The battle began after members of the Future Movement, the party of former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, attacked the offices of the Arab Movement Party, which backs Mr. Assad. The affiliation of the fighters shown in the video images was not immediately clear.

The burst of violence stoked fears in the capital that the bloody and intractable 15-month conflict in Syria was spreading into the heart of Lebanon. While deadly clashes have previously erupted in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, the overnight fighting was the worst yet in Beirut to stem from the Syrian conflict.

The clashes in Beirut appeared to have been sparked by events in the north, after two anti-Syrian Sunni Muslim clerics died at a checkpoint near Tripoli after an altercation with a soldier at the checkpoint that resulted in gunfire by the soldier. After the killings, protests erupted before the violent clashes.

9.07am: Syria: Very disturbing video has emerged purporting to show Syrian troops burying alive a man for sending videos to the international media.

The footage [warning: distressing content] cannot be independently verified

The report concluded that the allies struggled to share crucial target information, lacked specialized planners and analysts, and overly relied on the United States for reconnaissance and refueling aircraft.

The findings undercut the idea that the intervention was a model operation and that NATO could effectively carry out a more complicated campaign in Syria without relying disproportionately on the United States military. Even with the American help in Libya, NATO had only about 40 percent of the aircraft needed to intercept electronic communications, a shortage that hindered the operation’s effectiveness, the report said.

When members of the Local Coordination Committees found out he had witnessed the events and was fluent in English, he was asked to speak to foreign media. Late that night, he went on Al Jazeera and described what had happened.

Unable to show his face or reveal his name, he called himself Alexander Page, an artist he had come across at random online just minutes before. When he was contacted again by CNN, they asked him to use the name and it stuck.

Now jobless, Mr. Jarrah went on blogging and using Twitter and Facebook to tell the story of what he witnessed, all under the name of Alexander Page.

“When I was outed, it became me, so we began the Activists News Association.”

“We want to document Assad crimes. To do that, we have to gather up every video that was taken in Syria,” Mr. Jarrah said as he sat in the office alongside a wall of televisions projecting newscasts in which many of the activists’ videos were being used. “You have over 1,000 videos filmed every day, maybe more.

On 27 November last year, a young, ambitious woman sent an email to her boss. It contained a single link, to a piece by the BBC correspondent Paul Woods. Woods had been smuggled into the Syrian city of Homs. His subsequent report gave a vivid account of the smouldering rebellion there, crushed two months later in a remorseless government attack.

Syria's deputy oil minister, Abdo Hussameldin, has announced his defection on YouTube, becoming the first high ranking civilian official to abandon President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising against his rule erupted a year ago.

Has ruffled a few feathers...

A war reporter in Homs is worth any amount of outrage on Facebook

It's 10:30 am in #Homs. Even the dial-up internet connection that has a maximum speed of 1 kbps has been cut off by #Assad's regime. #Syria

tweeting live from #Homs city isn't as easy as u think.have u tried to be 1who converts Pain of ur beloved into words?killing feeling #Syria

Marie Colvin's final dispatch from Homs for the Sunday Times. She was killed on 22 February after a mortar hit an improvised media centre in the city.

3) Aggregation and Verification of Other Sources of Information
The curatorial role journalism must perfect if it is to provide valuable service in the era of horizontally connected citizens was performed to expose the hoax we now know as the "Gay Girl in Damascus". Daniel Bennett (2011), a PhD candidate in the War Studies Department at King’s College, London, has described this process in another excellent chapter for Mirage in the Desert?, Reporting the Arab Spring. Bennett demonstrates that traditional journalists deploying traditional tools would not have exposed Tom McMaster - the postgraduate student at Edinburgh University who invented Amina Araf, a.k.a, the fictional "Gay Girl in Damascus". Partnership between old and new models of journalism performed the task. By exposing the false and allowing us to recognise the "authentic voices"’ seeking political change this
curatorial partnership served ethical purposes admirab

Bambuser stream of Rami Al Sayed who was killed in Homs, 22 Feb 2012.

Bambuser now blocked in Syria
Yesterday morning Bambuser was blocked in Syria. The Syrian government has chosen to deny citizens in Syria access to bambuser.com as well as use of Bambuser's mobile apps over Syrian 3G.

Over the past weeks the number of Bambuser broadcasts from Syria has increased, with strong footage showing bombings, victims, destruction and terrible conditions at local field hospitals in Syria.

Two days ago an oil pipeline in Homs was destroyed. A citizen in Homs who has been broadcasting bombings over several days broadcast the black smoke that developed from the explosion, with the sound of gunfire and shelling of Homs accompanying the footage bambuser.com/v/2369044. The live footage was used by major TV media like CNN, BBC, AlJazeera, SkyNews and many more, with credentials to Bambuser. The impact of those videos very likely came to the Syrian government's knowledge.

We mourn the loss of a very brave Syrian journalist
This morning LIVE footage by one citizen journalist, Rami Ahmad Alsayeed -  also known as one of the people behind the broadcaster Syriapioneer on Bambuser, was aired all over the world by BBC World, SkyNews, Al Jazeera and many more. All showed live footage from the roof where Rami and his friends have put their camera, as they've done many times documenting the heavy shelling from the Assad Forces hovering over BabaAmr in Homs, Syria. Rami Ahmad Alsayeed has for months been one of the bravest and forefront fighters in getting the world's attention on what’s going on in Homs, Syria. This afternoon, cameraman and journalist Rami Ahmad Alsayeed did his last broadcast – he and three of his friends were soon after this killed by the Assad armed forces on the streets of BabaAmr.

