· February, 2008

Stories about Syria from February, 2008

Syria: The Changing Face of Syria

  21 February 2008

Syria, is a country that is still "officially" considered a Socialist country. The socialist policies in Syria date all the way back to 1958, when Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic, under the leadership of Gamal Abd el-Nasser. It was a very short lived republic that ended in 1961 but marked the turn of Syrian politics and economy into the socialist thinking. That continued after the Baath party took power in the March 8th coup d'etat. But all that is changing now.

Lebanon: Escalations Continue

  19 February 2008

“Hizballah and Amal continue to pit the Lebanese Shiite community against the rest of their compatriots in an effort to satisfy the agendas of their regional allies,” remarks Blacksmith Jade, who also links to videos of the latest political situation in Lebanon.

Syria: Free Tariq Campaign

  8 February 2008

Syrian blogs are abuzz at the moment with another crack down on freedom of speech by the Syrian regime. Except, this time it's one of our own. Tariq's case took around six months to catch the attention of bloggers - six months he's still languishing in jail, writes Yazan Badran.

Egypt: Syrian Blogger Still in Prison

  7 February 2008

From Egypt, Elijah Zarwan writes: “Syrian blogger Tariq Biassi, 22, is still detained, apparently without charge or trial, in Damascus’ notorious Palestine Branch detention center. Syrian Military Intelligence officers arrested him from Tartous on June 30 after he insulted the security services in a blog post.”

Middle East: Internet Outage Enrages Bloggers

  1 February 2008

What is a blogger without access to the Internet? This was the dilemma facing tens of thousands of bloggers in parts of the Middle East and Asia, after an optical cable in the Mediterranean was damaged, crippling millions of Internet users. No surprise, some of the region's bloggers were fuming especially when they realised that it could take up to two weeks to fix the damage.

MENA: Let it Snow ..

  1 February 2008

After a lull in the weather, it's back to cold and snow in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa. This time, bloggers were better equipped and had their cameras on standby.