Calais after Sangatte: The

migrants 'worth less than cattle'

'I meet Anwar, an unkempt, sallow Syrian man in his 30s who tells me he fled in terror from his home town near Damascus after his younger brother was tortured by supporters of President Assad's regime. "In Syria, we see television programmes about France - we learn it is the country of freedom, of human rights and solidarity."
He looks at me closely and asks: "Do you think this is a country which respects human rights? I have nothing here, Madame." '

Four key tests face the Syrian opposition

Revolutionaries often say that the difficult time comes when you've overthrown the tyrant. Reassuring Alawites is essential, reassuring senior security personnel seems more likely to worry those that have suffered the most that nothing will really change.
"The developments in recent days in the Syrian opposition will be a game-changer if they achieve four critical and linked goals: coordinating internal military action, generating legitimate and credible local governance bodies in areas liberated from government control, connecting with Alawites, senior security personnel and other regime supporters to convince them of their safety in a post-Assad Syria, and managing a rising flow of international diplomacy and aid."

An explosion shakes Almazah area
in the capital #Damascus. #Syria

"The Syrian regime is close to the end"

Syrian rebels take villages near Israeli-held area

' "The Syrian army is displaying ever-diminishing efficiency."
The civil war in Syria has renewed tensions over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967. Despite hostility between the two countries, Syria has been careful to keep the border quiet since the 1973 Mideast war.'
Fears over what might happen next in Syria and Jordan may help to explain the timing of Israel's attack on Gaza.

In war-torn Syria, secrets and double lives

"I am keeping my work as a rebel secret because I need the money for my wife and children," he says, winking. "You don't get paid to be a rebel."

Common People

"Syria's estimated 300 jet fighters — mostly Russian-made — lack the appropriate maintenance, spare parts and missile warheads. Syria's estimated three dozen helicopters, also mostly Russian-made, are being "exhausted from overuse," ' then the rebels won't have to fight in their shade much longer.
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10527278]

Matilde Gattoni: The Swallows of Syria

“I was expecting the revolution to be brief and successful,” she says. “But I am still hopeful. Assad will fall soon, and we will be able to go back to Syria victorious.”

Some Might Say

Terrorists Increase Mortar Attacks on Damascus
TEHRAN (FNA)- Reports coming from Syria said terrorists' bomb blasts in the capital, Damascus, have now been replaced with an increasing number of mortar attacks.
FNA dispatches from Damascus said the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) changed its strategy and resorted to firing mortar shells on different districts of Damascus after its terrorists failed to gain anything from bomb explosions in the capital. 
[http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107118410]

Cymbaline

The BBC World Service are about to report on "A Daily Diary From War-Torn Damascus". Their excerpt at the top of Newshour was something like "The MiGs drop bombs, I try to ignore them...", but I may not be doing the poetry justice. I don't like poetry much at all.

"Sabra said he is a former geography teacher and writer for children's television, including for the Arabic version of Sesame Street produced in Kuwait."
So Romney wouldn't have been funding the Syrian opposition then.
[http://www.usatoday.com/…/2…/11/09/syria-opposition/1695637/]