Dr. Mohammad al-Mohammd, who appears speaking in the video above, described al-Sayed as one of the best videographers and journalists they had in Bab Amr.

"Rami was killed because he was broadcasting real footage from Bab Amr," al-Mohammad said as he showed the wounds that killed al-Sayed. "Rami was killed because he was recording the truth."

Speaking to the BBC a day before she was killed.

I am travelling with a group of rebel fighters who call themselves the Free Syrian Army.

They heard at about 03:00 that there had been a large bombardment of areas of Homs that are opposed to the regime.

As we came into the city this afternoon we heard a lot of heavy machine-gun fire and there were a lot of unexplained explosions.

Parts of the city which oppose the regime are now virtually cut off, so we had to travel using a very elaborate route, escorted by activists who were bringing medical supplies and fresh blood donated a few hours earlier by people in the villages around Homs.

The Syrian government says that claims of a massacre are fabricated and that the bodies are of people kidnapped by rebel fighters. The opposition said it was a massacre.

The youth activists who launched the revolution on March 15 and are now leading the demonstrations are the true heroes of the revolution. They range in age from 17 to 35, hail from different socio-economic and professional backgrounds. These men and women have shed the fear of political engagement that has always plagued Syrian citizens under the Assad regime(s), and some have used social media to reconnect with the public sphere. The majority of the youth activists is non-ideological in the traditional sense of Arab political parties, and is motivated by the quest for freedom, dignity, and economic justice. The core of the protesters comes from the Syrian poor and middle classes that have been marginalized politically and economically by the Syrian regime.

it was the sense of courage we saw in her, to tell her story so loudly, that made us believe.

Why did he pretend to be a Syrian-American lesbian? Because people just weren’t listening—listening to him, that is:<br />
<br />
I really felt, a number of years ago, that in discussions on Middle East issues while living in the U.S., it was often—finding that when I presented real facts and opinions, that the immediate reaction to someone with my name was, you know, why are you anti-American, why are you anti-Jewish? Which, both are completely false…<br />
Getting that kind of reaction was distracting from the real focus. So I invented a name to talk under that would keep the focus on the actual issues.

(CBS / What's Trending) - Homosexuality is illegal and taboo in Syria. That, however, didn't stop 34-year old Amina Abdullah from launching her own blog, "A Gay Girl in Damascus." <br />
<br />
She speaks to What's Trending over email about deciding to risk her life and continue to share her brave stories with the world.<br />
<br />
Abdullah describes her blog as "an out Syrian lesbian's thoughts on life, the universe and so on." She has built a following for her fearless and powerful accounts of life on the ground and out of the closet.<br />
<br />
Abdullah notified her readers on May that she has gone "underground" and in hiding after security services came back again to find her.

Amina Arraf has seen a quick rise to fame. Blogging pseudonymously, as Amina Abdullah, she writes about politics, the recent uprising, and being a lesbian in Syria. A dual citizen of the United States and Syria, her powerful words have shown the reality on the ground in Syria over the past few weeks.<br />
<br />
Today, on Amina's own blog, it was reported that she had been kidnapped by authorities. Her cousin, Rania O. Ismail, reported:

Carvin: "Began hearing from sources of mine in the Syrian community...sceptical of stories...not convinced she existed either". Nobody had met her. His Intentions illuminate the story..."news organisations are struggling to get quality information out of Syria" "Put a lot of people at risk"

Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah kidnapped by armed men<br />
Author of A Gay Girl in Damascus had shot to prominence for her frank views on Syrian uprising, politics and being a lesbian<br />
<br />
Share<br />
2426<br />
<br />
Nidaa Hassan in Damascus<br />
The Guardian, Tuesday 7 June 2011<br />
Article history<br />
A blogger whose frank and witty thoughts on Syria's uprising, politics and being a lesbian in the country shot her to prominence was last night seized by armed men in Damascus.

Apology to readers<br />
I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.<br />
<br />
I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in thıs year of revolutions. The events there are beıng shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.<br />
<br />
This experience has sadly only confirmed my feelings regarding the often superficial coverage of the Middle East and the pervasiveness of new forms of liberal Orientalism.<br />
<br />
However, I have been deeply touched by the reactions of readers.<br />
<br />
Best,<br />
Tom MacMaster,<br />
Istanbul, Turkey<br />
July 12, 2011<br />
<br />
The sole author of all posts on this blog

Unlike the revolts in Egypt, Tunisia and even Libya, which were televised to the world, Syria’s revolt is distinguished by the power of a self-styled vanguard abroad to ferry out images and news that are anarchic and illuminating, if incomplete.<br />
<br />
For weeks now, the small number of activists, spanning the Middle East, Europe and the United States, have coordinated across almost every time zone and managed to smuggle hundreds of satellite and mobile phones, modems, laptops and cameras into Syria. There, compatriots elude surveillance with e-mailed software and upload videos on dial-up connections.