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, “Will peace return to Borno, which is known as the ‘Home of Peace’ in Nigeria, again?”
A recent wave of nationwide deadly violence has resulted in numerous deaths and a cause of concern, 10 years after the United States invaded Iraq. With the rocky region of the Middle East and the ongoing civil war in Syria, Iraq is more unstable than ever. BBC has a special report following the goings-on of Iraq.
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.
