Syria: deadly crackdown in Hama governorate

Syria: deadly crackdown in Hama governorate

Columns of tanks rolling into the city of Hama in central Syria; this video was filmed on Saturday and posted online by local activists, who say the regime is intensifying the crackdown before Thursday’s planned cease fire enters into force.

In this other video, we can clearly hear the sounds of heavy gunfire. The images were apparently filmed in Hama during suspected clashes between the Free Syrian Army and forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Numerous pieces of amateur footage have been posted online over the weekend and appear to suggest security forces launched a major offensive involving heavy shelling in the province of Hama, one of the hotbeds of anti-government sentiment.

According to rebels, the offensive was particularly brutal in the city of Latamna. One cyber activist has written about the army raids on Facebook, claiming dozens of civilians were arrested and around fifty people killed during the attack.

Victims of the repression mourned during funeral processions, which as we see here quickly transform into anti-regime protests. And as we can see in these videos similar such rallies are become increasingly frequent across the region, held both during the day, and at night, posing a challenge to security forces.

Campaign aims to provide Egyptian women with identity cards

Around four million women in Egypt do not have an identity card. And without this official document, they cannot own land, inherit from deceased family members, they are also prevented from accessing various public services and of course they do not have the right to vote. Many activists deem this situation unacceptable and have launched a campaign to provide all Egyptian women with identity cards, as soon as possible.

The campaign, much of which is taking place on the web, is called « Your ID, Your rights ». The instigators of the campaign are providing all sorts of information on their aims and objectives on the official Facebook page. They say that in some rural villages near to 80 % of women do not have an ID card, and something needs to be done to change this, and quickly, seeing as the people of Egypt will be electing a new president this year. The campaign organizers say a test phase of the project is already underway, and if all goes well, 40 000 women will have these precious papers in their possession by the end of May.

The Women Rights groups behind the campaign have also taken to Twitter, urging Egyptians to support the initiative, emphasizing the important role it has to play in promoting and developing women’s rights in Egypt. Web users are asked to raise awareness among their friends and family, by displaying a banner, designed specifically for the campaign, as their profile picture.

The campaign is backed by a number of NGOS and also Egyptian government agencies, which should help ensure the campaign is a success.

American wind map

They thought the maps one sees in TV weather reports are not always that easy on the eye, so American artists, Fernanda Viègas and Martin Wattenberg came with this animated map of winds across the United States. The site is updated on a regular basis meaning web users can visualize the various winds across America and also see how fast they are blowing and in what direction.

Print your tweets on toilet paper

An American web site is giving web users the opportunity to recycle messages they have posted on Twitter. It prints the person’s tweets on toilet paper and then sends them the personalized toilet paper in the post… taking social media to an entirely different dimension.

Video of the day

The famous “Fender” brand has produced this viral video, using the time lapse technique, and showing all the steps involved in making an electric guitar. So in just over four minutes you learn all about the fabrication methods used to produce the legendary rock instrument.