The ongoing crackdown in Syria

Ongoing crackdown in Syria

Bashar al-Assad is facing increasing isolation, as one of his last remaining allies, Saudi Arabia has said it is recalling its ambassador from Damascus “for consultations” and is demanding the authorities put an end to the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators. The move comes amid growing international pressure on the Syrian President and his regime. Web users meanwhile have been sharing accounts of the ongoing repression online.

Numerous amateur videos, which are difficult to verify, have been uploaded onto sharing sites denouncing the army’s intervention in Deir al-Zour, (a city north east of the capital Damascus), on Sunday. The videos show tanks and surface to air missiles positioned throughout the city. In other video clips, like these ones, we can hear the sounds of heavy machine gun fire across Deir al-Zor.

And loyalist troops have been firing directly at civilians, as we can see in this video which was filmed on Sunday during a funeral procession in Idlib. These staggering images give an idea as to just how tense the situation is in the country at the moment.

But the opposition movement continues regardless, with anti-government demonstrators calling for the ouster of President al-Assad. Dozens of videos have been posted online, showing the various rallies which take place across the country on almost a daily basis, in cities like Aleppo, Homs and also Damascus …

And regime opponents can now count on the support of informal hacker group « Anonymous » which took over the Syrian Ministry of Defense web site on Sunday to deliver a message of solidarity to the people of Syria. The site was still inaccessible on Monday morning.

Reactions to the US debt downgrade

The credit rating agency « Standard and Poor’s » deciding to downgrade the United States rating on Friday, worrying financial markets the world over. Web users in the US have been sharing their thoughts online, and criticizing the democrat or republican politicians they deem responsible for the current situation.

On Twitter, many have condemned the attitude shown by various members of the Republican Party during the recent US debt limit negotiations. Micro bloggers have been criticizing the Tea Party in particular, saying the leaders of the movement are Economic terrorists.

A similar sentiment has been expressed on the blog « Caffeinated Politics » which states that instead of trying to secure the future of millions of citizens, members of the Tea Party preferred to provoke a huge financial crisis for their own political gain. The writer of this post sees this is an act of treachery against the entire nation.

Blogger Meredith Jessup does not agree, in her article published on the web site « The Blaze » she blames Barack Obama and his government. She feels they never took seriously the risks of the US losing its credit rating and that just recently the Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner said there was virtually no risk of the US losing its AAA credit rating.

Conservative organization « Let Freedom Ring » also blames Obama for the current situation and has set up a site called « The Obama Downgrade “on which web users can downgrade Obama to punish him for the US debt downgrade.

Montreal Remix

To enter the Montreal Remix competition you have to use archives from France’s National Audiovisual Institute, the INA, to create a video that shows your vision of Montreal. The INA has teamed up with the National Film Board of Canada and Daily Motion for the project and there are dozens of archival videos to choose from. Prizes for the winning entries will include training in digital media and also flights between Paris and Montreal. 

Spam King indicted for Facebook spam

The so called « Spam King », Sanford Wallace has been indicted for Facebook spam. He faced civil law suits two years ago and was ordered to pay 711 million dollars in damages for hacking into 500 000 Facebook accounts and now the American man is to appear before a criminal court. Wallace’s trial begins at the end of August and if convicted he could be facing up to 40 years in prison.

Video of the day

Ryan Killackey and his wife needed 10 000 photographs and one and half years to complete this video called “A Day in California”. It has been made using the tilt-shift technique which gives you the impression you are looking at miniature models and people when in actual fact everything and everyone you see is real.