Updates

With the Syrian revolution still continuing, leading to much bloodshed, and potentially huge implications across the Middle East, it is very hard for outsiders to gauge what is actually happening on a day-to-day basis. The country is essentially closed to the media, so reporting is limited and the dramatic footage on the nightly news which featured in Tunisia and Egypt is simply not available, even though events are clearly much more bloody and horrifying. 

We therefore recommend the following two sources as daily clearing-houses for news about the Syrian revolution, both from Syrian activists living abroad:

• Syrian Revolution News Round-ups, a Facebook-based daily resource edited by British-based Syrian exile activist Ausama Monajed.
• Syrian Revolution Digest, a news blog put together by US-based Syrian exile Ammar Abdulhamid, who has founded a reformist thinktank called the Tharwa Foundation. 

In addition, anyone who wants to get a visual look at the situation in Syria should have a look at this page by Israeli academic Dr. Barry Rubin, (author of a recent book on Syria)  who has put together more than 20 of the most relevant videos of the protests and the brutal regime crackdown.