_Section

About two hundred Arabs of different nationalities attended the First Forum for The Awakening of the Arab Peoples. They analyzed the ‘Arab Spring’ and decided to start generating an environment of sharing and joint proposals that can help, somehow, the revolutions that are now taking place in their respective countries.

The Israeli prison service announced on Wednesday the names of the
detainees who will be released in the second phase of the swap deal which is
planned to be concluded next Sunday.

The first phase was implemented on Oct 18, and witnessed the release
of 447 Palestinian prisoners in exchange of the former captured Israeli soldier Gila’ad Shalit.

Dr Ibrahim Nahel Othman (alias Khaled Al-Hakim, member of Damas Doctors coordination committee), was killed last Saturday by security forces of Bachar Al-Assad in a northern village of Syria. He was helping the wounded activists protesting each day against the Syrian regime.
(from «la Mort en Vienne», Ossama Mohamed syrian filmmaker, Vienna
international film festival 2011)

World without Wars and Violence has been observing the dramatic events taking place in Syria in recent months with profound concern. It is clear that the non-violent popular protests in Tunisia and Egypt were not taken as models in the case of Libya.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the violence used by police and soldiers to disperse yesterday’s demonstration by journalists – mostly women – outside the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa to demand justice for the 24 journalists killed since 2003, 17 of them since the June 2009 coup d’état. The latest journalist to be murdered, last week, was a woman.

Cairo – ”You proved that you are right, that we were wrong. You are catalysts for reforms. Recognise your capabilities for changing the world”, said Qatar’s first lady Sheikha Moza in Doha to 400 “leaders of tomorrow” from 100 countries.

Geneva – “In 2011, the very idea of ‘power’ shifted,” High Commissioner for Human Rights said on the occasion of this year’s Human Rights Day on December 10. “We know there is still too much repression in our world, still too much impunity, still too many people for whom rights are not yet a reality,” Navi Pillay said.

A Palestinian man and his daughter were injured on Sunday after an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said. A local source added that the two were hurt in their home after a raid targeted a close building in Al-Zaitoon neighborhood south of Gaza City.
The source confirmed that at least two missiles hit the building and
caused a total destruction for it.

23 Reasons Why We Should be Careful About Uncritically Accepting Western Views of the Syrian Insurrection.

As insurrection in Syria lurches towards civil war, the brakes need to be put on the propaganda pouring through the Western mainstream media and accepted uncritically by many who should know better.

Razan Zeitouneh talks with peace activist Ossama Nassar from Darayaa about the chances of the Syrian revolution to remain peaceful.
The trained eye cannot miss a recent change in the general mood in Syria under the pressure of the regime’s crackdown on the opposition and the lack, to date, of any change in the balance of power that could favour the revolution.