Arab Spring Winter
• A Palestinian writer describes Syrian prisons as “human slaughterhouses” after spending almost three weeks in detention. Salameh Kaileh tells AP the government hospital he was transferred to was even worse:
“The room was barely enough to accommodate five people,” he said. “It was filled with body stench, dirt, urine and stool. Two people shared small beds and were tied to them, the food was lousy and we couldn’t eat properly because our hands and feet were handcuffed day and night.”
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Talking to CNN, an Olympic spokesman defends it’s decision against a minute of silence for the 11 members of the Israeli team killed in the 1972 Munich Massacre:
“The IOC has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so. The memory of the victims is not fading away. One thing is certain, we will never forget,” Andrew Mitchell, an IOC spokesman, told CNN.
IOC President Jacques Rogge will attend the Israeli team’s traditional reception in memory of the victims at the Games, “However, we do not foresee any commemoration during the opening ceremony of the London Games,” he said.
• Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV has decided that it will no longer feature unveiled women. Apologists have to come face to face with the reality that the hijab is out. This from Al-Akhbar (via Elder of Ziyon):
Lacking an explanation from the management, Al-Akhbar had to go to the employees at the station. Some refused to talk “out of respect for the institution,” while others agreed on the condition they not be named . . .
With time, however, some exceptions began to appear. In news bulletins and reports, unveiled women are allowed to appear. They are also allowed in reports where people on the street are asked for their opinion. So the standard is “what can be controlled.”
The background to this decision is that Hezbollah is reworking the image it wants to convey to its audience, and which it wants its audience to, in turn, reflect — a sort of mutual influence.
• NY Times ombudsman Arthur Brisbane says he’s stepping down from his post in September. Erik Wemple (Washington Post) writes:
Unless he writes something dramatic this summer, his time at the New York Times will be remembered for the viral piece he wrote on Jan. 12: Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante? The Internet heaved and convulsed with long answers to this question, most of which could be summed up in two words: Um, yes.
• Celebrating its seventh anniversary, the YouTube blog says 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute.
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