Verge: Google, Renesys and others are pointing to an Internet blackout in Syria during its ongoing conflict. There has been no official word on what has prompted the cutoffs or when communications might be back online. The country’s Internet was also cut off last year when it remained offline for two days before being restored.
AFP Syria’s government has accused rebel forces of using chemical weapons, with state media saying ‘terrorists’ had fired ‘rockets containing chemical materials’ in Aleppo province, killing 15 people.
‘Terrorists fired rockets containing chemical materials on Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, and preliminary information suggests 15 people were killed, mostly civilians,’ the state news agency SANA and Syrian state television said.
Photo: Syrian troops take position in a heavily damaged area in Aleppo, on January 12, 2013 (AFP)
BBC: Increasing numbers of children in Syria are being recruited by armed groups on both side of the conflict, says a Save the Children report.
The UK charity says children are being used as porters, guards, informers and fighters, and even as human shields in some cases. Save the Children estimates that some two million children are in need of assistance in Syria.
Researchers in Turkey have found that three in every four Syrian children they interviewed had lost a loved one because of fighting. Many have lost access to healthcare and are living in unsanitary conditions. Education has been interrupted with approximately 2,000 schools either becoming damaged or being turned into temporary shelters for the displaced.
UN study: 60,000 dead in Syria conflict
Reuters: At least 60,000 have died in Syria’s conflict, a UN-commissioned study suggests. Researchers cross-referenced seven sources to compile a list of individuals reported killed between March 15, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2012.
“The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking,” says UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay.
Photo: Syrian men react following an airstrike by Syrian government forces in Maaret al-Numaan on Oct. 18, 2012. (Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images)
AP:Two US-based Internet-monitoring companies say that Syria has shut down the Internet throughout the country. Syrian activists reached by satellite telephone confirmed the blackout.
Syria has partially shut off Internet connections during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. A nationwide shutdown is unprecedented.
Syria: Aleppo explosions kill at least 40, activists say
NBC News, wires:4 explosions ripped through a government-controlled district of Aleppo, Syria, early Wednesday, causing destruction and the deaths of at least 40 people, activists say.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed told Al-Jazeera the blasts seemed to have been caused by car bombs. They were followed by clashes and heavy gunfire.
Photo: Men stand amid wreckage after 3 blasts ripped through Aleppo’s main Saadallah al-Jabari Square on Wednesday. (Government-run SANA via Reuters)
The New York Times: With Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - a key ally of Damascus - sitting beside him, Egypt’s President Morsi spoke of an ‘oppressive regime’ in Syria and said the opposition should unite in its effort to unseat President Bashar Assad.
’I am here,’ he said, ‘to announce our full and just support for a free, independent Syria that supports a transition into a democratic system and that respects the will of the Syrian people for freedom and equality at the same time, preventing Syria from going into civil war or going into sectarian divisions.’
Photo: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, left, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, right, listened as President Mohammad Morsi of Egypt delivered remarks in Tehran. (Raouf Mohseni/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)
BBC News:The UN-Arab League’s joint special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, is resigning. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says Annan has decided not to renew his mandate when it expires at the end of August.
Annan came up with a 6-point peace plan for Syria, which was meant to bring an end to the fighting. But the plan never fully came into force, and the violence has continued.
AP:
A suicide bomber struck the National Security building in the Syrian capital Wednesday, killing the defense minister and President Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law - the harshest blow to the Syrian regime since the uprising began.
Syrian state-run TV says the blast came during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials in Damascus, where four straight days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels have sent tensions soaring.
A woman holds her daughter on the balcony of her building damaged by Syrian Army bombings in central Idlib, Feb. 27, 2012. More than 7,600 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
[Credit : Rodrigo Abd / AP]
Today, in two images.
Rosemarie Colvin holds a photo of her daughter Marie Colvin, a journalist who was killed today while reporting in Syria.
Photo by Kathy Kmonicek (AP) | 2007 portrait by Bryan Adams
The U.N. Security Council president has condemned the use of force against civilians by Syrian authorities. This video shows a tank in the Syrian city of Hama taking part in a bloody government crackdown.
![fotojournalismus:
A woman holds her daughter on the balcony of her building damaged by Syrian Army bombings in central Idlib, Feb. 27, 2012. More than 7,600 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
[Credit : Rodrigo Abd / AP]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m02kyhumnt1r44q44o1_500.jpg)
