One Million Protest in the Streets of Syria

The uprising in the Middle East continues. Here is a video from Al Jazeera:



And here is a bit from a report in the Los Angeles Times:

Antigovernment demonstrations sweeping Syria appeared to have crossed a threshold in size and scope, with protesters battling police near the heart of the capital and the protest movement uniting people from different regions, classes and religious backgrounds against the regime.

Tens of thousands of people turned out across the country Friday, dismissing minor concessions offered a day earlier by President Bashar Assad. The demonstrators called for freedom, the release of political prisoners and, in some instances, the downfall of the government, echoing demands for change across the Arab world.

Momentum seemed to be with the protesters. Friday's demonstrations showed vitality, organization, media savvy — and a sense of humor. In the city of Duma, pictures posted to the Internet showed hundreds of marchers holding up yellow "penalty" cards in a soccer-inspired caution to the government that the movement is losing patience over unfulfilled promises of reform.

But it was the spread of large-scale protests into new corners of Damascus, the capital, and Assad's seat of power, that underscored the growing depth of the protest movement.

"Today was the first time such a huge protest showed up in the capital," said Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights lawyer in Damascus. "It's a clear response to the authorities' claim that people will be satisfied with its silly reforms like changing the government.

"It also means that people are not afraid anymore," she said, "even after all the violence, the terrible torture of detainees, in spite of all that, people are still going to the streets in larger and larger numbers."

There is more. Read the whole article.